January 2 - 9:20am EST   As promised in December, the unofficial iPhone Dev Team has released an initial beta version of yellowsn0w, its new iPhone hack. The code represents the first serious software effort to unlock the iPhone 3G, which has otherwise resisted any hacking beyond basic jailbreaking. Applying the unlock currently requires the use of Cydia or Installer. [full story]

December 22 - 9:30am EST   The unofficial iPhone Dev Team has released a video demonstrating its upcoming software unlock for the iPhone 3G. Dubbed "yellowsn0w," the hack is said to be relatively simple and quick to run; after substituting an iPhone-specific SIM card for one from an unofficial carrier, users launch the appropriate app or root code, which checks for baseband vulnerability before making necessary changes. When a phone is ready, the carrier identifier in the upper-left corner should switch over. [full story]

December 16 - 10:15am EST   The iPhone Dev Team has announced that its long-awaited software unlock for the iPhone 3G should be released on New Year's Eve. The unlock has been completed, and is currently being packaged into a user-friendly application, expected to be no more complicated than other iPhone hacking applications such as QuickPwn and BootNeuter. [full story]

December 5 - 5:10pm EST   USBfever has released a new SIM Unlock Card, which it says is compatible with the v2.2 iPhone firmware. The card should theoretically allow the use of different networks' SIM cards in an iPhone 3G, without having to resort to the risks posed by jailbreaking. The 10mm-thick Unlock Card is positioned parallel to a user's own SIM card, and can also be used in any other locked mobile phone. [full story]

September 9 - 12:40am EDT   Although pricing information was not mentioned, Russia-based Vimpelcom on Monday announced it would offer the iPhone with no subsidy, since Russian law dictates that locked phone are illegal. Reuters reveals that Vimpelcom CEO Alexander Izosimov confirmed the move at the Reuters Russia Investment Summit, continuing upon an official launch confirmation in late August. An estimated half-million unlocked iPhone handsets already see use by Russians. [full story]

August 13 - 4:55pm EDT   People looking to unlock their iPhone 3Gs should avoid the hardware-based SIMable option, according to a member of the unofficial iPhone Dev Team, producers of PwnageTool. The coder notes that the modern 3G baseband chip has been designed around SIM-based hardware hacks, and so any attempt at them must use fake identifiers. This information is said to "leak" into cellular networks, generating errors. [full story]

August 11 - 11:30pm EDT   After a recent patch ruined unlocking efforts on the v2.0 iPhone operating system, a new card is allegedly allowing users to use alternate carriers on the iPhone 3G, called SIMable. Blogger Pat Phelan on Monday posted a clip of an unlocked iPhone 3G running on the Vodafone network in Ireland, after supposedly running SIMable on the otherwise-unmodified device. Phelan is running small giveaway of the application, but notes that the developer does not guarantee its performance. [full story]

July 19 - 9:45pm EDT   (Updated with developer admissions) iPhoneinfused.com claims they have created a one-click solution to unlocking the iPhone 3G. Videos on the site show the software unlocking the iPhone 3G, allowing it to work with other SIM cards (T-Mobile, AT&T prepaid, and more). iPhoneinfused.com says the software works with Mac and Windows, and completes in three minutes. The company offers a 100-percent money-back guarantee and lifetime membership for $40. [full story]

July 10 - 11:05pm EDT   Just hours after the iPhone 2.0 operating system went live on Apple's servers, it was revealed to have been jailbroken for quite some time, with the iPhone Dev Team set to release its Pwnage tool in the coming weeks. Gizmodo reveals it has been using the jailbroken iPhone 2.0 for its Push email test coverage, with the unreleased Pwnage tool having been available privately for the last couple of weeks, since build version 5A345. [full story]

June 13 - 7:05pm EDT   The Ziphone iPhone unlocking and jailbreaking application was revealed on Friday to support the new v2.0 iPhone OS, the final version of will ship next month. A post in the developer's blog reveals that the application enables support for the device on many international networks, including AT&T, Rogers and Fido in Canada, T-Mobile, Vodaphone, TIM, Claro, and many others. Ziphone is available for iPhone owners on either Mac OS or Windows. [full story]

April 2 - 1:50pm EDT   Orange France, the official wireless carrier for Apple iPhone in France, has broken its silence regarding iPhone sales figures, revealing that it has sold 90,000 iPhones in total since the device went on sale in late November last year through January 31st, 2008 according to Pocket-Lint. 86 percent of those phones were sold with one of Orange's tariff packages, while 14 percent were sold as legally unlocked. O2 UK recently revealed that the iPhone is its fasting selling device for the UK, noting that the device has helped it achieve 9.5-percent revenue growth during the final quarter for 2007. While O2 did not provide specific sales numbers for the device alone, it said ... [full story]

February 29 - 6:10pm EST   A Mac-only guide describing how to jailbreak Apple's iPhone 1.1.4 and SIM unlock the device has surfaced alongside a graphical user interface port of the Debian APT package management system for iPhone. The new guide, posted on IntoMobile, takes users step by step through the process of jailbreaking -- or gaining filesystem read/write access -- the iPhone and unlocking it for use with wireless carriers other than Apple's exclusive partners. [full story]

February 22 - 4:10pm EST   Despite Apple's optimistic target of 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008, some analysts are skeptical, and others say the device may not be as profitable for the company as originally thought. According to MarketWatch, Apple faces an additional challenge in that as many as one million iPhones are unaccounted for on partner networks, and are assumed to be unlocked. These "missing" iPhones could ultimately contribute to almost $1.3 billion in lost subscription revenue over two years, should Apple meet the goal of 10 million sold. [full story]

February 12 - 3:50pm EST   Comprising an estimated 1 million total units, the iPhone gray market has become a major force in the worldwide mobile phone sales community, stretching from China to Prague to South America. Claiming confirmation of the fact that 800,000 to 1 million iPhones, or about one-fourth of the total sold, have been sold as "unlocked" devices in countries outside Apple's official carrier domain, BusinessWeek profiles some of the more aggressive gray market peddlers who have made a killing on selling the device for unauthorized wireless service providers. [full story]

February 8 - 12:10pm EST   An iPhone hacker has discovered a new way to unlock Apple's iPhone firmware version 1.1.2 without the need to downgrade to a prior firmware revision and then re-upgrade after unlocking the device. The unlock technique relies on a bug that allows hackers to erase the contents of memory within a range of specific addresses, coupled with a second bug that allows users to copy data before validation occurs. [full story]