iPhone unlocking is as old as the iPhone itself. Many iPhone owners didn’t accept the costs and other issues which come with a locked iOS device, thus a number of unlocking solutions were developed. Best unlock so far was the Ultrasn0w unlock which was developed and released by the famous iPhone Dev Team.
If you needed to unlock your iPhone for use abroad and on other carriers you had to jailbreak first with RedSn0w, PwnageTools or some other functional jailbreak solution. Another iPhone unlock solution were various unlock Sim cards like Gevey Sim which acted as sim interposers enabling users to unlock even iPhone 4 devices.
When it comes to iPhone 4S, this iPhone model was not unlockable. But apparently there is apparently a new trick which can unlock iPhone 4S. This trick is not yet confirmed as a reliable unlock, but since it does not involve any hardware or software changes it is completely safe. Worst thing which could happen to you is a bit of disappointment. So if you are interested and you have an iPhone 4S which needs to be unlocked check the instructions bellow.
1. First of all you will need to insert a valid AT&T sim card into your iPhone 4S 2. Make a drop-call to AT&T’s service number 611. After you do this immediately put your iPhone 4S into the Airplane mode. 3. Take the AT&T sim card out and insert your new sim card into the sim tray. 4. Disable Wi-fi on your device by ‘forgetting’ all Wi-fi networks on your iPhone. 5. Immediately follow up by turning the Airplane mode off. 6. Your iPhone will now search for available networks. 7. The device will now connect to Edge network of your carrier and this will be confirmed when the E sign appears in the upper left corner of the screen. 8. The signal bar will now appear and you need to tap on ‘Use Cellular connection’. 9. Remove the sim card for the last time and the activation note will appear again. 10. Put your sim card back into the iPhone 4S and your device will connect to your new network.
Here is a Youtube video which demonstrates this unlock hack.Let us know if you successfully unlocked your iPhone 4S with this trick!
There are already several outlets selling remote iPhone unlocking services without any code software or unlocking sim card. Can this be true? Or even more important is this safe and legal? So far this is not clear yet although many iPhone users have flocked to purchase the remote unlock. This unlock is based on IMEI which is an identification number by which your network carrier recognises your device and allows it to connect to the network.
The price for this unlock varies but seems to float around the sum of $180 and purportedly you only have to send the IMEI number of your device to the unlockers and they will answer you in no more that 48 hours stating that your device is unlocked.
But is this for real? It seems so as some reliable sources have tested this and have successfully unlocked their iPhones. So this means that this method of unlocking solves all your problems: No more fear from upgrading, preserving baseband jailbreaking or anything else. Onve you unlock your iPhone becomes permanently unlocked. So far courts in US have decided that jailbreaking is legal, but messing with IMEI could be completely different thing. In most places changing IMEI is illegal activity. Developers form the Dev Team said that this no hack, instead it seems that someone has access to Apple‘s databases and if this is true Apple will certainly react and could lock the devices as easy as they have been unlocked. Apple will certainly act to counter this unlocking approach and their legal team is probably already actively researching this issue and will soon act against these unlocking services.
It would be probably safest strategy not to hurry with this unlock but wait and see how will Apple react. How will Apple respond? Let us know did you try this unlock out and what do you think about this.
One of the core members of the iPhone Dev Team group MuslceNerd has unofficially announced that the jailbreaking group is busy working on a solution for baseband downgrade method for iPhone 3GS. This is essential for iPhone users whose iPhones are on following basebands: 05.16.00, 05.14.02 and 05.15.04. as they cant unlock currently. This solution will enable them to first upgrade their iPhone baseband to the iPad baseband 06.15.00 and after that downgrade the baseband to 05.13.04 which is currently possible to unlock with the UltraSn0w unlock.
Here are MuscleNerds tweets on this issue:
Apparently iPhone Dev Team is not working on the unlock which could directly unlock following baseband versions: 05.16.00, 05.14.02 and 05.15.04. Another great news is that this solution will solve the problem with GPS which many iPhone users which upgraded to iPad baseband experienced.
What is the baseband of your iPhone? Did you upgrade to 06.15.00 iPad baseband? Let us know about your take on this.
