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Unconfirmed: China Gets iPhones Early, But With Disabled Wi-Fi
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Jrsy Devil's Advocate®
07/11/09

In reply to Unconfirmed: China Gets iPhones Early, But With Disabled Wi-Fi
Didn't hey already did this (disabled Wi-Fi) with the 2G iphone too..?
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GarciaConcern
07/10/09

In reply to Unconfirmed: China Gets iPhones Early, But With Disabled Wi-Fi
I didn't know the CEO of Verizon was in charge of the Chinese government.
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Wilson Rothman
07/10/09

@GarciaConcern: Huh?
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TheSonOfKrypton
07/10/09

In reply to Unconfirmed: China Gets iPhones Early, But With Disabled Wi-Fi
Reactivating Wi-Fi? Giz, seeing as to how the Chinese government requested it, I'd damn well assume Apple actually removed the wifi chip, period. Nothing to reactivate....no matter how good of a hacker you are.
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Wilson Rothman
07/10/09

@TheSonOfKrypton: These days, it's not a chip though. It's all in a jam-packed chipset, with radios doing multiple tasks. I am not going to say for sure, but I would assume it would be a software jerry-rig before it was a true hardware revamp. But then again, the Chinese market is worth like 10 other markets combined, so maybe...?
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TheSonOfKrypton
07/10/09

@Wilson Rothman: Eh, you're right...Good point, didn't think of that. I mean, even from a production point of view, I really don't think Apple would want to segment their production lines: these iPhones/chipsets for China, these iPhones/chipsets for everybody else. That likely wouldn't be economical for them. Probably have a specific firmware for them then...
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apus
07/10/09

@Wilson Rothman:

The people over at iSupply say it's a dedicated chip, though it contains Bluetooth, too.
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dragon:ONE
07/10/09

@TheSonOfKrypton:

That's why bottled water has expiration dates. New Jersey required 2-year maximum expiration dates on their products, IIRC, so the bottlers just decided instead of making a seperate line for those bottles deemed to be going to NJ, they'd just label them all.
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Akibake-
07/10/09

@TheSonOfKrypton: I'll give them 10 minutes before they've got Wifi up and running again. I don't think they'll gimp the hardware, but if they do, shouldn't be hard to get the parts. The phone is made in China already!
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philibuster
07/10/09

@apus: There's probably a wifi antenna somewhere in there too, although it might be shared with the bluetooth antenna.
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orthorim
07/10/09

@TheSonOfKrypton: Even if they removed a physical chips, shops would just offer putting it back in. This is China and it's all about service. A chip that has been removed can easily be put back (unlike if the functionality hadn't been in there in the first place).

If it's locked in the firmware or in software, the hack to put it back in will be widely available too.

I live in Aisa and the little shops here selling unlocked/jailbroken iPhones will do a full service too - they'll replace broken screens, non-working radios, batteries, anything you can imagine. There are iPhone kits available that contain all the spare parts. Sometimes you got to love capitalism ;)
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teej116
07/10/09

@Wilson Rothman: No. Most of China would not be able to purchase one due to the poverty gap. They have maybe half the people we have in a position to actually buy one.

As for stealing, well, that's another issue...
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G-Ram
07/10/09

In reply to Unconfirmed: China Gets iPhones Early, But With Disabled Wi-Fi
Sucks for those folks to make something they can't even have. Bout time they get the phone, but jeebus don't cripple it. Lousy govenrments... oh yeah, and get off my porch!
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