Did Easter Bring iPhone Unlocking Joy for You?

As reported on Friday, AT&T has curiously started to unlock off-contract iPhones, choosing Easter Sunday to kick the service off. Judging from reports online, many users have been successful at getting their handsets freed from Ma Bell’s shackles, while others are still waiting.

MacRumors is reporting that a number of readers in their forums were able to successfully contact AT&T on Easter Sunday and have their out-of-contract iPhone unlocked. Traditionally, carriers are willing to unlock cell phones within months of purchase, assuming your account is in good standing and you’ve been a customer for a certain length of time. The iPhone, however, has never had an officially sanctioned unlock from AT&T, for reasons known only to Apple and the carrier.

That changed over the weekend, with AT&T now accepting requests, both via telephone and online chat. However, some customer service reps had no clue about the procedure, which involves confirming eligibility for a device based on your hardware’s IMEI number and your wireless account information. Apple then whitelists your device at their end, and the next time you connect via iTunes, you’re prompted to do a backup and restore, and the device is then permanently free to use SIM cards around the world.

While a number of folks seem to have pulled this off without a hitch -- many on the same day, with others being told 72 hours or even a random date of April 16 -- we had no such love for our iPhone 3GS. After connecting to tech support via chat and sending them our IMEI number and account details, the rep vanished for two hours, never to return again! After several efforts to get a reply, we finally gave up and will try again at a later date.

Anyone out there in MacLife.com Land successfully get an iPhone unlock on Easter Sunday? Chime in on the comments if so

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Nokia Lumia 900 Launch Finds a Wasteland of Stores Closed for Easter

It’s always an entertaining thing to watch a new device launch, especially one the carrier themselves claim will top anything they’ve done before -- including the iPhone. So why in the world did AT&T choose to launch their new flagship Windows Phone, the Nokia Lumia 900, on a date when most of their stores were closed?

The New York Times is reporting that the new Nokia Lumia 900 launched as scheduled on Easter Sunday, April 8 -- but the debut became something of an Easter egg hunt itself, given that almost all of AT&T’s retail stores were closed, as were Microsoft and Best Buy outlets. Ma Bell started accepting preorders for the new Windows Phone handset more than a week ago, and those orders were delivered last Friday, April 6.



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