Vietnamese Hacker Unlocks iPhone 3G at Hardware Level
Vietnamese Hacker Unlocks iPhone 3G at Hardware Level
We have heard about the hardware-method to unlock iPhone 3G using turbo or proxy SIM cards (which does not work with iPhone firmware 2.2). We have also reported about the iPhone dev team who are working tirelessly to release their software method to unlock iPhone 3G and appear to be...
Comments
-
I think I will wait for the Dev team to do their magic.
-
i hope that happens before new years so i can unlock my phone for europe, i just ordered v3 from any-network, supposed to work with 2.2
-
That looks like a BGA chip, which means the solder is on the underside of the chip.
The tricky thing is removing the chip without stripping the traces on the board. This is nearly impossible to do, as you have to have a uniform temperature to melt and remove the chip. When it gets that hot, the other components that are not soldered in as well will SLIDE right off their solder spots!
Second, using a heat gun to solder the chip back on is tricky. If it gets too hot, the solder balls will melt and bleed into each other.
Instant electrical short means a dead phone.
-
I can almost say this is a fake article.
The equipment they show in the pictures are NOT adequate to do this type of soldering job.
All that is shown in the pictures are a fan for removing flux and solder residue and a bunch of gold EPROMs that are old as hell in the blue bin. If they are using/saving them for something other than gold extraction, this is a very old and low-tech shop.
Also from the low quality pictures, it seems the spot where the chip was removed from, they have already melted solder all over the place. This means a cleanup of the board and dropping new micro-balls of solder to resolder back. That, or the lower part of the chip solder pad has the traces ripped off already.
This does not look convincing at all to anyone who has done soldering.
-
The iPhone not working with an unlock SIM card after upgrading to 2.2 is not true. Whilst the SIM unlock I had in my iPhone when upgrading was locked out, another one I had laying around is still working. One caveat though, the SIM unlock I am currently using only works, if it was signed on previously. If the iPhone looses it's signal, I have to put the SIM card into another phone before it will work again in my iPhone. The SIM unlock I destroyed did not have this problem.
-
I'm an electronics Technician and and electrical Engineer and I must concur with the rest and say this article is a fake.
Jack
-
I'm an electronics Technician and and electrical Engineer and I must concur with the rest and say this article is a fake.
Jack
-
The type of soldering iron he's using ain't worth a **** full of cold water.
-
I call bullshit! Come on guys...
-
1.2 Million dong? that's a whole lot of dongs! ;-)
-
Look at the PCB! It looks like he's working on a fuckin' old 1996 Motorola StarTAC cell phone.
-
Like Jack says, this is most likely fake.
I've worked on recent cell phones and soldering them is very much a **** and I'm talking just on the chips with legs (I'm sure you know what this means). The fuses, caps, and resisters are easy compared to those.
For an example, look on your computer motherboard and look for the smallest item soldered there. Now, imagine it's a cell phone and make all the components a few times smaller.
These BGA chips are nearly impossible. I've tried this before but with very bad results, mostly with the nearby components getting heated to temperatures they were not meant for (they melted or went bad from residual heat).
-
One last thing I checked up on...
The chip that was removed is a SRAM chip (iPhone storage/memory).
The baseband (cellular modem) is the large one next to it.
Oops?
Dumb fucks. At least get it right if you're going to fake it.
-
I live in Hanoi, I go to this shop with my friends's locked iphone and saw he unlock iphone and it worked.
-
I DONT UNDERSTAND THE UNLOCK THING
I MEAN YOU HAVE TO GET A TWO YEAR CONTRACT WHEN YOU BUY ONE SO WHAT IS THE POINT? PLUS IF YOU WANT A 3G IT WILL ONLY WORK ON ATT'S NETWORK(3G PART) SO IT IS POINTLESS....IF YOU WANT TO UNLOCK FOR TMOBILE GO BUY THE FIRST GEN IPHONE -
Well for the stupid people like you it my be pointless but for the res of us who can choose between 2-3 different GSM operators with 3G networks it isn't ...
