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'."

Out of the blue?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yuppie kid just barely in college who was groomed into the industry follows a paint-by-numbers and unlocks the iPhone, receives a new car for it, receives eight more iPhones, and is offered a paid consulting job.

Not that I'm specifically downplaying the accomplishment of being the first to open an iPhone but doesn't anyone else feel that it's rather likely that he had some inside information, or maybe insider access to some specs, or access to a rather priveleged social group or knowledgebase which gave him a serious silver spoon in this whole event?

Even if not--is a single hardware hack good defining criteria for a paid consulting job? Does one hardware hack give him qualifications that graduating CS majors don't have? My guess is there's more affiliation between Hotz and Daidone behind the scenes than the story talks about. Maybe they met several years ago in a NAMBLA chatroom or something.

Re:Mom!

[porcupine8]

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?

Re:i don't get it...

[pablo_max]

Well, first by selling this knowledge, but not actually selling the service of unlocking phones, the kid is sidestepping legal issues. I can imagine that when the kid sold it for much much more, he would have apple's lawyers on him much quicker. Also, how long do you think he can hold out before someone else makes the same breakthrough. I don't know if you ever noticed, but breakthroughs always seem to happen at the same time. So, why not get a free car. Plus, if you read about it you would know that he was not hired as a consultant just for the iPhone, but rather to teach his techs to unlock all manner of cells. This is of course worth more money to that company then unlocking the extremely limited number of iphones.

Read the TFA!

[zedturtle]

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.

Re:Press Hype or Me Cynical

[SplatMan_DK]

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:Life's lessons...

[vux984]

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...

[feepness]

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.

Mom's basement no more ...

[AHumbleOpinion]

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 ...

[treeves]

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

[MushMouth]

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:Life's lessons...

[wwwillem]

It should be the other way around. An internship which is done remotely is IMHO a waste of everybody's time and energy. And a normal job should definitely have a mixture of on site and remote (at home) elements. Of course all depending on the type of job.

Re:Life's lessons...

[Anonymous Coward]

Not old enough to vote, but certainly old enough to take advantage of many of the services and infrastructure that taxes pay/paid for.