Appletell

An unlocked iPhone may be coming to a country near you. Rumored to be in Italy at first, the upcoming 3G iPhone will supposedly be sold unlocked in countries such as Belgium, India, Australia, and Italy. The unlocked feature may raise the price on the popular gadget, though, encouraging most customers to go with the locked version. Many are speculating as to why Apple is potentially allowing consumers to use the iPhone on any carrier. The decision is essentially being forced upon Apple, as Belgium, as well as a few other countries, prohibits the sale of locked phones. Mobistar, however, is expected to be the primary carrier in Belgium, with the phone launching sometime in May. Italy will also supposedly feature the unlocked phone, with the same higher selling price to make up for subscription money. Apple is expected to launch the 3G iPhone at WWDC this June, as well as a software update enabling SDK-built apps on the iPhone.

Via [MacRumors]

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Apple not supporting iPhones in several countries hasn’t stopped users from unlocking them. Apple announced that they had sold many iPhones, but not all appear on AT&T’s network. When tech savvy entrepreneurs take a trip to to the US and Europe, they have been purchasing hundreds and thousands of iPhones in the US and Europe. When these are brought back to China, they are unlocked and are able to be used on any GSM network. Apple doesn’t have a carrier for the iPhone in China, but China Mobile is the the biggest wireless carrier in China and already has 400 000 unlocked iPhones on its wireless network at the end of 2007.

Analysts and users have never doubted that iPhone will achieve much greater success than the iPod in China and this already is showing with 1 out of every 10 iPhone shipments announced officially by Apple in China.

After these half a million people didn’t have trouble unlocking theirs, I’m almost convinced to go to the States and bring one back to Canada to unlock…

Via [MacDailyNews]

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Looks like hackers have finally figured out how to unlock your iPhone running 1.1.2 to run on other wireless carriers. Unfortunately, the hackers are just a little too late. Apple has just released 1.1.3 for the iPhone, and hackers have just broken in to 1.1.2. This really is a cat and mouse game.

Geoge Hotz, the original teen iPhone hacker, has posted on his blog that he has unlocked iPhone 1.1.2 and bootloader 4.6 iPhone. And apparently, a software unlock is right around the corner. So for all those wanting to run 1.1.2 on your unlocked iPhones, the solution is coming.

As for 1.1.3, well, that’s a whole other story.

Via [Engadget]

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Some more details slipped today about the (so-called) iPhone unlocking phenom that is iPhoneSimFree. The software apparently allows you to unlock your iPhone so it will work on any GSM carrier, including those in Europe and Canada. The other confirmed alternative to unlock your iPhone is by using a hardware hack.

iPhoneSimFree is not looking like such a viable alternative today as they announced they will not be selling their software to end users. But only in bulk to resellers. Now, this wouldn’t be a problem, but these resellers are likely to only sell unlocked phones, not the software itself.

To add insult to injury, iPhoneSimFree is not guaranteeing that this software hack will work when Apple releases their next software update. So sinking mega bucks into an unlocked phone may backfire the day after you buy it when Apple releases an update.

Looks like we’ll just have to wait for Apple to release the iPhone in these countries. But if you’re willing to risk it, you can pick up 50 licenses for $36 each.

Site [iphonesimfree] via [CrunchGear]

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The team over at iPhoneSimFree have added an updated FAQ to their website with some very important questions being answered. The most important being that they plan to release the unlocking software within the next 48-72 hours. In order to use the unlock software you will need to activate and “jailbreak” your iPhone.

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UniquePhones have given us a new update that includes a some video “proof” of their unlocking the iPhone. I wish it provided a little more information, but sadly the video is out of focus and appears to have been shot with just one person.

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A new blog has just launched on Blogger offering a $100,000 cash payment to make the iPhone unlocking software publicly available for free.

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As we have seen over the past few days a lot of new information and options for unlocking the iPhone are starting to surface and now that the unlocked iPhone is here it seems AT&T is looking to put a quick end to the party. It took what seems like way to long (although I am sure it was very hard work) to get an announcement about someone unlocking the iPhone and UniquePhones had been set to publicly release the software that would enable everyone to have an unlocked iPhone, however a 3 AM call from AT&T’s legal team have made them put an indefinite hold on that release. The team from UniquePhones have yet to make any proof of the unlock public and have decided to get some legal advise on whether it will be wise to release this software.

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Yes, you are reading that right. Engadget has confirmed that the iPhone has been unlocked using software only. Apparently the folks over at iPhoneSIMFree.com (I kept reading it as iPhones IM Free) contacted Engadget (why not us?) and basically gave them the heads up and sent over a few screen shots of the newly unlocked iPhone. Everything is reported to be working out of the box except for YouTube. Safari, Mail, SMS, and Google Maps all work out of the box after possibly changing a few network settings. Oh, and that phone feature works too, but it’s the 21st century, who uses that anymore?

A few things to note from their entry:

The General -> Network menu now has an EDGE network settings area where you can input your carrier’s APN and username / password. We put in our T-Mobile info, and were immediately online. (Apparently these hidden menus were added in the 1.0.1 update, they tell us. How convenient!)

Visual voicemail isn’t in the cards—sorry. That was, of course, to be expected because it’s a special AT&T network-specific feature right now. When you hit the voicemail button you are taken immediately to your carrier’s default voicemail line though, and that works just like it would on any other phone.

They are also claiming that the unlock is restore/upgrade proof and will not be affected in future software updates. They did a reinstall of 1.0.2 and it was still there, but hopefully it will still be unlocked when 1.0.3 is released and from then on.

Image and Story Via [Engadget]

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There are a few different places to get a cheap iPhone these days, like Apple’s very own refurb store. Though what do you do if you want to travel in a whole different direction? Where do you go to get yourself an expensive iPhone? The most expensive iPhone selling right now is probably this one on eBay.

Of course this iPhone is no run-of-the-mill iPhone. It’s not a hand-grenade or condiment dispenser, but “The World’s Second Unlocked iPhone.” If you want this piece of Apple history in your collection, it costs a mere $99,999,999.00. That number again is ninety-nine million nine-hundred ninety-nine thousand nine-hundred ninety-nine dollars. The owner claims that you just pop in a SIM card of your choice, and the iPhone is good to go. When an update comes and locks the phone once again, the files to re-unlock the phone are included.

So if you have got 100-million lying around and you have absolutely no clue how you should spend it, this might be the auction for you.

Note: If you are really interested in buying the phone, the seller asks that you contact him on his blog. He is pretty sure that most of the bids are fraudulent, and will not be honored.

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