Teen who unlocked iPhone gets car, job

A Louisville company that repairs cell phones will give a consulting job and a $40,000 car to a teenage computer hacker who spent his summer "unlocking" an iPhone.

George Hotz of New Jersey broke the lock that ties Apple's iPhone to AT&T's network. - Jeff Christensen / Associated Press

Working with a team of other techies around the world, 17-year-old George Hotz of Glen Rock, N.J., spent an estimated 500 hours reconfiguring the iPhone so it can be used with wireless providers other than AT&T.

The device so far is available only in the United States through an exclusive two-year service agreement with AT&T. Officials with both AT&T and Apple, which makes the iPhone, have not commented about Hotz's unlocking project.

He made international news when he unveiled the results of the project on his blog Thursday, and it wasn't long before officials with Louisville-based CertiCell were in touch.

Hotz announced on his blog that he would trade an unlocked version of the phone to CertiCell in exchange for a "sweet" new silver Nissan 350Z, a consulting job and three unmodified iPhones.

"This has been a great end to a great summer," Hotz wrote on the blog, at www.iphonejtag.blogspot.com.

CertiCell has about 50 employees in Louisville, with offices on Shepherdsville Road near GE's Appliance Park. Among other things, the company runs a facility in Hong Kong that refurbishes old cell phones.

CertiCell said the company has no plans "at this time" to use the unlocking tactics as part of a commercial venture that, for instance, would modify iPhones so they could be used by consumers with cell phone plans other than AT&T's.

Some legal experts have raised questions about whether the hacking technique could be illegal, particularly if it is shared or sold. Jake Ducey, a CertiCell spokesman, said the company is approaching the matter "very carefully," and will announce details about its plans for the modified phone on Sept. 14 on its Web site, www.certicellusa.com.

Hotz plans to arrive in Louisville on Friday to pick up the car, which Ducey said has a retail value of about $40,000.

Hotz will be a freshman this fall at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Ducey declined to say how much CertiCell will pay Hotz for his consulting services, but he said the teenager will work from school in Rochester, N.Y.. He also acknowledged that the value of the deal was at least partially based on publicity, although the company does hope to use the hacking techniques for other projects.

"He's a bright, hard-working kid," Ducey said of Hotz. "It's the type of people we like to have working at CertiCell."

CertiCell co-founder Terry Daidone said Tuesday he called Hotz on Saturday and offered him the car and consulting deal with an interest toward encouraging him to take on more challenges.

Daidone said he had "no idea" that the trade would generate the publicity it has.

In recent days, Hotz has appeared on several national television networks, and he has been the subject of dozens of newspaper articles.

Rob Enderle, a technology analyst based in Silicon Valley, said the deal with CertiCell is probably more of a marketing stunt than anything else. He said it wouldn't make sense financially to mass produce phones using Hotz's techniques because of the intricate soldering work involved. And Enderle said at least one other company already has come up with a similar unlocking procedure using software, which would be far easier to bring to market.