The Apple Core

Jason D. O'Grady & David Morgenstern
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Apple blacklisting hacked iPhones?

By | September 20, 2007, 7:15am PDT

I received the following email from a colleague:

Speaking of hacks, Today I went into an Apple store with a less than two week old iPhone that had the green tint camera problem.

Because it had been “hacked” with some 3rd party apps and was running T-Mobile they refused to service it, said the warranty was voided and “blacklisted” the phone against future service, or return!

Only after asking for the manager and having several conversations with her, did they finally allow me to return it, but charged me a 10% restocking fee…

Pretty Scary! Didn’t Steve and Woz get their start in college by selling a device that would “hack” pay phones and give people free long distance?

So while he eventually got Apple to return the iPhone (after paying the restocking fee, that is), the lesson here is to do a restore of your iPhone and re-install the factory AT&T SIM before bringing into an Apple Store for service. That’s the beauty of software-only hacks, after all!

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Topics

Apple iPhone, Apple Inc., Telecom & Utilities, Jason D. O\'Grady

Jason O'Grady is a journalist and author specializing in mobile technology. He has published six books on Apple and mobile gadgets and his PowerPage blog has been publishing for over 15 years.

Disclosure

Jason D. O'Grady

Jason D. O'Grady is the creator and editor of O'Grady's PowerPage, which has been publishing mobile technology news since 1995. He maintains an advertising relationship with the following legacy advertisers on the PowerPage:

  • Amazon Associates
  • Google Adsense
  • Tekserve

    • Advertising on the PowerPage is brokered by a third-party agency (BackBeat Media) and he recuses himself from these negotiations.

Biography

Jason D. O'Grady

Jason D. O'Grady developed an affinity for Apple computers after using the original Lisa, and this affinity turned into a bona-fide obsession when he got the original 128 KB Macintosh in 1984.

He started writing one of the first Web sites about Apple (O'Grady's PowerPage) in 1995 and is considered to be one of the fathers of blogging. He has been a frequent speaker at the Macworld Expo conference and a member of the conference faculty. He also co-founded the first dedicated PowerBook User Group (PPUG) in the United States.

After winning a major legal battle with Apple in 2006, he set the precedent that independent journalists are entitled to the same protections under the First Amendment as members of the mainstream media.

O'Grady is the author of The Nexus One Pocket Guide, The Droid Pocket Guide, The Google Phone Pocket Guide, and The Garmin nuvi Pocket Guide (Peachpit Press), the author of Corporations That Changed the World: Apple Inc. (Greenwood Press), and a contributor to The Mac Bible (Peachpit Press). In addition, he has contributed to numerous Mac publications over the years, including MacWEEK, Macworld, and MacPower (Japan).

When he's not writing about Apple for ZDNet at The Apple Core, he enjoys spending time with his family in New Jersey.

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