the buzz log

Well, that didn't take long. The new iPhone 3G has been out just a few days and hackers have already figured out a way to unlock it.

If you have to ask what "unlock" means, you're probably still playing "snake" on your brick-sized Nokia with the rotary dialer. But we'll explain anyway. The iPhone, though admired by many, is sometimes loathed because it is tied to one particular network (in this case, AT&T).

Hackers want to unlock the phone so it can work with any carrier, while companies like Apple do their best to make this extremely difficult. It's an epic battle of nerd vs corporation. Care to guess who usually wins?

That's right, it's the hackers. At least that was the case this week. UberPhones explains that a group of Brazilians have come up with a (relatively) simple way to unlock the iPhone involving a SIM card. Yahoo! News goes into more detail on the process while macNN explains how this hack is hardware based (and not done via software). It's all very interesting, but keep in mind that there are risks.

Filed under: Apple Computer, Hacks

Hackers have always been the renegades of our wired world. This week, the security establishment has gathered at a conference in San Francisco to discuss ways to hold that renegade community at bay. While anti-hacker rhetoric gains steam among the white hats in the City, Buzz shows most hack-related searches have more to do with game mods than "Wargames."

Hacks that don't even require a computer "pwn" our top 20 list, but that's because the word "hack" has morphed. As Wikipedia notes, "the term...may be either favorable or denigrating depending on cultural context." While we don't condone illegal activity, we encourage you to study the latest in hack-based solutions...

Filed under: Hacks