What Is Unlocking?

Unlocking is a very simple concept to explain, somehow. Unless otherwise stated, are the cellular carriers purchased at retail "locked" to that particular vector. For example, a Blackberry is not working on Storm from Verizon to AT&T tariff. Sprint Palm Pre will not work on T-Mobile. Even your iPhone from AT & T is "locked" to the infamous blue-mapped vector.



So what to do if you have a phone that you like to purchase, but you use it with another carrier, perhaps one that is cheaper or better to receive in your region? For most people say "eh-gettaboutit her!" (Add a lovely sweet Brooklyn / Italian accent, I would like). But for those of you lucky enough to have the apple on the back of the phone, there are ways to relieve your loved ones to fight for iPhone from AT&T network.

Hardware Unlock Vs. Software Unlock

Technically, there are two ways to unlock your iPhone. There is a hardware unlock, which is invasive (you have to open the phone), I would not recommend to anyone looking, if you do not have a broad enough background in a kind of electrical engineering.

The 2nd, so much easier, software unlock, it could be done on your lunch break of six graders. Just like jailbreaking, this can be as simple as connecting your iPhone to your computer and click on "Start". However, the requirements to unlock and to follow rules, very different.

Things to Consider Before Unlocking

There are guidelines to follow when it comes to unlocking your iPhone.

First, you must ensure that the carrier go on the iPhone technology support. I save all here in the States some time and let the cat out of the bag. If this option is really the best solution, T-Mobile, the other major GSM carrier. Other, smaller CDMA carriers Hatten (all Centennial Wireless users here?) Users confirm the unlock to work, but chances are, let go when reading an article over to T-Mobile (at least here you will find in the states of USA).

Second, you need to know the firmware version and the version of modem firmware (baseband or as often claimed). This is simply by popping in the settings of your iPhone and the opening of the discovered "about" dialog. Well, if I can not find it, I'm afraid for you, but I am here for you, I have a few pictures below, provided to help you.


These two things are important to know how you can determine if you can unlock your iPhone or less. If you even think, the jailbreak and unlock, the best practice is to stay away from iTunes or iPhone software update, as the war rages between the Dev Team and Apple, each new update can inhibit or prevent future releases.

I check to see always the latest version available from http://blog.iphone-dev.org/. As you can see now, I have upgraded to a working version of the firmware 3.1.3 and baseband 05.11, but if your iPhone recently and have the 05.12 baseband, you're out of luck for now. A release is in the works, but the field is empty ETA so do not hold your breath.

Finally, to unlock, if you meet the above requirements and are ready, you have to jailbreak. Well, as you can from all the hyperlinks in this article, see, I wrote an article about jailbreak, and I know that Sebastien check tutorial section of the blog "tutorial", so if you have not already done so, to see if stuff meet me back here at 5.

Who Comes Up With Unlocks?

The last part of our segment today is a software release, a pioneer of the Dev team and the big boy wonder of New Jersey GeoHot. GeoHot, the recently announced PS3 hacking, actually received media attention for their iPhone unlocking and got a new Nissan 350Z by co-founder of Certicell, not bad huh.

But the backbone of the jailbreak / unlock the church, the forerunner of the Dev Team have consistently ever since. The software QuickPwn, PwnageTool and redsn0w were staples in the iPhone hacking community for years.

In general, if you ask with these programs to jailbreak if you become one of the steps you want to unlock by. Here lately but one task as ultrasnow programs are relevant, also made by the dev team, also in our download area.

Conclusion

Well, the release in 10 minutes or less, is the key to the version of the firmware / modem firmware is running, and there is no unlock for understanding the 3.1.3 firmware, if you 05.12 modem firmware (baseband) have.

The model of the iPhone questions and when the iPhone 3G, 3GS or original version. Compatibility model for all software release is usually displayed in the description of the download. And if you are not completely destroy your dreams yet, there is no way to downgrade the baseband (band Fuzzy us if you have to work, the boot loader feel in height). What am I talking about bootloader, baseband, you should probably get out of here before things get really crazy.