iPhone Activated and Unlocked!!!!!

OK so this post is not really about hotel or ecommerce, but I am just so siked or is it "psyched".

I am in New York arrived here on Sunday 9th September. I read just before I came that there was a software unlock for the iphone that was coming out on the 10th that would allow you to use the iphone on other carriers besides AT&T. This was done by iphonesimfree.com

The articles are here:
http://www.engadget.com/tag/iphonesimfree
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/TECH/09/01/apple.iphone/


....Though neither are necessary very dependable news sources (DOH!).

Well I figured it this was true, I would buy an iPhone and try my worst. So on Monday I bought the iPhone from the flagship Apple Store in the Big Apple:



So for the last 3 nights I have been trying to get it to work!

1st night (Monday): I activated my phone with iActivator (UPDATE: iActivator has been updated with a better software iNdependence. Use this instead.) This is the first step and allows you to modify the software on the iPhone to let the phone turn on. Because when you first get it, the iphone wont let you do anything!!! The iActivator will let you have most functionality except phone and youtube. (ipod, photo, synch, camera, etc are fine.) So far so good.

2nd & 3rd nights (Tues & Wed): The second step is to unlock the SIM software so that you can use a non AT & T SIM card. I used http://www.iphoneworldwideunlock.com/ and paid USD50. There is a free version as well at http://www.freeiphoneunlock.com/unlock/, but I did not want to risk it and it looks more troublesome. Step 2 takes a while as you are trying to figure out the tech stuff. And I had to do mine twice before it worked. Also, the iphoneworldwideunlock takes a few days to activate as they had to load your IMEI into a server.

BUT last night, it happened... I succeeded. Now I own an iPhone running on Singapore's MobileOne network (roaming currently of course)!!!!!

The iPhone is reeaalllly suhhh-wheeet. Have fun hacking.. I dare ya. (PS. Now you know why I haven't posted anything in the last few days. I have been ..um.. very busy.)

UPDATE: After being unlocked for a couple of days, I turned my iPhone off last night. When I powered it on this morning, I could not get any signal. so I searched around trying to understand what's going on. so what happened was that the "Activation" (Step 1 above) was somehow corrupted, but the phone still turned on and had basic functionality. The problem was NOT the "Unlock" (Step 2). so I plugged the phone back in and turned on iNdependence. I then did the same Activation steps (no need to Jailbreak again) and everything was back to normal.

LESSON: do not throw iNdepence away after the first install. Keep it on your Mac as you may need it later for things like this.

ALSO: I upgraded to iTunes 7.4.1 today so the above is compatible with this version.

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