Unlocking is an extremely easy concept to explain, sort of . Unless stated otherwise, cell phones purchased from carrier retail stores are “locked” to that specific carrier. For instance, a Blackberry storm from Verizon won’t work on an AT&T calling plan. The Sprint Palm Pre won’t work on T-mobile. Even your iPhone from AT&T is “locked” to that infamous blue-mapped carrier.

So what do you do if you want to purchase a phone you like but use it with a different carrier, perhaps one that costs less or gets better reception in your area? For most folks I’d say ” eh fa-gettaboutit ! ” (in a pretty sweet Brooklyn/Italian accent might I add). But for those of you lucky enough to have apples on the back of your phones, there are ways to relieve your beloved iPhone from AT&T’s struggling network.

Hardware Unlock Vs. Software Unlock

Technically, there are 2 ways to go about unlocking your iPhone. There is a hardware unlock, which is invasive (you have to open the phone), that I don’t recommend that anyone tries unless they’ve got a pretty extensive background in some kind of electrical engineering.

The 2nd, much easier way, the software unlock, could be done on your lunch break by your 6th grader. Just like jailbreaking, this can be as easy as hooking your iPhone up to the computer and clicking ’start’. However the requirements for unlocking and the rules you must follow are very different.

Things to Consider Before Unlocking

There are guidelines to follow when thinking about unlocking your iPhone.

First off you need to make sure that the carrier you are wishing to go to supports the iPhones technology. I’ll save everyone here stateside some time and just let the cat out of the bag. If you unlock, really your best option is T-Mobile, the other major wireless GSM carrier. Other, smaller CDMA carriers (any centennial wireless users out here??) have had users confirm the unlock to work, but chances are if your reading an article on unlocking, they are referring to T-Mobile (at least here in the states).

Secondly, you need to know your firmware version and modem firmware version (or baseband as its often referred to). This is easily discovered by popping into your iPhone settings and opening the ‘about’ window. Now if you can’t seem to find it, I’m scared for you, but I’m here for you, I’ve provided some pictures below to help you out.

These 2 things are important to know, as they determine whether you can unlock your iPhone or not. If you are even thinking of jailbreaking or unlocking, best practice is to stay away from updating your iTunes or iPhone software, as the war between the Dev Team and Apple rages on, each new update could disable or prevent future unlocks.

I always check http://blog.iphone-dev.org/ to see the latest unlock available. As you can see right now, they have one working for firmware version 3.1.3 and baseband 05.11, but if you have updated your iPhone recently and have the 05.12 baseband, you’re out of luck for the time being. An unlock is in the works but the ETA field is empty so, don’t hold your breath.

Finally if you meet the above requirements and are ready to unlock, you must first jailbreak. Now as you can see from all the hyperlinks in this article, I wrote an article on jailbreaking, and I know Sebastien’s got great tutorials in the blog’s ‘tutorials‘ section, so if you haven’t done that, check that stuff out, meet me back here in 5.

Who Comes Up With Unlocks?

The last part of our segment today on unlocking is software, pioneered by the great Dev Team and the prodigy kid from New Jersey GeoHot. GeoHot, who recently announced hacking the PS3, actually received media attention for his iPhone unlock and was given a new Nissan 350z by the co founder of Certicell, not bad eh.

But the backbone of the jailbreak/unlock community, the Dev Team, have been the steady frontrunners ever since. Their software QuickPwn, RedSn0w, and PwnageTool have been staples in the iPhone hacking community for years.

Generally when you’re using these programs to jailbreak they ask you if you’d like to unlock in one of the steps it takes you through. Here lately though, 1 task programs like UltraSnow have been relevant, also done by the Dev Team, also available in our downloads section.

Conclusion

Well that’s unlocking in 10 minutes or less, the key really is what version your firmware/modem firmware you’re running, and understanding there’s no unlock for 3.1.3 firmware if you have 05.12 modem firmware (baseband).

The model of your iPhone matters as well, whether it is the iPhone 3G , 3GS, or original version. Model compatibility for any unlock software is generally noted in the description of the download. And if I haven’t completely crushed your dreams yet, there’s no way to downgrade your baseband (let us know if you get Fuzzyband to work, we hear the bootloader’s to high). What am I talking about bootloaders, basebands, you guys should probably get out of here before things get really crazy.

