German carrier O2 just revealed the price tags of their latest Palm gadgets: the Palm Pre Plus and the Palm Pixi Plus. Distribution will start April 28th, 2010.
Both devices come straight unlocked from the factory to your hands and can thus be used on any GMS/3G network anywhere on this planet. Buying phones at german O2 stores don’t require O2 subscriptions.
The last weeks are full of rumors if AT&T will prolong their exclusive contracts with Apple. Rumors say the original contracts are gonna expire in the middle of 2010.
Thus allowing Apple to negotiate with different carriers like Verizon or T-Mobile. T-Mobile is currently the exclusive partner for Apple in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, and the Czech Republic.
AT&T is said is willing to prolong their contracts until the end of 2011, but Verizon and T-Mobile seem to be secretely testing Apple’s forthcoming device named internally iPhone 3,1.
» TheStreet.com: Apple iPhone May Go to T-Mobile Next…
» iPhoneFAQ.org: Analyst: AT&T Exclusive iPhone Deal Up in June…
» JKontheRun.com: A 4G iPhone on Verizon Currently Under Test?…
You ever felt like citizens of T-Mobile’s home country Germany pay a lot more for iPhone tariffs than citizens in countries you spend your vacation time like Netherlands or Austria?
Well, your feeling was right. T-Mobile is flagrant expensive here in Germany. Why? We don’t know. But we know Deutsche Telekom (parent company of T-Mobile) earned €5,5bill in Q3/2009.
Anyway, we prepped a little table with a little comprehension. Let the pictures speak. Prices for 24mth. subscriptions.
| Country | mins | SMS | Traffic | Price per mth. |
| Netherlands | 150 | 150 | unlimited | 30€ |
| Austria | 2000 | 1000 | 3GB | 25€* (50€) |
| Germany | 120 | 40 | 5GB | 50€ |
* Special X-mas offer (for the whole 24mths.), otherwise 50€/mth.
Links
» T-Mobile Netherlands…
» T-Mobile Austria…
» T-Mobile Germany…
Screenshots
T-Mobile Netherlands
T-Mobile Austria
T-Mobile Germany
Update July 5th, 2009: GeoHot now also provides a Mac OS X version of the jailbreak tool. Windows and Mac versions ready for download at purplera1n.com…
That’s it with the 3.0 firmware and the iPhone jailbreaks. Apple has been beaten again. This time by GeoHot. Although the iPhone Dev Team seems to have their programs already prepared they preferred to wait with the release of an updated PwnageTool. GeoHot did not wanna wait and decided to release a Windows based jailbreak tool for the iPhone 3Gs called PurpleRa1n.
Status
All three iPhone generations can now be activated, jailbroken and unlocked with the current firmware 3.0. Currently for the iPhone 3Gs there is only a Windows version available that is under strong beta testing. Anyway you can give it a try. The security whole that gets exploited in the iPhone 3Gs is well known as the 24k bug that has been found in january in the iPod Touch 2nd generations.
After jailbreaking, the iPhone Dev Team’s UltraSn0w should unlock your baseband.
Our recommendations
By now you know we are the conservative ones. We recommend: wait a couple of days. PurpleRa1n is still beta. But can hacks ever become stable? ;-)
More information to be found here:
» GeoHot accounces jailbreak for iPhone 3Gs…
» iPhone Dev Team confirm unlock of iPhone 3Gs…
» Get iPhone 3Gs jailbreak tool (PurpleRa1n.exe) here…
… by the iPhone Dev Team. You guys really rock. The unlock tool requires a jailbroken iPhone 3G and either Cydia or the Installer installed to download the unlock program called “yellowsn0w” from the Dev Team’s repository.
The tool gets distributed for free. Anyway some code-thieves are obviously already selling it by saying it is their work. Find further information about yellowsn0w on the Dev Team’s blog.
And yes: happy new year guys. We’re back from vacation and Berlin is full of “white snow” :-))
Our beloved iPhone Dev Team yesterday released updated versions of QuickPwn for Microsoft Windows (now with improved Windows 64bit handling) and PwnageTool for MacOS X (fixes the permission issue, mentioned here). If you have PwnageTool installed yet, it should bravely auto-update.
