Boy Hacks iPhone’s Lock for Global Use

Apple’s iPhone is the latest mobile phone which combines an innovative touch-screen interface with the media-playing abilities of the iPod but only AT&T’s network is compatible with its cellular technology. However, a 17 teenager George Hotz in New Jersey announced a good news on last Friday that he has broken the lock and allows iPhone use on the networks of other carriers, including overseas’ networks. The iPhone is only sold in the U.S. at the moment.

He confirmed that he had unlocked an iPhone and was using it on T-Mobile’s network, the only major U.S. carrier apart from AT&T. He demonstrated the modified iPhone during an interview, using T-Mobile and other non-AT&T’s networks, and they worked.

He posted the complicated unlock details in his blog which requires soldering and software skills. He wished he could make the instructions simpler so that everyone could modify the phones themselves instead of someone make it commercialize to unlock them and sell overseas.

“That’s exactly what I don’t want,” Hotz said. “I don’t want people making money off this but that’s the simplest I could make them”.

Hotz collaborated online with four other people to develop the unlocking process; two from Russia and the other two could be American.