Make sure to hit us up with any questions or comments.

Did Geohot change his mind? A few weeks ago he said that he would not work on OS 3.1.3 but what he tweeted yesterday suggests otherwise.

Apparently Musclenerd and Geohot are talking to each other to figure out whether his exploit is the same as the one discovered by Sherriff a few days ago.

This unlock would sure be a life saver to the many iPhone owners who “accidentally” updated their device to 3.1.3.

When GeoHot talks, you listen because you never know what he’s up to. Earlier today he gave some pretty disappointing news on Twitter by basically saying that there was no way to jailbreak the latest iPhone 3GS and iPod Touch models on OS 3.1.3, and that there was not much hope for an untethered jailbreak.

But we all know GeoHot and how he likes to be challenged. I’d bet you that he’s dissecting OS 3.1.3 as we speak and looking for some exploit. That’s what I think anyways.

In the meantime, the Dev Team has been working hard on redsn0w (see tutorial) and has found some workarounds to jailbreak older models.

Do you think GeoHot will show up and save the world again?

It seems that I missed a tweet by Gehot a few weeks ago in which he made it clear that he was not going to work on an untethered version of BlackRa1n.

I don’t know if you remember but Geohot said a few weeks ago that he would give us an untethered jailbreak if he won some kind of contest. Well he lost! And we all lose too!

I don’t know how I feel about that. I mean, the kid is completely in his right to not develop an untethered jailbreak. But somehow, I feel like when you have such a great gift as he has, you kinda have a responsibility towards the community.

Again, he’s free to do whatever he wants but I think it’s very childish to say “I”l give you what you want IF I win this stupid contest” and have us hold our breath. Then of course we’re all disappointed when we realize that he lost the contest and he’s not going to give us what we want.

One thing is sure: the Dev Team will not let us down. The Dev Team will not play game with us and they will not have us wait and hope in vain. As I said in an article a few weeks ago, I believe the Dev Team is up to something and might very well surprise us.

What do you think about how Geohot is acting?

Is GeoHot really going to work on an untethered jailbreak for the iPhone 3GS? That’s what he mentioned in a tweet yesterday.

As usual, in order to get him motivated, you have to do something in exchange. He wants you to make #dudeitsaballoon a trending topic on Twitter. I haven’t really looked into it as I don’t have much time while traveling, but it has something to do with red balloons in the sky.

Some of you may be interested in this untethered jailbreak as it is a pain the the butt to always have to plug your iPhone every time you want to reboot.

So, what are these red balloons about?

Yesterday GeoHot gave us a quick sneak peek at BlackSn0w and told us BlackSn0w would be bundled into BlackRa1n RC3, due to be released on November 4th.

Good news came earlier today from GeoHot when he wrote in a blog post that Sn0wDay was coming one day ahead of schedule.

At Noon EST, 5 PM GMT, I will be making it sn0w, and I’m looking to see “#blacksn0w” trending. blacksn0w is the unlock for the latest 05.11.07 baseband, and will also enable official tethering. blackra1n, a jailbreak for 3.1.2, has been updated to RC3, with hacktivation support, 15 second speed improvement, Tiger+PPC support, and installation of the latest blackra1n.app.

Here is what’s important to note:

• BlackSn0w will unlock baseband 05.11.07
• BlackSn0w will enable tethering

UPDATE: BlackRa1n RC3 and BlackSn0w tutorials are up:

• BlackRa1n RC3 tutorial
• BlackSn0w unlock tutorial

GeoHot gave us a sneak peek at BlackSn0w earlier today, revealing the icon of his long awaited iPhone unlock as well as details on how it will work when it’s released on November 4.

From what I understand, BlackSn0w will be bundled into BlackRa1n RC3. You will have to jailbreak your iPhone with BlackRa1n first, then run BlackSn0w.

As a reminder, BlackSn0w will be the first solution to unlock the iPhone 3.1.2 with baseband 05.11.07. So all of you who accidentally updated your iPhone in iTunes and are now locked out of their carrier can rejoice!

