TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Norwegian Hacker Says He Can Bypass AT&T on i-Phone

Norwegian Hacker Says He Can Bypass AT&T on i-Phone

Sinead Carew, Reuters (reuters@telecom-digest.org)
Fri, 06 Jul 2007 22:16:27 -0500

A well-known hacker claims to have overcome restrictions on Apple
Inc.'s iPhone, allowing highly technical users to bypass AT&T Inc.'s
network to use the phone's Internet and music features.

In a post dated July 3 on his blog, Jon Johansen, 23, a prolific
hacker of consumer electronics gadgets since he was a teenager in
Norway, said "I've found a way to activate a brand new unactivated
iPhone" without signing up for AT&T service.

"The iPhone does not have phone capability, but the iPod and Wi-Fi
work. Stay tuned!" he wrote on his long-running blog, which is
combatively named "So Sue Me." The post was entitled "iPhone
Independence Day," a play on the July 4 U.S. holiday.

The site contained technical details for other hackers, as well as
links to software necessary to complete the process.

One potential use would be for an iPhone user living or traveling
outside the United States to access the iPhone's music player and
Internet service over Wi-Fi connections without using the phone.

AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel said it was necessary to activate the
iPhone on AT&T's network to ensure optimum performance. Using the
phone without AT&T's two-year service contract was unauthorized under
the phone carrier's exclusive network service contract with Apple,
Siegel added.

"Any other use of the device is not authorized and we can't guarantee
the device will perform as intended to. We'll monitor situations like
this and if necessary we will take appropriate action," he said. "Our
terms and conditions are very clear."

He did not elaborate on potential action AT&T might take.

Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris declined to comment on Johansen's
claims.

Apple has yet to reveal network operator deals in markets outside the
United States. But the iPhone is a quad-band GSM phone and will work
in many parts of Europe and Asia with international roaming deals
arranged by AT&T, Kerris said.

Neither Apple nor AT&T have disclosed sales figures since the iPhone
went on sale in the United States on June 29, but some analysts have
estimated sales of up to 700,000 units for the costly coveted phone's
first weekend on the market.

Johansen became known as "DVD Jon" earlier this decade for helping to
reverse engineer the code used to protect DVD movies against piracy,
saying he did so in order to play them on his Linux computer.

The computer activist has engaged in a cat-and-mouse game with Apple
to bypass copyright controls on various Apple products, including
QuickTime, iTunes and Apple TV.

Copyright 2007 Reuters Limited.

NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the
daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new
articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at
http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or)
http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html

For more news and headlines, please go to:
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/internet-news.html (or)
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra.technews.html

Post Followup Article Use your browser's quoting feature to quote article into reply
Go to Next message: Associated Press NewsWire: "UCLA Student has Old Paris Hilton Cell Number"
Go to Previous message: Yinka Adegoke: "Live Earth May Set New Stage for Web Viewing"
TELECOM Digest: Home Page