Mess of circuitry unlocks iPhone, software solution next?

Welp, 'tis done friends, but we're going to have to wait a week for all the gory details to be released. Geohot and his crew of trusty fiddlers have apparently found a solution for sorting the iPhone for worldwide consumption by hardware unlocking the beast. We've seen a video, and know he's been well involved with iPhone shenanigans since day one, but until we see it in our hand color us excited but not sold -- though we're stoked that they report a software based version may be on the horizon. But in the unhappy event that it ends up being hardware unlock only, you can use this week to brush up on your soldering skills. We're gonna be all over this in the coming days so know that the minute we know more, you will too. Peep the vid after the break.

[kghyr8 @ Aug 21st 2007 1:10PM]

finally!! this is great news. i bet iphone sales will jump.

[Richard @ Aug 21st 2007 1:10PM]

Congrats Geo!!

[tehpwnmstr @ Aug 21st 2007 1:19PM]

Excelent news! what can i search for on you tube to view the video there? vids always seem to run faster from them than embedded else where. i already tried a hundred combos of geohot, iphone, hardware,unlock, and i cant find it.

[tehpwnmstr @ Aug 21st 2007 1:23PM]

nevermind. theres a link thru the read page.

[dmack161 @ Aug 21st 2007 1:26PM]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvJ1RGlxe8Q

(Click on Menu on the video to find this)

[Bad Beaver @ Aug 21st 2007 1:20PM]

This dude has an incredible natural cool to him - see how he pulls out the SIM with his teeth, incredible! Just get him a haircut and a proper teleprompter so he doesn't have to read off the table. AND DON'T GO "AS YOU CAN SEE" WHILE THE CAMERA LOSES SIGHT OF THE SIM, DAMMIT!

Congrats on the cool work if this is true!

[Mike @ Aug 21st 2007 1:20PM]

Been following this guy's website since the beginning and I must say he's quite tenacious!

Good work!

[Zachary @ Aug 21st 2007 1:44PM]

Still sucks you can't get any kind of AppleCare assistance without having a contract with ATT.

[Mike @ Aug 21st 2007 2:07PM]

What makes you say that?

[Zach @ Aug 21st 2007 3:25PM]

What makes me say that is it is in the AppleCare Terms.

"iPhone comes with up to two years of technical support during the term of your AT&T wireless contract."

"iPhone coverage includes up to two years of technical support while you are subscribed to an AT&T wireless contract."

http://www.apple.com/support/products/applecareiphone.html

[LiQuiD_FuSioN @ Aug 21st 2007 1:46PM]

Is it legal to unlock the iPhone and use another phone service?

[zakglass @ Aug 21st 2007 7:32PM]

They don't have to support it hacked, but you can tear apart anything you own for kicks. No legal consequence (excepting the US Flag, I think)

[Ayle @ Aug 21st 2007 1:58PM]

Yes, in Europe it is... I don't know the situation in the US....

[morcheeba @ Aug 21st 2007 2:19PM]

Here's the US law: http://www.copyright.gov/1201/ (see temporary exemption 5)
It's legal as long as you do it only in firmware, and you do it before Nov 2009. You're not allowed to used any PC-based software (such as a program that uploads the legal firmware change to the phone, or a program that sends an unlocking command), and you can't use a hardware mod. So, basically, the exemption is practically worthless.

[chezzo @ Aug 21st 2007 1:49PM]

as we are continually reminded, engadget is a blog not a news site

[Mobilehavoc @ Aug 21st 2007 1:56PM]

What they fail to mention is visual voicemail won't work and I highly doubt that EDGE/GPRS will work since there is no way to alter the APN on the iPhone. Even if they manage to get past all that, who's to say that Apple won't release an update that destroys all this anyway.

Good luck to those going for this.

[Grammar freak @ Aug 21st 2007 1:56PM]

How do we know he didn't just change the AT&T graphic to say T-Mobile?

[Ashraf @ Aug 21st 2007 2:05PM]

he took out the t-mobile sim card!

wow such an idiot

[JJ @ Aug 21st 2007 2:11PM]

This seems very legit.

He even removed the T-Mobile SIM card and showed it near the end of the video, which is exactly how it looks like in my cellphone. I have had T-Mobile for the past three years.

Why would he go through all the trouble of changing the AT&T icon to T-Mobile, then probably paint a SIM card to have a T-Mobile logo on that.

