DVD Jon cracks iPhone activation for iPod, WiFi use

updated 10:05 am EDT, Wed July 4, 2007

DVD Jon iPhone Crack

Jon Lech Johansen late Tuesday revealed that he had successfully broken the activation code for AT&T in iTunes, opening the possibility of using the device without its normally mandatory AT&T service. The code writer, best known as "DVD Jon" for breaking the DeCSS encryption on DVDs, has discovered that editing key hexadecimal numbers in Apple's software and redirecting an Internet server request will successfully trick the device into switching into its normal mode. Phone services will refuse to work (due to the lack of an active SIM) but iPod and Internet services over Wi-Fi will function as usual, Johansen says.

The modifications have only been tested in Windows as of Wednesday, but can be made either manually or through a custom Phone Activation Server program that will automatically modify the necessary software. Installing PAS requires Windows as well as the .NET Framework 2.0 patch.

Neither Apple nor AT&T has yet to respond to the discovery.

By Electronista Staff

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Feathers

Grizzled Veteran

Joined: Oct 1999

07/04, 10:31am | report spam | close reply

educational?

Firstly, the claims that DVD-Jon broke the DeCSS encryption are a bit inaccurate (look up DeCSS on Wikipedia for the full story) but whilst at a certain level I admire the guy's ingenuity, what is his goal? It can hardly be argued as academic if he has put his PAS into the wild. Should we thank this guy for making it possible to use the iPhone as a sixth gen iPod or should we be angry that his activities are likely to provoke the imposition of some additional form of draconianism upon all of us? It's a bit like terrorism (and I stress that it's only a bit) that provides administrations with the justification to impose greater strictures on our freedoms, including free speech, that might otherwise be used to express our own unhappiness with the very regimes that terrorists oppose. It is a bizarre irony that terrorism actual reinforces the power of the administrations that they and (more passively) we may otherwise both find (some) fault with!

krispie

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Sep 2006

07/04, 10:34am | report spam | close reply

so...

I can take my $600 phone and turn it into a non-phone. Clever. I can also do that by running it over with a steam roller.

Though that may hamper the iPod functions, in all fairness.

jcarr

Senior User

Joined: Dec 1999

07/04, 10:45am | report spam | close reply

Unlocked?

What would be more interesting, is if after this procedure, one could install a different, working SIM card and use the phone with that service.

horvatic

Joined: Apr 2002

07/04, 11:10am | report spam | close reply

Except for one thing

If you tell any service other than AT&T that you are activating an iPhone they won't except you and start the service. Why? Because they'll be sued by both AT&T and Apple because they have no written permission to service the iPhone period. So crack all you want no service other than AT&T will activate the phone anyways. IDIOTS!

David Esrati

Joined: Jun 1999

07/04, 11:25am | report spam | close reply

A skype appliance?

So- maybe you just use it as an iPod, a internet enabled browser- and use skype? Seems a lot like a Nokia device I played with- only with a lot better interface. Maybe Apple should release the next iPod- that's not a phone- but has Internet connectivity? Hmmmmm..... might be a way to get even more sales- and not have to deal with AT&T at all. The mega-geeks I know aren't willing to part with their Sprint speed for AT+T even for the cool iPhone.

repi8

Joined: Apr 2007

07/04, 01:23pm | report spam | close reply

except for nothing

@horvatic When iPhone is activated and unlocked, no carrier will deny you using their service. No carrier will be even able to deny it. Once you put a working SIM card in an unlocked phone, it works. No need to activate anything. Once you have an unlocked iPhone all you need to do is get a service and a SIM that goes with it. If the carrier forces a phone on you, get a free one, take out the SIM, put it in iPhone and phone away. No need to call people idiots, especially when you don't have the facts right.

Is unlocking legal, moral, or a smart thing to do, taking into account the big picture, that's a different question.

zeonlyone

Joined: Aug 2006

07/04, 05:09pm | report spam | close reply

and then there is Europe

In (most?) European countries, law prohibits to sell a phone with a service-plan (no "coupled-sales" allowed here). So you can count on Apple to bring phones to the European market (end of this year) which are unlocked anyway. Can you spell grey import back to the USA ?

hayesk

Professional Poster

Joined: Sep 1999

07/04, 05:21pm | report spam | close reply

Re: except for one thing

I think it's amusing you call people idiots when you completely misunderstand how to use an unlocked phone.

