Bricked: how I killed my iPhone

Hi, I’m Rishabh “Shooby” Kumar and I am quite possibly the dumbest self-described “iPhone hacker/modder/jailbreaker” on the Internet.  Seriously, by the end of this column, you will be thinking to yourself, “And he used to be Leo Laporte’s intern?”

A few months ago during Podcamp SoCal when I should have been at school, the iPhone Dev Team chatroom was ablaze with talk about the just-released iPhone 1.1.1 firmware update.  Will it brick jailbroken iPhones?  Will it brick unlocked iPhones?  Are there any other changes besides the stupid iTunes WiFi Store?  What will happen to our precious third-party apps?  Who would be the first iPhone modder to install said 1.1.1 update?

I decided to take the plunge and install. My mind began to race at PodCamp.  How was I going to contact anyone at home while more than four hundred the update on my jailbroken and unlocked iPhone.  Hoping for the best, I waited for the update to complete.  A few moments later, the iPhone began to reboot and it all looked well, but suddenly the message, “The SIM card is invalid” appeared.  My iPhone had been bricked.

miles away?  The iPhone Dev Team promised a solution two weeks away.  Therefore, the only solution at the moment was to get a new iPhone.  I wasn’t thinking rationally.  I could have gotten some el cheapo AT&T phone to throw my SIM card into in the meantime.  However, in the presence of so many iPhones at Podcast Expo, one feels obliged to own one.  Giving up my iPhone for two weeks would have been hell.  Jeez, I need to be in one of the new iPhone commercials.

That night Bill Palmer drove me to the Rancho Cucamonga Apple Store to see if I could get the iPhone replaced.  Someone at corporate had apparently gotten word of all the bricked iPhones, as some people earlier in the day had been able to replace their units.  Unfortunately for me, I got the short end of the stick.  All the Apple stores had begun posting large, ominous-looking signs with the block text saying that unlocked iPhones are out of warranty.  I was screwed.

What was so strange to me was that the Apple employees treated me with such hostility regarding the unlocked iPhone.  It was as if they were dealing with the spawn of Satan.  It was highly surprising, mainly because the Apple Store usually has a welcoming and friendly atmosphere.  Rather, the AT&T Store employees were much kinder to me, and actually tried to help me out in my predicament.  They did not care nearly as much that it was unlocked.

I received mixed reactions to my “bricked” iPhone at the Podcast Expo.  About half of the people who saw it were highly intrigued, and I was even interviewed about it on Adam Christianson’s MacCast.  This group of people felt pity.  However, the other half of the people treated me like I was an idiot for updating the unlocked device.  I can’t say I wasn’t.  Regardless, there was a fund set up for me so that I could purchase a new iPhone.

In the end, a nice person on the internet Western Unioned me the necessary funds to purchase a new iPhone.  I bought it at the AT&T Store because I didn’t want to be berated harshly or given malicious glances at the Apple Store.  Nevertheless, I did learn my lesson here.  Never be the guinea pig for an open-source community if you don’t have the resources or the time.

story by Shooby Kumar