-
Not to mention that you can get the locked version for 200$ and some of us have to pay 500EURO for it and don't have an option for the unlocked one.
-
It seems that the chip removed in the pictures is indeed the "Intel NOR flash 3050M0Y0CE 5818A456":
http://content.zdnet.com/2346-9595_22-210341-51.html -
sounds a bit risky to me, could be a recipe for a knackered iphone. the dev team is your best bet to get your iphone unlocked
-
I have my 3G iphone unlocked at this shop and I was there to watch at every step the technician performed. It's not fake because there are other backpackers waiting for their iphone to be unlocked as well as well. The shop is still there and they still do this job everyday, anyone who was not convinced can send in their iphone to have it unlocked. Otherwise, typing messages would not make any point at all. There are electrical engineers and other electronics experts in this forum but still they cant unlock the iphone without waiting for the hacking group to release the software to help them.Maybe, this hacker so far the only one can hack the iphone this way. I dont care whether the article is fake or not b'cause I have my iphone done at this shop and there's no problem ever since. Keep sitting there whining and waiting while people still have their iphone unlocked and enjoying the real hack.
-
You guys are a bunch of arses stop get a freaking life
-
its possible, i work for moto on nextel/moto radios and removing/placing BGAs on PCBs by hand with a heat gun can be done. Its easier with equipment designed for that purpose, but very doable by hand.
-
ok first of all am i the only one wondering " WTF is all that rust doing on an i phone" i mean come on man its obvious that the only reason he even opened the phone is because it was ruined by water
and 2 why the hell is he soldering with a heat gun thats impossible for the plastic on other components would melt before the solder i mean come on use google .....its your friend
-
Observer, you and your Vietnamese buddy who calls himself a "technician" has no match to my skills boy... This is a fake article! If you ever come over here to North America and try to sell this **** I'll kick you in the ass so hard you'd wish you were back home picking rice.
-
The last post is that from Jack Arse or "JACK ASS" ****.
-
To all "I am skilled technician" - please tell us, how could you be a skiled technicians, when you are not able to remove only small chip? Yes, it is not easy. You might have expensive equipment, but this guy, dear guys, has lots of enthusiasm. And it is worth of yours expensive tools. By the way. Expensive tools in clamsy hands have value of nothing. I've seen such job. So please. Don't say that this is not possible just because of lack of your skills :-) Things are made different way in Asia. I grew in the communism in Czech Republic and we had nothing here before the communism was replaced by capitalism. We were able to do the same things like you, but without any cool stuff you had in these days. Things you would throw away and replace by new one we were sccessfuly repairing using almost no equipment. Everything was home made and everything worked. We are not so good now. We can buy the same **** in shops like you. So we are not forced to improvise, like it was before 1989. My last sentence: Do not underestimate other people. They might not be like you.
-
Yes, we can do hardware unlocking but after we rmove the chip and replace with another its will not work with 3G net work
-
I don't understand why so many of you guys are skeptical of this being possible.
I hope all of you know that Tuan Anh goes under the alias TA MOBILE.
If ANY of you have been following the iphone dev scene, you would know that TA MOBILE has been a GREAT contribution to it and is a very skilled person.
Not to mention, he was the person who dumped the rom off the original iphone chip for the dev teams to crack.
so stfu to all you haters.
-
That is cool if i had a place like that would do that and unlock my iphone 3g by opening it up i would do it... but i dont so i need the new turbo sim.
here is where you can get one if your want: http://buyinisrael.com/iphone3g.html
-
@stupid JohnT,
Who the f**uck do you think you are?If you don't admire other people's works , then it's fine,go home and f**uck your mom's hole.Remember, we Vietnamese had kicked you asses back to America in 1972. Don't you dare to post your loser's skills here boy.
