george hotz

07.24.08

An iPhone for a Car, and 3 More iPhones

By Gregory Mone Posted 08.28.2007 at 12:04 pm 1 Comment

The teen genius who figured out how to free the iPhone from its AT&T service plan obligations is trading his unlocked super-gadget for a new car, just in time for the start of his freshman year of college. Terry Daidone, founder of Certicell, provider of wireless aftermarket goods, offered 17-year-old George Hotz a Nissan 350Z and three 8GB iPhones in exchange for the unlocked version.

Hotz has offered to send the three new phones to three of his online collaborators, and even though he's starting his first year of school, he's not done tinkering with Apple's latest device. He's hoping to add GPS functionality to the iPhone by using cell phone tower triangulation. And then he'll do his homework.—Gregory Mone

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First iPhone Hacked

By Jake Ward Posted 08.24.2007 at 4:38 pm 0 Comments


And they're off. George Hotz, New Jersey blogger and hacker extraordinaire, gets his name in the paper (and in our hearts) for pulling off a network transfer on an iPhone. In his YouTube footage you can clearly see the T-Mobile insignia (the iPhone runs AT&T, if you didn't know).

Picture_73How he did it I don't understand. But it means that not only those of you stuck with T-Mobile now have a shot at the iPhone, but now anyone anywhere in the world can buy a prepaid GSM card and use Apple's holy grail.

It takes a few steps to pull off (and a lot of Red Bull), but heck if the kid hasn't done what Apple should have done in the first place. —Jacob Ward

(p.s. Classy kid. He takes time to thank his friends and fans at the outset, and Mom raised him right — he thanks "the dev team for a great product.")

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