Supernerd George Hotz, 17-year old whiz kid and future brain mechanic, managed (with the help of some online collaborators, no less) to unlock his iPhone so that he could use T-Mobile, or most of the other networks for that matter. What did he do? He traded his modified phone for a car and 3 new iPhones. The party he traded his phone to say that there are no plans "on the table" to commercialize this. *COUGH.* Sure pal, sure.
In any case, bravo George! I love it when kids are too smart for their own good and then parlay their know-how to their benefit like this.
Oh, Elmwood Art Festival - glad its over. I look forward to the festival but dealing with the annoyance of it all brings out the curmudgeon in me. Its fun for the first couple of hours, until strangers decide that your private residence is a perfect place to park their lazy asses to lick an ice cream cone and can't bear to walk the 250 feet to the pre-prepared food tent, complete with seating. Not to mention that the trash that people leave behind is ridiculous - who drops plastic wrappers in a rose garden and walks away? In general its a pain in the ass, but the neighborhood cheerfully puts this show on every year. One year I came home only to see a drunk guy passed out on my porch, with his friend sitting there with him telling me, "its cool man, its cool." No it isn't and get the fuck off my porch!
The good things involved gelato at Dolci, a couple fresh-filled canolis for (e:jason) and I and a new ashtray that I bought for $6. I got a pulled pork sandwich at Fat Bob's stand, which came without a bun because they ran out by 2PM. I have to say, the meat was completely flavorless - Fat Bob's Smokehouse is a joke. Dolci claims that they are the only place in the area that fresh fills canolis on a regular basis - is this true? There were some other items at the food court that looked interesting - I'm sure that this was well-received by the visitors. My only request - can we sort out this problem w/not serving alcohol? All I wanted was some sangria mixed with ice and I came home with an ashtray and flavorless pulled pork in a cup!
For once I was actually enthusiastic about some of the things I saw at this festival. A woodworker was demonstrating his skills making items using a pedal-powered saw - how cool! This guy was attracting a crowd of spectators and the kids definitely enjoyed it. Also, some paintings and other pictures I saw were truly impressive and not as obscenely priced as in the past. I saw a painting I wanted - $75. Unfortunately for the painting I'm about to buy a Chelsea FC home shirt, hehe. Planet Love had their hippie t-shirts, and other places had tie-dye items. I found myself admiring some of the different ceramic items - if I had a place for this stuff they would have made for excellent room decorations. I felt that some of the ceramic items were far too expensive, however. $16 for a ceramic mug? You're having a laugh! I saw a t-shirt I was so tempted to buy that I'm sure you saw if you walked the festival - Keep Elmwood Freaky! Ahhh... irony.
I was most pleased to see multiple areas where music was being performed - SORT YOURSELF OUT ALLENTOWN ART FESTIVAL! You cannot have a proper street festival without live music being performed - period, end of story. Generally I enjoyed the festival this year and we did have some great weather on Sunday to properly enjoy it. While I do complain about the problems that having this festival on my block brings along with it, there is a certain amount of pride in having an opportunity to show off your neighborhood in this way. You have to prepare for this festival - buy up all the beer and food you can get, park your car somewhere legal, don't expect to move your car unless you leave late at night, and just enjoy the two days.
Oh, and Mike Niman was hanging outside the front of my house on Saturday. For a guy on government salary as a professor, for Christ's (and everyone elses) sake couldn't he manage to clean himself up a little? It reminded me of that hilarious picture of him taken in the back seat of a cop car after being arrested by Buffalo's finest - during an altercation involving Critical Mass. That was the funniest thing the Beast ever published... hate to give them credit but cheers!
That is correct, as far as I know - he traded the phone and didn't give them step by step directions. During his interview though, he describes in a fair bit of detail what the process was that allowed him to do it.
When you purchase something you can do whatever the hell you want to with it - its a free country. Apple cannot control, legally or otherwise, what people do with their products once they are purchased. I think where the legal issue really hits is how to apply this knowledge commercially without Apple's consent - for example, I can't see how legally the company that procured this kid's iPhone can sell reconfigured iPhones to the general public. I can see this becoming an issue in the future because, well, AT&T is shit!
i dunno... just b/c he bought it doesn't mean he can just alter it, can he? at least, aside from 'for private use'... aren't there about a million patents/copyrights on every aspect of the iphone?
but maybe i read it wrong-he just sold/traded the altered phone- not instructions on HOW to alter it?
I'm not entirely sure about the legality of what he did, other than to say that a) he bought it, he's free to alter it however he likes, BUT; b) receiving compensation for his altered iPhone is a legal gray area that I'm not going to presume to understand. Since he is simply trading something he bought and not actually pursuing commercialization of his concept I'd assume he is in the clear but I'm not entirely sure. I don't think that the company would have agreed to compensate him if there were a question of legality, but you never know these days!
Yeah, Niman probably is still wearing the same t-shirt. I think the PC term for this is "earthy" yeah?
ummm, isn't it like super-illegal to hack his iphone like that? I mean I know people have been working on it since the second they came out, but can't apple sue the pants of that kid?