Apple attempts to curb iPhone hacks

Apple has issued a warning for those who have discarded AT&T service from their iPhones and are using them with other services. It is expected that such phones will not work after the company's next software update and it bluntly told the consumers: If your iPhone breaks, don't come crying to us.

A software update for iPhone is scheduled this week and Apple said that once the update is installed on the device, it “will likely result in the modified iPhone becoming permanently inoperable.”

Since the iPhone’s June 29 launch, it has been immensely popular but the fans complain that there is one hitch – the obligation to draw on AT&T, its exclusive official carrier. Hackers have since, been employing different methods to make it possible to use the iPhone on other cellular networks.

This move by Apple could be an attempt to avert customers from contravening its partnership with AT&T. The Cupertino, Calif.- based company claims that hacking the iPhone is a violation of customers' software license agreement and is not covered under the warranty.

"We are not doing anything proactively to disable iPhones that have been hacked or unlocked," said Phil Schiller, Apple's head of worldwide product marking.

iPhone hackers have made huge business of selling software that accomplishes the detachment from AT&T. Some unlocked iPhones sell online for $1,000. iPhone unlock kits are being sold for $59 at Mostofmymac.com, an online compendium of products and services for Apple business users. A site representative said his firm had sold several hundred iPhone unlocking licenses since Sept. 10.

They have already warned the consumers that Apple might cancel their warranties if it detects that they used the software.

However, not many hackers are worried since they claim to have already prepared software-based responses to the relocking of the modified phones by Apple.