Hackers Close to Cracking iPhone

iPhone hackers are on the cusp of being able to write programs for the device and cut users' ties to Cingular.

iPhone hackers are on the cusp of not only being able to write programs for the phone but also finding a way to cut the devices tether to Cingulars service plans.

According to one of the group of hackers who are working collaboratively via wiki and #iphone IRC channel, one of the last major hurdles has been the lack of a high-quality ARM assembler tailored for the iPhone. That missing link as of the afternoon of July 16 had been developed to the pre-alpha stage. Developers are at the point where they now have a working GNU debugger.

One of the first iPhone hacks came from Jon Lech Johansen, aka DVD Jon. A self-trained Norwegian software engineer, Johansen on July 3 announced on his blog that he had hacked a new, unactivated iPhone, managing to activate it without turning on AT&T Cingular phone service. But although Johansen managed to get the iPod and Wi-Fi capabilities of an iPhone turned on with his hack, he couldnt get the device to work as a phone. "Stay tuned!" for that, Johansen said at the time.

Its now in fact impossible to buy an iPhone without a Cingular service plan attached to it, unless the buyers credit is bad. In that case, Apple has prepaid service options.

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The world of iPhone watchers has been bubbling with other tips on how to get out of paying Cingular for iPhone phone service; in order to "wreck" ones credit, for example, one suggestion is to enter 999-99-9999 as a Social Security number.

Other suggestions focus on getting out of Cingulars clutches without early termination fees. Wireless carriers impose early termination fees purportedly to recoup lost revenues from discounted or free phones they use to lure in new customers, but Apple has not discounted its pricey iPhone, which makes Cingulars $175 early termination fee particularly galling.

Given the above, the urge to unlock the iPhone is understandable.

Its also legal.

That point was made clear when the Library of Congress clarified the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) in November 2006. Prior to this ruling, cell phone customers were often forced to either return or throw away old phones upon switching carriers because the DCMA was interpreted to mean that the old cell phone was actually the old carriers property. The November 2006 ruling stipulated that the software that restricts consumers from accessing their phones firmware wasnt based as much on copyright law as it was on the carriers business models.

The United States is behind the times when it comes to the prevalence of unlocked cell phones, but its not an entirely unknown concept. CompUSA has been selling them for months.

One of the major reasons to unlock the iPhone, as with any cell phone, is that when traveling outside the United States, consumers with unlocked phones can buy a pre-paid plan with a service provider in a given country and thus avoid a high-priced international service plan.

Read details here about some of the bugs found in the iPhone soon after Apple released it.

There are reasons why unlocking an iPhone is a bad idea, however. First, users who unlock their iPhones will lose proprietary iPhone features such as Visual Voicemail. Second, theres the early termination fee of $175 paid to Cingular unless service is cancelled within 30 days of purchase.

There are ways to get out of paying early termination fees, including selling the contract, enlisting in the military, moving out of coverage range or dying, each of which presents its own challenges, to say the least.

Check out eWEEK.coms Security Center for the latest security news, reviews and analysis. And for insights on security coverage around the Web, take a look at eWEEKs Security Watch blog.

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