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'."

Press Hype or Me Cynical

[Nymz]

Maybe I'm just being cynical, but without reading a single article, I feel fairly confident concluding that the kid may be smart for his age but that he didn't do this.

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.

Re:Life's lessons...

[geekoid]

Do people under 18 pat taxes?
Even so, it's not that bad.
the first 20K applies as a 'Gift' so no taxes there.

Re:Hackability...

[bWareiWare.co.uk]

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.

Huh?

[wsanders]

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.

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

[saddino]

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.

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

[foos_guy]

I believe Hotz unlocked the iPhone itself to work with any SIM. What you've described seems to be hacking the SIM to work with the iPhone.

Re:Irony?

[kd5ujz]

Not only that, but any key fits the ignition.

Re:Hackability...

[hazem]

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.

Re:Press Hype or Me Cynical

[pipingguy]

DVD Jon was actualy a pretty knowledgeable hardcore geek way before he did the CSS crack.

Wait, I thought it was Christopher Finke [chrisfinke.com] that did the CSS hack [mozilla.org]!