The instructions are nice and short:

1. Ensure you have upgraded to iPhone OS 3.0
2. Jailbreak your iPhone 3G using redsn0w or PwnageTool (this will also install Cydia/Icy)
3. Run Cydia or Icy
4. Please add the repo repo666.ultrasn0w.com to Cydia or icy
5. Search for ‘ultrasn0w' in cydia or icy and install ultrasn0w
6. Reboot your iPhone 3G
7. T-Mobile USA users should disable 3G before using ultrasn0w
8. Enjoy

It bears repeating that this hack will not work on the iPhone 3GS, though it will work on 2G and 3G models. The Dev Team is obviously working on this, but they're not giving any fresh indication as to when a fully compatible tool will come out. [Dev Team—Thanks, Alexandru, Stephen, and everyone else!]

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.

Though it was announced earlier today, they still haven't revealed too much about "ultrasn0w" yet for fear of Apple updating the software with a lock, only saying that the new software should be out this Friday for your hacking pleasure. It's not totally clear that the newly-rebranded ultrasn0w will work on the new iPhone 3GS, either, but Apple hasn't been able to create an iPhone the Dev Team can't jailbreak yet. Check out the video above for more info, with the caveat that the first two minutes are just a static image. [iPhone Dev Team]

First, a technician opened up the phone and stripped it to the motherboard. In his skillful hands, the device seemed much easier to dismantle than I expected.

The technician then extracted the baseband chip, the component that controls the connection between the phone and the mobile network, from the motherboard. (This is a painstaking task as the chip is strongly glued to the phone's motherboard. A mistake during this process could brick the phone completely.)

Once the chip was extracted, it was Tuan Anh's turn. He used a chip reader to read information into a file. He then used a Hex editor to remove the locking data from the file, and after that, the chip got reprogrammed with the newly altered file. Now it was no longer programmed to work with only a specific provider.

The chip then got reassembled into the motherboard, another painstaking process.

As a last step, the technician put the phone back together, and it looked like nothing had been done to it.

All this for a mere $80! Call me crazy, but watching someone do this to my phone would be infinitely more satisfying than simply downloading a program to crack it. You'd feel like your phone really earned its unlocking. [Crave via Boing Boing Gadgets]

When you buy the $1473 iPhones, the IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) number is recorded and sent to Apple, where 24 hours later customers will get an e-mail confirmation. After that it's just a matter of hooking the iPhone up to iTunes, and it's unlocked, using firmware version 1.1.2.

The move comes after all the legal wrangling and whining courts issued a temporary injunction against T-Mobile, and Apple began selling iTunes-unlockable iPhones in Germany. There's no news about iPhones purchased before the injunction, but most probably it will just require you to go back to the store, pay the difference and get your IMEI registered.

According to T-Mobile, an unlocked phone in Germany is not going to do customers much good, because T-Mobile is the only provider that can crank out that EDGE network transmission across the country. [Macrumors, via Boy Genius] (Thanks, Jenkman!)

(UPDATE: Actually, they claim that their new application also restores the baseband of your iPhone if you used any of the free unlocks. The result: a bricked iPhone can now be fully brought to life and unlocked with their paid solution. People who already unlocked the iPhone with iPSF just need to jailbreak their iPhones and activate because, according to them: "there's no need to re-apply the unlock because the unlock survives the firmware upgrade. It's permanent." - Jesús Díaz) [iPhoneSIMFree]

But first, the bricking. Was this done on purpose? Lam doesn't think so. Jacqui at Ars believes that the firmware was completed weeks ago, and the bricking is unintentional. It doesn't matter what the intent was: They didn't go out of their way to stop it, which is almost as uncool. Principles aside, this situation won't affect lots of us, since the majority of us don't have a reason to unlock. But bricking it entirely is something they should work really really hard to avoid, even if it costs them some revenue share from AT&T. My main concern is for the safe development of Apps that so far have done nothing but made the iPhone better.

"Users who make unauthorized modifications to the software on their iPhone violate their iPhone software license agreement and void their warranty." That photo above is what Lam's iPhone looks like now. Does this mean Lam's warranty is in the shitter? Because he didn't unlock my iPhone and nothing he did can't be fixed with a system restore. Going after the hacks, which have changed the iPhone from a good product to a great phone? That's idiotic.

