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iPhone 1.1.3 Update Confirmed, Breaks Apps and Unlocks
An anonymous reader writes "Gizmodo has gathered conclusive evidence which confirms that the iPhone Firmware 1.1.3 update is 100% real. It installs only from iTunes using the obligatory Apple private encryption key, which nobody has. The list of new features, like GPS-like triangulation positioning in Google Maps, has been confirmed too. Apparently it will be coming out next week, but there's bad news as expected: it breaks the unlocks, patches the previous vulnerabilities used by hackers and takes away all your third-party applications."
It gives a vague couple-mile area that you should be in or around. Google has been working to give this to phones lacking aGPS, but it's not a good excuse for lacking the feature when my zero-charge (one-year contract zero money) phone does have it.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
By "small minority" you mean almost 18% of all iPhone owners.
The original poster was talking about users running applications. Apple is also taking away region unlocks, but that's a different matter and a very different issue and there are arguments that make sense for both sides of that conflict.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
For what it's worth, I was at apple when iTunes for windows came out. Apple didn't write iTunes for windows, it was outsourced to a bangalore programming team. This might be one of the reasons it sucks so badly.
Apple's not fighting their users, they're protecting them, from their perspective.
The jailbreaks are dependent on vulnerabilities which really can't be allowed to remain, for the security of the entire userbase. When the SDK is released all the developers who've already made apps will have a big head start and the good ones will even have an opportunity to get paid for their hard work if they choose.
Should be unnecessary to point this out on /. but a hack is, well, a hack. Isn't that the fun of it?
This isn't unique to iPhone. The beta of the latest version of Google Maps Mobile (except the Palm version) offers a "My Location" feature for non-GPS phones, and is also integrated with GPS.
Airplane Photos, Airline News, Planespotting Guides
AT&T iPhone 900 minutes + unlimited data + rollover minutes = $85ish after taxes.
As for the 3rd party apps, I'll reserve judgment until after the SDK comes out. Like any half intelligent consumer, I bought the iPhone because I was happy with what it did, out of the box, at the price they charged. I did install the jailbreak + some third party apps on the original OS, but none of them were that useful. When the software update came out I knew it would trash my 3rd party apps but didn't care, so I installed it.
To be honest, I didn't need any of the apps and am not really missing any functionality. I didn't even know there were ways to install 3rd party apps on the newer firmwares, that's how little I care.
Once the SDK comes out and apps are "officially" available I'll take another look and see if there's anything I can't live without.
I have an iPhone, jailbroken twice but currently locked down. I have seen about a dozen iPhones through my random holiday travels in airports and on planes where I could see the home screen. Nine of the 12 had third party apps installed.
Given the demographic, I was amazed by that-- well over half the people with an iPhone love it, but identify the fact that there is something fundamental missing to the point tha they are willing to void the warrantee to fix it.
The key is that people's needs are different, and there needs to be a fair way to address them. The walled garden won't sell 10m phones in 2008.
(I don't have an iPhone and don't want one, aside from the fact that they're not available in Canada anyway
Animoog.org
What did you expect? You purchased a product from a company. Said Company makes very clear that they do not authorize you to use third party applications and so when you do... they have an interest in tearing your mods out of the software. That's the nature of the product right now.
I don't think Apple is evil but they are working on a very fine edge right now. They are taking on the entire cellular industry with a product that they have tried previously to launch (Anyone remember Newton?) with updates to the 21st century. It's a major project trying to consolidate so many products into one.
Unlike the notebooks and PC's they cannot afford to have anyone's third part software screw up the iPhone. The fallout on the consumer market would be too damaging for them to take on right now. Even if it was someone elses fault for a bad product, Apple would be blamed for it.
Add to this the fact that they originally delayed the Mac OSX launch to get the iPhone launched last year. I would suspect that they have just barely managed to release their products with the stability that Apple strives for. With that delicate stability, third party software isn't going to help them.
I do believe that eventually Apple will be required through consumer pressure to open up the iPhone but they are not about to do it right now. Once they get some market share and solid progress in the market, they can start taking a more open road.
But for now, they are taking on a lot of companies: Verizon, AllTel, T-Mobile, Microsoft, LG, Nokia in this bid. they are not about to take up company with some 1/2 baked software that maybe works most of the time.
It works like a champ for me in both downtown Chicago and the western suburbs (Saint Charles area). It shows my position down to 800 meters in Chicago and 1700 meters in the suburbs.