17 Year Old George Hotz Unlocks the Apple iPhone
August 24, 2007 4:05 PM | Apple | Comments (2)
| Seventeen (17) year old George Hotz, from Glen Rock, N.J., along with 2 Russians and 2 other Americans collaborated online all summer to unlock the Apple Phone. Hotz claims he spent 500 hours on the project and ended up putting the phone on eBay which sold for $2,000. The model typically sells from $499 brand new. Hotz was able to use the iPhone on T-Mobile's network, which is the only other U.S. carrier that is compatible with the iPhone cellular technology. Hotz posted the information on his Blog which includes a video of the iPhone which displays T-Mobile as the carrier. (See Video) Unlocking the iPhone isn't an easy task. According to Hotz, the task requires soldering and software manipulation. It takes him about 2 hours to perform the complicated task. Since Hotz is making the steps public via his Blog we are certain motivated individuals or companies may be scrambling to make money off this! |  |
George Hotz will be attending Rochester Institute of Technology where he plans to major in neuroscience or "hacking the brain!" as he calls it.
The iPhone has already been hacked to work on overseas networks using another method. This involves copying information from the Subscriber Identity Module which is a small card with a chip that identifies a subscriber to the cell phone network. The SIM chip method does not require any soldering, however it requires special equipment, and it doesn't unlock the phone; each new SIM chip has to be reprogrammed for use on a particular iPhone.
There is no U.S. law against unlocking cell phones. Last November, the Library of Congress excluded cell phone unlocking from coverage under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Unlocked iPhone by George Hotz
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Comments
Good going, George. I know Apple is proud of you.
Posted by: Juju | August 24, 2007 4:42 PM
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Wow! I'm very impressed! This kid is super smart! Wish I had his brains! There are a lot of people racking their brains to figure this out and a kid figures it out! I smell another potential Bill Gates in the making!
Posted by: Patrick | August 24, 2007 4:28 PM
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