To answer repi8's question, is it legal, moral, or smart? Well, even if the DCMA applies, that's a US law, so it wouldn't apply in other countries, where people would want an unlocked iPhone. As for moral? Apple still gets their money, and AT&T isn't subsidizing the phone, so I think it's ok. Finally, smart? Probably not. Who's to say the next iPhone update will lock the phone again? Probably not smart.

Deal

Mac Enthusiast

Joined: Apr 2001

07/05, 02:16am | report spam | close reply

More to it

I'll bet the hacker was attempting to do more than just unlock the phone for iPod and internet use. He just hasn't succeeded... yet.

I'll bet the phone would work with another provider, but there would be huge holes in features. Personally, I think the visual voice mail would not work.

Somebody up above mentioned sprint. I've been with sprint and been very happy. I used AT&T once a few years ago and had trouble connecting all over the place. I couldn't get a connection from my house (in a city of 100k people). I sure hope AT&T has gotten better since then. There will be more complaints about AT&T than with the iPhone itself. I'll bet this gets succesfully hacked sooner or later and other companies will provide service.

redwood

Joined: Oct 2003

07/05, 01:08am | report spam | close reply

hmmmm

Last I checked, there are two GSM carriers in the United States. ATT and T-mobile.

So "going to a different provider" means going to T-mobile, who has a crappier network than ATT to begin with.

Forget about going to any other carrier in the US..it ain't going to happen.

However, if one feels that spending $600 for a iphone that's not a phone is a good idea, then they should be able to do that.

dewhast

Joined: Oct 2006

07/05, 02:32am | report spam | close reply

when did sprint get good?

I had sprint about 3 years ago and thought it was horrible, but these were in the days before a lot of data. CDMA is pretty much a North America only technology (I can't really speak to if it is better than GSM or not). GSM is great if you travel overseas alot, you go buy a SIM from Vodafone or whoever, throw it in your phone and talk away. I have a cheap Nokia with intl power adapters that I use for this...and just use a phone card to talk to the states.

010111

Junior Member

Joined: Aug 2002

07/05, 06:40am | report spam | close reply

incorrect.

"Last I checked, there are two GSM carriers in the United States. ATT and T-mobile. "

you would be incorrect.

there are numerous regional GSM providers around the US. just because in *your* town T-Mobile and AT&T are the current choices... doesn't mean it is that way everywhere in the entire US.

a lot of those towns do not have AT&T and a lot of those people would like an iPhone. an unlocked iPhone would enable that.

in addition. this may completely blow your mind... but some people like to travel and be able to pick up a pre-paid SIM when they arrive at their overseas destination. an unlocked iPhone would enable that as well.

The More You Know™

bfalchuk

Joined: Jul 2003

07/05, 07:16am | report spam | close reply

Sprint & T-Mo

First, the iPhone can't work on Sprint. Second, T-Mo and AT&T have free roaming between their networks, so they should technically have the same reception with a quad band device like the iPhone (though I have a T-Mo and Cingular SIM, and find I get better reception in the same place with the T-Mo SIM for some crazy reason).

Second, I'd love to be able to use an iPhone with my Cingular SIM, but can't buy one and sign up for a new contract because I'm on my company's plan. This would solve that problem if the cracked iPhone would work with a valid AT&T/Cingular SIM and unlimited internet (which I have for my BlackBerry).

It would be great to see what kind of plans would still let the EDGE Internet and Email work.

83caddy16v

Forum Regular

Joined: Sep 2000

07/05, 08:16am | report spam | close reply

unlock would be nice

I know there are many Verizon customers who would love to get the iPhone. If there becomes a way to use the SIM our of a RAZR phone, there are at least 8 people at my office who would head to the Apple Store. Many of us are stuck in the 2yr contract for about another 6mo. Sadly, AT&Ts service is not as good around D.C. Too bad Apple is locked into a 5yr deal with AT&T. The iPhone is really sweet in person!

eddd

Joined: Dec 2001

07/05, 07:26am | report spam | close reply

5 years?

danibo77

Joined: Sep 2005

07/05, 08:41am | report spam | close reply

HELLO/Compare prices..

