iPhone teen gets lucky
- August 27, 2007 4:29 PM |
- By Pete Nowak
by Peter Nowak, CBCNews.ca
Further to last week's news about the New Jersey teen who figured out a way to hack Apple's iPhone so that it works on wireless networks other than AT&T's - it looks like he has struck it rich, in a manner of speaking. Or did he? Seventeen-year-old George Hotz had to cancel the eBay auction of his cracked phone because of suspected fake bids. Once they got over $10,000 US he apparently started to get suspicious.
But then there's the good news. Hotz announced on his blog that Terry Daidone, founder of Certicell, which refurbishes old phones, got in touch and offered him a brand new Nissan 350Z roadster (not Mazda, as we mentioned yesterday - thanks to sharp-eyed readers for pointing it out!) and three new 8-gigabyte iPhones in exchange for the hacked device. Hotz, being somewhat of a car buff, jumped at the deal and plans to give the phones to three techies that helped him hack the device. "This has been a great end to a great summer," he wrote on his blog.
Of course, that didn't stop some people from criticizing Hotz in comments on his blog. "If any of the really high bids were legit, you could have bought your whole team cars. I think this was really bad decision making," one person wrote. Given that the news of his breakthrough made international headlines, some suggest he didn't cash in enough from his 15 minutes of fame. Or was he simply not being greedy?
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- Tara Kimura
is a multimedia producer for CBCNews.ca.
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Comments (11)
If his comments are to be believed, the reason he hacked the phone in the first place was in order to allow others to freely copy the hack. It never was about the money, so the fact that he got anything beyond the recognition was purely a bonus. A bird in the hand....good for him!
Nissan 350Z.
The old adage "quit while you're ahead" comes to mind. As it stands, this kid has got a new 350Z (correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that a Nissan?) and 3 new phones. Sounds like a good deal to me.
I'm not even sure if greed even comes into play here, CBC. The kid did something completely amazing and was offered one of his favorite things. It reminds me of bribing a kid with candy while you take that object from them that you're worried they'll hurt themself with. A substitution, the car in this case, is a pacifier. Once that hacked device (if it ever does) is actually produced in mass amounts, I think the kid might just realize it would have been a better investment to hang on to the thing.
I'm amazed Apple haven't gone after the kid for infringement and unauthorised modifications to the hardware. Not to mention the lost revenue AT&T are going to suffer over this.
Why would Apple go after him? It was his purchased product, you are allowed to modify anything you own as you want. You just invalidate the manufacturer's warranty. That's like saying Canadian Tire should go after you if you decide to make your Mastercraft lawnmower cut grass faster.
The kid is not stealing anything or breaking any laws. AT&T still requires a contract to be signed, which the consumer would have to buy out if they wanted to use the iPhone on another service provider. Neither company has kicked up a fuss because they have no grounds for it.
I think Apple is probably pleased that they have a product that somone is prepared to devote 500 hours to. They are probably letting their potential partners in Europe and Canada mull that over before they start the bidding war for iPhone contracts in the rest of the world.
He also received a paying job offer from Certicell, who has been rather circumspect, declaring they have no plans to market a hacked iPhone. Quite frankly I think if they did it would serve Apple/AT&T right for trying to monopolize the service.
Just because Apple & AT&T have not kicked up a fuss yet is no guarantee that they won't. I'm betting that they're still assessing whether or not threatening or taking legal action will be cost-effective for them.
Big companies such as these tend to be notorious for threatening legal maneuvers, for example Microsoft and that teenager Michael Row(e?), who registered the website www.mikerow(e)soft.com and received a nice letter from MS's lawyers.
What exactly would legal action accomplish? Microsoft learned the hard way that Mike Rowe was not at fault. They ended up reaching an out-of-court settlement with him for "his expenses paid, help moving to a new site MikeRoweForums.com, a subscription to MSDN, an Xbox, training for Microsoft certification and an all-expenses-paid trip to the Microsoft Research Tech Fest for him and his parents".
Can you imagine what George Hotz would be able to squeeze out of Apple and AT&T if they dared? Bet he'd end up with more than his current haul of a few extra iphones, a job, and a new car.
This is probably a violation of the ELU, though. Very different from Mike Rowe.