When I had to return to the UK after just 1 year of my 2 year contract with AT&T, I couldn't get them to unlock my iPhone 3G - they just stonewalled with 'our agreement with Apple doesn't allow us to do that'.
Despite pointing out that I had paid my early cancellation fee, and that UK operators were unlocking iPhones for a small fee when contracts had finished, I just got a stonewall response again.
I even wrote to the FCC about it, who 'investigated' my complaint and just parroted back the same 'the business agreement between AT&T and Apple does not allow unlocking'.
So faced with the choice of operating my iPhone as a 'WiFi only iPod Touch imitator', or jailbreaking it to use my UK SIM card in it, unsurprisingly I chose to take the risk and actually be able to make use of a phone I had paid for.
yes exactly!!!!
for us Europeans it is unbelievable that if you pay for a device (early termination fee, or full blast at the start) you don't own it. unlocked.
why it is locked to a provider here, is so you get a huge discount on the purchase and then don't walk to the competitor.
but my point is that the official stance of the Apple people I spoke to is to go ahead and jailbreak it, even after I told them (I lied) that I didn't want to temper with it and void my warranty.
(my phone was jailbroken before, but I had to restore and am stuck on a $700 3.1.3 ATT iPaperweight)
This does not mean that everyone who JailBrakes his iPhone steals apps... far from it.
However, the pirated apps target JailBroken iPhones. From the linked article:
Quote:
Web Scout Inc. reports a 75% piracy rate for its $0.99 iCombat game. The developer of the $4.99 art program, Layers, reports a piracy rate of 75%, and Fish Labs reports 95% for its $7 Rally Master Pro 3D. Piracy rates almost certainly increase with the cost of an application. TomTom?s US & Canada GPS product for the iPhone, which retails for $79.99, ranks second in handheld application downloads on piratebay.com, a file-sharing torrent. The top 100 downloads listed at piratebay.com is littered with expensive TomTom and Garmin GPS products. A conservative estimate of the average piracy rate is that for every paid application developed and sold at the App Store 3 more are pirated.
So what does the developer do?
Will pirating discourage developers?
Would it be to the developer's, Apple's, and the customers' advantage to prevent JailBraking to minimize app theft?
I have not had the need to jailbrake my iPhone. However, once my 2-year contract expires and get the newest iPhone, I would like to have my old iPhone unlocked so that I can use it overseas. Unfortunately, neither Apple nor AT&T are willing to unlock iPhones out of contract. The only solution to unlock an AT&T-locked iPhone is to jailbrake it. Thank you so much, Apple and AT&T!
SBSettings will allow you to turn everything off one-by-one individually with a swipe and a few taps.
Does Apple not allow apps to toggle settings like that? I've been looking for simple apps to just toggle 3G or WiFi. So far I'm not willing to jailbreak for it.
This may be a long shot, but have you guys tried forcing your legislators to change the law so forcing all mobile communication companies to use one standard only, namely GSM?
This in the long run may be more beneficial for you guys in the States. In Europe all countries agreed to enforce GSM and the mobile industry here is at least 5 years ahead of the US!
for us Europeans it is unbelievable that if you pay for a device (early termination fee, or full blast at the start) you don't own it. unlocked.
why it is locked to a provider here, is so you get a huge discount on the purchase and then don't walk to the competitor.
but my point is that the official stance of the Apple people I spoke to is to go ahead and jailbreak it, even after I told them (I lied) that I didn't want to temper with it and void my warranty.
(my phone was jailbroken before, but I had to restore and am stuck on a $700 3.1.3 ATT iPaperweight)
Ugh... I know Europe is used to entitlement, but if you put peanut butter (or maybe Nutella) in your dvd player, it's illogical to expect keeping your warranty no matter how many stone coins of goats you've payed for it. The fact that you lie to cover your fraud, is not a ringing endorsement of your personal integrity.
This may be a long shot, but have you guys tried forcing your legislators to change the law so forcing all mobile communication companies to use one standard only, namely GSM?
This in the long run may be more beneficial for you guys in the States. In Europe all countries agreed to enforce GSM and the mobile industry here is at least 5 years ahead of the US!
Just some food for thought!
Ummm... try again. Just got back before the volcano fun, your GSM services (multiple western european countries) are just as good/lousy. Thanks for the FUD.
