It’s done. A 17 year-old US student George Francis Hotz managed to unlock the iPhone to use it with any mobile carrier using GSM. On his blog, you can follow a 10-step-instruction touching the iPhones guts. A short video on Youtube only shows a ringing phone and hides the moment when he actually pulls out the SIM card (which looks kind of rude to me).

Is it just fake? You could make up the video with no problem. But he would have fallen by now. He has gotten so much attention in the mainstream media through channels like CNN, NBC and others that he was probably asked to demo the whole thing. We would know by now.

The hack might trigger some activities, just a few that pop up in my mind:

• Is AT&T going to face a decrease of business now, because only the people liking that carrier also get their phone with AT&T?
• Are they going to blame Apple for insufficient protection?
• Or is AT&T going to invest against T-Mobile as a potential driver behind the scenes?
• Is Apple happy now because more people buy directly in the Apple stores triggering more sales there?
• Or is Apple pissed since the’re now missing the share of the AT&T contracts?
• Is Apple going to sue that guy?
• Or is Apple going to hire him to build the next-gen iPhone protection?
• Will this be before it’s shipped to Europe?

You can surely think of more interresting next steps…

Well, sounds like it’s been quite a festival: Sonne Mond Sterne was punished with bad weather upfront, turning the site into a mud wrestling arena. We know this from two years ago when it was almost impossible to leave the site on the slimy roads. Only Uncle Thomas’ S-Class could fight through

The photos I see now do look even worse! As you can imagine, people quote that it was “worth taking 1-2 kilos of mud home”. Have a look at the weekend pictures and media coverage on http://www.sonnemondsterne.de and http://www.sputnik.de.

(Photo by Sputnik)

Two months ago, this seamed to be just impossible: Smoke-free bars and clubs in Germany. From today, this is a fact - but not in all places. Three German states realized the non-smokers protection protection act that band cigarettes from all public buildings including restaurants, bars and clubs. And I’m living in one of them. Finally our local government performed.

This is a big step on my eyes - Just imagine clubbing in Ciné Colibri and finally being able to breathe! I guess they will first have to change the carpet. This biotope must be stinking like hell by the time…