Lessons from an unlocked iPhone
Posted 6 October 2007 at 8:37AM by Simon Dickson in Doing business online
Oh for the simple days of home taping. Speaking at the UK launch of the iPhone at Apple's flagship Regent Street store, CEO Steve Jobs admitted there was a 'constant cat and mouse game' between media providers imposing restrictions on the consumption of their material, and consumers looking to avoid them. Apple has been particularly badly hit in the last couple of weeks, with enterprising hackers managing to unlock the iPhone, and hence avoid a two-year lock-in to a contract with one specific network (AT&T in the US, O2 over here). Perhaps, as some have pointed out, Steve Jobs had this coming, after voicing his opposition to DRM-protected music earlier this year:
'There are many smart people in the world, some with a lot of time on their hands, who love to discover such secrets and publish a way for everyone to get free (and stolen) music. They are often successful in doing just that, so any company trying to protect content using a DRM must frequently update it with new and harder to discover secrets. It is a cat-and-mouse game. Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat.'
It was fascinating to watch the iPhone hack develop, almost in real time. Within a couple of months of the iPhone's release, the first unlocking application began circulating around the internet, but it took a certain amount of technical knowledge. Within days, we had a free, open-source, easy-to-use tool with a graphical interface. (We won't link to it, but it isn't hard to find.)
Of course, nothing is 100% secure, and anything can be hacked. But previously, the 'escape clause' has been the fact that it's so much hassle, and requires so much technical knowhow, that it isn't a practical reality. As this example proves, those days are gone.
Tags: apple, drm, hackers, iphone, unlock
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Comments
2. At October 8, 2007 11:12 AM, Jonah wrote:
Of course even if you do crack it you risk what happened to numerous iPhone owners who unlocked their phone and installed the recent update, it won't work anymore.
Lesson is that even if you produce a crack or if you use it don't expect the manufacturers to allow it.
3. At October 8, 2007 3:45 PM, Anjanesh wrote:
Apple has gone overboard on this.iphone buyers should be allowed to do whatever with their equipment - without restrictions.
After forking out unreasonable prices for a phone why would Apple try to render it useless via updates ?Thats apple inc going paranoid.
There exists no DRM on hardware - certainly not to the extent that Apple can render phones phones useless without explicit permission of the owner .
Few people would buy a Ford if they forced all their buyers to use only Shell.
Pity that Apple's creativity is limited to its own progress.
4. At October 9, 2007 11:53 AM, Anjanesh wrote:
Update : Timothy Anderson is suing apple over the ibricking of his phone in californian courts .
would be interesting how apple comes out of this mess.
5. At October 10, 2007 2:20 PM, Vicki wrote:
Most ppl dont fork out unreasonable prices for iphones they get them free or very cheaply on contracts and part of the deal with the contract is complying to the T&Cs. So as long as they state the restrictions i dont see what the promblem is.
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1. At October 6, 2007 11:27 AM, kim wrote: