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

T. Joseph Carter carter.tjoseph at gmail.com
Mon Jun 15 15:33:05 UTC 2009


Haben,

It's less that I like T-Mobile and more that I cannot stand AT&T.  
Also, AT&T will not unlock your phone at contract termination.  They 
could do it--Apple gives them the means.  But they won't do it.  
There is undoubtedly going to be a lawsuit against Apple and AT&T 
over this practice of refusing to unlock phones at end of contract 
period.  There is a ready and waiting class of people whose two-year 
contracts will expire at the end of the month.

Probably the best network in the United States is Verizon, but 
they're also the least approachable for using "standard" equipment 
that works in other countries because they use CDMA.

Joseph


On Sat, Jun 13, 2009 at 10:54:03PM -0700, Haben Girma wrote:
>
> Joseph, I may have missed something in this conversation, but could you  
> say again why you personally would prefer an unlocked iPhone? Do you do  
> a lot of travel overseas? Or is that you prefer T Mobile, which I hear  
> has pretty poor coverage in The States. Oh, and as for getting an  
> unlocked iPhone...those things cost about $700, as you say. What if you  
> went and bought an iPhone from AT&T with a 2 year contract, which would  
> cost you $200, and then dishonored the contract, which would cost about  
> $175. That totals to around $400 for a round-about unlocked iPhone,  
> which would be faster and cheaper than buying an unlocked one from  
> overseas.
>
> Haben
>
> T. Joseph Carter wrote:
>> 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
>>
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