[nabs-l] New iPhone Model Now Accessible to the Blind

[T. Joseph Carter]

Corbb,

I'm sorry but this is not true.  They have SIM cards and they can be 
popped out just as easily.  This is essentially required.

The iPhone has two "computers" in it, one for the main phone, and one 
that does nothing but talk to the radio hardware.  While you can talk 
to the one computer via the USB cable, the other one is accessible 
only by software running on the first computer.  We can pretty much 
do lots of fun things to the main computer, but the "baseband" 
computer is only accessible through a little tiny interface, and 
Apple's removed most of the useful commands from that interface.  You 
can't read or write the baseband, you can only upload a new one that 
is a newer version.  The newer version is checked to prove that it 
has Apple's cryptographic signature on it.

That means a security exploit is needed either in the baseband or in 
the baseband chip's boot loader.  We have the former, but not for the 
latest version of the baseband.  But if your baseband version is 
newer than that, you're out of luck because the 3G's boot loaders 
have not been defeated.  Well, one of the older ones has, and it has 
allowed baseband downgrades, but that's it.  The newest 3G phones are 
simply locked, and there's not much we can do about it yet.

Ultimately Apple will win this game or they'll run out of ideas to 
stop us.  The problem is we have to hundreds of man hours to find an 
exploit we can sue and figure out how.  Apple only needs to see what 
we did and patch it so that we can't in the future.

Given that the 3G and soon also the 3G S are available overseas 
unlocked for any carrier and without contract, that's the easiest 
solution.  These phones are not intended to land in US customers' 
hands, but there's not much Apple do about it since they're sold 
unlocked so that businesspeople can travel and use their phone in 
different countries by swapping SIMs.

AT&T can't make them try to police that, but they can make them not 
sell the unlocked versions in the US, as part of their exclusivity 
deal.  I'm pretty sure Verizon's still kicking themselves over that, 
since the iPhone was reportedly almost theirs.  They wanted to have 
control over the user interface colors (red and white to match their 
corporate image..)  The report is that Apple said no, and so Verizon 
walked out of the deal.

The 3G S will be available internationally with a "factory" unlock, 
just like the 3G is now.  iTunes will check to see if it should 
activate your device with the SIM in question.  Apple's server will 
recognize that your phone is in its "unlocked phone" database, and it 
will be unlocked using a process protected by enough military grade 
encryption that we haven't much chance of duplicating it.

I have a suspicion that you won't see this iteration of the iPhone on 
a network other than AT&T without going this route.  Prepare to pay 
about $700 for it, though, and beware that losers on eBay sometimes 
call it "unlocked" if it has been jailbroken.  There are also 
scammers out there.  It's a pretty big investment in time to find 
reputable exporters, but it can be done.

...or you can live with AT&T, or you can wait until the exclusivity 
runs out.  That's long rumored to be 2010, with AT&T not giving Apple 
any particularly great incentive for renewal.

Joseph


On Wed, Jun 10, 2009 at 10:28:44PM -0400, Corbb O'Connor wrote:
> Clinton,
>
> The older iPhones were "unlockable" because they had a removable SIM  
> card. Now, the iPhones (newer 3G and all 3GS models) do not use SIM  
> cards -- they're like a Verizon phone. The SIM card is embedded. The one 
> nice thing, though, is that it's absolutely foolish to steal a new  
> iPhone, just like a Verizon; when the owner finds out, they send a kill 
> signal and now your phone NEVER works again.
>
> Corbb
>
> On Jun 10, 2009, at 5:24 PM, clinton waterbury wrote:
>
> People have unlocked the older Iphones, why not this new one?
> On Jun 9, 2009, at 10:46 AM, Dezman Jackson wrote:
>
>> Unfortunately, for people who are not with AT&T, the new iPhone will  
>> not work on other networks.  You won't even be able to unlock it.
>>
>> Dezman