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Apple is at it again, releasing firmware update 1.1.3. And guess what? It’s breaking some unlocks. For example, the highly-touted AnySim won’t unlock the current update, meaning anyone who has used this is stuck. Yeah, they can activate using iTunes and an AT&T account, but they wouldn’t have unlocked it in the first place if that was what they wanted. Oh, and your third party apps are bye-bye for the moment, and according to Gizmodo, have “no possibility of return for now.”

Posted in iPhone on December 31st, 2007
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Something we did not know: There is a vast hacker community in Australia. They’ve apparently worked wonders with the Internet, Unix, and TiVo, making them more accessible to the masses. So it only makes sense that they’d make the iPhone one of their projects. Never mind that it’s not available in the country — Apple won’t even ship it there via Internet orders. That hasn’t stopped them. And so Australia is seeing a growing number of iPhones running on their prepaid networks.

Posted in iPhone on December 28th, 2007
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Early in the iPhone’s life, Apple made the decision to limit purchase to two per-person, and excluded all forms of non-trackable payment (i.e., cash). At the time, it was thought that this was to deter mass-unlockers, but Apple maintained that it was to ensure that sufficient stock would be available for the holidays. Now that they’re pretty sure they’ll be fine, the limit jumps by 150 percent. There’s no confirmation of correlation, since Apple representatives didn’t give specific reasons for the increase. But in any case, it’s not bad news.

Posted in iPhone on December 11th, 2007
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It was a good effort on the part of Vodafone, but in the end, T-Mobile is allowed to conduct business as usual with the iPhone. The German court ruled that T-Mobile can attach a contract to the phone, as well as lock the SIM to their network. This likely does away with T-Mobile’s sales of unlocked iPhones, which cost more than double their locked brethren — 399 euros vs. 999 euros.

Posted in T-Mobile, iPhone on December 5th, 2007
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Uh oh. You mean someone already invented that? It seems someone already invented everything, including visual voicemail, a major feature of the iPhone — and one that doesn’t work if you unlock it and use it on, say, T-Mobile. Inventor Judah Klausner, though his patent-holding company Klausner Technologies Inc., is claiming patent on the innovation, and is now seeking damages from AT&T and Apple. The estimate: $360 million.

Posted in AT&T, iPhone on December 4th, 2007
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We figured this would happen, but now AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson has made it official: The company, along with Apple, will release a new, faster iPhone next year. This one will function on AT&T’s 3G network, which seems to be growing by the day. This is good news for those who decided to play the waiting game with the iPhone rather than rush out and get one of the first generation models. We wonder, though, how first generation buys will react, though, seeing an upgrade offered a year after the original device was released.

Posted in AT&T, iPhone on November 29th, 2007
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Something tells us this isn’t going to fly. But for now, German MVNO Debitel is offering a 600 euro rebate to anyone who buys an iPhone from T-Mobile in Germany, but activates it on the Debitel network. Debitel purchases wholesale airtime from T-Mobile, Vodafone, O2, and E-Plus, and resells it as a retailer. This would presumably skyrocket their numbers, since customers would be getting an iPhone for the normal, locked price, but will have the freedom to use it on a different, cheaper network.

Posted in iPhone on November 28th, 2007
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So you know how T-Mobile is now selling unlocked iPhones for 999 euros — roughly $1,500? Yeah, well they’re not exactly sitting down and soldering the devices themselves. They’re offering an unlock via iTunes. Apparently, once the customer buys the phone, T-Mobile sends the IMEI to Apple, which within 24 hours will set the phone to unlock when connected to iTunes. Anyone else think that hackers will exploit this to the fullest extent?

Posted in iPhone on November 27th, 2007
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Today’s development in the T-Mobile/Vodafone/iPhone in Germany case thickens the plot. Apparently, the reason for Vodafone filing suit because they feel that customers should not have to sign two-year contracts in order to purchase the iPhone. Once again, file this under things that would never happen in America. This seems a bit too altruistic. We’re thinking that Vodafone has ulterior motives. Do you?

Posted in T-Mobile, iPhone on November 21st, 2007
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Pretty big news to start the day if you’re a fan of European telecommunications, or at least of Apple. European carrier Vodafone, partners with Verizon on Verizon Wireless, have obtained a restraining order against Deutche Telekom, which owns T-Mobile. This bars T-Mobile from selling the iPhone in Germany. This is after, as we learned last week, T-Mobile sold 10,000 iPhones on the first day.

Posted in T-Mobile, iPhone on November 20th, 2007
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