George Hotz’s iPhone Hack to Pay for College with One eBay Sale?
seventeen-year-old George Hotz of New Jersey (not to be confused with McLovin of Hawaii) recently announced on his blog, with the generous PR assistance of the Associated Press, that he had completed a hardware unlock of the iPhone which makes it usable on T-Mobile in the U.S. as well as any number of European carriers.
What's truly hilarious is that he's selling the iPhone he unlocked on eBay, calling it "your chance to own a piece of mobile telephone history" – and the bidding is already up to $2,225.00 with six days left… anyone wanna bet how high the winning bid will go? As he warns on his blog, "If you are only bidding on this to get an unlocked iPhone, don't. There are much cheaper and easier ways to get one."
And he's right: Engadget's Ryan Block today pointed to iPhoneSIMfree.com's recently-announced software hack, which is unlikely to cost $2,225.00 … as Block puts it, "We can hardly believe the iPhone's finally been cracked. No, scratch that – we just can't believe it took this long."
More here from Tech.co.uk … more here from Ars Technica … and more here from IntoMobile.
Jim Dandy said:
Aug 27, 07 at 9:39 amApple and AT&T have a legitimate business arrangement and you hacker idiot’s applaude the illegal interference with their contract? George Hotz may be attending college at a State run prison. He should be using his talents to work on his own legitimate enterprise. Instead he’s joined the ranks of hackers who focus their talents on criminal activity.
jl said:
Oct 01, 07 at 6:14 amI say that he paid a ridiculous amount for a phone and was stuck with phone service he did not want. It would be like buying a brand new shiny corvette and only being able to buy your gas at Marathon.
Irene said:
May 20, 09 at 1:49 amthe layout you have selected cannot be loaded. Please select a different layout using the Home Screen item in Settings. its the message it give me when i want to unlock.