Those following my Twitter status know that I finally broke down and purchased an iPhone, with the obvious intent to unlock it for use on T-Mobile. After arguing with Maxator about the iPhone’s merits versus the upcoming iPod Touch, I sat down with what turned out to be a three-hour hack session that is now (hopefully) winding down. That is to say, it takes roughly 20 minutes to flash the iPhone’s firmware when one gets to the point where this is even possible, so in another few minutes, I’ll know for sure if my unlocking was succesfsful or not.
For those unaware as to the state of iPhone unlocking, a few days ago, iPhoneSimFree made a software unlock available to resellers, who sold the one-time unlocking service for about $100. Then, a day later, a free, downloadable utility made its rounds, and this is what I used tonight after reading about the general procedure.
The actual guide I used to get as far as I did was the third guide I entertained, and the second that got me anywhere. The problem with my first true attempt was an inability to write to the iPhone’s drive, despite following instructions to jailbreak the unit and install the necessary FTP server. The aforelinked guide, meanwhile, caused me some heartache because AppTapp wouldn’t finish installing, and I had to restore my iPhone firmware a couple times. Ultimately, after AppTapp froze on my last attempt, I turned the iPhone off (three times, actually), then put it back into the iPhone dock while off, whereupon it jumped back on and allowed AppTapp to finish. From there, the rest was smooth sailing.
At the moment, the T-Mobile web site is down, so I’ll have to hold off on getting a data subscription, but my hopes are currently high for success. here’s hoping that Apple doesn’t nail unlocked iPhones back into the ground with a firmware update in the next day or two. If they do, I still have a Bladox Turbo Sim card on order that should hit my mailbox early next week, which may end up facilitating a more permanent unlock.
Update from the wee hours of 09/13/2007: Phone calling works. I dropped the HotSpot and Sidekick Unlimited plans from my T-Mobile account, and added the Total Internet plan (which includes EDGE and hotspot access), as well as the 400 domestic text messages option. These two options cost me $25/month, compared to $40/month for my previous data plans with unlimited text messaging. If I really needed unlimited SMS messages, I could spend another $10/month, which would still be cheaper than my previous setup. Overall, I’m looking at saving $15/month, not to mention the money I’m saving by not switching to AT&T and being stuck with their inflated rates. As a sidenote, my first text message intending to update Twitter did not go through, possibly because I didn’t switch off my Sidekick plan until before I sent the second message.
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