Hacking

Shortly after iTunes 7.4 was released, users were greeted by the discovery of a MacRumors forum user which revealed a way to sync custom ringtones to your iPhone for free, simply by renaming files. Immediately following was a great deal of speculation as to whether this "loophole" was left open by Apple intentionally, or if it was a rookie-like mistake.

Unfortunately, the latter seems to be the case. Within 24 hours of releasing iTunes 7.4, users were alerted

It was announced yesterday that a second company was preparing to provide software that would unlock the Apple iPhone and allow it to be used on any GSM network worldwide. The announcement, which came from mobile phone unlocking company UniquePhones, promised the software would be available to consumers today (August 25th), for a price between $25 and $50.

The initial team, which proved their iPhone unlocking software works, iPhoneSIMfree.com has not yet publically released their software. They have, however, unlocked phones for press outlets. Their delay in releasing would have made the Uniquephones solution the first publically available unlocking tool.

Unfortunately, alleged legal warnings from AT&T via a law firm out of Silicon Valley, have seemingly put a halt on the process. According to the project's blog

We all knew it was only a matter of time. For some it has taken longer than expected while others are shocked at how rapidly hackers were able to tear apart the reportedly impenetrable Apple defenses on the iPhone. Regardless of your level of surprise, the fact of the matter is that the iPhone is now fully unlocked, and the iPhone can be used on any GSM carrier anywhere in the world.

The unlock is here, without question, though it might not be from the source most people were expecting. The iPhone Dev Wiki team, which has been behind the vast majority of progress in hacking the iPhone, and who have been knocking at the full unlock door for weeks were not behind the unlock. Though it's unclear whether or not their efforts contributed to the unlock (it is incredibly likely that it did), the unlock announcement came from another source.

Don't let the name of iPhone hacker NateTrue's latest offering scare you away. Though you might think so from the name of it, "iBrickr" isn't designed to "brick" your iPhone. Instead, iBrickr is designed to provide easy-to-use, GUI-driven management of ringtones and third party applications for the iPhone.

With last week's development of the TurboSIM unlocking method, it was likely only a short matter of time before seeing "unlocked" iPhones for sale for use with other providers both inside and outside the United States. As reported by PhoneDaily, this is now the case in Hong Kong.

The following video shows a TurboSIM unlocked iPhone being used to make calls on Hong Kong's