Software unlocking solutions for iPhones with firmware v1.1.2 and above are resistant to software unlocking efforts. The iPhoneDevTeam has released the source code for their AnySIM software unlocking solution in hopes of getting a fresh perspective on circumventing software-based obstacles to unlocking iPhone v1.1.2 firwmares.
So, what’s an eager-beaver iPhone-hopeful on a non-Apple-sanctioned network to do? While software solutions are out of the question, there are SIM-based unlocking methods available. For example, you can use the SonicSIM and StealthSIM unlocking solution to make your iPhone compatible with that “foreign” wireless network.
The SonicSIM hack seems to be the successor to the TurboSIM from way back when. SonicSIM works by tricking your iPhone into thinking that an Apple-sanctioned SIM card has been installed. Check out the video below to see how this method works. (There’s been talk of this method and the accompanying video being fake. Anyone out there able to confirm as much?)
StealthSIM is likewise a hardware-based unlocking solution and leaves your iPhone’s baseband radio code intact - making future firmware updates possible without the threat of turning your iPhone into and iBrick. The installation instructions are pretty easy to follow, and for $90, it’s competitively priced.
Accessory company Tunewear has put together a new case to fit your favorite phone.
It’s called the ICEWEAR, and the case is made of nearly transparent silicone. It’s ribbed for pleasure for better grip and is thick enough to protect against light impact. Dropping the iPhone still depends more on luck than 2 mm of silicone, but your chances improve dramatically with this case.
There’re holes so you can access all the good stuff, like the touchscreen, camera, headphone-in, dock connector, and the buttons.
The ICEWEAR comes with TUNEFILM, which is a protective screen for the touch display. The ICEWEAR can be washed with soap and water, so feel free to spill nacho cheese all over it. Not sure why Tunewear insists on using all caps. Maybe because they know it’s CRUISE CONTROL FOR COOL.
Expect the first shipment sometime this month, for around $30.
So now the iPhone helps a pilot bust his plane out of a 3-hour tarmac delay by enabling him to surf to Weather.com? That’s the preposterous story line of Apple’s latest commercial, which was inescapable on Sunday whether you were watching football during the day on FOX and CBS, or game seven of the American League Championship Season in the evening.
At least for new “fatty” iPod Nanos, Apple took the soft sell approach, enlisting the charming Feist ditty 1234 in a meta-music-video.
No such luck with the latest iPhone commercial. This one has some guy who’s supposed to be a pilot, telling us his iPhone got him to a weather report which said the storm was breaking, so he “called the tower,” and within a half hour, he was on his way.
Even if that scenario were believable, who is it aimed at? The subgroup of the potential iPhone buying public who has commercial aviation licenses? I much preferred the original iPhone ads, which pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes by grossing inflating the Web-surfing speed of the EDGE network, and let it at that.
Here’s the iPhone “Fly Me” commercial, courtesy of YouTube:
What’s next? Steve Jobs friend Larry Ellison enlisting the iPhone to help him steer around a squall during the America’s Cup?
Apple is releasing an unlocked version of the iPhone that will allow users to run it on various cellular networks. But you have to live in France to get it.
Under a just-announced deal, the European mobile carrier Orange will be the exclusive source for the iPhone in the French market. The unlocked phone is concession to a French law that forbids companies to bundle a cell phone to a specific mobile operator.
According to a report in the International Herald Tribune, Orange will offer both a locked version for its French net for about $560 and an unlocked version for a higher, but undisclosed price. Both are expected to be unveiled in November.
Apple recently signed exclusive deals, similar to the one with U.S.-based AT&T, with Britain’s O2, the wireless division of Spain’s Telefonica, and with Germany’s T-Mobile, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom.
According to the Tribune report, Orange wouldn’t say whether it had agreed to give Apple a share of the service revenues generated by iPhone users. This is one of the most striking features of Apple’s move into the mobile phone market. The Tribune quoted a Nortel executive on how revolutionary this change is: ‘For operators, having an handset maker suddenly demand a slice of their revenues is like being asked to change your religion,’ said Gerry Collins, the director of strategic marketing at Nortel Networks, a Canadian company that makes wireless phone networks. “This is really a significant change for the industry.
From the outset, Apple’s decision has come under concerted attack by hackers trying to unlock the phone’s SIM card, thereby allowing the phone to run on a network other than AT&T. Apple has made a just-as-concerted counter-attack to undo those hacks.
Facing a lawsuit for allegedly using toxic substances in the iPhone, Apple today told MacWorld that the device “meets the restrictions placed on hazardous substances.”
“Like all Apple products worldwide, iPhone complies with RoHS [Restriction of Hazardous Substances], the world’s toughest restrictions on toxic substances in electronics,” an Apple spokesperson told Macworld. “As we have said, Apple will voluntarily eliminate the use of PVC and BFRs by the end of 2008.”
The declaration comes in the wake of a report from Greenpeace accusing Apple is using phthalates in the plastic earphone wiring. Phthalates is considered a reproductive toxin.
Although the iPhone may meet ROHS standards, the Center for Environmental Health (CEH) is asserting the Apple has violated California law, which says that products that can expose consumers to phthaltes or other such chemicals must carry a warning label.
The CEH has given Apple 60-days legal notice, which is the first required by California law before a lawsuit is launched.
