Apple is trying to take a little of the sting out of it's proposal for a nano-SIM standard by offering the rest of the industry a royalty-free license for the technology. Apple was among the first to ditch the popular mini-SIM found in the iPhone 3GS for the much smaller micro-SIM found in the iPad and iPhone 4/iPhone 4S, but with component space increasingly at a premium, the nano-SIM aims to make the total package even smaller still by essentially removing everything but the chip. While carriers seem to be on board, Motorola, RIM, Nokia and other vendors have pushed back, partly because they didn't want to be constrained by Apple's inclusion of a SIM card tray in the standard offering.

Now FOSS Patents' Florian Mueller brings word on Apple's latest attempts to win them over.

A perfectly reliable source that I can't disclose has shown me a letter dated March 19, 2012 that a senior Apple lawyer sent to [the European Telecommunications Standards Institute]. The letter addresses the primary concern of critics of the proposal. The FT said that "the Apple-led proposal has caused some concern among its rivals that the US group might eventually own the patents". But Apple's letter has removed this roadblock, if it ever was any, through an unequivocal commitment to grant royalty-free licenses to any Apple patents essential to nano-SIM, provided that Apple's proposal is adopted as a standard and that all other patent holders accept the same terms in accordance with the principle of reciprocity.

Mueller thinks that a) this shows how serious Apple is and how hard they'll be pushing the nano-SIM standard, and b) it will make it harder for other vendors to push back, especially the soon-to-be-Google-owned Motorola due to Google's vocal support for open standards.

iMore previously heard that Apple is also looking into reducing the size of the traditional 30-pin dock connector in iPhones, iPads, and iPods, to save on space inside. As power-hungry parts like Retina displays, LTE radios, and quad-core chipsets become more common, battery capacity needs to grow to support them, and every micro-militer that can be saved inside a device becomes incredibly important. This is especially true for Apple since they've shown no interest in simply making the iPhone larger the way other manufacturers have done with, for example, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus to the Nokia Lumia 900.

Carriers reportedly previously shot down an Apple initiative to completely replace the SIM card with a built-in, programmable alternative, since they didn't want to be eliminated from the customer relationship. If all the players agree, this could be the next best alternative.

Source: FOSS Patents

A bug found in iOS 5.0.1 may allow an unauthorized user to access your contacts, make phone calls, or use FaceTime on your passcode-protected iPhone. But stop panicking, this bug isn't easily reproduced -- it requires someone else to have access to your phone, with either no service or the sim card removed. Your average snoop won't find it worth their time.

To trigger the bug, someone must confuse the phone after receiving a missed call by one of two methods -- doing it while you have no network coverage or actively inserting and ejecting the SIM card. This will eventually lead to the iPhone unlocking to the phone app and allowing you to place phone calls. Once you hang up, you'll be locked out again.

It seems a bit silly as this process obviously needs to be performed numerous times, as shown in the demo video below, in order for it to confuse the phone. As long as you aren't leaving your iPhone unattended for long periods of time with shady people who actively carry around a SIM removal tool or paperclip, I don't see this becoming a popular way of hacking into someone's iPhone.

A similar bug was discovered a while back under iOS 4 which also allowed access to contacts, favorites, and voicemail on a locked device. Another recently discovered timestamp bug in iOS 5 allowed access to your camera roll.

No word yet on whether or not this specific issue is patched in iOS 5.1. If it isn't already, it probably will be before the public release of iOS 5.1.

Source: iPhoneIslam

Apple has clarified an iMessage "bug" that was reported earlier this week, and involved the intertwining messages from an Apple Genius employee and a customer who brought their iPhone in for repair. Turns out that it was a slip-up on the employee's part. The Loop reports:

“This was an extremely rare situation that occurred when a retail employee did not follow the correct service procedure and used their personal SIM to help a customer who did not have a working SIM,” Apple representative Natalie Harrison told The Loop. “This resulted in a temporary situation that has since been resolved by the employee.”

Apparently, the Apple Genius went the extra mile by inserting his own SIM card into the iPhone because the owner didn't have a working SIM. This resulted in the customer's iPhone being paired with the employee's number, where all texts sent to/from the employee where also being delivered to the customer's iPhone. This issue is similar to the way lost or stolen iPhones using iMessage behave after paired to a specific SIM.

If the employee in question had of simply switched iMessage functionality on and off while his SIM was inserted, or just used a different SIM card, this all would have been avoided. Then again, it looks like the iMessage protocol still needs some adjustment.

Source: Gizmodo, TheLoop

According to a leaked internal Sprint memo, all Sprint iPhone 4S handsets sold starting today will have their SIM card slots locked to Sprint. It has never been fully clear how Sprint was shipping its iPhone 4S models but it now looks like they were originally shipping them with unlocked SIMS.