I can't believe all you americans that questions WHY there's a need to unlock the iphone, and use it as an cool ipod/web-browser/e-mail-client!

Hello!

Might be because it's the ONLY chance we have to actually PLAY with this beauty over here in europe.

Think a bit before posting..

To compare prices:

an HTC/QTEC 4350 smartphone costs 840 dollars here in norway..so 500-600 dollars is cheap compared...it's actually price of a normal gsm-phone..

manleycreative

07/05, 07:33am | report spam | close reply

What would be the purpose

PHONE PHREAKING MAN, PHONE PHREAKING!!!

Isn't it soooo ironic that one of the guys involved in the invention of phone phreaking would end up being phone phreaked?

Yes!!!

07/05, 08:47am | report spam | close reply

Service-plans in Europe

To settle a fact:

Contracts/service-plans are NOT illegal in most counties in europe, although some countires do have a ban.

In fact, MOST phones in the UK and Germany are sold WITH a contract. (This also applies to Norway/Sweden/Denmark) Finland might have such a ban, although I have never heard of this.

Daniel/Norway

LouZer

Joined: Nov 2000

07/05, 09:03am | report spam | close reply

Re: 5 years

about that 5 year license deal... This is speculation, of course, but I'm guessing that it's only for this model of the iPhone. That's the way these things commonly work. It's rare for a company to lock in all future products with a single distributor. More common to have different products with different vendors. Steve says, "we like to have options."

Sorry, but all reports are its exclusive to all iPhone products. You think AT&T is going to invest, and give up, so much to hawk the iPhone, only to have it become a big success, and then watch Verizon and Sprint come into play, get newer models, and not have to deal with any of the early pain. I don't think so.

07/05, 09:11am | report spam | close reply

Stupid waste of time

"Hey, look at me! I just spent $600 on a device in which I purposely disabled some of its features! Woohoo!"

And I've got an easier way to do this. Its free, easy, and to the point.

- Get an iPhone - Sign up for 2 year contract with AT&T - Activate iPhone - Cancel said contract. You have a week (I believe, might be three days, but still) to cancel without penalty.

So now you have the same thing, without having to go through any hoops.

BTW, Skype won't work now, but I'm assuming if you're goofy enough to buy a $600 phone with the hope of sticking skype on it, then you're good enough to figure out how to hack the underlying OS to get all the pieces working together.

TheSnarkmeister

Joined: Jun 2007

07/05, 09:29am | report spam | close reply

Exactly!

07/05, 09:33am | report spam | close reply

AT&T had better change,

or else AT&T is going to poison the success of the iPhone. This 5-year lock on the iPhone, and 2-year lock on service contracts, from a company with an abominable service record is not going to fly with Apple's customers who are used to the best customer service in the tech industry.

Terrin

Joined: Jan 2006

07/05, 10:25am | report spam | close reply

Probably Not Right

As an attorney I can tell you this is probably wrong. a service provider like Verizon doesn't have a contract with ATT or Apple and as such cannot be restricted with enabling service for the iPhone.

Now the customer probably could be sued for violating a contract, but that isn't the service provider's concern. With that said, I doubt a company like Verizon would specifically activate service for an iPhone because they'd be worried about supporting it. Verizon cannot prevent Apple or ATT from updating their software to disrupt third party service support.

. . . . If you tell any service other than AT&T that you are activating an iPhone they won't except you and start the service. Why? Because they'll be sued by both AT&T and Apple because they have no written permission to service the iPhone period. So crack all you want no service other than AT&T will activate the phone anyways. IDIOTS! . . . .

07/05, 10:39am | report spam | close reply

Other phones

First, none of us have read the contract. Second, people in the know who have spoken about the contract give us a few details. One, the contract only concerns the iPhone. Two, parts of the contract prevent Apple from developing phones for non GSM networks for the same five year period. You read these together and it seems like Apple can develop a different phone for a GSM provider, for instance T-Mobile. The CEO of ATT has even suggested this is the case, by saying Apple probably will develop other phones.

