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Hackers used the term “jailbreak”
to signify the act of superseding the restrictions
iPhone’s to install illegal software in the gadget.
The first step the owner of an iPhone must take so
that he can later carry out the hack to open the
handset is to jailbreak it, allowing it to work with
another carrier.
After it was first launched in 2007 of June, the
first iPhone was very vulnerable and was therefore
not hard to jailbreak and hackers broke into the
handset almost immediately, according to experts.
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Jailbreaking quickly accelerated. Almost
immediately, hackers were able to reverse-engineer
important portions of the iPhone API, opening
opportunities to installing and creating and
3rd-party applications for the gadget. Utilities,
games, and even customized wallpapers and themes
improved the handset’s capabilities.
To the enthusiasts of Apple, this was thrilling. At the
time, there was no App Store for the iPhone, so actually
jailbreaking was the key to acquiring more than just the
small number of basic apps made available by Apple.
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A hacker named Hotz announced in August 2007 that
with the Dev Team (an assembly of hackers that post
jailbreak instructions and tools) he had unlocked
the iPhone. Afterwards, Hotz introduced software
that can be employed by anyone in the world to make
their iPhone function with the SIM card of any
carrier.
With the launch of Apples official App
Store in July 2008, the jailbreaking got less
thrilling.
The App Store grew fast with over a
hundred thousand apps to date.
This made the act of jailbreaking seem less important to the average
owner of an iPhone, since downloading from apps
sanctioned by Apple are risk-free.
Apple applied for the trademark of “iPhone” in
October 2002 in Australia, the United Kingdom,
Singapore, and the EU (European Union). |
An application in Canada followed in 2004 of October and an
application in New Zealand followed in 2006 of September.
Only the Australian and Singapore trademark
applications have been approved as of October 2006.
A company named Ocean Telecom Services filed for the
trademark of “iPhone” in 2006 of September in the
U.S., Hong Kong, United Kingdom, and later in
Trinidad and Tobago.
Since the applications for trademark filed by Ocean
Telecom employed precisely the same words as the
application in New Zealand by Apple, it is
understood that the application of Ocean Telecom is
on Apple’s behalf.
According to AT&T, that even after the iPhone
owner’s contract has expired, the handset cannot be
unlocked.
AT&T in the U.S on March 26, 2009 started selling the iPhone
sans a contract, although the handset is still SIM-locked to
their system.
It was discovered though that such units of iPhone are
usually two times more expensive than those with contracts,
because AT&T and Apple lose subscription income. On 2009
July 17, AT&T said that they will no longer offer iPhones
sans contracts.
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