According to the memo, the SIM locking will be done during the iPhone’s activation process and it will be done invisibly. The customer will not see any notification of it happening.

What does this mean for any new Sprint iPhone 4S users? Well you will lose the ability to use a local SIM card if you travel out of the U.S. You will now have to have a roaming agreement in place with Sprint and pay the much higher call and data charges. One bit of good news, today’s decision does not impact current iPhone 4S Sprint users; we assume that this means their SIM card slots remain unlocked.

Source: SprintFeed

The Vooma Peel is in the form of a case that wraps around your iPhone and offers a backup battery as well as a second phone. The second phone is built into the case and is activated via the Vooma app; which can only be installed on a jailbroken iPhone 4 or 4S. You can then call up a second phone dialler within the Vooma app and use that to dial numbers on the second line. There is no mention if the second line will support any data services or if it is purely for calls.

The release is currently shown as coming soon and as yet there is no pricing information. We will keep you informed as soon as we hear anymore.

Source: Vooma via Techcrunch

A company by the name of Negri Electronics (among others) is offering a remote unlock for any iPhone model using the device's IMEI number -- the cost is a cool $175. They claim the unlock won't be affected by future software updates and back the service with a 100% money back guarantee.

This is the FIRST remote unlocking service for the iPhone. Any model, any carrier, any firmware, any baseband and a permanent unlock. YOUR PHONE WILL NOT RE-LOCK, EVER. This service is guaranteed. Simply send us your IMEI and within 24 hours yourself a permanently unlocked iPhone.

The way an official SIM-unlock from Apple works is that the iPhone's IMEI number is registered with Apple's activation servers so that, when the iPhone is connected to iTunes, it's recognized as unlocked, activated, and left open regardless of which SIM in subsequently inserted in the device.

Negri is not Apple or an official iPhone carrier, so there should be a big yellow sticky placed on it saying "buyer beware".

Even officially unlocked iPhones sometimes experience problems or need to be reset by Apple, which requires time on the phone with Apple support or a trip to the Apple Store. Needless to say, they won't help you at all with an unofficially unlocked phone.

So is this remote unlock worth dropping $175 on? Let us know what you think in the comments!

UPDATE: @CellUnlocknet on Twitter let us know they're not offering this service because, as mentioned above, Apple could discover the IMEI numbers unlocked through this process and relock them. So once again, make a well informed decision any time you spend a good chunk of cash on the internet.

New to iPhone and wondering what exactly that tiny SIM card in the side of your AT&T/GSM iPhone or iPad 3G is, and what it does? The short answer is, it's a Subscriber Identity Module, and it is a small circuit board which is placed in your iPhone (or any GSM phone) in order to identify it to your carrier. It's why you can swap SIMs in GSM phones and your phone number, voice, and data plans are swapped right along with it. Unfortunately, it's also why you can't just take a SIM-locked AT&T iPhone and run in on another carrier. For the long answer, stay with us after the break!

A SIM card is internationally identified by its Integrated circuit card identifier (ICC-ID) which is engraved on the body of the card. They are also identified by the carrier from its International mobile subscriber identity (IMSI). Beyond identification, SIM cards (mini SIM in iPhone 2G, iPhone 3G, and iPhone 3GS and micro SIM in iPhone 4 and iPads), have several other functions.

Look

SIM cards have evolved a lot over the years. All three are 0.76 mm in thickness and run at a speed of 5MHz. The old, original SIM cards were credit card sized. The next and still most common size is the mini SIM, which is 25 mm in length with a width of 15 mm with a cut on the corner so that it is easy to place in the slot properly. Apple began using micro SIM with iPads and iPhone 4. This is the newest standardized SIM size, and is 15 mm × 12 mm. Many carriers provide a mini SIM with the smaller micro SIM punched out inside so that it can be broken off and placed into the phone if needed.

There are also 3rd party, after market SIM cutters to turn a mini SIM into a micro SIM and jackets so a micro SIM can be used in a mini SIM slot.

Use

The SIM card is provided with your iPhone (or 3G iPad) by your carrier and it is used to store data about your account. It holds information such as your phone number, security data, billing information and things which help the carrier to know who is the user of the phone. (On older devices, especially feature phones, it also stored things like text messages and contacts). The SIM card allows you to change cellular phones and keep the same user data.

The SIM card is what lets your carrier know that you're the account holder of the iPhone using it. So if you take your SIM card our of your iPhone and then put it into your friend's iPhone and receive calls as though it were your own (assuming the SIM card is compatible).

