The iPhone is a stunning piece of industrial design that screams taste and style. So what better way to modify a beautiful product than ugly it up with black spray paint and faux classic rainbow Apple logo, in a style reminiscent of the Newton. At least this guy won’t have to worry about someone stealing his iPhone. Unless he lives in the UK, of course.
iNdependence 1.2.5 (Mac only, sorry Winlosers) is out and ready to liberate iPhones running firmware 1.1.1. This release comes complete with full SSH support, as well as anySIM 1.1 pre-installed… for those of you crazy brave enough to brick unlock your iPhone.
Now before you go trotting off to download this app on your Mac, like the slutty iCrack whore that you are, a word of warning: Unlocking, be it through anySIM or other hackery, can be a risky endeavor that may result in damaging your iPhone. The process used by such apps involves monkeying with iPhone’s baseband settings, the all important and tightly guarded driver software that controls phone connectivity, or lack thereof. If something should go wrong during the unlock execution, your iPhone becomes an expensive paperweight. At least until such time as the hacking community can create a fix to reverse the damage. So I do advise caution, and common sense… two qualities that are sorely lacking in me.
Free at last, Free at last… praise god almighty, my bricked iPhone is free at last! Well, not quite… I haven’t actully applied this method yet.
Here’s the deal - Civil war has broken out among iPhone Dev Team, leaving the group broken into several splinter factions, each with its own banner and coat of arms. The disunited groups plan to settle their differences on World of Warcraft, in a blood orgy of axe wielding carnage. One faction, modestly named “iPhone Elite”, has released a method for downgrading the all important baseband settings that turned anySIM unlocked iPhones into bricks upon updating to firmware 1.1.1. What makes this significant is that even downgrading from 1.1.1, back to 1.0.2 won’t restore a bricked iPhone due to changes made by anySIM to the iPhone’s baseband settings. This solution provides a way of undoing those changes, restoring baseband to its original state… resulting in unbricking.
And wouldn’t you know… this release comes just as I am headed out the door to meet with a client. But rest assured my comatose bricked iPhone, affectionately known ever more as Frankenphone, will be brought back to life shortly. The Doctor is in.
Hey, want to void your warranty and turn your iPhone into an expensive paperweight with future firmware updates? If so, iPhone Dev Team has a hack for you. They’ve successfully managed to jailbreak factory fresh iPhones running firmware 1.1.1, enabling support for black market third party applications, and utilize non-AT&T SIM cards to roll your own network. However, no workaround solution has been found for previously unlocked, now bricked, iPhones updated to 1.1.1.
Yes, yes, it all sounds well and good, but given the fact iPhone Dev Team has yet to undo the catastrophic damage created by anySIM with Apple’s new firmware, why would anyone place their trust in this process again? Trust me folks, if you value your iPhone, stay far away from Jailbreak or unlock software, in any form. You are playing with fire. These half-assed hacks are little more than Molotov cocktails ready to blow up in your face and brick your iPhone. But don’t take my word for it. Just ask my previous iPhone, now serving as doorstop and makeshift kitchen utensil.
Someone has devised a clever yet altogether impractical way of getting 3G speeds on iPhone by pairing it with a Windows Mobile Smartphone equipped with HSDPA. Now, rather than go into details I’ll simply refer you to the the website to see and judge for yourself. And I won’t be putting this process to the test because my sole Windows Mobile device, a newly purchased AT&T Tilt, is being returned due to the fact it is an utter piece of bovine anal excrement.
For those who crave adventure and just love cramming radioactive gadgets in your pants, go for it. I won’t stop you.
SummerBoard users may want to fire up Installer.app. Four new themes are now available for download; Oren, Phiberglass, JrWallace, and two variations of Tiger. Oren stands out as best theme, in my opinion. It gives your home screen a purple-hued “Fo’ Shizzle” look that speaks taste.
Nothing too dramatic, but who doesn’t love freebies.
Tired of the same default homescreen, and its OSX Dashboard motif? Bored with tapping the same icons over and over again? Well fire up your Community Source package, and let SummerBoard cure those homescreen blues.
This amazing app changes the look and feel of iPhone’s default launcher, with a choice of four available themes. If you have Installer.app setup, just select SummberBoard from the list of source packages. After installed you will see a new icon on your homescreen called SMBPrefs. Tap that and pick a theme. It’s just that simple.
