The Tyranny of the Job’s Determination.

So it seems that Apple’s definition of ‘unlocked’ is not quite the same as what the rest of us think of when we say ‘unlocked’ when referring to a mobile phone. No, apparently there are some rather determined folks at Apple who have figured out that, in France at least, all they have to do is comply with the letter of the law…

According to this article at iphoneatlas.com, Apple’s so called ‘unlocked’ iPhones in France are actually only unlocked in France - in other words, they are ‘country locked’ to the domestic carriers that operate in France. Imagine that for a second - you buy an unlocked iPhone in France (parting with almost US$1,000 in the process), you travel to another country and buy a local SIM (as many, many people do) and bang! You get… nothing!

I don’t know about you, but this would seriously $@%# me right off! What is the point of an unlocked phone that actually isn’t unlocked? You can probably buy almost any other ‘unlocked’ phone in France (or anywhere else for that matter) and literally use any SIM you like - wherever you are. And…actually…um, I think that is meant to be THE WHOLE IDEA! GSM stands for “Global System for Mobile communications” - not “Go Suck on a Melon”!

But alas… it appears that someone in Apple is just too clever for the rest of us. And apparently, nothing happens at Apple unless Steve Jobs says so, so I imagine that it’s Steve himself behind this. And that seems to be in-character doesn’t it? From what little I have seen of Mr Jobs in videos of interviews and keynotes etc, I would say this has his fingerprints all over it. He certainly seems utterly determined to stick it to those who would foil his global domination plan!

Then again… I could be wrong. To be honest, I’m surprised that a little graphic doesn’t appear of a face with it’s tongue poking out when you put a non-French SIM in… maybe that will be in the next firmware release.

And so far, the latest firmware version 1.1.2 iPhones with the new 4.6 bootloader seems to have stumped the would-be unlock hackers - at least for the moment. That’s 2 strikes up for Apple!

But really, what is the point of this? Apple obviously made the additional money it would have got from a contract on the initial purchase price. This surely can only be intended to stop these phones being exported out of France? And so…the battle to unlock the iPhone continues unabated.

The Hacking Paradox is… Security.

The remarkable side-effect of this very public battle is that the iPhone is slowly becoming more and more secure! Every possible exploit found by the army of unlock hackers is being fixed promptly - to the point where it looks like they are now getting pretty rare. In fact, the iPhone may well turn out to be one of the most secure, hack-proof mobile phones on the planet as a result! So much for the iPhone security nay-sayers!

Perhaps even this, is all just part of Steve’s Master Plan…