Bonus Tip: So yes, if your iPhone runs out of power and you desperately need to use your voice or data plan, you can just swap the SIM into another iPhone or phone and use it with your minutes and data bucket. Or, if they're running low on minutes or data, they can borrow your SIM card and use it with the apps on their iPhone until you need it back.

Benefits

The main benefit of a SIM is that you can easily swap phones on your own. If you buy a new phone you can simply insert your existing SIM and keep on using your existing service (carrier restrictions may or may not apply, but the technology works that way.) Likewise if you travel internationally you can just buy a SIM on a local carrier and use that as a way to avoid expensive roaming fees (again, carrier restrictions and lockouts may apply).

Drawbacks

Theoretically there are few drawbacks to SIMs. Practically, however, many carriers lock their iPhones so they only work with that carrier's SIMs. That means, if you put in a SIM from another network you'll get an error instead of the service you'd expect. Typically the SIM-lock is in exchange for a subsidized phone (so you can't buy a cheap phone on one carrier then switch over an use another before you've paid back the subsidy over the life of your contract).

However, with iPhone many carriers like AT&T won't unlock it even if you pay full price, even when your contract expires, or even if you work internationally and need it unlocked for travel.

The only way around the restriction is to Jailbreak and then unlock your iPhone. (See our Jailbreak Starters Guide for more.)

Apple does sell officially SIM-unlocked iPhones in many countries, however they cost full price (over $600 for 16GB and over $700 for 32GB). Some carriers will also officially unlock phones after certain periods or at a certain cost. They communicate your iPhone ID to Apple which then registers it as an officially unlocked iPhone and will activate with any SIM on iTunes.

(Note: The Verizon iPhone and Verizon iPad 3G run on the Verizon CDMA network and don't use a SIM card, though current and future LTE phones on Verizon will.)

Let us know if you found this post helpful and what else did I miss on the subject?

European carriers are reportedly warning Apple that if Apple goes ahead with plans for custom, built-in SIM cards for future generations of the iPhone. the carriers may refuse to subsidise the iPhone altogether.

The cost of the iPhone without a carrier subsidy is around $600 and estimations say that global sales may drop by around 12% if the phone isn't subsidised. Some of the carriers known to have concerns include:

• Vodafone UK
• France Telecom (Orange)
• Spain Telefónica

Like Apple, all 3 of these carriers have refused to comment. Robin Bienenstock, an analyst from Sanford C. Bernstein said:

Any decision by Apple to introduce an iPhone with a Sim embedded would undermine the operators’ relationship with their customer and such a move could ultimately prove to be the first step in a process in which the mobile operators cede customer control to handset vendors like Apple

What do you think about a possible built-in SIM? Would you still buy an iPhone without carrier subsidy?

Financial Times

Is Apple about to take carrier disintermediation to the next level by contracting their own, built-in SIM card for future iPhones? GigaOm thinks so:

Sources inside European carriers have reported that Apple has been working with SIM-card manufacturer Gemalto to create a special SIM card that would allow consumers in Europe to buy a phone via the web or at the Apple Store and get the phones working using Apple’s App Store.

Right now, even with unlocked iPhones and iPads, you still need to get a carrier-specific SIM card. If the SIM were embedded, however, that's one less carrier interaction to worry about. The entire process could be shifted to the device, much as plan management is already done on the iPad.

The Gemalto SIM, according to my sources, is embedded in a chip that has an upgradeable flash component and a ROM area. The ROM area contains data provided by Gemalto with everything related to IT and network security, except for the carrier-related information. The flash component will receive the carrier related data via a local connection which could be the PC or a dedicated device, so it can be activated on the network. Gemalto will provide the back-end infrastructure that allows service and number provisioning on the carrier network.

Would it present a problem for multi-device power users accustomed to swapping SIMs between iPhone, Android, webOS, and other handsets? Hopefully not. They'd still have to get a SIM from their carrier, same as now. They just wouldn't have to worry about swapping their iPhone anymore.

What do yo think? Want?

[GigaOM]

That's right ladies and gentlemen, the above image is a SIM ejector tool that was first included with the iPhone 3G and later with the iPhone 3GS and according to Cult of Mac it is indeed made out of Liquidmetal. Yes, this is the exact same Liquidmetal that Apple recently licensed the intellectual property of just last week. And in case you were wondering exactly what is Liquidmetal - it's a very hard metal alloy, basically unbendable, and has a distinctive color and feel.

Cult of Mac spoke to the co-inventor of this new metal alloy, Atakan Peker, and he noticed Apple was using his metal the moment he opened up his iPhone 3G.

“That’s my metal,” he said. “I recognized it immediately. Take it from an expert, that’s Liquidmetal.”

