Fear of judicial proceeding has run to an indefinite delay in the contrive Saturday departure of package to unlockApple ’s iPhone .
John McLaughlin , beginner of Uniquephones , based in Belfast , Northern Ireland , enunciate Saturday that he receive a phone call about 3 a.m. Saturday local time from a man claiming to be from O’Melveny & Myers , an external law firm , calling on behalf of AT&T. The firm has worked with Apple in the past times .
The man informed McLaughlin that if he post the unlock computer code , he could be sued for right of first publication infringement and for dissemination of Apple ’s rational dimension .
McLaughlin was not completely awake when he took the call and did not get the full name of the person on the other end , he sound out . The man presented “ friendly advice , ” but because of the timing of the call and the fact that it come on a personal wandering phone that McLaughlin never uses for line , it felt more menacing than friendly .
“ If he wants to give me advice , he could have post me an e - mail , ” McLaughlin aver .
Spokespeople with O’Melveny & Myers , AT&T Wireless and Apple could not be immediately reached for comment Saturday .
Uniquephones limit upa Web siteright after the iPhone ’s release on June 29 and had been working on the software since then .
McLaughlin is concerned that fighting a causa with AT&T or Apple would sink his lowly company , which does a modestly successful business unlocking wireless handsets in the U.K. and Europe . At the same time , he and engineers in several countries have invested clip and money to get along up with the unlock package .
“ It really annoys me , ” he said . “ We have the root sit there and we have the customer there , but if you connect the two you could lose everything . ”
About 550,000 multitude have signed up on Uniquephones ’ iPhone unlock site as of Saturday good afternoon in the U.K.
McLaughlin said he still plans to free the computer software eventually , but is not certain when . “ We ’d be happy to let another company take the heating plant and be the 2d or third caller to post [ the software ] , ” he said .
In addition to Uniquephones ’ software , there have been two other reports of ways the iPhone can be unlocked . On Friday , bloggerGeorge Hotz posted a tone - by - whole step tutorialfor unlocking the iPhone that involves both hardware and software modifications . At another internet site , www.iPhoneSimFree.com , a company claimsit can unlock iPhones through software program only .
The iPhone has been a hot target for unlocking since its launching , both because of its advanced intent and features and because AT&T has an strange tenacious - terminus exclusive relationship with Apple . It ’s common for U.S. mobile operators to lock the phones they sell , but in some pillow slip they will later unlock the speech sound innocent or for a little fee .