I read this article with great interest on my iPad tethered to my jail broken iPhone through MyWi while delayed at DFW airport. I'm off to watch a netflix.
I have not had the need to jailbrake my iPhone. However, once my 2-year contract expires and get the newest iPhone, I would like to have my old iPhone unlocked so that I can use it overseas. Unfortunately, neither Apple nor AT&T are willing to unlock iPhones out of contract. The only solution to unlock an AT&T-locked iPhone is to jailbrake it. Thank you so much, Apple and AT&T!
I just went through the same headache. The problem is the exorbitant fees charged by foreign carriers. My friend has a Hong Kong based iPhone, and she got reamed on her bill from Europe too.
The jailbreak thing for Europe seems to be spotty at best, O2 will sometimes check if you have an AT&T phone with the database before they sell you a card, sometimes not. Unfortunately I needed the phone for biz, so I didn't have the luxury of playing with a toy and seeing if it broke. In the end, my bill was severe, but its business use and I can write off the expense.
You are referring to "unlocking" your phone. Jailbreaking is for installing 3rd-party applications. Different things altogether...
With phones sold through official channels in the U.S. (i.e. AT&T or Apple), you unfortunately have to jailbrake your iPhone in order to unlock it, even once you are outside the 2-year contract.
Hmmm. I haven't had any of these problems on my jailbroken iPhone.
No problems.
I did change the default password from alpine, to prevent a malware attack that was reported a few months ago.
But I never had any operating issues. My phone still runs for days between charges. It is a first gen phone though. I don't know what the more recent hacks do.
Most people jailbreak to unlock, so Apple can reduce the problem if they really wanted to.
Only reason I jailbreak is to use skype over 3g, and unlock my sim so when I travel on business I can place my HK Australian sim card in. There is no way Im travelling with roaming.
Comments
In my opinion unlocking iPhone OS is very very very stupid
If the person unlocking the iPhone is very very very stupid, then unlocking the iPhone is very very very stupid.
Otherwise, not so much.
I am sure a significant percentage of people jailbreak their phones just so they can free themselves from AT&T.
I pretty much had to jailbreak my phone because AT&T was unacceptably bad in my area.
You are referring to "unlocking" your phone. Jailbreaking is for installing 3rd-party applications. Different things altogether...
When I had to return to the UK after just 1 year of my 2 year contract with AT&T, I couldn't get them to unlock my iPhone 3G - they just stonewalled with 'our agreement with Apple doesn't allow us to do that'.
Despite pointing out that I had paid my early cancellation fee, and that UK operators were unlocking iPhones for a small fee when contracts had finished, I just got a stonewall response again.
I even wrote to the FCC about it, who 'investigated' my complaint and just parroted back the same 'the business agreement between AT&T and Apple does not allow unlocking'.
So faced with the choice of operating my iPhone as a 'WiFi only iPod Touch imitator', or jailbreaking it to use my UK SIM card in it, unsurprisingly I chose to take the risk and actually be able to make use of a phone I had paid for.
yes exactly!!!!
for us Europeans it is unbelievable that if you pay for a device (early termination fee, or full blast at the start) you don't own it. unlocked.
why it is locked to a provider here, is so you get a huge discount on the purchase and then don't walk to the competitor.
but my point is that the official stance of the Apple people I spoke to is to go ahead and jailbreak it, even after I told them (I lied) that I didn't want to temper with it and void my warranty.
(my phone was jailbroken before, but I had to restore and am stuck on a $700 3.1.3 ATT iPaperweight)
It appears that JailBreaking makes it easier to install pirated apps:
http://247wallst.com/2010/01/13/appl...ion-to-piracy/
This does not mean that everyone who JailBrakes his iPhone steals apps... far from it.
However, the pirated apps target JailBroken iPhones. From the linked article:
Web Scout Inc. reports a 75% piracy rate for its $0.99 iCombat game. The developer of the $4.99 art program, Layers, reports a piracy rate of 75%, and Fish Labs reports 95% for its $7 Rally Master Pro 3D. Piracy rates almost certainly increase with the cost of an application. TomTom?s US & Canada GPS product for the iPhone, which retails for $79.99, ranks second in handheld application downloads on piratebay.com, a file-sharing torrent. The top 100 downloads listed at piratebay.com is littered with expensive TomTom and Garmin GPS products. A conservative estimate of the average piracy rate is that for every paid application developed and sold at the App Store 3 more are pirated.
