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Since the release of the iPhone, hackers have been trying to unlock the phone so that it could be used on networks other than that of the exclusive carrier – AT&T.

Well after a few weeks of waiting, this geek has figured it out.

He claims it just took a bunch of energy drinks, and now, his iPhone displays the T-Mobile service on the screen rather than AT&T.

He had started an eBay auction for the unlocked iPhone, but after having received too many false bids, he decided to trade the phone:

Terry Daidone, the founder of Certicell contacted me this morning, and offered to make a trade for the iPhone. I traded it for a sweet Nissan 350Z and 3 8GB iPhones. I will be sending the iPhones, unlocked if they wish, to jpetrie(the first donater), gray(the reversing genius), and iProof(who is truly amazing at finding stuff online) Thanks a lot everyone. I leave for college tomorrow, and this has been a great end to a great summer. If I ever do anything more with the iPhone, it’ll definitely be posted here. Also I contacted iphonesimfree and offered to verify on this blog their claims of a software unlock. No response yet…

Now, you won’t have to cancel your current contract if you’re with T-Mobile (like me) and you won’t have to use iTunes to activate the phone. Keep up the good work dorks!!!

Less than a week after its release, a well known Norwegian hacker has claimed to have unlocked the iPhone. The unlock is partial in that it will only allow you to use the iPhone as a music player (widescreen iPod) and the wifi internet features. His current unlocked version of the software which is available on his website (So Sue Me – Jon Lech Johansen’s Blog) will not enable any phone capabilites on the iPhone. Once he’s able to make the iPhone work on other wireless networks, then I’ll seriously consider picking up an iPhone, but as for now, I’ll just stick with what I’ve got.

An Apple spokesperson, of course, advises against using the iPhone in this manner stating that, “it is necessary to activate the iPhone on AT&T’s network to ensure optimum performance. Using the phone without AT&T’s two-year service contract was unauthorized under the phone carrier’s exclusive network service contract with Apple,” and he continued with, “Any other use of the device is not authorized and we can’t guarantee the device will perform as intended to. We’ll monitor situations like this and if necessary we will take appropriate action. Our terms and conditions are very clear.”

Read more about the iPhone Independence Day

Dell does it with computers – they let you purchase an eleven-hundred dollar machine and make monthly payments of anywhere from $30-$60 until the computer is paid off. I think it would make a ton of sense for AT&T to offer iPhone financing and iPhone payment plans for people who aren’t able to shell out five or six hundred dollars for a single phone. Lets say someone only wants to spend about $100 on a new phone – what AT&T needs to do is sign this person up on a new plan at $59.99/month and collect a $100 down payment on the phone – then just collect $20, $25, $30 per month or whatever it takes for however long it takes (an of course with a little interest stacked on top) to allow the new subscriber to pay off their brand new iPhone.

As of right now, it doesn’t seem like too many people are having any problems affording the Apple iPhone, but in a couple weeks or a couple months went the initial hype and craze wears off, financing options and monthly payment plans for the iPhone might be just the thing that will make it a feasible option for the masses.

I know, I’m just rambling, and finding a way to put Americans further into debt, but if I didn’t think up this solution, certainly someone else would. So spend on America… spend on… and stay tuned for a (in my opinion) soon to come Apple iPhone financing option.

What do you think? Would you finance an iPhone? Let’s hear your remarks!

Wireless service for the iPhone will range from $59.99 to $99.99 and will include 3 plans within that range. For $59.99 per month, you will get 450 minutes worth of iPhone talk time, for $79.99 you will get 900 minutes of iPhone talk time, and for $99.99 per month you will get 1,350 minutes worth of iPhone talk time… hardly seems worth the upgrade, you’d think that if you paid for the most expensive plan that they’d throw in a few extra minutes of talk time… maybe make it 1,500 minutes for $99.00 per month and a little 100 minute bonus for the $79.99 plan to make it 1,000 minutes worth of talk time on your iPhone.

All three iPhone rate plans include 200 text messages, unlimited data services (unlimited data will be a must for the iPhone), minutes that roll over month-to-month (classic Cingular wireless perk) and mobile-to-mobile calls. There also is a $36 activation fee for the iPhone. The Apple iPhone is expected to remove all other “smart phones” from the market with its easy to use interface and its simplistic touch screen design that only displays the buttons that you need.

Now that the release of the iPhone has been slated for June 29th 2007, we can only start to speculate about the new rate plans that AT&T (Cingular) will be offering for the hottest cell phone to ever hit the market. I’d expect AT&T to try to make a killing off of the newest release from Apple, but it looks like their rate plans will be somewhat reasonable:

$39.99 a month for 450 minutes, unlimited mobile to mobile calling, and 5,000 night and weekend minutes. The data plans will start at $4.99 a month for 200 messages OR a $19.99 a month data plan for 200 messages plus unlimited Internet and Visual Voicemail.

Looks like you’ll be spending $60/month minimum in order to get yourself rolling on the iPhone with a sweet data plan and a little bit of calling capability. $20/month for an unlimited data plan would be great… I think that’s currently what people are paying for data usage on the Blackberry.

Apple has officially announced the release date of the iPhone to be June 29th, 2007. There have apparently been 3 separate advertisements displayed for the iPhone on the Apple website specifying that the iPhone would be released on June 29th. The new videos boast the feature rich functionality of the iPhone, and like all other Apple advertising, I’m sure the ads are enticing the masses to shell out $499 for the 4GB model (or $599 for the 8GB model) for a new phone.

Analysts have been quoted as calling the initial iPhone sales estimates “too low”, others estimate that Apple will sell upwards of 10 million iPhone units by year end. Either way, good sales or bad, I think that there is only one thing that the iPhone will do for Apple stock once it is released… You guessed it, Apple stock will likely continue to rise upon the release of the iPhone, so buy it now, then sit back and watch it grow.

You can checkout the three iPhone television ads here: http://www.apple.com/iphone/ads/