I'm about to update what I believe to be is a hardware unlocked 1.0.2 iPhone.

Here are my questions:

1. How do I know for certain it was hardware unlocked and not AnySim unlocked? There is no installer on the iPhone, which initially leads me to believe this person went the
hardware route (the guy whose phone it is has no clue how it was unlocked).

2. Re: Question 1. Does it matter if I know?

3. Re: Question 2. Do I have to virginize it to proceed to 1.1.1 and then 1.1.2? Or will
virginizing do more harm than good?

thanks for your help.

1. open the phone and look ?? . the installer could have been removed . search the forum for minicom and AT SIM, i believe AT command via minicom can reveal that info (I'm no sure).

2. don't know.
3. most likely anything that is 1.0.2 unlocked, if soft unlock, then you have to virginize because iUnlock, unlock-fast.pxl were the common tool back then.

4: suggestion: check the FAQ by N_41 on top of forum and visit i.unlock.no or hackthatiphone.com - good information there.

first of all what you mean by hardware unlock? the soldered *sim inside or the downgrade of the bootloader using testpoint method published by ta_mobile&GeoHot? or the ta_mobile method?
phones after geo-method are the same as any other 3.9 phone, they are unlocked by anysim, the method only does the downgrade of bootloader, the only difference is some possible scratches inside... but who cares what's inside if you can do with it whatever you want?
phones with *sim are easaily detected if you aren't afraid to open the case, cause you can easily find how an open iphone should look like. Other way to detect - some *sim solutions don't work with 1.1.1 so restore to 1.1.1 and fi your SIM fails it means there is *sim soldered inside.
as for ta_mobile h/w unlock I doubt you can detect it... may be some soldering can be seen inside and again the scratches but i think he's good enough to do everything clean, and again his solution makes your phone the same as any other 3.9 phone so who cares.