So what does the developer do?
Will pirating discourage developers?
Would it be to the developer's, Apple's, and the customers' advantage to prevent JailBraking to minimize app theft?
If Apple can do this, Should they?
.
SBSettings will allow you to turn everything off one-by-one individually with a swipe and a few taps.
Does Apple not allow apps to toggle settings like that? I've been looking for simple apps to just toggle 3G or WiFi. So far I'm not willing to jailbreak for it.
Any person who jailbreaks a phone knows the risks. Nothing to see here, just Apple covering their ass.
Actually their ass has always been covered, they are just letting you know that if you jailbreak, your ass will not be.
Regardless, all the hacked iPhone screen caps look like garbage, so not only do you void your warranty, you demonstrate absolutely zero style. Whif!
This in the long run may be more beneficial for you guys in the States. In Europe all countries agreed to enforce GSM and the mobile industry here is at least 5 years ahead of the US!
Just some food for thought!
yes exactly!!!!
for us Europeans it is unbelievable that if you pay for a device (early termination fee, or full blast at the start) you don't own it. unlocked.
why it is locked to a provider here, is so you get a huge discount on the purchase and then don't walk to the competitor.
but my point is that the official stance of the Apple people I spoke to is to go ahead and jailbreak it, even after I told them (I lied) that I didn't want to temper with it and void my warranty.
(my phone was jailbroken before, but I had to restore and am stuck on a $700 3.1.3 ATT iPaperweight)
Ugh... I know Europe is used to entitlement, but if you put peanut butter (or maybe Nutella) in your dvd player, it's illogical to expect keeping your warranty no matter how many stone coins of goats you've payed for it. The fact that you lie to cover your fraud, is not a ringing endorsement of your personal integrity.
This may be a long shot, but have you guys tried forcing your legislators to change the law so forcing all mobile communication companies to use one standard only, namely GSM?
This in the long run may be more beneficial for you guys in the States. In Europe all countries agreed to enforce GSM and the mobile industry here is at least 5 years ahead of the US!
Just some food for thought!
Ummm... try again. Just got back before the volcano fun, your GSM services (multiple western european countries) are just as good/lousy. Thanks for the FUD.
I have not had the need to jailbrake my iPhone. However, once my 2-year contract expires and get the newest iPhone, I would like to have my old iPhone unlocked so that I can use it overseas. Unfortunately, neither Apple nor AT&T are willing to unlock iPhones out of contract. The only solution to unlock an AT&T-locked iPhone is to jailbrake it. Thank you so much, Apple and AT&T!
I just went through the same headache. The problem is the exorbitant fees charged by foreign carriers. My friend has a Hong Kong based iPhone, and she got reamed on her bill from Europe too.
The jailbreak thing for Europe seems to be spotty at best, O2 will sometimes check if you have an AT&T phone with the database before they sell you a card, sometimes not. Unfortunately I needed the phone for biz, so I didn't have the luxury of playing with a toy and seeing if it broke. In the end, my bill was severe, but its business use and I can write off the expense.
You are referring to "unlocking" your phone. Jailbreaking is for installing 3rd-party applications. Different things altogether...
With phones sold through official channels in the U.S. (i.e. AT&T or Apple), you unfortunately have to jailbrake your iPhone in order to unlock it, even once you are outside the 2-year contract.
Hmmm. I haven't had any of these problems on my jailbroken iPhone.
No problems.
I did change the default password from alpine, to prevent a malware attack that was reported a few months ago.
But I never had any operating issues. My phone still runs for days between charges. It is a first gen phone though. I don't know what the more recent hacks do.
Most people jailbreak to unlock, so Apple can reduce the problem if they really wanted to.
Just sell it unlocked.
You are referring to "unlocking" your phone. Jailbreaking is for installing 3rd-party applications. Different things altogether...
As the person before me just said...can't unlock it without jailbreaking it.
Apple and AT&T apparently have the ability to unlock it but since they won't do it, we have to rely on third party hacks.
My iPhone is non-jailbroken but I can tether and not use AT&T. Of course I live in New Zealand where we are supplied with unlocked phones anyway.
If one of you Americans buy me a 3G iPad I'll buy you a legitimately unlocked iPhone.
i smell something fishy