Exclusive no more

AT&T's two-year exclusivity deal was defeated last week by a 17-year-old hacker who "unlocked" the iPhone thanks to a few obscure tools, including a soldering iron.

Though the story has run the gamut on just about every news organization, George Hotz made his personal announcement to the world on a YouTube video and sold one of his unlocked phones on eBay which quickly escalated to $25 million, according to the Globe and Mail.

The complicated instructions on unlocking the iPhone for non-AT&T networks may be too difficult for the layperson - after all, Hotz is on his way to Rochester Institute of Technology this week to begin his first year in Neuroscience - but Belfast-based Unique Phones is poised to launch a software unlock at iphoneunlocking.com at noon today.

Fulfillment of that promise may be thwarted, however; the site received a call from AT&T's legal department early this morning.