Race to unlock iPhone heats up

The news about researchers attempting to unlock the new toy from Apple is getting plenty of attention. People are coming out of the woodwork to attempt to activate the phone without AT&T or at least enable the options on the phone without voice services. So far the problem is, without a contract from AT&T, and without using iTunes to set up the device, the iPhone is nothing more than a $600 paperweight. Some gadget junkies simply want to use the features on the iPhone and have no need for a contract, or voice services. Here is a look at the progress so far.

The biggest news in the race to unlock the iPhone comes from someone well known for circumventing protected processes. DVD Jon, or as some know him Jon Lech Johansen, the creator of DeCSS, the code that broke DVD copyright encryption in 1999, has released a tool that unlocks some of the features on the coveted device.

Phone Activation Server (PAS) is the name of the tool, and on his blog Johansen explains that he has, “found a way to activate a brand new [inactivated] iPhone without giving any of your money or personal information to AT&T NSA. The iPhone does not have phone capability, but the iPod and WiFi work.” Hailed by the users on his blog’s comment section as a genius the tool has been confirmed to work. (Reporter note: The iPhone used for testing by M&C was already activated, thus the PAS server failed. There was no way to reactivate the iPhone once it is setup. You need a clean iPhone straight out of the box for Johansen’s method to work. iTunes only offers restore settings.)

While Johansen’s method works, a fact confirmed by several people now, there is some tech work that needs to be done before the magic happens. The magic in this case are the “magic numbers” used to edit the iTunes.exe file. Details and instructions are given on several sites, but one false step and you are stuck at square one.

There is another issue this method faces, the same issue the other three methods for opening the iPhones face. Apple and AT&T might release firmware or software updates that negate the process. The setback if this happens is unknown, but as crafty as some researchers, or reverse engineers are, the setback might not last long. While DVD Jon’s method unlocks the phone with Wi-Fi and iPod support, there are two other methods that “Activate” the iPhone for use as well.

The first alternate method was reported by Seth Fogie on InformIT. There is a loophole, according to Fogie, that takes advantage of AT&T’s plan offerings. Existing AT&T customers can upgrade to an iPhone plan and return the device.

“So, I stated that I wanted to keep the phone and get a new number on it. This was my plan - honest! I was then just going to cancel the plan, which would have cost me $175 (ouch). However, AT&T never reset my iPhone. So, it was handed to [me] in an activated state - normally, new iPhones are locked until you purchase a plan via the iTunes sync. In other words, there is a loophole through which you can obtain an activated iPhone that has no cell plan,” Fogie said. He later coined the term iPDA, which is what he ended up having after the process.

Fogie’s method is best described as a flaw in how the AT&T store handled the return, and Fogie himself said that Johansen’s method was far more practical. The second method was reported by the iPhone Blog. This method revolves around using a second activated iPhone to active another inactivated iPhone. According to the iPhone Blog, this method was discovered by accident. The seven steps for this method are described here: http://tinyurl.com/2pc39n

The third method, originally reported by The Unofficial Apple Weblog, centers on activation with the pre-paid plan offered by AT&T. The trick is to enter a social security number as 999-99-9999 in order to fail the credit check. Once you fail the check, select the GoPhone plan. “After signing up for a GoPhone plan and being assigned a number and passcode, connect to the AT&T GoPhone funding page as prompted, enter your credit card or debit card information and you're good to go. DO NOT attempt to fund your iPhone over the phone with AT&T. DO NOT set up your iPhone prepaid account in advance with AT&T,” TUAW reports.

There is still no solid way to completely unlock an iPhone, and there are no SIM cracks to unlock the iPhone for other service providers. Likely, there never will be. For the time being, the iPDA method provided by DVD Jon is the best bet to use the new toy until Apple or AT&T kills the abilities of PAS.

The Apple iPhone launched officially on June 29th. Projections for sales say that almost half-a-million iPhones were sold just after release. Currently, AT&T and Apple stores are sold out of the iPhone. They are waiting on their second shipments to arrive. By Christmas of 2007 O2, the mobile operator who beat out Vodafone for exclusive rights expects to launch the iPhone in the UK.