Holiday Gift Guide »

Unlocking your non-AT&T SIM for iPhone just got easier – TurboSIM

Categories: Announcements, Apple, AT&T, iPhone
By: , IntoMobile
Wednesday, August 15th, 2007 at 8:13 PM

iPhone SIM unlockWouldn’t it be nice if we could just software unlock our iPhones to work on any carrier we wanted? While we’re eagerly awaiting a fully-unlocked, “Holy Grail” solution from our favorite iPhone hackers, we’ll just have to make do with SIM unlocking hacks. The SuperSIM hack that we covered previously will definitely get you up and running on a non-AT&T network, but that particular workaround only worked on V1 SIM cards and required a separate SIM reader/writer.

The newest, and arguably easier, SIM hack comes to us from simbunch and uses the Bladox Turbo SIM. This TurboSIM hack does away with the SIM reader/writer in favor of using just the iPhone.

Grab yourself  TurboSIM from Bladox (they’re understandably back-ordered right now, so you’ll have to wait in line) and follow these instructions (from simbunch):

  • Jailbreak (link applicable for Windows users)
  • SSH enabled (link applicable for Windows users)
  • iPhone activated using your own AT&T SIM’s token (DVD Jon’s PhoneActSrv will not work!)
    (eg. iASign method using AT&T’s ICCID. Link applicable for Windows users)
  • You have the Turbo SIM – Blank Version available from Bladox or Votech

Once you have done all that, you can begin with the TurboSIM installation process:

  • Connect to your iPhone via SSH
    (I’m using SFTP in my example)
  • Download turbo-cable-utils-iPhone-0.7.0-rev1.tar.gz
    (much thanks to Zf_)
  • Unzip it, and place the entire content of the folder bin-iPhone into the iPhone’s /bin directory.
    (You can remove the bins after you’re done if you want. Ignore the folder patch.)
  • Give executable permission to these files. Chmod +x <filename>, or chmod permission to 0755 if you’re using a client like WinSCP
  • Download applesaft-0.92.tar.gz
  • Unzip it, go to the bin folder in the file you’ve just unzipped, and you will find the file applesaft.trb
  • Copy applesaft.trb into your iPhone’s home directory (/private/var/root)
  • Disable CommCenter
    • Download and/or open the file /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.CommCenter.plist on your iPhone
    • Add <key>Disabled</key><true/> just above the text </dict>
    • Save file and/or upload it back
  • Restart iPhone

[Via: simbunch]

About The Author

Will Park

Will hails from The City of Angels - Los Angeles, California. He spends his time playing with his numerous gadgets and looking forward to seeing what future holds for mobile technology. An avid promoter of a fully "digital" life, he promotes the widespread adoption of truly mobile, paper-less living. He dreams of the day when he can go completely digital. No more snail mail, paper receipts, bound books, notepads/spiral notebooks, credit cards, hard currency. He's a digital warrior - fighting for the converged life. He is an idealist and a realist - he has a perfect view of what the world should be but knows that the world is not perfect. Can we ever hope to see Will's dream become reality? We'll see...