Teen untethers iPhone
NEW YORK -- The last summer before college is full of possibilities. George Hotz, a slight, curly haired teenager in Glen Rock, N.J., spent it taking on two of the largest corporations in the U.S. technology industry, and winning.
Along with a secretive group of online collaborators, the 17-year-old broke the restrictions that make Apple's iPhone, arguably the hottest gadget of the year, work only on AT&T's cellular network.
The feat took him 500 hours, or about 8 hours a day since the iPhone's June 29 launch.
An AP reporter was able to verify that an iPhone Hotz brought to the AP's headquarters on Friday was unlocked. Hotz placed the reporter's T-Mobile SIM card, a small chip that identifies a phone to the network, in the phone. The phone then connected to T-Mobile's network and placed calls using the reporter's account.
Apart from AT&T, T-Mobile is the only major U.S. carrier compatible with the iPhone, even an unlocked one, but an unlocked phone would work with most overseas carriers.
Apple has said it plans to introduce the phone in Europe this year but hasn't picked a date or carriers.
Hotz has put the unlocked iPhone up for sale on eBay where the high bid was at $15,000 late Friday. The model sells for $499 new.
AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel and Apple spokeswoman Jennifer Bowcock said their companies had no comment. Hotz said the companies had not been in touch with him.
The hack is complicated and requires skill with both soldering and software. Missteps may result in the iPhone becoming useless, Hotz warned. The unlock now takes him about two hours to perform.
Since the details are now public, it seems likely a small industry may spring up to buy U.S. iPhones, unlock them and send them overseas.
The iPhone has already been made to work on overseas networks by copying information from the SIM, a small card with a chip that identifies a subscriber to a cell-phone network. That method does not involve soldering but does require special equipment and doesn't unlock the phone. Each new SIM chip has to be reprogrammed for an iPhone.
The only thing that won't work after either kind of hack is the "visual voicemail." Apple may be able to make new iPhones invulnerable.
There is apparently no U.S. law against unlocking cell phones. Last year, the Library of Congress specifically excluded cell-phone unlocking from coverage under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.