Gevey Ultra S Carrier Unlock – Multiple Versions and Multiple Confusion

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About a month ago the iPhone 4s unlocks started to appear. This is an excellent thing if you want to use your locked iPhone 4s (especially AT&T users!) outside of your normal carrier. Since AT&T fees overseas are astronomical and don’t even work in all countries (even when the GSM radios support connection) this is one of the only ways to handle traveling if you have an AT&T iPhone 4S.

Among the recent entries into this arena is Gevey, long known to be the “high quality” player in the unlock world. Well this time I think they made a mistake and there are some issues.

To be fair, the initial “issue” really isn’t of their doing. You see, they released their new Ultra S SIM interposer  (for GSM phones only) earlier this month. It works great for iPhone 4s users on iOS 5.0 and 5.0.1. The problem is that iOS 5.1 was released at almost the same time. Initially their website said that the Ultra S would support the new iOS 5.1. That didn’t stand for long. They quickly retracted that promise and added that people who want to use their product should not update to 5.1. It simply would not work if they did. Then came the second reversal. The site started to say – again – that the Ultra S would support iOS 5.1.

So why the change? Did they decide that it would work after all?

Not exactly. Today they changed their website (yet again) to clarify that if you have the “new” version of their product, version 1.6, a version that is just now beginning to ship, the Ultra S WILL support iOS 5.1. But, and this is a huge BUT, if you have an Ultra S that you bought before March 22, you know, back when they initially said it WOULD work with iOS 5.1… before they turned around and said it would not work with iOS 5.1…the card will most likely will NOT work AND you should not update.

Isn’t that clear as mud?

So I’m left asking a few questions. Questions like,

Why did they send out all the mixed messages first?

Why didn’t they change the name of the product to avoid all this confusion?

And are they planning on doing anything for those that bought before March 22 and did so when THEY promised the card would work with iOS 5.1, or are they just going to say “tough luck ‘early adopters'”?

What are they going to do for those folks who bought the sims that promised iOS 5.1 compatibility, updated to iOS 5.1 BECAUSE THEY SAID IT WOULD WORK… before they didn’t, and are now stuck. Will they make things right for those folks?

The answer is – I don’t know, but I think they really have made kind of a mess of the whole situation. Worse yet, it could have been avoided through better communication and a simple name change name. And there is another option. Since they initially promised iOS 5.1 compatibility they can AND SHOULD upgrade everyone who bought the initial release to the new version that DOES WHAT THEY INITIALLY PROMISED.

But no matter what they do, at this point I am more than a little disappointed with their overall handling of this so far.

Again – short form – if you bought a Gevey Ultra S before March 22, you should NOT update your iOS to version 5.1!  If you buy now and get the new 1.6 version (sold after March 22) you CAN update to iOS 5.1. Personally, until they clarify what is going on and how they are going to make things right I would hold off completely.

I think that Gevey has done a great job bringing unlock solutions to iPhone users, and the current unlock works well (on 5.0 and 5.0.1). That’s true but so is this-  they dropped the ball here, not in their inability to predict the iOS 5.1 release, but in the handling of their updated release.  And they need to make it right.

What do you think? Are you a happy or unhappy Gevey Ultra S owner? Could they have handled things better, or did Gevey (and Applenberry) do the best they could?

 

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About the Author

Christopher Gavula
Chris has been a COBOL programmer, a desktop support technician, network engineer, telecommunications manager, and even a professional musician. Currently, he is focused on deploying Voice over IP technologies in a large, corporate setting. He started working full-time at the tender age of 14, even before there were PCs, and will probably be working and trying to finish “just one more project” as he’s lowered into the grave.

1 Comment on "Gevey Ultra S Carrier Unlock – Multiple Versions and Multiple Confusion"

  1. This is about par for the course. They promised a Gevey for folks with an iPhone 4 on the 4.11.08 baseband to be out around February-March.

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