Apple warns against hacking iPhone

Apple yesterday issued a stern warning to iPhone hackers: doing so can permanently damage the device.

Apple has discovered that many of the unauthorized iPhone unlocking programs available on the Internet cause irreparable damage to the iPhone's software, which will likely result in the modified iPhone becoming permanently inoperable when a future Apple-supplied iPhone software update is installed.

Curiously, yesterday's release wasn't posted on Apple's own press release site. So is it a fact, scare tactic or contractual obligation to defend AT&T's exclusive contract? What's next? Will Apple intentionally brick all hacked iPhones with the WiFi music store update that's promised for "later this week?" I seriously doubt it.

Bricking people's iPhones with the next software update would be really bad and would likely create an uproar in the iPhone community like they've never seen before.

Phil Schiller's veiled threats to iPhone hackers via The Associated Press, smack of harassment and border on ludicrous:

''It's unfortunate that some of these programs have caused damage to the iPhone software, but Apple cannot be responsible for ... those consequences.''

Can anyone show me a single software hack that causes "damage to the iPhone software" that can't be reversed by a simple restore? Is Schiller insulting our intelligence? Schiller carefully backpedals, saying that Apple will not send a software bomb to software-modified iPhones:

''This has nothing to do with proactively disabling a phone that is unlocked or hacked''

I guess we'll find out when Apple releases the next iPhone firmware sometime around midnight EDT on Friday.