According to PC World, a team of phone hackers is set to launch the first ever software-based unlock application for the iPhone 3G on New Year's Eve."¨"¨The Dev Team's YellowSn0w, is said to be a one-touch iPhone app that allows a user to insert a SIM card from another carrier and have your phone up and running in minutes.
All other methods of unlocking the iPhone have required heavy duty work on the device and/or its software.
PC World reported dev team member MuscleNerd announced via Twitter that he would demo the new app on the live video streaming service Qik. In the video, MuscleNerd switches his iPhone 3G from the AT&T network to T-mobile in a matter of minutes.
MuscleNerd reckons the team is packaging the app into a user-friendly interface by exploiting a software weakness in the iPhone's baseband radio, which is how a mobile phone communicates with the network, to release it from its exclusive tie to that network.
On the Qik video streaming service, Musclenerd notes that his SIM card has a notch in it, but says that YellowSn0w users will not have to do this. The notch simply allowed the Dev Team to easily experiment and find weaknesses with the iPhone 3G's SIM lock.
The SIM lock is how AT&T is able to stop users from switching to another carrier with the iPhone 3G by making the phone unable to recognise another carrier's SIM card, PC World says.