You are here: Home / 2009 / January / Happy New Unlock!

Happy New Unlock!

By Matt Radford on January 1, 2009

Happy New Year from everyone at All About iPhone!

The big news this morning is that the iPhone 3G software unlock has been released via Cydia. So if you have a jailbroken iPhone and want to be able to use a different SIM, the unlock will be in the repository shortly.

More information is available on the iPhone Dev-Team blog.

Best wishes for 2009.

  • Leon

    Shame that this seems to be working for almost almost no-one apart from the yanks at the moment.

    Bit of a pain because you have to update your baseband and render your iPhone practically useless with your unlock chip in the process of trying this unlock.

    I’m on t-mobile in the uk and I’m stupid enough to try this. I will report back. I’m hoping that the problem most people are having is with them using custom firmware files without the latest baseband included. The new baseband is REQUIRED.

    Shame that the Dev team couldn’t release the unlock demonstrated with older firmware as essentially all those now trying this unlock solution – myself included – are guinea pigs who may end up with practically unusable iPhones

    I’m still grateful for their work though, and I’m confident a fix will come out promptly should the unlock fail

  • http://www.allaboutiphone.net Matt Radford

    I’ve just tried the updated 0.9.1 yellowsn0w and still no joy – it allows the SIM but reports it as O2, and doesn’t allow any calls. Hopefully this will be fixed soon.

  • Leon

    the only positive result I’ve seen for uk so far is for Vodafone.

    Just a few things to try:

    Turning OFF any pins

    Rebooting the phone WITH the sim installed, waiting a minute then pulling sim out, waiting and reinstalling.

    Following the above but turning OFF 3g

    Turning off and on airplane mode after waiting a minute.

    I was expecting this to be a fairly straighforward. Even if removing and reinstalling the sim eventually gives signal this is still hardly an ideal solution: probably a worse one than my sim chip.

    I hope the solution improves quickly – at the moment I’m still undecided if I should perform the update or not to use this unlocker – my main issue with the unlock chip I have at the moment is delayed messages and dropped signal/ 3g but even this is better than nothing.

  • Leon

    Matt,

    here is a working fix

    Install SB settings. Swipe horizontally across the top of the screen to open it and ensure the airplane toggle is there. If it isnt go to MORE and switch on the toggle.

    Install Mobile Terminal which is in the Featured Packages list in Cydia.

    Ensure your sim is installed then…

    REBOOT

    Go straight to TERMINAL on the Springboard

    type: yellowsn0w -c

    RETURN

    then yellowsn0w -q

    RETURN

    …wait for TWENTY SECONDS

    then open up SBsettings with a finger swipe; toggle aircraft mode off, wait TEN seconds then switch back on.

    You will no have a consistant, fully working service.

    You can even toggle 3g and aircraft mode on an off with no need for a reboot.

    Hope this helps, its actually quicker than it sounds, and much better than an unusable phone.

    This info is mostly borrowed from a Hackint0sh post and works on o2, T-Mobile and Vodafone on my iPhone 3g.

  • trifin

    They have updated yellowsn0w twice today already!

    kudos to the devteam!!!

    if you are having problems make sure you have the new version and see if that helps.

    the comments on their blog have loads of tips if you are having problems.

  • Leon

    The latest update (0.9.6) is pretty much flawless now for me with all tested sims. No need to pull the sim out or enter airplane mode, just put the required sim in and boot the phone up.

    Very happy after a slightly worrying new year!

  • http://www.allaboutiphone.net Matt Radford

    0.9.6 worked with a Vodafone SIM for me, but the carrier still says “O2-UK”. Something’s not quite right!

  • Leon

    Reset network settings in the settings menu and reboot