The iPhone Has Been Unlocked: Apple, AT&T, Deal With It

The iPhone Has Been Unlocked: Apple, AT&T, Deal With It

A few weeks ago I asked if it was possible to unlock an iPhone. According to the guys at Engadget, the iPhone has been successfully unlocked. The jig is up.

Here is a look at this amazing breakthrough:

It's high noon, Apple and AT&T -- we really hate to break it to you, but the jig is up. Last night the impossible was made possible: right in front of our very eyes we witnessed a full SIM unlock of our iPhone with a small piece of software. It's all over, guys.

The iPhoneSIMfree.com team called us up to prove their claim that they cracked Apple's iPhone SIM lock system, and prove it they did. (No, we don't have a copy of the unlock software, so don't even ask us, OK?) The six-man team has been working non-stop since launch day, and they're officially the first to break Apple's SIM locks on the iPhone. It's done. Seriously. They wouldn't tell us when and how they would release it to the public, but you can certainly bet that they'll try to make a buck on their solution (and rightly so). We can hardly believe the iPhone's finally been cracked. No, scratch that -- we just can't believe it took this long.

While Engadget goes out of it way to try to legally distance itself from these claims, I think its pretty clear that the iPhone can now be used on almost any GSM network.

Here is a short list of tips on how to use an unlocked iPhone:

* The unlock process took only a couple of minutes. From our end it was totally painless.

* Once you put your new, non-AT&T SIM in the device, you have to go through the usual activation process. This can, of course, be done by anyone anywhere with the right tools (like iASign or iActivator)

* We tested with an active T-Mobile SIM -- after the hack was finished and we reactivated we immediately got full bars and the T-Mobile carrier info popped up in the top bar.

* Everything is otherwise the same, except the menu system now has a couple more options. The root menu has Carrier settings where you can select your preferred network if you don't want to roam.

* 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.

* Everything is confirmed as working on a non-AT&T network: SMS send / receive, Internet (including Safari, Mail, Google maps, etc.). YouTube doesn't work out of the box, but that's to be expected. If you're not on AT&T you have to manually activate YouTube -- here's the guide on how to do that. (YouTube is the only app you have to activate like this.)

* We know, it's kind of crazy, but this isn't a hoax.

Go to the Engadget post to see the rest, including an explanatory video.

What does this mean for Apple and AT&T? I think it means that these companies may have to rethink their exclusivity agreement. It only took hackers two months to open and unlock the iPhone. Assuming Apple and AT&T can figure out how to relock it, it's likely that it will only take another two or three months for some mobile geeks to open the device up again.

When Apple started advertising the iPhone, it promised that the iPhone would offer the full Internet. Well, an unlocked iPhone is a device that is certainly more open to the full Internet. It looks like the iPhone may be living up to its hype in some ways that Apple and AT&T never intended.

by : Stephen Wellman, Aug 24, 2007 01:50 PM
Keyword : Ipod,Apple

Hundreds take a byte from Apple

Hundreds take a byte from Apple

People began queuing outside the store on Friday morning
Hundreds of people have flocked to the opening of Apple's first Scottish store.
The company behind the iPod and iMac opened its new retail centre in Glasgow's Buchanan Street at 0900 BST.

The first 1,500 people entering the shop were greeted by staff applauding and cheering and were handed a free t-shirt.

The new £1m store, which will employ 59 people, is the company's 10th in the UK and 190th worldwide.

The first customer had travelled over from the US especially for the opening and had been queuing since Friday morning.

I'm a Mac loyalist and am just curious to see how this store compares to the ones in London and the US

Tom Lundberg

Steve Cano, senior director with Apple International, said: "When we went for dinner last night there were about 12 or 13 people queuing but by 5am this morning there were hundreds so we brought coffee out to them.

"This is our first store in Scotland and its very special to have one in this historic building with great customers. We love being in Buchanan Street."

Apple customers, known for their fierce loyalty to the brand, have been known to queue days in advance of the stores opening elsewhere around the world.

The Glasgow store features youth workshops and a "genius bar", where customers are given one-to-one attention by Apple experts.

The store features a "genius bar" where Apple experts are on hand

Shoppers can also "test drive" new products, including 45 Macs and 50 iPods.

One shopper, 17-year-old Stephen Bissett, from Glasgow, said: "I was actually only in the queue for 45 minutes but was prepared to wait for hours.

"It was a good atmosphere though. People were chatting about all the Apple stuff. There are a lot of people really dedicated to Apple products.

"As soon as I heard there was a store opening in Glasgow I knew I'd be there on the opening day."

