The first free iPhone unlock software has been sold and successfully installed today by Mr Paul Taylor, from the UK. Giz was there as an exclusive witness, but when things went very wrong —and the process failed repeatedly giving a “baseband communication error”— I jumped in to help. After some troubleshooting we identified the problem —and I am afraid that it could mean that the software unlock may not work with all SIM configurations. [Updated Sept. 11, 02:52AM EST: iPod Sim Free has issued an application update to fix the problem we discovered during unlocking. Jump to see their statement.]

Nobody has told you this yet, but as I discovered, not everyone would be able to apply the iPhone Sim Free patch to unlock the iPhone. The key seems to be in the SIM card’s PIN. If you can disable it, everything seems ok to go. But if you can’t, it looks like you should have to forget about the iPhone Sim Free software for now.

As I was able to see today, the customer experience to unlock an iPhone is not pretty. In fact, it could be absolutely awful because most final users don’t know anything about SSH, SFTP or the Terminal. If you already have your iPhone jailbreaked using a software like iFuntastic for Mac (current version doesn’t work with iTunes 7.4) or iBrickr for Windows, installing the application will be a breeze: just drag and drop it inside the Applications folder inside your iPhone.

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American Express is not an Apple Fanboy anymore: Gizmodo says they called American Express to have a $200 refund because of the iPhone price drop and the company confirmed that they will honor the price protection plan. This will cost a fortune to American Express or the insurance company behind the protection plan. Other credit card companies are also offering the same plan. Don't hesitate to call them!
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Leave it to Apple to glaze over yet another cool feature of the new iPods and, if an updated product page is right, even the iPhone. Apparently the holiday-friendly gadgets support sending component video out with a new cable the Apple Store is selling. While the iPhone likely doesn't do this just yet, the feature could easily be included in the promised firmware update that will bring the iTunes WiFi Store before the month's end.

If you're wondering how Apple is pulling off component video with the current cable , it apparently isn't. Reports are cropping up all over that there's a new cable, retailing at the same price, which plugs into iPods and iPhones via the 30-pin Dock connector, not the headphone jack anymore. Things get even stranger on that product page, however, as it notes component video output is supported only by the 3G iPod nano, iPod classic, and iPod touch (480p or 576p for the former two, only 480i or 576i from the iPod touch for some reason), but the small icon legend just below that lists the iPhone in addition to the three new iPods.

For fellow iPhone owners, one can only hope that firmware update truly allows us to join the video-on-TV party.

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After numerous delays and problems with releasing their software unlock, iPhoneSIMfree has apparently been acquired by an unknown company before even delivering their software. According to an anonymous email tip, iPhoneSIMFree has yet to deliver their software, but has apparently straightened everything out and is in the process of delivering their unlock software, now that their acquisition has transitioned. Here is the email sent to purchasers of the software:






Date: Fri, 7 Sep 2007 14:15:38 +0200
From: iPhoneSimFree Sales <*deleted*>
Reply-To: iPhoneSimFree Sales <*deleted*>
Message-ID: <1943016064.20070907141538@iphonesimfree.com>
To: *deleted*
Subject: again sorry about the confusion!


Hello ,

as our operation grew quite big, we were bought by a larger company here in our
country. This is why some proforma were cancelled, and we have switched to our
new billing. Again sorry about the confusion.

--
Best regards,
iPhoneSimFree

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With the new heat the iPhone will be getting from the iPod Touch, Apple decided to lower the barrier of entry to a much more palatable $399, and that's for the 8GB model, which just yesterday was rocking at $599 pricepoint. It also looks like Apple is doing away with the 4GB version, which was seriously lagging behind its big brother in sales, but there's no official word yet.
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A third class action law suit regarding the iPhone battery has emerged. The new case, filed by a Mr. and Mrs. Stiener, cite that the battery in the iPhone will only last for 300 cycles before being completely exhausting. According to the complain, the battery would cost US$115 to replace as well as the time necessary to wait for a replacement.

The couple alleges that by not placing a warning about this apparent limitation in or on its packing materials, Apple and wireless carrier AT&T have violated both good faith and the California Commercial code, which demands that manufacturers in the state honestly reflect how their products will perform in real-world conditions. The Stieners have gone on record to state that the two companies responsible for the iPhone and its service meant to defraud customers.

According to The iPodObserver , the nine-page argument that the case is using as its central core is being written by the Hoffman and Lazear as well as Folkenflik and McGerity law firms. Both of these firms handled a similar suit regarding the iPhone battery in mid-August. If found guilty, Apple and AT&T would be forced to pay restitution to any affected customer in the state of California.

