James Delahunty
28 Aug 2007 20:39
Founder of Northern Ireland-based Uniquephones, John McLaughlin, has posted a video on the iphoneunlocking.com blog showing Apple's iPhone being unlocked and used with Vodafone. This video, posted a few hours ago, isn't of excellent quality but (allegedly) shows the iPhone being unlocked while connected to a PC by a software-only method. McLaughlin takes a SIM card out of a Vodafone Blackberry and puts it in the iPhone before using it to make two calls.
The video was made late at night (in the last few hours) using a Nokia N95 and posted on YouTube.
Uniquephones already unlocks many handsets made by Nokia, Motorola and others and receives 60% of its customers from the United States. Ever since the iPhone launched in June, the challenge has been on (with many contenders) to free it from AT&T's network. Engadget has already tried out software by another company, iPhoneSimFree.com, and has claimed that it did indeed work.
McLaughlin planned to post the company's method for unlocking the iPhone to iphoneunlocking.com on Saturday, but it never appeared. According to McLaughlin, he received a phone call from O'Melveny & Myers LLP representing AT&T Inc. The caller informed him that he would be distributing and infringing upon the copyright of Apple's intellectual property if he began selling the software to iPhone subscribers.
A New Jersey 17 year old also reportedly unlocked the iPhone using a software and hardware method (the latter requiring soldering) and apparently ended up trading the unlocked iPhone for a car.
Sources:
Yahoo (PC World)
iPhoneUnlocking.com Blog