Breaking News: Teenager unlocks the iPhone as his summer project

I had published a post yesterday of the four methods of unlocking the iPhone, while the latest update is that software method has got caught up in a legal tangles, the Associated Press news agency has just confirmed that George Hotz, a teenager, has indeed unlocked the iPhone and used it on AT&T rival operator, T-Mobile.

In an interview, the teenager says that he had taken up the task of unlocking the iPhone as a summer project. Hotz, 17, worked online with with four other people on his project, two of them in Russia, to develop the unlocking process, though the details of the other four are still unknown. He has spent approximately 500 hours on the unlocking project since iPhone's launch on 29th June.

The teenage hacker says that the unlocking process should take approximately two hours and involves some soldering and skill with software. In case you are confused, this is not the fifth method of unlocking the iPhone, the hardware unlocking method mentioned in the four methods of unlocking the iPhone features the teenager. (see iPhoneHacks.com, The four methods to unlock the iPhone)

The agency also notes that Hotz's techniques leaves most of the iPhone's functions intact apart from its "visual voicemail" feature, which shows voice messages as if they are incoming e-mail.

The teenager has shown good intentions and does not want the unlocking process be used for commercial means though he would like other iPhone owners to be able to unlock their phones themselves. He has not been contacted by either Apple or AT&T and neither has he been slapped with any lawsuit. He goes on to add that the unlocking process is completely legal and is covered by the exception introduced in Nov 2006 to DMCA rules with regards to unlocking of cell phones.

Apple and AT&T have both not commented on the news, though it will be interesting to see how Apple and AT&T plan to tackle this situation especially since the teenager has already got so much media attention.

Apple will probably look to make both hardware and software modifications to the iPhone to ensure that new versions of the iPhone are not vulnerable to the hack.

Congratulations George for the excellent work and do extend it to your friends who helped you out with your summer project.

Hey Sandman, this one is for you, thanks for sending this in!

Watch the YouTube video of the teenage hacker on CNBC talking about the hack.

Update: Link to teenage hacker's blog

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