Tom Lundberg, 40, a politics lecturer at Glasgow University, who is originally from Seattle, said: "I've been a Mac user for about 20 years.

It was a bit strange when we came in and the staff were clapping and cheering but it was fun

Louise Thomson

"I'm a Mac loyalist and am just curious to see how this store compares to the ones in London and the US, and to see the new iMac in the flesh."

Alison Brady, 38, from Glasgow, said she was looking forward to seeing the store's glass spiral staircase.

"It's fantastic," she said. "Apple has a glass staircase in all its stores and I was especially interested as I used to work at a glass company.

"I've been to the Apple store in New York so wanted to see this one. I'm thinking about updating my iPod and will probably come back quite a bit."

Kris Goodman and his girlfriend, Louise Thomson, both 21, from Barrhead, also gave their approval.

The company spent £1m converting a furniture store

"It was a bit strange when we came in and the staff were clapping and cheering but it was fun," Louise said.

The company is understood to have spent more than £1m converting the Category A property, which previously housed a home furnishing store.

Throughout September the store will host a series of events, including five in-store concerts featuring Scottish bands.

The concerts will be recorded and posted on the iTunes music store a week later.

Three days after the opening, The Dykeenies are scheduled to perform the first of the live shows from the store.

By : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/6961413.stm
Keyword : Apple

Find All The GPS Systems Information You Need

Find All The GPS Systems Information You Need

Are you looking for some GPS systems information? Then come to see us. We have been providing technical courses and advanced GPS training on GPS systems information since a long time ago. We offer more than 20 courses on professional GPS and all you want to know about GPS systems information.

But, first than anything, what is exactly a Global Positioning System (GPS)?

It is a satellite-based navigation system made up of a network of 24 satellites placed into orbit by the U.S. Department of Defense. At first, GPS was going to be used by military applications, but later in the 1980s, the government allowed it to be available for civilian use. It doesn?t matter the weather conditions, GPS keeps working anywhere in the world and the whole day. It is not necessary any subscription fees or setup charges to use GPS.

The second question would be: How it works?

GPS satellites circle the earth twice a day in a very precise orbit and transmit signal information to earth. GPS receivers can calculate exactly where the user is by taking this information and using triangulation. In other words, the GPS receiver compares the time a signal was transmitted by a satellite with the time it was received. The time difference tells the GPS receiver how far away the satellite is. And by repeating this procedure with a few more satellites, the receiver can determine the user's position and show it on the unit's electronic map.

A GPS receiver can calculate the latitude and longitude and track movement if it is locked on to the signal of at least three satellites. And it can determine the user?s latitude, longitude and altitude using four or more satellites. But it doesn?t end with this, because once we have the user's position, the GPS unit can calculate other information, such as speed, bearing, track, trip distance, distance to destination, and much more. So not just you can know where exactly somebody is, but also you can know a lot of things about that person, and it doesn?t matter where in the world that person may be.

There is so much more GPS systems information and a lot of things you can learn to understand and use a GPS system correctly and you can find all of them just by looking for us.

Browse our list of course schedules, course descriptions, locations, and the incredible low prices and discounts we have for you. We also have an extensive selection of books, software, and equipment for GPS users of all types.

By : J Herrera
Keyword : more gps, gps systems, ppa gps

Anti Jam GPS

Anti Jam GPS

If we go to war with China the first thing they will do is knock out as many of our satellites as possible. Many secret SPY satellites in the Military will be safe now up there and there equipment in their UAVs, ground vehicles and command and control centers because they have special Anti-Jamming GPS systems with bleeding edge top of the line and state of the art counter measure technologies. You are probably thinking to yourself who thinks of this stuff anyways? Well you know men and there toys and when the US Military wants something no matter how seemingly impossible someone will find a way.

This time that someone was a little company Harris Corp that has about $3 billion in annual sales and over 12,600 employees as of yesterday and they have teamed up with another little company; The Boeing Company, maybe you have heard of them. Harris Corp will provide to the net-centric battlespace smart munitions anti-jam technologies. This means no one gets away and no smart bombs go astray and that our enemies have only one option before meeting their maker and that is to pray.

Now you are probably saying to yourself, ?Hey self, that would be cool in my SUV!? Just think never lose an XM Radio connection or have to worry about interference on your urban assault vehicles GPS. Indeed that would be cool and it will inevitably become standard equipment on all in-car system by 2010 through the gracious gifts of transfer technologies or hand me down research from the US of A. Never a lost signal or missed tune, you got to love it. Think on this.

By : Lance Winslow
Keyword : SUV, anti-jamming gps, jam, xm radio, boeing company, harris, net-centric, us military