Latest Use for $100 iPhone Credit: Replace Inoperable iPhone
Apple’s fight to keep the iPhone off unauthorized networks will apparently begin in earnest later this week. In a statement released Monday, Cupertino warned users that they can “cause irreparable damage” to their iPhones by modifying them to work on unauthorized wireless networks.
By “irreparable,” Apple seems to mean damage that may turn unlocked iPhones into iBricks when it issues future software upgrades. Perhaps even the one that will arrive later this week.
“Apple strongly discourages users from installing unauthorized unlocking programs on their iPhones,” the company’s statement read. “Users who make unauthorized modifications to the software on their iPhone violate their iPhone software license agreement and void their warranty.”
So what are owners of unlocked iPhones to do? Avoid the forthcoming software update until the iPhone Dev Team releases a tool to restore or re-lock your phone. And according to a statement issued by the group today, that’s likely to happen sometime next week:
Sept. 25 statement from the iPhone unlockers
“Based on download numbers, the iPhone Dev Team believes that, worldwide, several hundred thousand people have unlocked their iPhones. That number continues growing every day. The removal of the lock, a bug, was a major step forward in the iPhone development. It made the iPhone free and useful to anyone, not only to those in certain countries.
“Apple now announces that the next firmware update, expected later this week, will possibly break the handset of all of us free users in the World. It speaks of “damage” done to the firmware and “unauthorized access” to our own property, The removal of those firmware problems, which were built in in favor for AT&T, does not cause “damage” as they want to make us believe.
“We will provide you with a tool in the next week which will be able to recover your nck counter and seczones and even enables you to restore your phone to a factory-like state.
“In the meantime we advise you not to update your free iPhone with the upcoming firmware. Wait for the next version to be fixed to work properly with your carrier and not break your phone.”