There is a good side to all this, provided we can get Apple to make firmware that doesn't brick iPhones. The press release also mentions the feature updates via the firmware, like the Wi-Fi Music store. This is historically how the PSP firmware updates were made as "must haves" for owners. Unlocking an iPhone isn't nearly as appealing if it means you don't get the benefit of new features. So, if anything, the unlocking cat and mouse game should push Apple to make a lot more innovation, and quicker. A good thing, when you consider that the best iPhone innovations in the last few months are not the web apps or official Apple updates, but the third party hacks.

Apple has discovered that 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. Apple plans to release the next iPhone software update, containing many new features including the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store (www.itunes.com), later this week. Apple strongly discourages users from installing unauthorized unlocking programs on their iPhones. Users who make unauthorized modifications to the software on their iPhone violate their iPhone software license agreement and void their warranty. The permanent inability to use an iPhone due to installing unlocking software is not covered under the iPhone's warranty.

First of all, the reason for the weeks of delay in getting video proof is because the IPSF team was busy not with the unlocking process—that was done weeks ago—but the business end. Because they're planning on selling to resellers for THEM to make businesses of, they had to finalize the database and all the backend stuff to manage licenses, etc. All very boring, and all stuff you guys don't want to hear about. Point is, they didn't delay this on purpose because they couldn't get the unlock working. Also, we're the first site to get permission to show the video unlock process. CNN and Engadget were not allowed to show video of the unlock process.

So sites who doubt that the IPSF team is real can finally relax. They're real. They're delivering.

The process is simple. The retailer you buy the unlock from will load the unlock software directly onto your phone, which will check to see if your IMEI is "allowed" to be unlocked. If it is, the software will unlock the phone—a process which took us approximately 2 or 3 minutes, as you can see in the video. The level of complexity is pretty much as low as you can get. Anyone will be able to do this.

In our case, the IPSF guys loaded the unlock application onto the phones via SSH. This is not how it will be done in the final version (you'll get yours loaded by the reseller), but it was quicker this way. Once loaded, the steps were exactly the same as the reseller final version (which they also sent to us, and works perfectly). Once run, a disclaimer comes up, you hit OK, and hit the unlock Apple image. It unlocks the phone, going through the process and displaying what the current activity is (as shown in the video). After unlocking, it cleans up, and you're done.

When we went through the unlock, we started with a T-Mobile SIM, which caused the iPhone to complain about a non-valid SIM. After the unlock was done, the error message was gone and it was able to connect properly to the T-Mobile network. Some of my babbling on camera is incoherent because I was on the phone with the IPSF guys while doing this, but I left the video intact (save for the last part where I cut to making a call) because I wanted to leave no doubts. And that red circle on the call app is the voicemail notification, which doesn't work correctly on T-Mobile (no visual voicemail).

The unlock itself is safe from restores, but requires that your phone is jailbreaked already, since you have to load a program onto the phone. And the app, since it runs directly on the phone, is stable. There should be almost zero chance to brick your phone, and most errors—if there are errors—can be fixed by restoring the phone and trying again.

That's what the final version of the software looks like.

IPSF definitely knows and built off of the iPhone Dev Team's work, insofar as none of this would be possible without the jailbreak. But as far as the actual unlock process, that's all theirs.

Where does this whole thing leave you? iPhone SIM Free is sending out this software to resellers and third-party unlockers starting today, which means you can get yours unlocked very, very soon. As for the iPhone Dev Team, we're still waiting on their free implementation.

One last thing. Five lucky Gizmodo readers are getting a free unlock courtesy of the iPhoneSIMFree team. Check back next week for details.

With additional reporting by Jesus Diaz

iPhone Sim Free

The user says:

"We were so happy, all the software part was done, so we started opening the iPhone. The antenna cover was a bit tricky but eventually it came off. Then we started to open the metal cover (after taking out the 3 screws) and PUFF, up it went in smoke, I think my collegue must have touched something. It literally went up in black smoke. It was so hot that when I tried to pick it up I burned my fingers. So, this is for sure the most difficult part of the whole process. I don't know what he did, as I had just stepped out of the room to fetch something when I heard a scream...they got such a fright."

Just wait until the software unlock becomes available, and THEN unlock it. Or use the SIM method like we detailed here before. Or ask a buddy that you know has experience with these things. Just for Jesus's (Diaz) sake, don't open it up if you don't know what you're doing.

[Hackintosh via iPhone Atlas]

We've heard good things about T-Mobile before and after the ruling. They're one of the more friendly companies that will go ahead and unlock if you tell them that you're heading overseas. But how about Cingular, Verizon and Sprint? Are they giving up unlock codes like leftover Halloween candy?

Let us know in the comments. – Jason Chen

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