Iphone Info

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thefewtheproud

Gawd
Joined
Oct 23, 2006
Messages
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I posted this in the Apple section but didnt seem to get any response so...
Hello everyone,
I am interested in purchasing an iphone that is either unlocked or unlockable. I would like to know everything I need to know to do this correctly. I have heard that there are different versions of the iphone and firmware that are different as well as itunes being able to lock the phone. I have also heard that the apps on the iphone are also locked to AT&T even after it has been sim unlocked. Someone please clear this up for me and fill me in on what I need to do to do this properly. Any help is greatly appreciated as this is much more complicated than my usual unlocking of a nokia phone!
 
I don't know the circumstances of you AT&T contract. As far as I know, that is illegal. You might just want to go with an iPhone killer such as the AT&T 8525 or AT&T Tilt. Just throw a custom firmware on them from xda-developers and you're ready to go on any network. You'll save yourself time and money.
 
w1retap said:
I don't know the circumstances of you AT&T contract. As far as I know, that is illegal. You might just want to go with an iPhone killer such as the AT&T 8525 or AT&T Tilt. Just throw a custom firmware on them from xda-developers and you're ready to go on any network. You'll save yourself time and money.
Click to expand...

:confused:
Unlocking a phone is not illegal, which is all he wants to do it seems. The problem is that most phones sold in stores currently are 1.12 firmware which have not been able to be unlocked. The only way to purchase an unlocked or unlock-able phone would be eBay or Craiglists.

If you unlock your phone many native applications may fail to work, such as visual voice mail, but many non-native applications (3rd party) should still maintain their ability to work, just read before downloading certain applications about each one.
 
hrm, I dunno. The last I saw Engadget had an article on how it was illegal, and AT&T was threatening lawsuits to people on their forum discussing unlock methods.

But with other phones, if you have their service for 30 days, they are supposed to unlock your phone. That's what I had Cingular/AT&T do with all my phones. The iPhone is an exception because it is a Apple product under their jurisdiction.
 
Link

The article states it is "not" illegal to unlock your iPhone, but does not into detail about how it can be illegal to do so. I thought it was one year though on a contract before AT&T would unlock a phone (excluding the iPhone as it is Apple's product), but maybe that was an old rule?

Anyways, just be careful about buying an unlocked phone or attempting to unlock one. If you "brick" the phone your warranty is voided and no one, AT&T or Apple, will help you.
 
to those who have offered assistance, Thank you.
I have searched Ebay since thats pretty much my only option and have found unlocked and locked iphones for sale. I also found this service:
http://www.iphonesimfree.com/cgi-bin/iphonesimfree/engine.pl?page=home
that I found through engadget and it sounds promising if I were to unlock one. As far as visual voicemail I do not have AT&T I have a local GSM carrier Cincinnati Bell so that doesnt matter anyway. I really want a real Iphone and dont mind if it takes a little bit of work but I do want to make sure it will end up successful before I pay 5-6 hundred dollars for the thing.:rolleyes:
If anyone else can think of any more helpful tid bits please post away!
 
I did jailbreak my iPhone and its in 1.1.2, so I got all the apps that I want that have been made. Did not unlock it as I was already with AT&T.

I still do feel that apple locking the phone to only AT&T is wrong, but for years no one complained that certain phones were available to specific carriers until such a cool phone came along. Now everyone wants it unlocked.

For that, I agree with getting another phone that more closely meets what you're looking for.
 
Well I unlocked every phone I have ever owned even when they came from the carrier I was using. I just like to always have options and choices. I can use my primary provider on a daily bases then if I travel or something where it saves money I pop in my prepaid tmobile sim and charge some minutes. I personally am never happy with substitutes. When I like a certain thing I am not able to substitute it with anything except that item. So because of that I really want the REAL Iphone.
 
that talks mostly about jailbreaking the iphone to make its apps customizalble and such. I want to mainly unlock the phone to be used with my sim.
 
if you jailbreak it, you can get anySIM from the installer.app, and then unlock it for other networks.

I just verified on my jailbroken 1.1.2 that anySIM is available, and its description reads:

"Unlock your iphone for any GSM carrier. ONLY USE THIS APPLICATION IF YOU NEED TO"

I would assume this is what you are looking for?
 
That sounds right except does it work on the 1.1.2 preinstalled iphones with the new bootloader? Also why does it say only use this if you need to?
 
To do most things (jailbreaking) I believe you take the 1.1.2 firmware and downgrade it to 1.1.1, which is provided in the link I posted a few posts up. Upside is if you downgrade you can do anything, downside is sometimes the phone does not want to play nice with downgrading.
 
See and thats what I figured would have to be done but the thing that I am wondering about is even after downgrading if the new version of bootloader will prohibit unlocking? Or would that version of bootloader go with the firmware?
 
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