Unlocked 3GS and App store

[Lifted]

Will an unlocked 3GS work with the app store and the rest of itunes, assuming updates aren't applied? Does apple still lock or brick the unlocked phones when applying updates?

 

[gorcorps]

They never have bricked phones after an update... whoever said that was a paranoid fool.

However, whenever you update you will have to rejailbreak and unlock but that should be pretty obvious. If you updated to the very latest firmware (4.2.1) then you may run into some problems getting it unlocked again.

To answer your original Q though, yes an unlocked 3GS will work just as it always has with both itunes and the app store. I don't believe Apple can see if you're unlocked or not, and even if they can they don't really care as it's perfectly legal and you're still paying them money.

 

[Lifted]

Great, thanks gorcorps.

 

[TheStu]

Unlocking means that you can use it on any carrier. You can actually buy unlocked iPhones from Apple, just not in the US I believe. It was jailbreaking, the act of adding thrid party app stores and features that was once bricked.

You should be fine.

 

[Lifted]

Unlocking means that you can use it on any carrier. You can actually buy unlocked iPhones from Apple, just not in the US I believe. It was jailbreaking, the act of adding thrid party app stores and features that was once bricked.

You should be fine.

That's good know since the person isn't interested in jailbreaking. I told them to hold off on the unlocking since there's no 3G on t-mobile with an ATT iPhone, and Verizon may have one soon enough.

 

[pm]

They never have bricked phones after an update... whoever said that was a paranoid fool.

That's not totally true. The update in late Sept. 2007 caused iPhones unlocked back in late-August, early Sept. 2007 to stop working and this was an unrecoverable issue (phone was totally dead) until Apple updated the baseband sometime in early 2008. But since autumn 2007, there have been no updates that caused unlocked iPhones to brick.

 

[gorcorps]

That's not totally true. The update in late Sept. 2007 caused iPhones unlocked back in late-August, early Sept. 2007 to stop working and this was an unrecoverable issue (phone was totally dead) until Apple updated the baseband sometime in early 2008. But since autumn 2007, there have been no updates that caused unlocked iPhones to brick.

That sounds more like a bug than a deliberate attempt to shut phones off though.

 

[TheStu]

That sounds more like a bug than a deliberate attempt to shut phones off though.

IIRC, the exploit that the jailbreakers were using was closed by Apple when the update was pushed out. It was a genuine exploit that needed to be fixed, but when Apple fixed, all the jailbreakers flipped out as if Apple targetted them directly.

I think that Apple fixed the problem, and either a: didn't know it would brick their phones, or b: knew, but felt that fixing the problem with no repercussions for anyone that wasn't exploiting was better than leaving the problem unfixed.