iHack: Photograph by David Paul Morris/Getty
Apparently something called "The iPhone" launched over the weekend, and it's already got a gang of hardcore hackers playing with it and trying to decouple it from the AT&T network. The latest? Jon Lech Johansen - better known as DVD Jon.
Johansen explains that he's found a way to activate an iPhone without paying AT&T a penny. Meanwhile, the people at The Unofficial Apple Weblog have also had a crack, and have a different way to make it contract free.
Of course, there's one crucial element missing from all these hacks - they mean you can't actually use the iPhone as a phone. Which, personally, seems to make it just an extremely complex and expensive way of buying a touchscreen 6G iPod and/or Wi-Fi browser.
In recent weeks I've had to explain this countless times to excitable colleagues, friends and family why they won't be able to go to the US, buy an iPhone and stick their British Sim card in it. But as each workaround develops, so too does the possibility of an AT&T free handset.