We had no time yet to test neither the Windows version nor the Mac version. Firmware 2.0.2 is reported to be only a series of bugfixes. People report, their devices run a little smoother. If you don’t encounter problems running your current iPhone / iPod Touch firmware, we would not recommend to update right now. It is rumored Apple will the release stable firmware 2.1 in september.
» Windows QuickPwn RC3 Download here…
» MacOS X PwnageTool 2.0.3.1 Download here (mirror here)…
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Everybody who has not already bought one of the 3G devices, we just updated the list of countries, where you can buy devices without agreements. See updated list here.
After some days of using a pwned iPhone 2G with firmware 2.0, we found some issues. As of now, we don’t know where they come from. But we definitly know: we don’t like them.
We won’t blame anyone for this, because on the one hand this could be an effect of Pwning the iPhone and on the other hand these issues might be “features” of the original unmodified firmware 2.0 aswell. See update below, this is a firmware 2.0 issue.
Anyway we feel there are heavy problems with the memory management in firmware 2.0, that need to be addressed soon. Workflow was a lot faster with firmware 1.1.4.
As of now we just reboot the iPhone once a day, but this really is no working solution for such a device. We feel this reminiscent to Windows 95 times is not necessary.
Update: it has been reported this may come from Cydia. As we’re investigating this issue, we get back to you once we found a solution.
Update: Pumpkin of the iPhone Dev Team reports this most likely is an issue of the original firmware 2.0. Native iPhone users have also experienced this behaviour (see reports here in Apple’s forums). The internet is full of reports. Do a Google search you will find plenty of people reporting these issues.
[Update] Sep, 26th: News from Hong Kong added (details here)
[Update] Aug, 25th: Apple’s list update included.
Almost unnoticed on july, 11th 2008 Apple also published a list of carriers offering the iPhone. The interesting thing with this list is, it also contains information about the status of the SIM lock in specific countries.
Apple’s official “Locked to Carrier” list
This is an extract from the official Apple list found here:
| Country | Carrier | SIM Lock | Available without Agreement |
| Italy | Vodafone | No | Yes (499€/8GB, 569€/16GB) |
| Italy | TIM | No | Yes (499€/8GB, 569€/16GB) |
| Hong Kong | 3 | No | No (375€/8GB, n.a.€/16GB) |
| Hong Kong | (Apple Store) | No | Yes (476€/8GB, 547€/16GB) |
| Greece | Vodafone | No | No (Details here) |
| Czech Republic | O2 | No | Yes (490€/8GB, 570€/16GB) |
| New Zealand | Vodafone | No | Yes (470€/8GB, 535€/16GB) |
| Singapore | SingTel | No | No (490€/8GB, 570€/16GB) |
| Slovakia | Orange | No | No? (Details) |
| Macao | 3 | No | No? (Details) |
It is rumored, the unlocked iPhones need to be activated aswell, but in this case it can be done at home using iTunes. No matter how often you change your carrier, it seems you can always re-activate.
Forum reports
In addition to the offical Apple list, this is what people report in forums:
| Country | Carrier | SIM Lock | Available without Agreement |
| Belgium | Mobistar | No | Yes (n.a.€/8GB, 615€/16GB) |
| France | Orange | Yes (100€ Unlock fee) | Yes (509€/8GB, 609€/16GB) |
This list may not be 100% accurate and refers to reports on forums, like hackint0sh. Feel free to add more details like pricing and how to obtain unlocked devices elsewhere as comments below. Thanks!
The cheapest iPhone 3G
For people living in Switzerland, Swisscom offers the iPhone 3G for beating prices between 519 CHF (=510 US$, =325€) for the 8GB version and 619 CHF (=610US$, =385€) for the 16GB version. This includes a prepaid tariff with no obligations. Disadvantages: 1. iPhone 3G is simlocked to Swisscom. You currently cannot unlock, since Proxy SIMs have heavy (legal) disadvantages (read here), 2. This offer is limited to people living in Switzerland. Your citizenship and rights of residence are checked in Swisscom stores. Tourists (=foreigners) not living in Switzerland cannot buy it.
It has been confirmed by early buyers from Hong Kong that the iPhone 3G is not SIM locked over there. However you need to sign a 24 months agreement with the carrier Hutchison Telecommunications to get hold of the iPhone and you need to activate in store.