startupi

Saturday I participated in Mobilecamp, an event promoted by Juliano Spyer, for discussing mobility in all its myriad forms. Among the presentations were various interesting ones, such as mobile art, video creation and others relevant to cell phones or the use of mobile apps by professionals such as dentists and lawyers. They were represented by Bia Kunze and Josluza Fiorane, respectively.

Unlocking the iPhone

The most interesting presentation of all was that of Breno Masi, who has been declared the first Brazilian to unlock and iPhone. The story begins with him receiving a call from his doctor asking if he could unlock an iPhone, just days after the launch. Breno had worked on unlocking cell-phones before, and accepted the challenge. He bought a Mac on credit and after killing a few devices finally managed to unlock one.

His fame increased to the point where, according to the tale, important people began to call upon his services, among them big business guys, government figures, etc… Just to give you an idea, Michael Schumacher got him to unlock his iPhone. At a certain point he was invited to participate in the GSM World Fair and did a live demonstration in the middle of the event.

A year and a half into the iPhone, he continued to have a foot firmly in the middle of the unlocking business, but resolved to give up - eventually - the life of an iPhone hacker. Today he has a business developing software solutions for the Apple smartphone.

Band does live mobile broadcast

The other interesting story was from Eduardo Brandini, Coordinator of Technology of journalism at Band. Above and beyond his story of being an established businessman, it is worth getting to know the creative pursuits he is involved in.

They developed out of necessity following the two biggest airline accidents in Brazil. There was no simple technology at the time for transmitting live reporting to television. R&D lead to a model for using N95 with special software and the 3G cellular network to stream live to television.

Today the technology is tested in the morning news. A reporter goes out each day without a specific assignment and finds a hot lead, sends it live from location with the help of a cell phone. Interesting, isn it?