If you have any ideas or feedback on this, let us know in the comments

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We just got a couple of images sent to us from an anonymous source who claims that this is the new iPod nano that we can expect Steve Jobs to announce at the Apple Special Event taking place this Wednesday, September 5th. Since we’ve seen so many photoshop mockups floating around the Internet recently, we are not saying these are the real deal by any stretch of the imagination - however, we love how these look, and a guy can dream, can’t he?

I guess we will see how it all pans out on Wednesday.

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With the flurry of iPhone hacks and applications since iPhone's launch; the real estate on iPhone's home screen has got that much more precious. Until now iPhone users have been limited to just 16 applications on the iPhone home screen.

This is all set to change thanks to the latest iPhone hack from Natetrue, the hacking genius. The hack called "Dock" brings scrolling to the home screen so you longer have to worry about the 16 application limit.

As a workaround to this 16 application limit on iPhone's home screen (also called the Springboard); we had seen launcher applications that search for additional applications and let you choose one from a list. bitSplit has tried to this in the latest version of iFuntastic v3.03 by providing users the capability of having multiple home screens rather than being limited to only one with different applications on each of the home screens then NateTrue seems to have come with an even better iPhone-like solution.

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LG electronics is ready with its iPhone rival LG-KS20. It is 3G enables and uses WCDMA unlike Apple's iPhone. The operating system is Windows mobile 6.0? Other features are WiFi, mp3 player, 2.0 megapixel camera and bluetooth almost iPhone similar features.

LG Electronics Inc.'s battle to beat the iPhone is far from over. The South Korean electronics company has unveiled its second iPhone-like handset and this one packs several important features the iPhone doesn't: 3G and high-speed cellular data networking.

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Whether you feel it's right or not, successful iPhone hardware hacks have been reported around the world. Some of these hacks have worked and the users seem pretty happy with the results.

Others have backfired and caused damage that's nothing less than impossible to explain to the nice person behind the Genius Bar as accidental or the dog's fault (such as the Wi-Fi or Bluetooth now refusing to work or the iPhone itself refusing to power up).

In one reported instance, a more severe example has arisen.

A relatively anonymous post to the Hackintosh forums provided this comment and showed this picture:

“We were so happy, all the software part was done, so we started opening the iphone. The antenna cover was a bit tricky but eventually it came off. Then we started to open the metal cover (after taking out the 3 screws) and PUFF, up it went in smoke, I think my collegue must have touched something. It literally went up in black smoke. It was so hot that when I tried to pick it up I burnt my fingers. So, this is for sure the most difficult part of the whole process. I don’t know what he did, as I had just stepped out of the room to fetch something when I heard a scream…they got such a fright.”

Although the iPhone is severely cool, there are certain proticals to follow when opening it up and trying to modify it: as in, be extremely careful, follow the directions and if you find US$499/US$599 wafting to the ceiling in the form of black smoke, try to have a sense of humor about it after the fact.

If you have any thoughts or feedback, let us know in the comments


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iFunstastic v3.03 is here and the good news for those who have PowerPCs is that the latest version of the iPhone hack now supports PowerPC. The other great enhancement is that the file browser will not only let you gain access to iPhone's file system it will also allows you to install the latest native iPhone application.

bitSplit, after about 3 weeks of silence has just released v3.03 of iFuntastic and if v2.5 was great with the addition of the iPhone file browser, the latest version is even better.

So what's new? One of the limitations of the previous versions of iFuntastic was that it could be used only on only Intel based MAC computers, the good news is the new version now also supports PowerPC as promised. However, looks like Windows PC users will need to wait longer.

The other new feature called "Unshackling" has been introduced in this version, basically this means that you do not need to un-jail or re-jail your iPhone for every modification instead it needs just one-time jail breaking. This method also does not require iTunes to be shut down while you are making modifications which was another limitation of the prevision version.

You can now use the file browser (called the file manager in this version) to not only gain access to iPhone's file system but it will also allow you to install the latest native iPhone applications or hacks including uploading of NES ROMs.

The Home screen personalization feature has been enhanced, with the new version you are not limited to one home screen but you can have multiple home screens with each having different icons and even backgrounds.

As for custom ringtones feature, you can now use iFuntastic to rip iTunes previews for you , all you need to do is simply create a playlist of songs from the iTunes Music Store and drag the exported version into iFuntastic to install them as custom ringtones on your iPhone. For more details Read More...Click Permalink before submitting article:

Hackers have figured out how to unleash Apple's iPhone from AT&T's cellular network, but people hoping to make money from the procedure could face legal problems.

