"Apple's unique tactic for its first foray into the cellular handset market has been to sign an exclusivity deal with one operator in each country where the iPhone has been released... Last week Vodafone went to the German courts to argue that Apple's deal with T-Mobile was anti-competitive. On Wednesday the court agreed to a preliminary injunction forcing T-Mobile to sell iPhones that are not locked to its network, meaning that SIM cards from rival operators will be useable in the devices."

About time Apple raised the ire of anti-competition watchdogs. Now, how can I get my hands on these officially unlocked iPhones?

"The company said in a statement on Monday that it has found "irreparable damage" caused to the phone's software by many of the unlocking tools currently available... The iPhone will also be unfixable, as the company pointed out that unlocking the iPhone is a violation of the licensing agreement and voids the warranty."

Ouch, a US 400 buck brick. Ah well, at least it's a pretty one :) My bet is that we'll start seeing PSP-style hacked OE firmware.

"Considering how much amusement can be had by using the MacBook Pro's accelerometers for completely unintended purposes, it stands to reason that hacking into the iPhone's sensors would be a virtually endless font of entertainment... power of the iPhone's 3-axis accelerometer is largely untapped in the OS itself, so it'll be great fun to see what sorts of crazy business the homebrew folks can dream up."

Pretty cool video. There's so much more than can be done with accelerometers, but implement it too fast and the consumers won't be ready and won't like the device.

"A few days ago, Scott Gilbertson declared “[t]he iPhone is Internet Explorer 4 all over again,” alluding to the walled-off nature of many web sites and apps being developed just for the iPhone (as they were back in the day with IE 4). Joe Hewitt was quick to reply, arguing that being like IE 4 is not such a bad thing, claiming that the devices drives innovation on the web, which is what’s needed."

The arguments are interesting - do check out the linked Joe Hewitt post too. Ultimately, the problem with standards are that they will always be behind, and won't allow the specific integration needed to create a good, extensible platform.

"For those new iPhone owners who have been wearing that touchscreen keyboard out by sending as many texts as your thumbs can muster, you've probably been greeted by an unexpectedly large box from your neighborhood carrier. For Justine, that meant receiving "over 300 pages" of detailed billing from AT&T that spelled out every single SMS (and call, we presume) sent and received."

LOL, that's funny as - comes in a box! The greenies must be jumping up and down, fuming :)

"It's high noon, Apple and AT&T -- we really hate to break it to you, but the jig is up. Last night the impossible was made possible: right in front of our very eyes we witnessed a full SIM unlock of our iPhone with a small piece of software. It's all over, guys... we can confirm with 100% certainty that iPhoneSIMfree.com's software solution completely SIM unlocks the iPhone, is restore-resistant, and should make the iPhone fully functional for users outside of the US."

About time, of course until Apple issues a patch to lock it again. I can see a battle brewing, like the ongoing PSP homebrew firmware battle.

"Oops, researchers just unveiled a pretty serious security vulnerability in the iPhone.Researchers at Independent Security Evaluators have used the vulnerability to take malicious control of the iPhone from rogue websites loaded with the exploit. Once in, researchers have full administrative access over the phone allowing them to listen in on room audio or snatch the SMS log, address book, call history, email passwords and more -- we're talking full access to your phone."

Wow, did Apple rush the iPhone a bit too much?

"Nicole Lazzro is founder of XEODesign, which helps game companies make their games better (she’s been running that for 14 years)."

Interesting interview, but it's a bit disturbing that people get pleasure out of stroking their iPhone. I do like the 'easy fun' concepts, just like people who click their pens incessantly.

"Attackers could exploit a bug in this feature to trick a victim into making phone calls to expensive "900" numbers or even keep track of phone calls made by the victim over the Web, said Billy Hoffman, lead researcher with SPI Labs. The iPhone could even be stopped from dialing out, or set to dial out endlessly, he said. "Because this vulnerability can be launched from Web sites, everybody who has an iPhone has the potential to get exploited," Hoffman said."

Apple couldn't have overlooked such a simple thing, could they? Check out the comment - not sure if it works, but iif it does it's a big problem. Even WM warns you before it dials numbers from other apps.