Submitted by Bob Bhatnagar on
Dev-Team member planetbeing has demonstrated the first unlocked US-purchased iPhone 4 in the world. With a custom-cut Rogers SIM card and some coding magic, his iPhone dialed Rogers customer service and displayed the Rogers carrier logo on the home screen.
MuscleNerd and planetbeing are working simultaneously on two different unlock solutions, and plan to release the best one when the time is right. Apparently the software needs work even though the end result is functional. Dev-Team may wait until Apple releases iOS 4.1 before making the iPhone 4 unlock public.
According to planetbeing, Apple took some specific actions to defeat previous unlock exploits and he described these countermeasures in iOS 4 as "interesting." The new baseband on the iPhone 4 required complete retooling of the ultrasn0w freeware that was originally written for older iPhone devices.
On his Twitter page, planetbeing also verified the antenna reception problem known as the "death grip" on the iPhone 4. Looking at signal strength directly from the baseband on his jailbroken iPhone 4, he was able to replicate the problem and see drops in signal of up to 20 decibels. His device also shows signs of the yellow screen problem, which has been attributed to glass bonding chemicals that haven't fully dried after production.
Unlocking the iPhone makes it possible to use the device on cellular carriers other than AT&T. Currently iPhone users who have unlocked in the US can only use T-Mobile at home, and the data connection is limited to EDGE. After unlocking, SIM cards can be swapped out for various carriers around the globe.