Teen's hack unlocks iPhone

It took him 500 hours, but 17-year-old George Hotz figured out how to unlock his iPhone from the AT&T networking and use it on T-Mobile. "He posted his 10-step hack on his blog Thursday, along with a video illustrating it on YouTube; by early Friday afternoon, his video had been viewed by some 130,000 people," TechNewsWorld reports. Fortunately for Apple and AT&T most people won't "try this at home." It takes a good two hours and involves soldering and software programming. The Register reports that George got a new Nissan and three more iPhones in exchange for the unlocked iPhone, but the Associated Press reports that anyone hoping to make money from unlocking iPhones could face legal trouble. "Unlocking the phone for one's own use, for instance to place calls with a different carrier, appears to be legal. But if it's done for financial gain, the legality is less certain."

Teen hacker arrested

A Belgian 17-year-old had some fun boasting that he’d hacked into the federal police Web site but the tables were turned when the police announced he’d been arrested within 24 hours of the hack. After succeeding in temporarily shutting down the police site, he left “a mocking online note which helped identify him,” Agence France Press reports. The boy was picked up after a search of his home in a Brussels suburb, then released the same evening. He’ll “later be summoned to appear in a minors court.”