Apple says forthcoming update and unlocking don’t play nice

For those pioneers who’ve bravely subjected their iPhones to any of the various carrier unlocking processes, Apple’s got some news for you. And, it ain’t exactly good news. According to a statement the company released today, “many of the unauthorized iPhone unlocking programs available on the Internet cause irreparable damage to the iPhone’s software, which will likely result in the modified iPhone becoming permanently inoperable when a future Apple-supplied iPhone software update is installed.”

Uh oh. Frankly, this shouldn’t really come as too much of a surprise to anyone. Of course Apple and AT&T have a vested interest in not letting you use your iPhone willy-nilly, and given how much effort it took for all the different hackers to break the SIM lock, you know there’s some seriously funky tinkering going on under the hood.

But keep an eye on Apple’s language: if “many” of the programs cause irreparable damage, it implies that some may not. It could be a scare tactic to keep more customers away from the unlock process, or at least the commercial processes. We won’t know for sure until the software update drops later this week and we see if unlocked phones start getting bricked left and right (and, of course, if you’ve tried the hardware unlock method, your warranty’s voided anyway). Unless you’re willing to let your phone be a guinea pig, you’ll want to wait and see reports from the field before you apply the update.

Our friends at TUAW have posted instructions on how to relock your phone, but be warned they’re pretty technical. But I’ll be starting a pool: how long before we have a graphical “iLock” phone application that lets you relock your phone before updating? My money says we’ll see it a few days after the new iPhone software appears. You just can’t stop the signal.

Category: News

Posted by Dan Moren on Sep 24 2007, 6:22 PM ET

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