Why would anyone pick up a sleek, beautiful new $500 iPhone and take a soldering gun to it?
You could almost say Apple Inc. issued a dare.
Hackers got credit for another victory Friday, as news spread that a New Jersey teenager broke into his iPhone and reconfigured it so the machine could make calls via a wireless carrier other than AT&T.
The iPhone, available since late June, is supposed to work only with AT&T, which has a five-year exclusive contract. But limiting the touchscreen phone to a single carrier immediately was seen by many tech-savvy tinkerers as an invitation to assert their control over the device.
Hacking, of course, has a long history in the digital age. On top of that, many cell phone aficionados are rankled by the idea that they often can't choose which carrier to provide service for a cool new phone.
So it's no surprise that 17-year-old George Hotz's accomplishment in making his iPhone run on T-Mobile's network joins a host of claims by other hackers manipulating the Apple device.
YouTube is filled with videos of people who appear to have created their own iPhone by using Apple's software on other mobile gadgets, including a T-Mobile Wing smart phone, a Sprint PPC-6800 and Microsoft Corp.'s Zune music player.
Technology analyst Rob Enderle said others already have unlocked the iPhone by getting it to work with a competing carrier: "We should have downloadable applications for these things in a week."
To do what Hotz accomplished takes plenty of skill -- and time. Hotz said he spent 500 hours on the project.
"He's been tinkering with it all summer," his father, also named George Hotz, said. "It shows it can be done, but it's not an easy task."
In a video on YouTube, the bushy haired Hotz shows his iPhone running on T-Mobile's wireless network before he makes a call to a landline phone in his bedroom. Then, he removes the T-Mobile SIM card he inserted into the phone as additional evidence.
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You could almost say Apple Inc. issued a dare.
Hackers got credit for another victory Friday, as news spread that a New Jersey teenager broke into his iPhone and reconfigured it so the machine could make calls via a wireless carrier other than AT&T.
The iPhone, available since late June, is supposed to work only with AT&T, which has a five-year exclusive contract. But limiting the touchscreen phone to a single carrier immediately was seen by many tech-savvy tinkerers as an invitation to assert their control over the device.
Hacking, of course, has a long history in the digital age. On top of that, many cell phone aficionados are rankled by the idea that they often can't choose which carrier to provide service for a cool new phone.
So it's no surprise that 17-year-old George Hotz's accomplishment in making his iPhone run on T-Mobile's network joins a host of claims by other hackers manipulating the Apple device.
YouTube is filled with videos of people who appear to have created their own iPhone by using Apple's software on other mobile gadgets, including a T-Mobile Wing smart phone, a Sprint PPC-6800 and Microsoft Corp.'s Zune music player.
Technology analyst Rob Enderle said others already have unlocked the iPhone by getting it to work with a competing carrier: "We should have downloadable applications for these things in a week."
To do what Hotz accomplished takes plenty of skill -- and time. Hotz said he spent 500 hours on the project.
"He's been tinkering with it all summer," his father, also named George Hotz, said. "It shows it can be done, but it's not an easy task."
In a video on YouTube, the bushy haired Hotz shows his iPhone running on T-Mobile's wireless network before he makes a call to a landline phone in his bedroom. Then, he removes the T-Mobile SIM card he inserted into the phone as additional evidence.
Discuss Add this link to... Bury
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