As you can see, Icy is not part of BlackRa1n anymore which is probably due to the fact that the developers of Icy decided to stop maintaining it.

As usual, I will be updating the site with a BlackSn0w tutorial when it comes out. However, I will be flying from Los Angeles to Brisbane Australia when BlackSn0w is released tomorrow, so I might be a little late on delivering the news. My top priority when I land in Australia will be to find some internet and update the blog, so stay tuned!

UPDATE: BlackRa1n RC3 and BlackSn0w tutorials are up:

• BlackRa1n RC3 tutorial
• BlackSn0w unlock tutorial

GeoHot finally came back to reality and realized that working for Jody Sanders was not a good move. For those of you who haven’t followed the story, let me give you a quick summary.

A week ago, GeoHot said he wouldn’t work on an iPhone unlock for baseband 05.11.07. Then Jody Sanders came in and offered him $10,000 for BlackSn0w, the iPhone unlock. Surprisingly, GeoHot accepted the offer, which created a lot of noise in the jailbreak/unlock community.

Most people didn’t really understand the situation and thought it was a good thing for GeoHot to get paid $10,000. Truth is, Jody Sanders is a bad guy, a scammer who’s been stealing and illegally reselling jailbreaks and unlocks for a couple years and being paid by him didn’t really send the right message.

This morning, GeoHot wrote a blog post in which he explains why he declined the $10,000 and why it’s important you should never have to pay for a jailbreak or an unlock:

First off, Jody Sanders, I am declining your $10,000. Why? Because you, and the rest of the iPhone unlock sites out there are scum. You make money selling freeware; that’s not cool, and I am in no way going to legitimize it.

Seriously, the people who really lose here are the customers. These sites are full of blatant lies, claiming to have unlocks for 05.11.07 People buy them, and are told the unlock is in development, and the release date is unknown. Imagine you bought a cup of coffee and were told it’s in development? Recently, many of these sites sent out e-mails saying they made major breakthroughs and the unlock will be ready 11/04/09. Coincidence that that’s the release date of blacksn0w?

A little further down the post, he says:

I’ll give you a whitelist, two people make unlocks, me and the dev team. Every iPhone unlock site you see out there is selling our stuff, repackaged in some form or another. Same goes for jailbreaks, although ih8sn0w and chronicdev are legit. Notice what all the legit ones have in common? They are free.

I suggest you read the full post at GeoHot’s blog. It’s worth it!

And remember, you should never ever have to pay for an unlock or jailbreak. If you can’t figure it out by yourself, come to this blog as we’re always up to date on the latest jailbreaks and unlocks news, with full detailed tutorials.

GeoHot just published a video of the first unlocked iPhone running OS 3.1.2 and baseband 05.11.07 using BlackSn0w. Earlier this week, GeoHot was offered $10,000 to work on the 05.11.07 unlock. Initially, he said it would take him 24 hours. It’s been more than 24 hours but it’s still darn impressive.

BlackSn0w hasn’t been released to the public yet. My guess is that GeoHot is still testing it. BlackSn0w is supposed to work on both the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS and will unlock to any carrier.

We don’t know when BlackSn0w will be released but I’ll sure try to be on top of it and let you guys know.

Are you excited?

There is good news for those of you who accidentally updated their iPhone to firmware 3.1.2 in iTunes and updated the baseband to 05.11.07. After being offered a bounty of $10,000, GeoHot started working on BlackSn0w, an unlock for the iPhone 3.1.2 baseband 05.11.07, and it seems he’s getting closer to finding a solution.

In a blog post titled “A Heap of Trouble“, GeoHot posted the following image:

If you zoom in the image, you can read this:

hello there, this is geohot
this is the most complicated injection i have ever done, and it uses a public command
… prepare for blacksn0w, although i gotta still figure out this zamboni

GeoHot said on Twitter that BlackSn0w is still ways away so don’t expect it to be released tonight.

When I see how shaky BlackRa1n is, I will probably stay away from BlackSn0w and I will patiently wait for the Dev Team to release an update to UltraSn0w. That’s just me though.

Are you eager to get your hands on BlackSn0w? Will you use BlackSn0w, or like me, will you wait for the Dev Team to release their own iPhone unlock?