iPhone Dev Team hack not first, but free

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 13 September 2007 02:36

Your IT - Mobility

The iPhone Dev Team claims to achieved its goal of creating a software unlocker, and has released the result free of charge.

Other groups that have succeeded in unlocking the iPhone have released their work commercially, but the Dev Team have put its work out there with only a request for donations.

The team has also asked the media to refrain from linking directly to its site. If you're really interested, a web search for "iphone dev wiki" will do the trick.
 
It seems that the team's unlock is not presented as a fully packaged solution. iPhone owners need to 'jailbreak' the phone and install some additional software before the unlocker can be used. The procedure is still lengthy even after those preliminary steps have been taken.

Work to repackage the hack into a more user-friendly installer is at an advanced stage, and there are plans for a version that automates the entire process.

Development of a GUI version of the hack has already led to controversy, with project participant 'HaRRo' being accused of using "stolen source code of a pre-release gui application" to release his own unlocking tool.

Another question is the effect this will have on sales of iPhoneSimFree, a commercial unlocker. Will resellers that have ordered and paid for a block licences be stuck with stock they can no longer sell, or will enough customers be prepared to pay for what is at this stage a simpler experience?

The object of all these hacks is to allow the iPhone to operate on GSM networks other than AT&T's, without requiring extra hardware such as the TurboSIM or hardware modifications.