ctrlraven
08-27-2007, 11:55 AM
Only 17 yrs old? He has a bright future ahead of him if he stays on the straight and narrow path.
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_6709293?source=most_viewed
-From YouTube-
"George Hotz on CNBC explaining how and why he hacked the iphone"
http://youtube.com/watch?v=UGYqGooyLlo
UGYqGooyLlo
Teen hacks iPhone - so he can use T-Mobile
By Troy Wolverton
Mercury News
Article Launched: 08/24/2007 09:05:26 AM PDT
Like many teenagers, George Hotz had a summer obsession. But the New Jersey 17-year-old's passion wasn't girls, money or parties. It was the iPhone. Or, rather, it was to hack his iPhone so that he didn't have to use AT&T's network.
What did you do on your summer vacation? After hundreds of hours and with the help of a few online friends - as well as copious quantities of Red Bull and Mountain Dew - he finished this week.
Now, with one of his two unlocked iPhones up for sale on eBay - and bidding reaching ridiculous levels nearing $100 million on Friday - Hotz is hoping to use the proceeds to buy something his peers might appreciate: a new set of wheels. "That would be so sweet," he said.
Hotz seems an unlikely candidate to have hacked the world's most hyped product. The recent high-school graduate had little experience hacking cell phones, and by his own admission he feels more comfortable with a soldering iron than a piece of computer code.
But the Glen Rock, N.J., resident likes to tinker. After buying an iPhone the day it hit store shelves on June 29, and seeing his friends' phone work, he was determined to get his to work on the T-Mobile network because that's the one his family used. "It became a really fun project," he said.
Hotz hooked up online with several other hackers who were working toward the same end. After several setbacks, they had a breakthrough earlier this month.
The hack is fairly complicated, involving re-soldering the iPhone's circuit board, erasing its firmware and reprogramming the device's flash memory. But it apparently works. In his YouTube video, Hotz showed off an iPhone that indicated it was on the T-Mobile network and used it to make a phone call.
"It's a really clever hack," said Hotz.
That it may be, but Apple and AT&T probably shouldn't be too worried, analysts say. Few iPhone owners are likely going to crack open their very expensive gadgets, particularly since that voids its warranty.
"It's a great headline story, but I don't think that means that great masses of people are going to go out and copy (the hack)," said Neil Strother, a wireless industry analyst with JupiterResearch. "That's pretty heavy lifting for mainstream users."
Still, Hotz's effort speaks to more than simply what a teenager can accomplish with ingenuity, determination and Internet access, analysts say. They say it echoes some of the frustrations among consumers with the closed system that AT&T and Apple have created.
Indeed, one of the chief complaints about the gadget since it launched is that it is tethered to AT&T's network, which many users have called spotty and slow.
"Customers want to buy a phone they can use on any ... network," said Ken Dulaney, an analyst with Gartner, a market research firm. "When you put people in prison, they get real creative." AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel suggested that the company wasn't worried.
"The iPhone is designed to work exclusively on AT&T's wireless network," he said. "The whole world knows that." An Apple representative declined to comment. While some of his fans have called on Hotz to start churning out unlocked iPhones, he's moving on - literally. He heads to college today at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
But during an appearance on CNBC Friday, he said he lobbied for something to do next summer. "If anyone from Google is watching, I want an internship with you."
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_6709293?source=most_viewed
-From YouTube-
"George Hotz on CNBC explaining how and why he hacked the iphone"
http://youtube.com/watch?v=UGYqGooyLlo
UGYqGooyLlo
Teen hacks iPhone - so he can use T-Mobile
By Troy Wolverton
Mercury News
Article Launched: 08/24/2007 09:05:26 AM PDT
Like many teenagers, George Hotz had a summer obsession. But the New Jersey 17-year-old's passion wasn't girls, money or parties. It was the iPhone. Or, rather, it was to hack his iPhone so that he didn't have to use AT&T's network.
What did you do on your summer vacation? After hundreds of hours and with the help of a few online friends - as well as copious quantities of Red Bull and Mountain Dew - he finished this week.
Now, with one of his two unlocked iPhones up for sale on eBay - and bidding reaching ridiculous levels nearing $100 million on Friday - Hotz is hoping to use the proceeds to buy something his peers might appreciate: a new set of wheels. "That would be so sweet," he said.
Hotz seems an unlikely candidate to have hacked the world's most hyped product. The recent high-school graduate had little experience hacking cell phones, and by his own admission he feels more comfortable with a soldering iron than a piece of computer code.
But the Glen Rock, N.J., resident likes to tinker. After buying an iPhone the day it hit store shelves on June 29, and seeing his friends' phone work, he was determined to get his to work on the T-Mobile network because that's the one his family used. "It became a really fun project," he said.
Hotz hooked up online with several other hackers who were working toward the same end. After several setbacks, they had a breakthrough earlier this month.
The hack is fairly complicated, involving re-soldering the iPhone's circuit board, erasing its firmware and reprogramming the device's flash memory. But it apparently works. In his YouTube video, Hotz showed off an iPhone that indicated it was on the T-Mobile network and used it to make a phone call.
"It's a really clever hack," said Hotz.
That it may be, but Apple and AT&T probably shouldn't be too worried, analysts say. Few iPhone owners are likely going to crack open their very expensive gadgets, particularly since that voids its warranty.
"It's a great headline story, but I don't think that means that great masses of people are going to go out and copy (the hack)," said Neil Strother, a wireless industry analyst with JupiterResearch. "That's pretty heavy lifting for mainstream users."
Still, Hotz's effort speaks to more than simply what a teenager can accomplish with ingenuity, determination and Internet access, analysts say. They say it echoes some of the frustrations among consumers with the closed system that AT&T and Apple have created.
Indeed, one of the chief complaints about the gadget since it launched is that it is tethered to AT&T's network, which many users have called spotty and slow.
"Customers want to buy a phone they can use on any ... network," said Ken Dulaney, an analyst with Gartner, a market research firm. "When you put people in prison, they get real creative." AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel suggested that the company wasn't worried.
"The iPhone is designed to work exclusively on AT&T's wireless network," he said. "The whole world knows that." An Apple representative declined to comment. While some of his fans have called on Hotz to start churning out unlocked iPhones, he's moving on - literally. He heads to college today at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
But during an appearance on CNBC Friday, he said he lobbied for something to do next summer. "If anyone from Google is watching, I want an internship with you."