“I’ve found a way to activate a brand new unactivated iPhone without giving any of your money or personal information to AT&T NSA. The iPhone does not have phone capability, but the iPod and WiFi work,” Jon Lech Johansen (aka “DVD Jon”) reports via his “So Sue Me” blog.
Full article here.
Daniel Eran writes for RoughlyDrafted, “Interested in getting the iPhone to work in ways Apple never intended? Here’s a look at what’s involved in making the iPhone a mobile service-free iPod, and conversely, using it with other service providers, both here in the US and internationally.”
Full article here.
That was quick!
So now it’s the iPod of my dreams, except for the small capacity. But if I wait a few months, Apple will probably start selling something like this with no need for hackery.
So how long before Apple blocks this hack? By the end of the day?
now give me ichat
Considering that the original iPod was $499 in 2001 dollars, and did MUCH less, this is not a bad deal
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trying it now, I will report later on
DVD Jon — You da man !
The original iPod was actually $399, but yeah, this does so much more that it’s not even funny.
And this hack will magically disappear when iPhone software version 1.0.1 comes along…
Hack is only good from a PC.
That’s so stupid! Just wait for the G6 iPod and pay less. Common sense says the G6 will have the features of the iPhone minus the phone. This is just so retarded.
I laugh at anyone who does this! Ha! Ha! Your a dumb ass!
The next iPod will very likely be a much more specialized device with 32+ GB of memory and new bells and whistles. In that way you can carry a cheap phone + the new advanced iPod. The only question is what will be its feature set.
When is Apple going to hire DVD Jon?
Just what I’ve always wanted – a cell phone that CAN’T MAKE PHONE CALLS.
It only plays music and gets me access to the internet via WiFi.
Oh, yea, and it CAN’T MAKE PHONE CALLS.
What’s the point? This is just silly.
I dont care that this hack exist. What is the point because the 8GB doesnt hold many movies and songs. It great for a phone as far as its ipod feature but i bought it as a phone for the impressive phone features.
Nice – but the real challenge is to allow it to make calls through other GSM networks. The next step after this is to put your own JavaScript widgets on the front panel.
There seems less ‘hacking’ than the AppleTV – I assume this is because you can’t mount the iPhone in disk mode, nor place the drive in a computer.
I’m sure this will come once someone works out how to access all the system files via Bluetooth.
The link to DVD Jon’s website is down – you will get the message “This Account Has Exceeded Its CPU Quota”
The ./ effect strikes again!
You can hack it via a Mac as well.
http://www.codymays.net/content/2007/07/04/activate-your-iphone-without-att-with-toolszip/
let the hackers do their tricks, apple will learn from them and make it 10x harder to do with the next update
BuriedCeasar says: “What’s the point? This is just silly.”
Sorry to disagree BC, but this is oh so not silly. I’ll bet there are millions like me who can’t or don’t want to lock in to an AT&T contract, or don’t want the phone portion of the iPhone for whatever reason. What we want is the delicious widescreen multi-touch iPod with the wifi internet communicator capabilities.
I agree this solution is not ideal, but we either wait for Apple to bring it out, or we do this hack. Get it?
I am surprised that no one has linked to the related news of the other way to divorce your iPhone from the AT&T contract – by simply canceling the contract. Cancel within 30 days and you won’t be charged the $175 cancelling fee. Cancel within 3 days and AT&T will refund your activation fee!
Alex King blogs it here:
http://alexking.org/blog/2007/07/02/iphone-without-service
@ zerO
“now give me ichat”
This should come later. There is an Apple patent for inserting optical sensors between the pixels of an LCD screen, so that the screen is a digital camera, too.
Does this DVD John guy have a real job?
And Solid:
“…I’ll bet there are millions like me who can’t or don’t want to lock in to an AT&T contract,…”
Why do you think you have the right to defeat Apple and AT&T plans? Apple is not forcing you to buy the phone.
At what point do technology makers and content providers just say screw it because the DVD Dumbasses of the world are just going to facilitate the widespread theft of their intellectual property anyway?
I read that instead of being locked into a 2-year contract, another workaround is to get offered a Pay-As-You-Go plan. This happens if you enter 999-99-9999 as your social security number during the activation process. Since that number fails the credit check, iTunes then pops up a screen offering you a pay-as-you-go plan. I might do this, I much prefer pay-as-you-go to 2 year contracts.
@Another View:
Some people don’t believe that the manufacturer of your toaster or vacuum cleaner has any right to tell you what you can do with your toaster or vacuum cleaner. If you want to open it up, dissect it, modify it, sell it, it’s up to you, because it’s yours. Apple doesn’t have any more right to tell me how I can use my iPhone handheld computer than Hoover has a right to tell me that I can only use my vacuum cleaner on carpet brands that Hoover is partnered with.
@solid…
Okay, I understand your perspective. Still, it seems pretty silly to me to spend so much money on something that you then intend to turn around and cripple the one primary function for which it is named.
Curiously, what do you call your crippled iPhone that’s no longer able to make phone calls?
Interesting notion about how many people you think would want what you’re describing – “millions” of people, huh? What you’re saying, and I believe you’re accurate to a degree, is that millions of people will eagerly purchase the next version of the iPod, which is likely to have many of the features of the iPhone, but perhaps without the phone part. And, here’s the kicker – it very likely won’t cost any where close to $600, or, for that matter, even $500.
So, you’ve essentially given Apple an extra $200 or $300 (or more?) just to get a fancy-shmancy iPod-like device that has dismal storage capacity, but a really great viewscreen. My congratulations – hope you enjoy it. I’m perfectly content to wait.
I’m definitely one who does not care about the phone part of iPhone. Its the best PDA ever done – period. Maybe we just don’t want to look at it that way because it conjures up the tired ‘ole offerings from Palm, but hey, a PDA that comes standard with 6 or 8GB – unheard of, and the user interface? Oh come on, there’s nothing like it. I’ve never seen the iPhone as a phone, and calling it a “smartphone” (boy is that a very tired phrase by now), is totally demeaning to the so called iPhone.