At least one of the companies hoping to make money by unlocking iPhones said it is hesitating after calls from lawyers representing the phone company.

Unlocking the phone for one's own use, for instance to place calls with a different carrier, appears to be legal. But if it's done for financial gain, the legality is less certain.

''Whether people can make profits from software that hacks the iPhone is going to depend very much on exactly what was done to develop that software and what does that software do,'' said Bart Showalter, head of the Intellectual Property practice group at law firm Baker Botts in Dallas.

John McLaughlin of Uniquephones.com , an outfit based in Northern Ireland, said in a phone interview Wednesday that its unlocking software for iPhones is ready, but the company is holding off while it gets legal advice.

He said it had been contacted by lawyers from O'Melveny & Myers LLP, an international law firm representing AT&T, who told him the software contained material copyrighted by Apple Inc.

''They don't have it, so therefore they can't actually threaten us,'' McLaughlin said. ''It was 'friendly advice.'''

AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel and Apple spokeswoman Jennifer Bowcock said their companies had nothing to say about the case.

Uniquephones.com had planned to release the software via iphoneunlocking.com . The price for people on its mailing list, which contained just fewer than half a million addresses, would be $25 per iPhone, McLaughlin said.

''From their e-mail addresses, they're from everywhere in the world,'' McLaughlin said. ''Everybody is just waiting for it.''

The iPhone is sold only in the U.S., and only for use on the AT&T network, but it is compatible with cell phone technology used around the world, which means an unlocked phone can use an overseas account and number. In the U.S., T-Mobile is the only other major carrier compatible with the iPhone; Sprint and Verizon Wireless use different network technologies.

Most U.S. phones are locked to their carrier when sold, because the carrier subsidizes the cost of the phone. The iPhone, however, is apparently not subsidized by AT&T.

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The iPhone unlocking hysteria is getting out of control. For non-US users, or for US users who often travel internationally, it might be worthwhile. But for US users it's almost worthless. The iPhone is a GSM phone, which means the only US carriers it'll work with are AT&T and T-mobile. The Sprint and Verizon networks are CDMA, not GSM. There's no magical "unlock" that will turn the iPhone's GSM hardware into CDMA hardware.

So are there really that many US users just dying to use the iPhone on T-mobile's network?


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AT&T when asked to comment on the iPhoneSimFree.com story, the only answer was, “no comment”, looks like they are under orders to be quiet by the legal-bots.

A second iPhone unlocking company that was gearing up to sell the service, iPhoneUnlocking/UniquePhones, also claimed to have a full software unlock. The company was soon to bring this service to market but according to their blog this will be delayed due to calls from AT&T lawyers.

"Uniquephones is taking legal advice to ascertain whether AT&T was sending a warning shot or directly threatening legal action," writes the company. "The logistics of different continents as well as it being a weekend factors into how the situation develops."

iPhoneSimFree has not yet indicated whether it has received any legal threats from AT&T.



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Although the major news outlets are only covering the story of 17-year-old New Jersey student George Hotz and his hardware/software hack of the iPhone which unlocks the iPhone from the AT&T network. We applaud his efforts, but hacks involving soldering wires into my iPhone are somewhat out of the question. A better hack in our opinion is available at http://iphonesimfree.com . This hack unlocks the iPhone easily using mostly only software(you do need a SIM card reader also). The best news yet is that for the next 48 hours if you apply, they might unlock it for FREE. Quoted from the iphonesimfree.com site,

“To silence any doubters out there, we are welcoming publications from around the world to apply to receive their iPhones(tm) unlocked FREE OF CHARGE. If interested, please submit an application via our Contact Us form. The top three applications will receive a free un-lock within the next 48 hours, which will be soon followed by the commercial launch of the software for public consumption.

SALES:
Individual per unit licenses will be available starting next week. We are currently opening up our mail for bulk purchase enquiries of 500 licenses and above. Interested parties please Contact Us.”

Each hack does have its own intrinsic benefits. The unlocking hack found by George Hotz is more difficult than most of us would like to take on; however, it is a hack that Apple won’t be able to program around. In the case of the iPhoneSIMFree hack. It is certainly an easier hack and will likely result in far more unlocked iPhones. Unfortunately there is a chance that Apples next iPhone software update could undo their crafty hack.

