iPhone Unlocking Solutions - Whilst maintaining warranty.....

ironman

ironman

ironman

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Joined
18 Oct 2002
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South Central L.A.
I've been looking into getting an iPhone for a while but i'm just not prepared to have £300 worth of phone flushed down the toilet because it breaks and I cannot get Apple to repair it. What solutions are there, if any, that let me use any simcard whilst maintaining a tamper-free (in Apples eyes) iPhone?

Also what is the difference between an unlocked and jailbroken iPhone? Can either be reverted to a factory condition? Can the iPhone become bricked if it's just jailbroken?

Cheers
 
Been reading a lot since posting the thread and apparently bricking can only occur when you "unlock" the phone as you are directly modifying the firmware, whereas jailbraking only tampers with the OS, fully restorable through iTunes.

It seems that you can jailbreak the phone and then use a hardware method such as turbosim/stealthsim to get around the network lock, so this shouldn't at all affect the firmware and also be updatable without risk of bricking. Anyone tried this method?
 
JAMAL said:
Just jailbreak and use a turbo sim or similar, its only £270 tho Gurdas. I bypassed and jailbroke mine after the works do and i was absoluty steaming, looking back it was a bad idea but it works a treat :D
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Is this what you have done? How much was turbo sim, did you have to reprogram anything or modify the firmware at all?
 
JAMAL said:
I'm on o2 contract anyway matey so no need for a turbosim as it works with o2 but not other networks.

All i have done is bypassed activation and jailbroke it, iclarifieds guide was spot on :)

I'm sure that once you have jailbroken then your warranty is gone.
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That's pretty cool as i'm probably going to get an o2 simplicity anyway, once you have jailbroken it, will it become bricked if you update it to say 1.1.3? Also you should be able to restore it no? So that it looks like it wasn't touched?
 
Xenoxide said:
Jailbreaking an iPhone means getting access to the file system. As a result, this allows you to install third party apps, and also allows you to use any SIM card from the same network the phone is originally on (ie. If you buy an O2 iPhone, jailbreaking it means you can use any other O2 SIM card in it).

Unlocking an iPhone means that you can use any SIM card from any network, not just the original one. In order to unlock an iPhone you need to go through the jailbreaking process first.

Both invalidate the warranty, but a jailbroken iPhone can be returned to a factory state just by restoring the firmware from within iTunes. With an unlocked iPhone it's not quite so easy, although there are "virginizers" out there which attempt to restore them to factory settings.

Currently there is no known unlock solution for iPhones which have version 1.1.2 out of the box, however they can be jailbroken. If the iPhone comes with a version earlier than 1.1.2 when it's bought (There's none of these in the UK), then it's unlockable upto and including 1.1.2.

The TurboSIM isn't a true unlock; essentially it clones the original SIM card and transplants the details from your SIM ontop of it. It involves cutting up your original SIM card to install into the TurboSIM. Although the benefits are it'll work with every iPhone that can be broken, which includes all versions of 1.1.2.

1.1.3, due out soon, may be a different matter though. :)
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Cheers for that, you say turbosim isn't a true unlock, yet if allows you to easily use a different sim without tampering with the software....are there any disadvantages using turbosim? It seems to be a better solution than modifying the software as all is required is jailbreaking it, which is reversible should you need to.

I have decided I will get an iphone now seeing as I'd use an o2 simplicity, so all i'd have to do is jailbreak it, but shall i get it now or wait for the new one?
 
But I shouldn't have to use turbosim for o2 simplicity should I? Think i'll get one when I go back to uni then, around the 7th, jailbreak it and then get o2 simplicity online 35 - 1200 mins and 1000 txts for £35pm no contract. Seem like a good plan?
 
Awesome. I think i'm doing the right thing, i've had a play with them a few times and I love them, especially the internet browsing and the general interface. The nokia n82 seems like a good phone but its quite chunky, at least the iPhone is quite slim.
 
Una said:
Well I just got mine today and im well impressed. Firmware is 1.1.2 so am I right in thinking you need to downgrade to 1.1.1 before you can jailbreak it and install 3rd party apps?

Edit: Woot its done - was a bit nerve wracking when o2 didnt work on 1.1.1 due to baseband changes. Totally fine when I went back to 1.1.2 again and jailbroken :)
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Nice one, let us know how you get on with it, i'm itching to get mine now:D

As far as i'm aware, the UK and US phones are the same.
 
Just to let people know I bought my iphone about a week ago and I friggen love it, just waiting for my old number to be ported over but I just love the way it works and I can't wait to use it as my proper phone to really get used to the features. I have started to tweak, got some cool games on there and modified the battery meter when it's charging, overall a very sweet product:D
 
EVH said:
OOooo pics of this new battery meter you speak of :)
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batterybg17ww5.png
 
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