Vinko’s Thoughts On…

Many of you know I owned an iPhone (1st generation) since June 2007 and had to unlock and jailbreak it so that I can use it here in Hong Kong.

In the past 12 months I had unlocked/restored my iPhone over 30+ times, and documented much of my experience and findings with fellow readers. Much of these repeated unlocking and restoring was because I was testing various “unauthorized” 3rd party applications (”hacks”) for the iPhone, and some of them were not that stable.

So when Apple released the iPhone firmware 2.0 on July 1, 2008, I was very excited about the functionalities that it will delivers and was eager to find available an unlock & jailbreak method that will allow me to upgrade my iPhone (1st generation) to the new firmware.

The wait was finally over this past Saturday night (July 19 HKT) when the iPhone Dev Team released their “Pwnage Tool 2.0″. Although, I was eager to try it, I did not want to jump too quickly into the process, due to my past experience over the year of the various methods used to unlock/jailbreak the iPhone.

I held myself back for 24 hours to give iPhone web sites: ModMyiFone, Hack the iPhone, MacGeekBlog, etc. time to refine the procedures and all the possible things that may go wrong during the process.

Now I am happy to say that I have now successfully unlocked my iPhone running firmware 2.0. The process went without a hitch.

I did not have to do anything to my already unlocked iPhone running firmware 1.1.4. All I did to prepare myself for the unlocking was the following:

1. Upgrade my iTunes to 7.7
2. Download the firmware 2.0 (5A347), placing this firmware (IPSW file) in ~/Library/iTunes/iPhone Software Updates/ folder on your Mac.
3. Ensure there is an empty ~/Library/iTunes/Device Support/ folder on your Mac.

The rest is simple. You can choose one of the well written tutorials from either ModMyiFone or Hack the iPhone

Enjoy and do share you experience with rest of the readers here. Particularly iPhone users from Hong Kong.

Sorry for the late posting of my findings regarding the most appropriate package(s) to subscribe to from Smartine-Vodafone.

After one and a half month of use, I have a fairly good idea whether my original proposed “Internet Browsing” and “2G/3G Data” plans are sufficient to allow for the freedom of using the iPhone, without worrying about the amount may be charged for the privilege.

Although these packages are not unlimited usage plans, they do provide enough data (GPRS/EDGE) allowance to cover the typical use of an iPhone. This includes features like: Mail, Stock application, Weather application, YouTube application, web browsing and various 3rd party applications that require Internet access.

These Smartone-Vodafone plans are: the HKD38.00/month “Internet Browsing” and the HKD118.00/month “2G/3G Data” plans; both these are non-commitment/contract prices.

As explained in my previous posting, for some undisclosed reason, the “Internet Browsing” plan does not cover all data usage on the iPhone, therefore one needs to also subscribe to a “2G/3G Data” plan. Otherwise you will be charged a data charge of HKD0.06/kb.

My test last month had me using 5.5MB of additional data usage aside from my “Internet Browsing” plan allowance. If I did not have a “2G/3G Data” plan I will have to pay an additional HKD330.00. If I had the HKD48.00/month “2G/3G Data” plan (the lowest available), I will still have to pay an extra HKD100.00.

Therefore I found the HKD118.00 “2G/3G Data” plan is the most economical choice, while allowing me to use the iPhone without any worries of being charged an extremely high data usage fee.

I hope these findings will help my fellow iPhone users in Hong Kong.

Please see my original article, “iPhone Hacked in Hong Kong on Smartone-Vodafone” for details of my post and the feedbacks from various readers.

On November 12, the German courts ruled against T-Mobile and issued an injunction preventing T-Mobile from selling Apple iPhones requiring a 2 years contract. The injunction also prevents T-Mobile from selling Apple iPhones with the so called “SIM lock” that prevents users from switching the Apple iPhone to any other carriers.

This evening T-Mobile announced that they will be selling the Apple iPhone for EUR999.00 without a 2 years contract and continues to sell the Apple iPhone for EUR399 with a 2 years contract commitment. In addition T-Mobile will remove the SIM lock for any customers who wishes, including any customers who previously purchased the Apple iPhone from them. (more…)

Instead of my readers having to scroll down to the comments in my original article or email me about the following must have knowledge about hacking your iPhone. I will post it here for all:
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Last week I unlocked an iPhone and tested it with a SIM card from Smartone-Vodafone. Today I unlocked another iPhone and this time using a SIM Card from Three (2G service without Data plan).

Next I will be unlocking my own iPhone on Smartone-Vodafone. I have commented on my article last week, regarding the most appropriate data plan to choose from Smartone-Vodafone for iPhone use in Hong Kong. I have copied the comment here for my readers’ convenience. (more…)

Many of you know that I was in North America this past two weeks and was also in New York City.

While at NYC I spent some time at the 5th Ave. Apple Store gaining some hands on experience with the iPhone. This was the first time I saw the iPhone in person and played with its applications and Multitouch interface. I will talk more about this in a separate post.

Getting back to the topic in question. While in NYC last week much had transpired regarding the unlocking (release of the lock down of the iPhone to the AT&T carrier). End of last month iPhone SIM Free announced that they had a software to unlock the iPhone from AT&T iron fist. They said that they will be selling the software on a per user (iPhone) license within a few days. Weeks had past and no announcements. (more…)