US Teen Trades Hacked iPhone for Nissan 350Z

PieGuy107 writes to mention that seventeen-year-old George Hotz of Glen Rock, NJ has made the trade of the summer. Hotz traded his hacked iPhone for a new set of wheels (Nissan 350Z to be exact) and 3 more 8GB iPhones. "[Terry] Daidone, who's the co-founder of Louisville, Kentucky-based CertiCell, has apparently also offered the young man a paid consulting job, but stresses the company doesn't have 'any plans on the table right now to commercialize Mr. Hotz' discovery'."

Monday called

they want their story back.

1996 called

It wants its pop culture reference back.

Re:1996 called

You fool! The proper reply is: 1992 called and wants David Spade's only good joke back.

Hackability...

I like many Apple products, but I can't afford an iPhone (I don't YET consider it a value when it doesn't offer 3G support, etc, and I can't afford to pay just for the style factor). Despite its shortcomings, however, I have been fairly impressed with its hackability (and the efforts those who've modified it for interesting new uses, including unlocking it). I haven't heard any peep out of Apple about discouraging this sort of thing (short of the obvious warnings warranties being voided). I think this approach with the iPhone, and also the highly hacked AppleTV, is enhancing the value of these products, which out of the box, aren't necessarily top of the line in many categories.

Re:Hackability...

As opposed to Nokia, whose 3G N95 comes with a free SDK (gcc based), POSIX librarys and most of the necessary open source librarys ported by Nokia themselves.

Re:Hackability...

Yeah but when you buy name brand instead of Walmart, you know your shoes were made by eight year olds, not five year olds. My morals are worth another $30.

Re:Hackability...

Many name brands own "value channel" brands strictly to be sold in Walmart and other low-end retailers. In the case of the company I work for, the shoes and apparel items are sourced in the same factories as the name brand products with no decreasing of labor standards.

The only real difference is the quality of the materials used and the technologies used. For example, I wear the Walmart-channel shoes because they fit better. They look a lot like the name-brand shoes but instead of leather, there is often vinyl or instead of high-tech soles, the soles are more of a solid rubber - and they're not quite as durable.

The margin is lower for these value items, and some of that is made up with the cheaper materials. The overall profitability is maintained by the much higher volume that goes through stores like Walmart.

Oh, and none of our shoes or apparel are made by 8 year olds (or anything even close) and that is verified by outside auditors. I expect our biggest competitors can honestly make the same claim.

Life's lessons...

The poor kid is absolutely boned come tax time.

Huh?

Everyone in the US over age 0 has to pay taxes, if their income warrants.

The gift tax rules don't apply - he's clearly being compensated for his skills. Strictly speaking, he increased the phone's value himself and then accepted compensation for it. Only his accountant knows for sure.

Re:Life's lessons...

Do people under 18 pat taxes?

Yes.

Old enough to pay taxes.
Not old enough to vote what they are use for.

One of the many injustices in the system.

Re:Life's lessons...

Do people under 18 pat taxes?

Yes.

Even so, it's not that bad. The first 20K applies as a 'Gift' so no taxes there.

How is him trading an iPhone he modified for a car and 8 more iPhones a gift? Believe me, it will not be listed as such on the business owner's return.

He's going to need to take that job just to earn enough by the end of the year to pay the taxes.

Read the TFA!

He was given the car by a guy who owns a mid-sized cell phone repair shop in the midwest. This guy (Certicell)'s getting massive publicity out of the hoopla surrounding the unlock. The unlocked iPhone isn't worth a 350Z. Getting mentioned on every news-outlet and riding the coattails of Hotz's fifteen minutes of fame is worth a 350z.

Ugh, it's a bad trade -- taxes!

The IRS will likely consider this taxable event, so young Mr. Hotz is going to be out some serious cash to cover his tax bill. I read somewhere that most game show winners of "free cars" end up selling them to cover the taxes.

Car Insurance

Too bad it doesn't come with car insurance. There's no way the guy will be able to afford the premium on a 350Z.

keep hacking

Next step: Hack the 350Z and trade it for a jet

Re:Mom!

a) He's seventeen. It's completely acceptable, nay, expected, for someone who is still a minor to be living with their parents. Not much of an insult there.

b) If that's the dorkiest guy you've ever seen? Man, you haven't met many real dorks, have you?

Mom's basement no more ...

Have you seen this guy? Hello? Mom's basement? Holy Cow!

When a 17 year old receives a 350Z they are no longer spending much time in Mom's basement. Hopefully not all of that time outside the basement is spent earning money for gas, insurance, and taxes. That prize/gift is taxable, many a game show winner has been screwed by that. Fortunately, or sadly, I've never won anything over $1,000.

