Teen Trades Hacked iPhone for Car

Some people are just a-holes. First of all, why are people calling him a "thief" or "unethical"? If you understood ethics, you'd know it has nothing to do with this. There is nothing wrong with attempting to "improve" an exciting product. It would be one thing if he made an iphone clone but I remember when tthe slvr came out, half the people I knew bought an unlocked one. And as far as the kid "only" getting a car,3 ipods and a job, he's 17. He might have gotten more by trying to hold Apple hostage but that would just give them time to fix it and he might not have gotten anything. And maybe he doesn't want to deal with Apple. Some people don't like that company just like some don't like Microsoft. Plus who's to say Apple wouldn't have just ripped him off. He's got a great car, a job were he probably won't have to do anything and alot of press. Sounds like a smart kid to me.

This guy has mad skillz! And now he has no iPhone, though I don't think he cares much.

an electrical engineer making 50 dollars an hour would have been paid 25000 for 12.5 40 hour weeks. What he did might have been good for his age, that's it. And yes, Apple products are junk. Why do you think they advertise so much? A good product needs little or no advertising. I can't wait for a few E.M.P. to happen over the globe, and you will all see how really useful your iphones become.

Can anyone say "jealously", because that is what all you haters are!

First off, most of you need to regain your sense of American entrepreneurship…
Second, that’s thievery and morally apprehensible is the monopoly the Apple has over the market! Mr. Holtz is the modern day Robin Hood…haha! I’m kind of glad that he didn’t “hold out” for a larger sum. It just shows that he wasn’t in it for the money.

ummm right...lol and your not going to tell anyone how to do it are you ? i guess i could tell everyone :) then everyone would have the power over the evil at&t and finally they go down and die wooooohoooooooooo yeah ill hand you the world at&t !!!! lol.... the insane phuker 6|-|0$7 is gay lol.. im kiddin !!! wassssssuppppppp man !!! this is a shout out from the 4 peeps here that have too much time ont here hands !! damn only 7 more to go ... i think there all asleep.. i got an idea tho.. im going to gather up all the peoples that did this preschool shi7 witht he iphone and play a game... lol whos going to tell !!! ahhhhhhhh but u see were all not as stupid as you are lol for u see.. yes.. get noticed.. and yea yeah.. IM a famous person i played with a phone YAY!!! ur stupid.. lol this is like saying oh look i can walk YAY !! anyway were all drunk but the words are 4real... u aint no one kid... if we knew this was a competition or whatever.. shi7 lol.. ot fare thx for letting us know.. hell we all thought it was a glitch but hmmm perhaps someone is fuking up lol yes dont worry where all the FCC fuks up... we'll b there to make sure everyone knows form now on... sense you are being all thi shi7 i guess ill go on a blog or news and let out some more interesting secerts about what is going to happen with t-mobile and whats already going down =P ILL NEVER TELL !!!!! grrrrrrr

That kid got a real good deal I say... Nissan 350Z and 3 8GB iPods??? Heck, if I was the one that did that with the iPhone I would of have jumped on that deal as well... He did the right thing when he took it when he did... Like another person said, Apple could of have figured out and corrected it too... It is not against the law to unlock a phone... You can find unlocked cell phones everywhere from the want ads in the newspapers to the internet... That kid did not steal nothing... It is not against the law to unlock the way a cell phone nor a computer on the way they function or work... That is not stealing... So to those that say that is stealing, GROW UP!!!! This is the information age... There is always somebody out there that will always be able to unlock any new technology that comes out... That is called ingenuity and having smarts... Good luck to you kid and hope that your new career works well for you... You deserve that good of a paying job or career opportunity when you figured out how to do that with your iPhone... Good luck to you and best wishes...

Great job George!

For those of you who are posting nasty comments, perhaps you are unaware that:
1) unlocking cell phones has been declared legal by the US court system. aka- his actions were legal so he is not a crook and cannot be sued for unlocking the phone.

2) I'm one of his neighbors and I know that George does what he does for fun- NOT for money. He's incredibly intelligent and has worked on countless projects merely for his own entertainment. I'm proud of him that his many accomplishments have not turned him into a greedy 17 year-old who demands a BMW or black-mails Apple/AT&T. I admire a person who uses their intelligence and time to do something constructive then shares their discoveries with others for free.