If he did all that, then wow! props to him and his artistic skill because that is pretty good at faking the T-Mobile logo on the SIM card.

[allen Gragg @ Aug 21st 2007 3:43PM]

notice how you conveniently lose sight of the sim card when he plops in on the counter. T-mobile logo graphic change and switcheroo on the sim card when out of frame...heee

[Mike Jenkins @ Aug 21st 2007 4:32PM]

Well, he's releasing it in a week, so we will find out soon enough if it's fake.

[sr1329 @ Aug 21st 2007 2:08PM]

Yeah one that's owned by AOL/Time Warner. Don't kid yourself.

[JeffM @ Aug 21st 2007 2:11PM]

Who knew Justin Timberlake had a genius brother?

[Harkonian @ Aug 21st 2007 3:42PM]

Justin? I was thinking more along the lines of Screech.. http://bloggerton.ca/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/screech.jpg

[JeffM @ Aug 21st 2007 4:06PM]

I did notice at the end of the video... his facial expression looks EXACTLY like Screech... so, good call. :P

[behindclosed @ Aug 21st 2007 2:19PM]

There is an APN selection on the IPhone. YOu can enter in your network when using the turbosim so this would be no different. Visual voicemail is the only non-working part.

[Jason Carroll @ Aug 21st 2007 2:21PM]

If I were making fun of people for writing like fifth graders, I would make sure my usage of the word "too" as in "trying to*o hard" was the correct connotation.

[eh @ Aug 21st 2007 2:52PM]

so what exactly is the hack? pulling it out with your teeth?

[Mobilehavoc @ Aug 21st 2007 2:55PM]

Did anyone read the actual blog post Engadget linked to???? Here's a juicy excerpt:

"The current method involves taking apart your phone and doing some complicated soldering, with a high probablity of a bricked phone. "

Oh yeah, what an amazing achievement. Unlock the iPhone using soldering that has a high chance of completely killing it and celebrate. WTF???

[Mike @ Aug 21st 2007 3:20PM]

Ummm... If you bothered reading Geohot's blog you would have read this, "We hope to find a software unlock very soon. So in one week exactly from this blog post (thats less than the time it takes to ship a turbosim) we will release simple step by step instructions for unlocking, probably not even involving hardware. Sorry about the wait, but I assure you it will be worth it."

[Ken @ Aug 21st 2007 6:26PM]

Did that ever stop the no-boot-disk PS2 modders? In fact I think the no-boot-disk modded PS2's were more popular than the no-solder modded PS2's...

Just because YOU don't have any soldering skills doesn't mean the rest of us can't celebrate.

[Andy @ Aug 21st 2007 3:19PM]

it's not real! he's just trying to hypnotize you but actually failed and hypnotized himself. Look at the stare at the end!

[JugoGoya @ Aug 21st 2007 10:00PM]

A week, cant wait that longgggggggggggggg!

[??????????? @ Aug 21st 2007 6:08PM]

Not real????? http://iphone.simbunch.com/turbosim.php you got to have the turbosim.

[Andy @ Aug 23rd 2007 7:42PM]

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sarcasm

[Mindfield @ Aug 21st 2007 7:05PM]

It's a real pity the iPhone would be partly useless in Canada (or Ontario, anyway). Apple have been at loggerheads with Rogers Wireless to come to some sort of reasonable data plan terms. As it stands, Rogers' data plans are absolutely and completely ridiculous. ($0.05 per Kilobyte without a plan, $0.02c per K with a plan for up to 2 megabytes of transfer. Yes, two _megabytes_ -- or less than it would take to load Engadget's main page. Even unlocked, the iPhone wouldn't be worth using for me, which is a pity.

[Allister @ Aug 22nd 2007 12:39AM]

Same sort of deal in Australia as far as data costs go... but it's an iPhone! And you can always use wifi if it's around...

And besides, it's an iPhone!

[anton Kudin @ Aug 22nd 2007 3:15AM]

i noticed that when he pulls out the card,
he separates it into two and throws one of them just in background
is it turbosim or some iphone's sim card wrapper?

[huggles @ Aug 22nd 2007 5:57AM]

I thought the graphic on the phone said W.O.P.R

[Derek @ Aug 22nd 2007 9:44AM]

Excellent news! Now if someone could prove it could be done with Verizon, I'd go grab me an iPhone tomorrow. :))