Hacking Phones In China
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Dear FRIAM, I thought, at the very minimum, this might amuse some of you, and that, at the maximum, some of you might have something useful to say to my friends in china. Steve? [O]ur colleague Mark,… volunteered to take us out to get Chinese telephones. We don’t have much use here for telephones qua telephones, really. We communicate with America by e-mail and Skype; all the people we know in China are right here in the building where we work. Whom would we call? But we are persuaded that wandering around a city -- particularly other cities than Beijing -- will be more comfortable if we have access to GoogleMaps to tell us where we are, even if the labels are all in Chinese. (“No. See here, we are near ‘squiggle-cross-backhatch-box-with-two-lines,’ but we want to be at ‘double-xon- top-of-box-with-three-lines-over-swoopy-x-shaped-thing.’”) So off we went, Mark, Martha, Dominic and me, on the subway to Weigongcun, two stops away. We wound up in a shop for the second largest telecom company in China, which nonetheless felt like a little hole-in-the-wall that badly needed a new coat of paint. There was a wall of sample telephones and another wall of leaflets describing the plans we could buy. Of course we could not understand them at all. It was simultaneously reassuring and disturbing that our Chinese friend, Mark, had trouble understanding them too. From our distant perspective, the choice was easy: give us the cheapest thing that will help us find ourselves when we’re lost in Xi’an, Guangzhou or Shanghai. The idea was to buy a SIM card -- “subscriber identity module” -- and plug it into the iPhone we had brought from America. After some back and forth, we settle on a plan that allows us to get a discount by pre-paying the fees for a year. We got another discount by choosing a telephone number that ends with a four. Four (sè, ), apparently, is an unpopular number in China because the word is a (near) homophone with another word meaning “death” (sě, ). In Mandarin there is a tone difference, but there isn’t even that in some other dialects. Numbers that end in four are sold primarily to foreigners. They don’t care about the superstition, and the Chinese don’t care if the foreigners die.2 It’s a win-win situation. The plan was the install the SIM card into my iPhone. Mark assured us that “iPhones are easy to deal with.” When we had paid our 500 rmb and gotten a little piece of plastic in return, however, the trouble started. Mark expected our phone to have a little slot in the side where the SIM would fit. No slot. Oh, it’s an American phone. No problem, he says. His friends know how to hack into American phones. (“You don’t want any of the data that’s on your phone, do you?” Hmm.) The next day, it turns out that there is a problem. American phones aren’t just locked, they’re somehow sealed in bondage to their American service providers. Hacking them would require chopping out most of their innards and replacing them. We might as well buy a new phone. Alright … but wait! Martha brought her Android phone from home. Would it be easier to deal with? Maybe. Wait. Yes! This phone can work in China! Away Mark goes with a smile, Martha’s phone and our 500 rmb piece of plastic. Back he comes with a frown. No, you need a PIN to “unlock” the phone. Maybe your phone service provider in America will give you the code? (“Maybe our phone service provider will treat us to dinner and a movie, give us a foot massage and wash our dishes while we are away at work.”) So, we sent off messages to America asking whether Verizon will kindly let us unlock our phone so we can join a competing provider while we are in China. Meanwhile, we have a 500 rmb piece of plastic that is electronically connected to a magical Chinese death-number. Great. Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology Clark University http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org |
Re: Hacking Phones In China
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My advice for your friends would be to get a local Chinese person to
buy a USD$ 40 Chinese phone/tablet for them which would give them googlemaps. On 10/13/12, Nicholas Thompson <[hidden email]> wrote: > > Dear FRIAM, > > I thought, at the very minimum, this might amuse some of you, and that, at > the maximum, some of you might have something useful to say to my friends in > china. Steve? > > [O]ur colleague Mark,… volunteered to take us out to get Chinese > > telephones. We don’t have much use here for telephones qua telephones, > really. We > > communicate with America by e-mail and Skype; all the people we know in > China are right here > > in the building where we work. Whom would we call? But we are persuaded that > wandering > > around a city -- particularly other cities than Beijing -- will be more > comfortable if we have > > access to GoogleMaps to tell us where we are, even if the labels are all in > Chinese. (“No. See > > here, we are near ‘squiggle-cross-backhatch-box-with-two-lines,’ but we want > to be at ‘double-xon- > > top-of-box-with-three-lines-over-swoopy-x-shaped-thing.’”) So off we went, > Mark, Martha, > > Dominic and me, on the subway to Weigongcun, two stops away. We wound up in > a shop for the > > second largest telecom company in China, which nonetheless felt like a > little hole-in-the-wall > > that badly needed a