According to a post on his blog, a well-known Norwegian hacker has figured out a way to bypass restrictions on the iPhone that forces people to activate on the AT&T network. Now the iPhone might be worth buying.
Digital Journal — Jon Lech Johansen, a 23-year-old famous for his hacking of consumer electronics, says he has cracked the iPhone. In a post on his blog on July 3 (titled “iPhone Independence Day”), Johansen said: “I’ve found a way to activate a brand new unactivated 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. Stay tuned!”
Johansen’s blog, titled “So Sue Me” provides source code and software for hackers to activate an iPhone for iPod+WiFi use.
Hackers and coders have been working around the clock to crack the iPhone’s security restrictions since its launch a week ago.
Apple is in a long-term contract with AT&T, meaning anyone who wants an iPhone must activate it through the wireless carrier.
Mark Siegel, a spokesman for AT&T said it was “necessary” to activate the iPhone on his company’s network to “ensure optimum performance.”
Despite what AT&T’s spin doctors have said, anyone in the tech world knows the wireless provider has what can only be described as a horribly slow Edge network, and many Apple fans want to use the phone without activating on AT&T.
The hack is important for an iPhone owner who wants to travel abroad and use the Internet or the phone’s music without having to pay AT&T to activate the phone.
As hackers continue to dig through code, cracks will also (likely) eventually lead to a way for the iPhone to work on another network. The phone comes locked, and a crack is (of course) against AT&T and Apple’s contract.
No doubt, few crackers actually care about that.
Johansen is practically a god in the underground tech world, most well-known as “DVD Jon” for reversing the code on DVDs that protect them from being pirated.
On his blog, Johansen warns the “application will not do anything unless you understand the magic numbers as well as add the hosts entry,” and you will need software installed on your computer.
