First free iPhone unlock revealed- don't expect Apple to sit still

It seems that the race to unlock the iPhone from the binds of AT&T has been just as frenzied as the original launch of the device.  There have been no shortage of iPhone unlock schemes, some commercial and some individual, but word is now out of an open source unlock utility for the phone.  The full details are provided by engadget and while they look pretty involved in reality it is pretty simple to unlock the phone with this utility.  Since it's free there are many, many iPhone owners lining up to unlock the phone with plans to use it with other carriers.  I wouldn't make any service cancellations just yet, though, because I am pretty sure Apple and AT&T have a say in the unlocking.

Updating the iPhone through iTunes is brilliant on Apple's part on a number of levels.  It keeps the iPhone tapped into the Apple iTunes train and more importantly allows Apple to keep your iPhone honest.  Honest on their terms, that is.  I would be very surprised if Apple didn't have the ability and the plan to undo any unlocking that is applied by the end-user.  They do have a contractual obligation to AT&T too, it doesn't just work one way.  It will be very interesting to see if we start seeing reports of users whose unlocking is undone by connecting the iPhone up to iTunes.  Apple can roll out "updates" whenever they want via iTunes and it could get messy to keep the iPhone unlocked.  You've been warned.

Comments

[Matthew Miller]

I'll be canceling my AT&T contract in the next day or so. In the first two minor updates Apple provided you had to accept the updates to install them and they were not done automatically. I will not update my iPhone until it is verified that my unlock stays safe. With 3rd party apps providing more than Apple has there really is no compelling reason for me to update my iPhone anyways. Saving $50/month by dropping AT&T is important to me too.

[Cindy]

2008 New iphone unlock introduction:

1. Turbosim with 3G Sim card support
2. Turbosim with STK function support
3. The version is developed by Taiwan Star Telecom , as the Magicsim-21th latest generation

Now you can use any sim cards in iphone . The best turbosim for iphone unlock.
http://www.magicsim.com/en/cp_show.asp?id=43&cp_id=35&sort2name=12