Apple posts iPhone update, bricks unlocked handsets
Minor update?
Apple has posted the anticipated iPhone 1.1.1 update. The release, which adds support for the Wi-Fi connect iTunes Music Store, does indeed, as expected, returns unlocked handsets back to their AT&T-only status.
And then some: even re-inserted AT&T SIMs appear not to be accepted by an updated iPhone, preventing users accessing even the device's iPod features.
Not that this should surprise anyone. Apple said as much earlier this week, and even if it hadn't, so involved is the unlocking process, any firmware update was almost certainly going to re-lock the phone.
The new software not only adds the iTunes Music Store application, but incorporates a number of relatively minor tweaks. The big gain with iPhone 1.1.1 is support for output to TVs through the iPhone's dock, but Apple has also added the ability to disable Edge connectivity when you're roaming - handy if you want to avoid big phone bills.
Other tweaks include adjustments to the speaker volume; double-clicking the Home button can be see to take you to the Phone app's Favorites panel, or to the music controls; double-clicking the Space bar inserts a full stop and a space; Mail attachments can now be viewed in portrait and landscape modes; Stocks and Weather cities can be reordered; the Status Bar now gives a read-out of the battery charge on Apple's Bluetooth Headset; you can set Passcode lock time intervals; and the volume of alerts can now be adjusted.
Not a compelling upgrade, and owners of unlocked iPhones shouldn't feel particularly left out if they - sensibly - choose not to apply the update.
COMMENTS
Typical Apple.
To all those who are shocked by this. Remember Apple's the company that intentionally sells it's hardware at twice the price because it knows people will pay for it. And who use their fan-boys as beta testers (OK everyone does that).
Stop taking this whole attitude that certain companies are good and fair while others are evil. It's captilism, it's all about money not morality. Even google with it's "Do No Evil" slogan will just show it's self up as the BIG monopoly that batters smaller opposition soon enough, if not already.
If you unlocked your phone then why upgrade? If it was done without the user's knowledge then i think that's illegal. BTW - To the fan-boy who was taking Apple's side, you don't agree or sign anything. You pay your money and you get the phone, after that it's yours to do what you want. Apple have no right to do anything not authorised by you, if they do it's no different than an ordinary person infecting it with a virus.
What ATT told me
I had an issue with ATT earlier this year about an unrelated matter, but 'somehow' our discussion came around to the iPhone. It turns out that the iPhone is not a phone! It is a computing device!
So those of you who want to rail about Apple and ATT not allowing the unlocking of the 'phone' have not understood what you purchased from Apple. Since it's not phone, the laws about the 'fair use' of cell phones don't apply!
SW update unfair, or is it?
Say there are two types of hacked iPhone users:
- geeks (earliest adopters),
- wanna be geeks. (early majority)
The first know what they are doing and would never blindly update their unlocked iPhone with the new number of the beast - 1.1.1. The wanna be geeks will surely update the iPhone the same way they update their windows - "next, next, next...., finish", except for the "oops" effect after the imminent restart (both for windows and iPhone).
Since iPhone was introduced we (and Jobs) saw unlocked iPhone going to the geeks (which he is fine with) and then to the wanna be geeks (bad news). Well if there is no way to keep the advanced users away from the iPhone you can still keep the others from it especially when you are landing The thing in Europe, signing new operators("Hey O2, still worried about 'Unlocked iPhone inc.' selling unlocked iPhones on the streets? see whats going to happen next week") and just in time for Chri$tma$.
Problem solved. And in the meantime you have the frenzy PR singing "the thing is soo sexy, one would kill/hack to have it"
I can't help feeling that this is illegal
Its one of the problems with closed software -- Apple turns your property into a brick and claims its "just an innocent side effect". Right. We know, as well as they do, that this is deliberate vandalism on their part -- we're not stupid, we know how this software works and we know what we'd need to do to make it work or not work.
The short term effect is that I won't buy or recommend any further purchases of Apple products. They have useful stuff, but any corporation that feels it has the right to destroy users' property because those users' aren't buying into their revenue model is unethical. (UK readers note -- locking phones to a carrier in the US is common practice in the US but its definitely not illegal to unlock them.)
(Anyway, the phone's an embarassing PoS -- its like seeing a user with an old Motorola flip-phone clamped to their ear.)
Dont Update
Just like the psp, you dont upgrade till the next cracked version is ready.
Anybody who allowed the cracked phone to upgrade is stupid and deserves what they got. Ultimately you are running on a different network which just sees it as a phone so theres no real need to upgrade (keep an old version of itunes as well).
It was funny watching all the jealous folks in the office gloating over this story.
