(WIRED) — When he was 17, George Hotz poured hundreds of hours of his summer vacation into a special project: learning the iPhone’s secrets. His unpaid labor eventually paid off.

With the help of a soldering iron, he was the first to unlock the iPhone, delivering the handset to international networks before Apple had a chance to.

He got some perks, too. His unlock catapulted him to internet stardom, catching the eye of an entrepreneur who traded his Nissan 350Z car for Hotz’s restriction-free iPhone.

Hotz, now 20, makes a living as a “hacker for hire” of sorts — getting paid to break into different types of gadgets.

Hackers adopted the word “jailbreak” to describe the act of overriding the iPhone’s restrictions to install unauthorized software in the device. Jailbreaking is the first step an iPhone owner must take in order to later execute the hack to unlock the handset, enabling it to work with any carrier.

Hotz doubted a security expert could block his efforts. In fact, he said he’s already discovered a brand new exploit that will jailbreak and unlock Apple’s fourth-generation iPhone — presumably due in stores summer of 2010 — even though he hasn’t touched it.

For the full article go to:  http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/11/16/iphone.jailbreakers/index.html