new coat of paint. There was a wall of sample telephones > and another wall > > of leaflets describing the plans we could buy. Of course we could not > understand them at all. It > > was simultaneously reassuring and disturbing that our Chinese friend, Mark, > had trouble > > understanding them too. From our distant perspective, the choice was easy: > give us the cheapest > > thing that will help us find ourselves when we’re lost in Xi’an, Guangzhou > or Shanghai. > > > > The idea was to buy a SIM card -- “subscriber identity module” -- and plug > it into the iPhone we > > had brought from America. After some back and forth, we settle on a plan > that allows us to get a > > discount by pre-paying the fees for a year. We got another discount by > choosing a telephone > > number that ends with a four. Four (sè, ), apparently, is an unpopular > number in China > > because the word is a (near) homophone with another word meaning “death” > (sě, ). In > > Mandarin there is a tone difference, but there isn’t even that in some other > dialects. Numbers > > that end in four are sold primarily to foreigners. They don’t care about the > superstition, and the > > Chinese don’t care if the foreigners die.2 It’s a win-win situation. > > > > The plan was the install the SIM card into my iPhone. Mark assured us that > “iPhones are easy to > > deal with.” When we had paid our 500 rmb and gotten a little piece of > plastic in return, however, > > the trouble started. Mark expected our phone to have a little slot in the > side where the SIM > > would fit. No slot. Oh, it’s an American phone. No problem, he says. His > friends know how to > > hack into American phones. (“You don’t want any of the data that’s on your > phone, do you?” > > Hmm.) The next day, it turns out that there is a problem. American phones > aren’t just locked, > > they’re somehow sealed in bondage to their American service providers. > Hacking them would > > require chopping out most of their innards and replacing them. We might as > well buy a new > > phone. Alright … but wait! Martha brought her Android phone from home. Would > it be easier > > to deal with? Maybe. Wait. Yes! This phone can work in China! Away Mark goes > with a > > smile, Martha’s phone and our 500 rmb piece of plastic. Back he comes with a > frown. No, you > > need a PIN to “unlock” the phone. Maybe your phone service provider in > America will give you > > the code? (“Maybe our phone service provider will treat us to dinner and a > movie, give us a foot > > massage and wash our dishes while we are away at work.”) So, we sent off > messages to America > > asking whether Verizon will kindly let us unlock our phone so we can join a > competing provider > > while we are in China. Meanwhile, we have a 500 rmb piece of plastic that is > electronically > > connected to a magical Chinese death-number. > > Great. > > > > Nicholas S. Thompson > > Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology > > Clark University > > http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ > > http://www.cusf.org <http://www.cusf.org/> > > > > > > ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org |
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In reply to this post by Nick Thompson
Nicholas Thompson wrote at 10/13/2012 08:59 AM:
> So, we sent off messages to America asking whether Verizon will > kindly let us unlock our phone so we can join a competing provider > while we are in China. I think Verizon will give them the code to unlock the phone. I'm told they are cooperative in this. But they'll only give you 1 code in any 6 month period. My old phone was a Verizon (CDMA and SIM) phone that I'd flashed to Cricket. In my planning for an upcoming trip overseas, I tried placing a SIM card in there and got the SIM Lock prompt. I was told I could have my phone added to my S.O.'s Verizon plan, call them and get the unlock code, then remove the phone from her plan. She wouldn't have been able to request a code for her phone for 6 months afterward. But she rarely leaves the country; so it would have been fine. I opted out and used the situation as an excuse to buy a phone that is unlocked from the start. I'm now using Simple Mobile, which (apparently) buys bandwidth from T-Mobile. My signal is better, but my coverage is more sparse. C'est la vie. But I should be able to buy a SIM card anywhere and have it work. -- glen e. p. ropella, 971-255-2847, http://tempusdictum.com ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org |
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I still use an old Verizon Blackberry which Verizon was happy to unlock. I've used it with multiple SIMs around the world without a problem. I'm about to take it off the Verizon network but keep the phone for travel. One of my SIMS gives me a permanent UK number and a US number which works as long as I use it once every few months. It seems that's an easy solution for many people is to pick up an old Blackberry for overseas travel which should cost almost nothing.
Ed __________ Ed Angel Chair, Board of Directors, Santa Fe Complex Founding Director, Art, Research, Technology and Science Laboratory (ARTS Lab) Professor Emeritus of Computer Science, University of New Mexico 1017 Sierra Pinon On Oct 15, 2012, at 10:49 AM, glen e. p. ropella wrote:
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org |
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