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We all know that the iPhone is popular. In fact just over Sixteen percent of US early adopters who plan to purchase a cellular phone in the next six months say they will buy an iPhone, according to ChangeWave Research. So certainly Apples expensive smartphone is making a clear dent in the market. Now that the iPhone has conquered the US, is Europe next?

Apple has signed deals with several European telecoms including: Frances Orange, T-Mobile in Germany, and the UK’s O2. It appears that Apple will be collecting a portion of service proceeds from each of the above listed telecoms.

Statistics have shown that there’s a rather high demand for the iPhone. Roughly 7 million UK-residents rate their purchase interest as “strong”. I would be willing to bet other Europeans think alike.

So Germany, France, and UK residence get ready because it looks like the iPhone is invading and at least 12% of you will fall victim to the all so mighty iPhone!



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CORAL SPRINGS — Move over iPod, make room for iSermon.

Church by the Glades is hoping to bribe - its word - new people into attending.

Anyone who comes to its iThemed services for the first time during the next three weekends can get a $15 iTunes gift card by filling out a "connection card." Today, one new visitor will win an iPhone.

The series of sermons is called "i: Successful Living in a Self-Absorbed World."

The iDea came from David Hughes, the Baptist church's breezy pastor.

"I'm an iPod guy," he said.

American preachers have always employed creative methods, including rousing music, tent revivals and wagon rides to church, said Southern Baptist Convention spokesman Roger S. "Sing" Oldham.

"The method is fair game as long as it's not illegal, immoral or against scripture," Oldham said. "The message must never be compromised."

In January, Church by the Glades put a head-snapping message on a billboard in Broward County: "The Bare Naked Truth on Sex," drawing 50,000 hits on its Web site, www.cbglades.com .

In Hughes' eight-year tenure, weekend attendance has grown from 500 to 2,500.

"I can't reach them if they don't come in the door," he said.


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Apple has released the iPhone without any option for laser engraving text or graphics. On the full line of the popular iPod products Apple offered laser text engraving as an option. With the release of the iPhone, Apple provided no such option to buyers. But one company is now willing to do what Apple won’t! Provitron Systems Inc. of Kenmore WA is now accepting shipments of iPhones from all over the world to engrave not only text, but also graphics onto the iPhone. Looking for more info? Just visit their website: www.etchaniphone.com Also it looks like they do a really nice job on iPods and laptops too.


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Every year since the iPod was first introduced a new version has been released in September or October. This year is no different. Retail inventory numbers indicate that Apple is letting the current iPods sell out without replenishment. So right now would be a really bad time to buy an iPod at least in my opinion. It is understood that the next iPod will have a larger screen, will run a version of OS X, and will use flash NVRAM instead of a mini hard drive. Truly these are some fantastic improvements.

Most of us iPod owners are unfortunately familiar with the mini hard drives failing. A switch to flash memory for the large iPod is a welcome improvement in my book. Unfortunately this will mean that there is less storage. We will probably see something with about 16 GB of storage. Another welcome improvement is the addition of OS X as the operating system. As we have seen with the iPhone, this is a fantastic addition! This means it will be hackable and tweakable. The larger screen would be a nice addition, however I would be willing to speculate that the next iPod screen won’t be as large as the current iPhone screen since such screens are rather expensive. Apple will likely want to make the screen a touch screen. Again though in order to keep the cost for the item within reach of most consumers I highly doubt that it will be a screen nearly the size of the unit as seen with the iPhone.



So just to recap, we don’t have an Apple
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User Centric, Inc., a usability consultancy research group, has published a study finding that iPhone’s virtual keyboard is nearly twice as slow to enter text compared with devices that have fixed hardware buttons.

The study gave iPhones to 20 participants who were asked to send text messages and emails using the device, while UC searchers monitored their actions. Hilarity ensued. The group found texting on devices with fixed keys to be fast and accurate. On the iPhone - slow and clumsy.

Now, I am in no way a statistician, but there are a number of flaws in this study. For starters, none of the particiants in the study own iPhones…but all owned QWERTY devices, which skews results dramatically. These users were already accustomed to fixed QWERTY keyboards, giving those devices an unfair advantage in the study.

Second, as I have already mentioned numerous times, you become increasing acclimated to iPhone’s virtual keyboard with usage. After one month you’ll find text input on iPhone to be every bit as credible as a fixed keyboard. Even faster. I make just as many input errors on iPhone as I do my Treo - the difference is iPhone’s spelling correction covers my errors, which speeds input dramatically.

As with all studies, take these findings with a grain of salt and a shot of Bourbon.

[source theiphoneblog ]

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