Did You Unlock Your iPhone? Bad News For You Then

[ShepsCrook]

http://www.efluxmedia.com/news_Did_You_Unlock_Your_iPhone_Bad_News_For_You_Then_08977.html

 

[Electronic Punk]

To be honest if you mess around with any kind of firmwares and break a device you should not be able to return goods.

 

[ShepsCrook]

I think that people are going to be unhappy, but it's their own fault for spending money to change their phones, and then expect them to work forever. Just as long as the companies that charged them for the phone had a disclosure saying that if Apple releases firmware updates, they are not responsible for any loss of use because of such updates.

 

[Grandmaster]

^ Products you mess around with shouldn't be covered by warranty, but that doesn't mean they should shut off the device.

 

[Electronic Punk]

As the article says they are more interested in making money from O2 (here in the UK) than making it open and retailing it like everyone else.

40% of the revenue I believe, I don't know how much of the actual profit that works out but I suspect any costs will come out O2s side.

More than likely the reason they don't care about hacking it until it actually looked like they should. They sold the phone with the contract so they are getting their cut.

 

[Perris Calderon]

^ Products you mess around with shouldn't be covered by warranty, but that doesn't mean they should shut off the device.

that's the point, they are going out of their way to make the hack not work


makes me wonder how this company get the fanboys defending it the way they do

 

[gonaads]

that's the point, they are going out of their way to make the hack not work


makes me wonder how this company get the fanboys defending it the way they do

They prolly won't defend Apple after this.

 

[muzikool]

More FUD as usual. Apple is NOT intentionally and proactively killing these unlocked phones -- the company is simply warning that futures updates to the phone may render them inoperable. Apple has no reason to develop the iPhone updates in such a way that works around these hacks.

Apple's Phil Schiller was quoted by an Associated Press article about today's announcement that SIM Unlocked iPhones may become permanently disabled by upcoming iPhone updates.

Schiller clarifies that this is not an intentional move to disable unlocked iPhones:
''This has nothing to do with proactively disabling a phone that is unlocked or hacked,'' Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, said in an interview. ''It's unfortunate that some of these programs have caused damage to the iPhone software, but Apple cannot be responsible for ... those consequences.''

To clarify, this appears to affect iPhones that have been specifically SIM Unlocked to use other carrier SIM cards besides AT&T. iPhones otherwise "hacked" to install 3rd party applications are unlikely to be affected in the same manner.

Additionally, there is already published information on how to reverse the hack, so anyone who wants to prevent this issue is able to.

 

[Sazar]

More FUD as usual. Apple is NOT intentionally and proactively killing these unlocked phones -- the company is simply warning that futures updates to the phone may render them inoperable. Apple has no reason to develop the iPhone updates in such a way that works around these hacks.

Additionally, there is already published information on how to reverse the hack, so anyone who wants to prevent this issue is able to.

Apple cannot void the warranty for any updates that are not actually putting the phone at risk. There is nothing hard-wired in the phone that should prevent it from operating on a compatible network. If anything, what Apple is suggesting (re: warranty voiding) seems blatantly illegal.

Additionally, there have been updates since the first releases of these "hacks" and there have been no issues with the phones. If Apple is now claiming that the phones may be rendered inoperable, there is little to read into that than those hacks are being specifically targetted.

Again, this seems a very strong-arm tactic and, once again, seems illegal.

However, the last line in the little snippet you posted suggests this may be limited only to the cards using other carriers SIMS. Given that the SIMs are using the same circuitry and general layout, I fail to see how using a SIM card from another carrier can cause issues.

 

[Grandmaster]

^ Companies get away with that all the time. Sony with the PSP, and Microsoft with the 360 both take similar tactics and create software updates to nullify software hacks.

 

[Sazar]

^ Companies get away with that all the time. Sony with the PSP, and Microsoft with the 360 both take similar tactics and create software updates to nullify software hacks.

Well, there is a difference in nullifying the hacks (i.e. returning the product to the original state) v/s voiding the warranty and essentially saying the product will be destroyed.

Microsoft only said that re: hardware modded xbox's and they have the right to refuse service on their online platform for modded system due to potential cheating issues (which were rampant with modded systems). Can say similar things for the PSP.

But the threats levied here do seem of an entirely different nature given that the hacks are software and are not damaging the hardware present, just opening that hardware to be used on similar networks.

 

[muzikool]

Like I said, I don't expect Apple to included workarounds in their updates to prevent the update from creating issues with the hack. It seems to me that Apple is giving a good heads-up to all iPhone hackers so they can remove the hack before the update. Just think what would happen if Apple didn't warn anyone and all of a sudden peoples' phones were rendered useless. I think it Apple really wanted to stick it to these people then the company wouldn't have issued this warning in advance.

 

[Sazar]

Oh come on.

<warning, all your base are belong to us, kthxbye> is hardly customer-centric.

The iPhone is claimed to be a mini-computer. You don't see microsoft shuttin down people's computers coz they are hacking stuff? You see the feds going after them if there is a law being broken. HP, Dell and others also don't start doing weirdo things to systems if they are out of spec or using non-recommended ways to do things.

 

[muzikool]

Hmm... I'm not sure. I see both sides of the argument as pretty legitimate. I guess we'll see what ends up happening, how the public responds and how that affects Apple.

 

[gonaads]

I think Apple is putting out the word sozz the guys out there hackin the iPhone have time to update their hacks for these ummm, updates. Or sozz people can re-lock their phones, do the updates as they come and then unlock them again. Most other Manufacturers wouldn't even tell you. They would just lock you out and say, "Oh, you hacked your phone. Now it's a brick? Well go buy another one".


Could be subtle way of giving the hackers a heads up. Me thinks anyway. Or maybe just wishful thinking? :nervous:

Also, are these updates mandatory automatic? Or can you set manually and choose not to update? The way I see it is if the phone is working as it should (be it with another service provider), who in their right mind would do an update and fudge it it all up?

 

[muzikool]

That's pretty much what I was thinking g.

I'm not sure if the update is mandatory or not, but I do know that it adds the iTunes Music Store to the iPhone, so I'm sure most every iPhone user will want the update.

 

[falconguard]

The update will be mandatory, since it will also update the ITunes, that makes you buy a ring tone twice, There is just no way of getting around that. Unless, you are quite happy to not connect to Itunes ever again.

 

[muzikool]

Yeah, that whole ringtone thing is a joke. Good thing there are 3rd-party apps that will do this.

 

[paNix3d]

dang that one ring tone twice just made apple a lot richer.... thats alot of ring tones

 

[muzikool]

UPDATE: The iPhone software update has been released, and Apple is actually recommending that people with unlocked iPhones not install the update yet. Apparently the iPhone development team is working on software that will re-lock the phone, which will prevent the phone from potentially becoming a paperweight after installing the update.