Sunday, December 5, 2010

Take that... Apple iPhone 3GS!

So I spent about 8 hours total, yesterday and today, trying to unlock the iPhone 3GS. I brought it to a Taipei cellphone store at Shida and they said they couldn't unlock it because of the OS version. So I brought out both my laptops trying to figure this thing out. My first task was to downgrade the OS firmware to 3.1.3 which is what the cellphone shop requested. After surfing the web and researching and attempting it on the iPhone for a few hours, I gave up. Next as a last hope, I tried the idea of unlocking it myself. After a few hours of research and a couple attempts, I successfully unlocked it. Boy, there are a lot of conflicting or outdated information out there about unlocking/downgrading iPhones! Well in the end, I'm just happy that I got it unlocked. Because otherwise it would be a really expensive paper weight here in Taipei. So after 8 hours of going back and forth between my laptops (one for researching, one for testing/itunes), it's unlocked for my niece to use here in Taipei. @Apple, take your "Think Different" corporate hypocrisy and shove it!

6 comments:

  1. What do you mean "unlock the iPhone 3GS"? I am still in school (although grad school) so I am not too into iPhone 3Gs or 4 due to financial issue. LOL. Please clarify.

    By the way, why don't you get a iPhone 4? It has so much more memory then 3Gs. Isn't the 3Gs an old one from a couple yrs ago?

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  2. Unlocking an iPhone means opening the iPhone up to accept SIM cards other than AT&T. Most if not all phones in the USA are locked to their cell carrier you bought it from, because it's subsidized and it's your carrier's way of locking you into their company. The rest of the world operates on unlocked phones which means you can switch between carriers at will just by switching SIM cards. SIM cards are that tiny 1"x.5" card you insert into your phone. Sprint and Verizon still use the older non-SIM style. So in order to use an International SIM card from Taiwan, the iPhone needs to be unlocked out of the "AT&T only" lock.

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  3. Hey Brian,

    Your process is "SIM unlocking" right?
    In addition,do you think iPad is a good product? Some people told me it is not worth it until you "jailbreaking" it. I read this link but not too familiar with the CS jargon.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IOS_jailbreaking

    Does that mean the iPad operating system does not allow users to download many useful software applications unless you jailbreak it by using Torrents? For example, before jailbreak, useful software such as Microsoft 2007 package and many others are NOT allow to use?

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  4. yes, it's SIM unlocking. I measure if the iPad is a good product based on usage. I have no use for it. For a few hundred more I purchased a Macbook Pro which can do 3x more than an iPad can do. It certainly isn't as ergonomic though. jailbreaking just allows you install 3rd party programs that are not "certified" by Apple. A Torrent cannot jailbreak your device. It's just a medium for file transfer.

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  5. Thanks bro,

    That clarify a lot!!! =)

    After several responses from you, I am making an assumption that you are Computer Science or IT related major. Hope my assumption is not wrong.

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