The need to unlock iPhone 4 units exists for everyone in the U.S. who owns one but doesn’t want to be locked out from using the cell phone service provider of their choice. The process is called SIM unlocking, by which the phone being unlocked is made able to accept any SIM card and operate on any network.
Unlocking iPhones may also be necessary in order to utilize them in a foreign country. An unlocker enables access by the user to the phones computer operating system, allowing him or her root access.
Software to unlock iPhone models is readily available online and, as a bit of a surprise, two and a half million sites are returned when doing a simple search on ‘unlock iPhone 4′. There are thousands of programs designed to unlock an iPhone. You just need to find the right one for your phone and your specific purposes.
The reason why iPhones are locked in the first place is because the manufacturer, Apple, wants to control your use of their devices. This includes their iPhones, iPads and iPod Touch devices. Without first being unlocked, these devices are able to only use applications available from Apple’s store. Once unlocked, however, they are open to use any of the thousands of other applications available, even though not authorized by Apple. The whole process has become a real cat and mouse game between Apple and the hackers who make it their business to bypass the manufacturer’s locking procedures.
Each time Apple comes out with a new version of the software for their cell phones they include some kind of patch to make iPhone unlocking software currently on the market no longer viable. As soon as this software is released, however, the hackers get busy again to figure out how to beat the system. Programs currently available include:
- iphone v3.1 (unlock)
- iphone v3.1.2 (unlock)
- iphone v3.1.3 (unlock)
- iphone -3g (unlock)
- iphone -3gs (unlock)
Now that the new iPhone 4 has hit the market, 4.0.1 software has also been released and, as per usual, new programs to unlock iPhone 4 models are also now available. And so it goes – another round of cat and mouse. With this new software release, however, Apple has stopped signing firmware for the previous versions. This, then, requires those who need to restore their firmware to upgrade to the new 4.0 version, which makes it difficult or impossible to use older applications on their phones… and the game goes on!