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imei posts

Indian government hoping to weed out IMEI-less handsets

by Darren Murph posted Dec 22nd 2008 @ 6:32PM

Nokia has already taken upon itself an initiative to cull the widespread adoption of knockoff handsets (also referred to as Fokias in the underground) in India, but now it seems the nation's government is stepping up to help out. Reportedly, over 25 million Chinese-sourced handsets in India are making / receiving calls without an international mobile equipment identity (IMEI) number to identify it, and authorities believe these phones enable terrorists to communicate more easily in undetected fashion. Recently, it moved to delay a ban on IMEI-less handsets from January 6, 2009 to March 31, 2009, though it seems as if a special IMEI-loading software could enable those with knockoffs to continue using them lawfully. Way to think green, India.

[Via OnlyGizmos, thanks Annkur]

UniquePhones closing in on successfully unlocking iPhone

by Darren Murph posted Jul 8th 2007 @ 11:44PM

Alright, so it's not entirely impossible to unlock the iPhone, but we'd wager that the majority of folks looking to do so would enjoy keeping the whole "phone" functionality in tact. Enter UniquePhones, a Belfast-based firm that is reportedly on the verge of developing an application that will "allow customers to unlock their Apple iPhones so they can use SIM cards from carriers other than AT&T to activate the mobiles." The firm's founder has stated that a team of engineers are frantically working to "break the encryption process that protects the token sent through the iTunes activation process to an iPhone's firmware." Users can expect to pay around $49.99 for the software necessary to unlock the handset (if it indeed surfaces), but a number of analysts have unsurprisingly suggested that the loop would again be closed by Apple the very next time dubious users synced with iTunes.