Leopard is my favorite. It’s colorful but not gaudy. For those of you who lust for those new icons found on iPod Touch, the included Louie Mantia theme will satisfy your craving. If you don’t like certain aspects of your UI skinned, like the dock for example, you can simply turn off features you don’t want. Try it out yourself.
We really need to pool our money and buy the guys (and gals) of iPhone Dev Team a free round of drinks; they never stop coding! The team is now offering a GUI solution (that’s graphical user interface to you newbs out there) to its former iUnlock solution, called anySIM, making the process painless and tolerable. If this solution works as advertised, as it appears to, unlocking your iPhone can be done with just a few mouse clicks. I like the sound of that.
I plan on testing this out myself later today. Keep you posted.
On the internet, no one can hear your bluff. A blog claims to be offering a $100,000 reward to anyone who can produce a free software unlock solution for iPhone, and deliver it by the chimes of midnight tonight. Of course, no information whatsoever is given to back the legitimacy of this claim, such as who its underwriters are so I’d wager this cash payment is coming from someone’s HP deskjet printer. Nothing more than a single email address is available for correspondence, which doesn’t instill confidence.
My favorite quote from the site, which gives good insight into the minds behind this project…
Me and my friends are very involved in the open source community and yet everybody who worked on IRC, now is concerned about getting paid and charging everybody for an unlock software. I can’t believe it, it’s like Linus Torvalds would start charging for compiling the kernel.
Imagine that…expecting payment for your work and talent. Why, it almost sounds like Capitalism!
Yeah, these are a bunch of kids.
I’ll make a counter offer for anyone who can produce such a solution; one shiny wooden nickel. Any takers?
Yes folks, this is the real deal. Remember that shady website that claimed would release a fully software based iPhone unlock solution within 48 hours? Well…they did. So far I have already received reports from users claiming to have iPhones unlocked and functioning on T-Mobile, Rogers, Vodaphone, and Orange networks.
Engadget has posted a fantastic tutorial detailing the process involved to make the unlock magic happen. It’s really straight forward and quite simple. However, I don’t have a second iPhone to act as guinea pig, so I won’t be putting this unlock solution to the test. Feel free to send me your success stories, or mishaps.
By the way, if anyone out there can confirm their unlocked iPhone works with Centennial Wireless I would much appreciate it. I have a couple friends on that network who are just dying to get iPhones.
A website called iPhone-SIM-Free is claiming that it will release to the world a fully software based SIM unlocking solution for iPhone, within the next 48 hours. That’s a pretty bold claim, so either its is legit or a shameless grab for traffic. We’ll know in just 48…no…make that 47, no wait. I think 45 hours? Whatever, just bookmark this website and keep checking back.
For those who want to dabble in the dark world of iPhone hacking, but are driven off from fear of complexity, Gizmodo has posted a great How To guide that explains how to install third party software on iPhone. The process is so easy you don’t need to be a l33t hAx0R to make it happen.
Kyle Stoneman managed to successfully setup his very own Myth TV box. After dancing wildly through the living room, shouting with glee, like a nine year old boy on Christmas morning, his elation was soon dampened when he realized that controlling the box required sitting next to a computer. Lame.
So the industrious would-be hacker came up with a solution - use the iPhone as a remote. And wouldn’t you know it, the son of a b*tch did it!. He even posted a video demonstrating his creation.
You can read more about his exploits and download the script, which he is making available for free.
What are you doing, Dave?
I think we should talk this over before you do something rash.
Why don’t you take a stress pill and we can sit down and talk about it.
Dave?
You can begin popping corks off Champaign bottles and dance through the streets in your underpants. This is the moment that many folks have waited for.
In case you’ve been living under a rock this morning the internet is aflutter with news that iPhone has now finally unlocked, using an $80 tool called Turbo SIM card.
The feat is said to be 100% effective, meaning that it unlocks all of iPhones features and functions, allowing users to make and receive calls, SMS, access GPRS readio (data), browse the web, send email, download porn, over any GSM network. Viola!
Some clever Modders have found a novel approach to creating a working two-way video conferencing solution into iPhone. With a little IP voodoo and huckleberry mirror, twin brothers Glen and Ken Aspeslagh found a way to successfully pull off a live video conference, over the web, by streaming compressed video to a special server which then streams the video to a recipient iPhone.
You can read more about this bit of hackery after the jump. I’m giving these guys my coveted “I want to have your children” award for sheer brilliance.
  
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The iPhone Blog merged with the Phone different site in May of 2008. Both sites were founded on a premise that comes one from one of Apple's old slogans: Think different. The iPhone Blog: for people who dare to phone different.
