Apple has announced that it will not honor warranties if your iPhone is illegally unlocked. If you want to skip the AT&T service exclusive on your iPhone and use one of the unlocking softwares currently available online this will void your iPhone warranty, Apple explains in no uncertain terms:

“Apple strongly discourages users from installing unauthorized unlocking programs on their iPhones. Users who make unauthorized modifications to the software on their iPhone violate their iPhone software license agreement and void their warranty.”

Times are changing fast in the world of iPhone. It was only a month ago when an Australian teenager was rewarded with a new Nissan 350Z for an iPhone he unlocked on his own (read the story here), and now it’s not hard to imagine Steve Jobs forming an iPhone Gestapo.

[via marketwatch]