Like you thought a teenager was going to hold out for mega-bucks, I don't know if the car is in the $800. value like when I was a kid, that's all I needed, though can't figure what it could have been that was worth that much then, maybe holding the neighbors cat for randsom, still don't know, in those days there was no television and few phones. The good old days.

Already did add my comment, don't you use carbon paper or just like to hear me type with one finger, over and over again?

Even with the car, I doubt that kid will be hooking up. What a hidious freak or a computer nerd.

This boy is very smart, and I believe he did not do it for the money. I think he did it to see if he could do it. So he got a little something for doing it, lucky him. I don't think it is cheating, whenever one company comes out with something it is only a matter of time before 10 other companies come out with the same thing. That is why things get cheaper than when they first came out.

it's not cheating to do what he did....how can you say that? what he did is like buying a chevy and putting a ford motor into it then sold the car and instructions....chevy probably didnt want him to but uh, he bought the car and can modify it any way he sees fit. if it were me i probably could have retired though, rather than have to buy tires in a few thousand miles.

how bout an even million AFTER taxes. then ya got yourself a deal.

First of all, our own government pays hackers to do things for it. Isn't the word hacker considered an illegal process? So if the government hires hackers, and banks and credit card companies have paid hackers to see if they can comprimise their sites, before the set them up for the public use, the word hacker should stop meaning illegal. This kid should set up his own consulting company, not get hired by the company he traded the Iphone to. He could teach people how to be a hacker, if they were as computer literate as he. He would make a lot more money.
I agree, however, that this kid comprimised AT&T's deal with Apple, and that should be illegal. Let him try hacking into Ft. Knox, and see how fast it all becomes illegal. i don't think that a reward should be given for a kid doing something to one company, that is illegal to do to another one. That is being completely inconsistent with the laws.

I am glad that this teen hacked the iphone! It actually may wake up the industry, not only in the phone business but banking and the Govt. If a teenager can hack into a phone that has taken yrs to develop then someone is doing a shotty job. And Apple is more studious than our Govt in preventing disasters like this from happening. Kinda makes me a lil bit scared. Next we will be hearing that Al Quida hacked into NORAD and sent a Nuc to Korea, just to have Korea wipe the US off the map!

FIRST OF ALL FOR ANYONE TO SAY THAT THIS YOUNG MAN MADE A GOOD DEAL DOESNT KNOW ANY BETTER. WOOP-EEE A THIRTY THOUSAND DOLLAR CAR AND THREE IPHONES, I HAVE NOTHING AGAINT NISSAN SO WHAT THAT IT RUNS CIRCLES AROUND THE BMW. IF HE WOULD HAVE PLAYED HIS CARDS RIGHT, HE PROBABLY COULD HAVE BEEN RIDING AROUND IN A BENTLY, AND USED A LAMBORGINI ON THE WEEKENDS. MAYBY COULD HAVE HAD A YACHT ALSO WHO KNOWS.

Isn't this illegal?

Why is he being accused of cheating? Kids take stuff apart all the time and put it back together, sometimes making it work better than it did. It is encouraging to see kids who are doing something besides trying to show their boxers, their thongs and their collective buttcracks to the world. My son started takin his toys apart when he was about 7; he made a toy piano work without the batteries. He built the captain's bed in my basement. He took a job with his dad, couldn't hack a supervisor staring at him and barking orders at him instead of just talking in a normal voice...so he quit, found a job appprenticing an installer and is now the head installer who travels to different areas training other installers. Drives a sweet litttle car that he sometimes races at the track for fun. He's only twenty and makes more from this job he's had for a year than his dad who will be retiring next year. Some kids are only good with their hands, some are good with their hands and brains, who says they gotta take a class to figure out how things work? kudo's to this brainiac!!! If he were doing something wrong...he would not be the sensational media darling that he's become. He didn't unlock the Pentagon, he unlocked a darned phone, for pete's sake.

Why is it so hard to believe that a car and a couple of phones is not sufficient starting pay for a rising star like this kid who wasn't even looking for a job anyway? He's gonna be in huge demand and will be able to name his salary if not head his own business under the sponsorship of some mega-giant in the industry. Shoot, when I was about this kids age (16), my first real job paid me enough to buy a skirt, sweater, pantyhose and shoes with enough leftover for food and carfare til next payday...I felt like I was on top of the world.