Software Method to Unlock iPhone 3G Progress Report

The iPhone Dev Team have been working tirelessly since the iPhone has been launched to bring us the latest iPhone hacking tools. They have been successful in jailbreaking and unlocking the 1st generation iPhone and jailbreaking iPhone 3G as well.

However, they still have couple of challenges, the first one is the much awaited software method to unlock iPhone 3G and the more recent one is to jailbreak the 2nd generation iPod Touch.

They have recently published a post on their blog to update us on their progress in unlocking iPhone 3G.

In their blog post, the iPhone Dev Team have also made some observations about iPhone firmware 2.2 which was recently seeded to developers of the iPhone Developer Program by Apple. As

They have revealed the following:

Apple is continuing with their ski-resort theme; iPhone Firmware 2.2 is nicknamed Timberline.

Apple has gone back to using expiry dates. The first beta version of iPhone Firmware 2.2 is due to expire on November 30, 2008. They had apparently stopped using expiry dates with iPhone firmware 2.1, but for some reason they’ve started using them again.

• The iPhone Dev Team have confirmed that iPhone firmware 2.2 is still vulnerableto Pwnage and Quickpwn on everything but iPod Touch 2G.
  

  They have also published an image below to demonstrate that they have been able to jailbreak iPhone firmware 2.2. The screen shot below shows one of the unofficial native iPhone apps Terminal.app running on firmware 2.2 which is being used to display the kernel build information.

  
  
  

  

  
  

  As for the update on the much awaited software method to unlock iPhone 3G, they write:

  
  

  
  

  “The 3G iPhone soft unlock and iPod Touch 2G jailbreak are still relatively new challenges (compare them with the timeframe of the iPhone challenges last year). We’re making slow advances on both fronts, but it’s not the sort of thing that can be easily described in a blog like this.

  
  

  But, to maybe show how interlinked these challenges are, this weekend we’ll be trying some hardware based ideas on the iPod Touch 2G jailbreak :)”

  
  

  
  

  As you might know, we have already seen the hardware method to unlock iPhone 3G but the iPhone Dev Team have advised users not to use the method. They had raised the following concern about the hardware method in one of their blog posts:

  
  

  
  

  “While a hack could in theory work under this scheme, the errors are recorded by telecom companies, and may be considered tampering in a company’s network. In countries like Germany, as a result, a person could allegedly face up to three years in prison, and in the US, it may fall under legislation designed to combat terrorism.”

  
  

  
  

  The iPhone Dev Team have been able to successfully unlock the 1st generation iPhone even with iPhone firmware updates due to an exploit which can only be prevented by a hardware fix. Apple has fixed the exploit in iPhone 3G which has made it difficult to unlock iPhone 3G.

  
  

  Based on their track record the iPhone Dev Team should be able to unlock iPhone 3G, the question really remains is when?

  
  

  Let us know your views.