The latest news around the net is the iPhone hack that allows you to take the sim-locked iPhone off of AT&T and use it freely on any GSM network – making the must-have device more accessible. This is a boon to people (like us) abroad who love the iPhone but don’t want to pay AT&T’s exorbitant roaming extortion fees. Apple hasn’t taken an official stance on this issue perhaps because of a little bit of history. Maybe you’ve seen the picture to the right on Steve Wozniak’s official website: Yep. That is Steve Jobs on the left, but the most startling thing in this picture (besides Woz’s ‘do) is that young Jobs is playing with a piece of contralband called the “Blue Box.” What is a Blue Box? From Wikipedia:
We love the Steves, but it is well documented that the Apple founders got their start by hacking AT&T (from 1971-1975 AT&T was still a monopoly – just like it will be in 2010). Some of the more famous pranksters were Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, founders of Apple Computer. On one occasion Wozniak dialed Vatican City and identified himself as Henry Kissinger (imitating Kissinger’s German accent) and asked to speak to the Pope (who was sleeping at the time).1]. Therefore, it is going to be extremely difficult for Apple to take the moral high ground on the current controversy surrounding the young entrepreneurs who are hacking the iPhone. AT&T has already started hitting back at the companies that offer to untether the iPhone from the wannabe monopoly. Hey AT&T, why not put those attorney fees into better service for your customers and lower prices for your roamers? That would be a better way of keeping customers, in our opinion. Update: It turns out that the duo not only built the illegal boxes but assembled them and SOLD them on Cal Berkley’s campus for around $150. This profit was some of the money that was used to start Apple!!
More Here: Halliday, David. 1983. “Steve Paul Jobs”. Current Biography 5 (February): 204-207.