However, even if Apple is able to do this, it probably will not if Apple and ATT maintain a good relationship. People forget, Steve Jobs and the CEO of ATT are actually friends. Jobs isn't going to ditch ATT's network unless there is good reason to do so.

. . . .Sorry, but all reports are its exclusive to all iPhone products. You think AT&T is going to invest, and give up, so much to hawk the iPhone, only to have it become a big success, and then watch Verizon and Sprint come into play, get newer models, and not have to deal with any of the early pain. I don't think so. . . .

testudo

Joined: Aug 2001

07/05, 11:56am | report spam | close reply

Re: exactly

I prefer not to do business with AT&T, certainly not under the terms of a 2-year lock-in agreement. Thus, this sounds very promising, as I would very much like to have an iPhone, even if it mean only using it as an iPod and (finally) a Newton replacement. However, I think that in fairly short order there will be way for us to use unlocked iPhones with pay-as-you-go and VOIP services.

You can get the iPhone now with pay as you go service.

And its not much of a Newton replacement until you can hack the UI and the OS so you can add your own software.

anthology123

Dedicated MacNNer

07/05, 12:12pm | report spam | close reply

skype

I don't think Skype is a factor because no third party applications can install on an iPhone currently.

ender

Joined: Mar 1999

07/05, 06:00pm | report spam | close reply

re: probably not right

terrin, as an attorney, I am sure you are right in a legal sense. However, as an engineer, *I* am quite certain the Verizon example is a moot point. Verizon is CDMA. ATT is GSM. Two completely incompatible technologies. So Verizon couldn't "activate" an iPhone even if they wanted to! :-)

It is possible to get a phone's unlock code from ATT. I've done it, but it takes nearly an act of Congress to get the code out of them (they tried to tell me that Motorola locked my phone and I had to get the code from them, which is a bold-face lie). I'm sure it will be even more difficult to get the code from them for the iPhone.

But back on topic...DVD Jon didn't crack the unlock code to the iPhone. He only figured out a why to get around the need to have service with ATT, which, as someone else pointed out, has already been demonstrated without the need for any hacks or server redirects or anything.

And I'm hoping that even becomes a moot point when Apple releases the 6G iPod, which I believe many of us are hoping is an iPhone with a hard drive and NO PHONE! I hope they leave the wi-fi, safari, e-mail, etc all in there!

Jonathan-Tanya

Joined: Oct 2004

07/05, 11:14pm | report spam | close reply

so-called attorney

Just because someone says they are attorney, doesn't make their opinion worthy of note.

The fact is, people unlock phones and use them on other services all the time. So its an iPhone! Apple didn't invent the cell phone! I use a formerly t-mobile phone on the sprint network right now.

Sure from a engineering standpoint, you have to have a phone that supports the network to do such a thing...many phones are tri-band or quad-band, and so those phones more easily move between networks.

But there is nothing illegal, wrong, or even worrisome to cell phone companies about supporting whatever phone you bring into the store...you want service, you got it.

Questions of 'support' are irrelevant...they aren't supporting the phone, only the service.

An iPhone has some special features that you can expect won't work by another network. However, if someday someone gets it to work as a cell phone on another network..GREAT, just more choices, and it hurts no one.

As far as today's event...it makes it the nicest iPod you can buy...and for some people that is great. I'd rather not pay AT$T $1400 for two years of cell phone service...but I might like an iPhone to use it for Wi-fi and iPod capabilities.

xzune

Baninated

Joined: Nov 2006

07/06, 11:24am | report spam | close reply

iphone

I found a really cool dvd to iphone converter software from here http://www.dvdtoiphoneconverter.net/

It works is great!

iphoned

Joined: Jul 2007

07/11, 08:43pm | report spam | close reply

DVD to iPhone Converter

To download best dvd to iphone converter software from here http://www.dvdtoiphoneconverter.net/

fire5

Banned

Joined: May 2007

01/27, 12:47am | report spam | close reply

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02/27, 05:17am | report spam | close reply

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