Cult of Mac wanted to be 100% sure about this so they went ahead and independently verified that Apple did in fact use Liquidmetal that was sourced from Liquidmetal Technologies. The length of time Apple sourced Liquidmetal for SIM ejector pins is unknown as the SIM ejector tools that shipped with European iPhones were made from regular steel that can be bent with ease. If you purchased a iPhone 4 and wondering where you Liquidmetal SIM ejector tool is, Apple did not one include one this time around.

[Cult of Mac]

It looks like AT&T's new SIM cards will be double-porferated, meaning you'll be able to pop it out along the MiniSIM lines to fit in current and previous generation iPhones (and most other phones), or along the smaller MicroSIM lines to fit the iPad Wi-Fi + 3G and if the leaks are correct, the 4th generation iPhone to boot.

The two SIM card sizes have always been compatible and we've heard for a while that jackets would let MicroSIM's work in MiniSIM devices and that brave souls could grab a knife and cut some plastic off MiniSIM's to make them Micro, but AT&T providing an official solution is all shades of awesome.

(Just keep in mind if you snap out the MiniSIM now, you can come back and snap out the Micro later. If you snap out the MicroSIM now, you might need some duct tape to get the rest of plastic back together later).

The new double-porferated SIMs aren't in stores yet, but should be soon.

[Engadget]

Last week AT&T created quite a ruckus for altering their ToS, but after the backlash they ultimately decided against it. Well, we may be looking at round 2 here.

This time a tipster has told TiPb that iPhone 3G owners in the Atlanta and Austin markets who are not currently provisioned with an iPhone 3G data plan will receive an SMS message advising them that an iPhone 3G rate plan will be added to their line of service. These customers will begin receiving SMS messages today and the plans will be provisioned on the evenings of April 8th and 9th. It appears that AT&T just tapped these two cities as a trial run, the rest of the country should start getting similar alerts on April 21st.

So what does all of this mean? There are a few possibilities, depending on your mobile situation:

• If you are using an iPhone 3G and you snuck in one of AT&T's MediaNET data plans for $15 you will be forced on the $30 iPhone 3G data plan.
• For those of you who share SIM cards between an iPhone and Blackberry while using a Blackberry data plan, well it may be a bit more troublesome. Since your BlackBerry requires a BlackBerry plan to work, you'll need to make extra-double-sure you don't get an alert and if you do, you will want to call up AT&T right away and explain that you're a SIM-swapper and to leave your plan set to your BB plan -- which will hopefully continue to work fine on an iPhone.
• Lastly, with a PDA Unlimited data plan, expect minimal damage.  It's theoretically possible that MMS will not work since the iPhone currently does not support MMS, at least until AT&T flips the switch when iPhone OS 3.0 drops.  So check that.

The thing that really rubs TiPb the wrong way is that the BlackBerry, PDA, and iPhone data plans all are $30. Why not allow us to change our devices as we see fit and keep it simple by one data plan to rule them all.  BlackBerry users who try to switch their SIM to another device have long lived with the pain of not having a plan that easily works on non-BB phones.  For now, iPhone plans do work fine on other devices.

So to all of the SIM swappers out there or for those of you who flew under the radar, how are you feeling about this?  Isn't part the point of having a GSM phone being able to swap the SIM with minimal hassle?

It's been some time since the 2.2 firmware dropped, yet we have not heard of any developers getting their hands on the next version. So Dizzy wants to know, when is iPhone 2.3 firmware coming? That is a very good question, so check out that thread and let him know what you think...

Next up is a thread regarding the sharing of a single SIM card between your iPhone and another phone on the AT&T network. I've done it previously with no issues, now it seems like AT&T is tightening the screws just a bit. Have you tried sharing your iPhone SIM with another phone? Let us know how it's worked out for you.

Forum member, EnterpriseGlobe, has started a fun thread - where did you get your iPhone? I stood in line for 2 hours or so on July 11th at my local Apple store. To kill time I emailed pictures and updates to Dieter while he was in line at the Providence, RI Mall. Oh the memories.

I know what you are thinking, this is an iPhone site, so why feature a thread about the upcoming Palm Pre? We all love competition, it just makes products better. Or at least that is the idea. To cut to the chase, what are your feelings regarding the recently announced Palm Pre? Is this real competition for the iPhone or is it simply one last ditch effort by Palm to try to stay afloat?

Finally, spidermanroach wants to know, Yahoo or Gmail? Which one do you think is better and why? Get in the forums and let him know!

Remember, before you can get in on any of the TiPb forum action be sure to register! It's free and will only take a minute of your time.

See you on the forums!