Behind the scenes: Unlocking iPhones in Vietnam

To unlock the brand new iPhone 3G, first a technician opened up the phone and stripped it to the motherboard. In his skillful hands, the device seemed much easier to dismantle than I expected.

The technician then extracted the baseband chip — the component that controls the connection between the phone and the mobile network — from the motherboard. (This is a painstaking task as the chip is strongly glued to the phone's motherboard. A mistake during this process could break the phone completely.)