To go to a darker topic, I hope he doesn't move from Mom's basement to the basement at the morgue. Giving a high performance car to a 17 year old can be a dangerous thing to do. My Dad and his friends had muscle cars at a young age, he was wise enough to make sure I only had underpowered 4-cylinder Toyota when I was under his roof. By the time I graduated college, got a job, and could afford that 5.7L Trans Am(*) I had enough experience behind the wheel and enough common sense to do little damage. I swear I saw a half dozen cars like mine in the paper, all wrapped around telephone poles by teenage drivers.

(*) That first job didn't pay well enough for a Corvette, and by now I've turned into a cheap bastard. :-)

Re:Mom's basement no more ...

Interestingly, I recently heard that the Nissan 350Z is one of the most (if not the most) dangerous cars on the road today - not because of any design problem with the car, but simply due to who drives them and how they drive.

Re:Mom's basement no more ...

I seem to recall similar statistics about the Toyota Supra, back when they still made them. Something like, you have 20% more chance to die if you're in an accident while riding in a Supra than in a vanilla commuter car... which sounds bad until they mention that the average accident in said Supra is at more than twice the speed than the equivalent accident in the put-put-mobile.

Re:Mom's basement no more ...

Totally OT, but one night I was driving home one night around Four Mile Circle [wikipedia.org] and I could see this car coming up to the circle behind me real quick. I'm in my little Saturn and so I'm going slow enough that I can keep one eye out for deer and one eye back on him.
He comes around the circle in his Trans Am, at top speed, and as he comes out of the circle back onto 70 West, he starts to fishtail. I start thinking, "He's going to overcompensate" and sure as shit, his wheels engage, he's aimed for the trees and goes airborn. Second time I've had a car going airborn in my direction and once you realize you're not going to get hit, you are amazed at how fucking awesome a sight it is.
I pulled over and backed up to him and he was totally like, "Can you help me back out of here."
I had to point out that his car was sitting on a tree and I was not going to be able to lift that Trans Am up.
He didn't know what he was supposed to do. I offered to call for help. He didn't want it. He seemed in a little bit of shock, but not much I could do. Besides, it was late, I wanted to get home.
But wow, what a sight.

Re:Press Hype or Me Cynical

Like that DVD Jon guy, other people did the work, but they are adults, adults with jobs, and they don't want to get sued to death, so they let an underage person take the credit and press. Who would dare sue a kid, because the press luv the fantasy story of some hacker kid sticking it to the man, and companies don't want the bad press of sueing a kid.

Hmm... let me see...

1.) DVD Jon was actualy a pretty knowledgeable hardcore geek way before he did the CSS crack.
2.) He actually DID get sued. By big companies. On several occasions.

...what was your point again?

:-)

- Jesper

Re:Irony?

It likely does now.

Re:Out of the blue?

I mentioned the exact same thing but that this was a big group project, he was just the guy (who rather badly) soldered the wire into the iPhone. The way to solder that kind of equipment is with tweezer soldering irons, very small amounts of solder, and either a chemical or 400 grit sand paper to get the solder mask off. You use a smaller 26-28 AWG wire instead of the rather large one he used in the photo to get the best results.

This was a huge team effort, it was not pulled off by this guy alone. The software reverse-engineering alone would take more time than figuring out how to hack the hardware. I don't know if he's a member of the North American Marl0n Brando Look-a-like Association, but come on.

Another thing- I know this post and the parent is going to hit the Trolling trigger for some people, but honestly we have a right to voice our opinion. As a moderator, you can choose three ways: reward the good posts, mod down the truely bad posts, or mod down anything you disagree with. Yes there are trolls out there who need to be dealt with and they are, but seriously our standards for posting and moderation have been slipping and it makes me wonder where /. is headed.

Re:He my not have been the first to open it.

Uh the point is to make the iphone work on another network. the jersey kid did this by pulling apart the iphone soldering something, doing some magic, then putting the phone back together without damaging it, and it will work with a t-mobile SIM. What the australians did was buy a programable sim ($10 on ebay), then use a Telstra SIM, the AT&T SIM, a SIM programmer ($50), and make the programable SIM work on the iPhone, and the Telstra Network. The results are the same (the phone works on a network other than AT&T), just one is much easier and less likely to mess up your iPhone, and likely will not effect your warranty, the other got a load of press.

Re:Smart Trade

So the whole deal is about a 17 year old's steady hand work. :-) We all remember the result of that .....