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Gadget News & Review
San Francisco (dpa) - A teenager has written a software application that unlocks the iPhone restrictions limiting use of the much hyped cellphone to the AT&T network in the US, MacNewsWorld reported.
The development could represent a serious blow to the US phone giant AT&T, which had been hoping to leverage the popularity of the sexy new phone into a dominant position in the US market. The hack would also allow the phone to be used on networks in countries outside the US.
But they failed to take into account 17-year-old George Hotz, and his desire to use the phone on the T-Mobile network.
Hotz posted details of the ten step hack on his blog and also a video of the procedure on YouTube. The video has already been viewed more than 130,000 times.
"My iPhone works with T-Mobile now, and that's all I ever wanted," Hotz told MacNewsWorld, adding that it had taken him about 500 hours to figure out the workaround.
Hotz reportedly began working on the project on June 29, the day the iPhone was released, along with four other online collaborators. Working 8 to 10 hours a day, he finally distilled his efforts into a two-hour process that involves both soldering and software skills.
"I'm sorry about how hard (these instructions) are to follow, but someone will get them to work, and simplify them, and simplify them more," Hotz wrote on his blog. "Hopefully a software unlock will be found in the near future."
"I think this is a great thing for users," Hotz said. "What I want is for people to be able to buy an iPhone, unlock it and use it."
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