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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."
The iPhone SDK will probably be released at Macworld (January 14-18).
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
I cant help but find myself asking, with all the stories like this, why do people like the iphone so much? what benefit does it offer? all i can come up with is that its an apple product, and its riding on that alone. It has a cool touch screen, but thats about it. I have a nokia 6300 i got the other day which i think is awesome. And it can do almost anything an iphone can do. My previous N95 (which sucks, never buy one, too many faults to count) did more. Can someone tell me objectively what makes an iphone so great apart from just being an apple product? (which i fail to see as being a leigitimate reason)
So Skulldilocks threw acid on the schoolchildrens' faces, cause somebody from the bible told her to do it!
I'm a recent admitted Fanboi of Apple. Held off for years, but the unix-based OS X with its stability, semi-open-sourcedness, slick and friendly GUI, and nice hardware, finally won me over. I used to develop-on-linux/deploy-on-linux. Now I develop-on-OSX/deploy-on-linux. Works well.
Anyhow, I like Apple's stuff, in general.
And I recently played with the iPhone. A nice piece of design, a nice piece of hardware. And possibly they are honouring their deal with AT&T by thwarting unlocks with each point release. But continuing to do so, and *especially* nuking 3rd party apps, is really going to alienate themselves from the market in the long run. I think the stat is that more than half of the iPhones are sold without getting activated on AT&T, meaning people are either unlocking them for other carriers, or using them as overpriced iPod Touch's. Apple is going to shoot themselves in the foot if they keep pounding so hard on the 3rd party carriers and 3rd party apps. (And where I live, I couldn't get AT&T if I wanted to. If I could unlock the latest gen of iPhones, I'd buy one. But I can't, so I won't. And the nuking of 3rd party apps is scaring me away completely.)
Apple has time to change their course on this a bit, but I think they'll end up with another Newton on their hands if they don't lighten up.
Hopefully TFA is incorrect or incomplete in some way.
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
Why does every one insist on giving the same old tired arguments every time an update comes out? Doesn't anyone remember that an SDK is coming out in a month (or less?) Everyone will be able to get their crappy Notepad++++ programs that way as well, and with Apple's approval no less.
The issue with the unlocking is a different however. But, until the US people stand up and actually say that they want universal unlocking for all phones e.t.c. exclusive deals like the iPhone will continue. (Speaking of which, there have been exclusive phones in the past, and there will be more in the future, why is the iPhone always singled out for this?
Why is apple trying so darn hard to stifle every attempt to develop for their product?
Why is Apple fixing known and demonstrated security flaws in products? I can't imagine why!
I would think the fact that they are soon releasing an API for the phone would be seen as an indication they in fact supporting development as best they can. But you simply cannot have Apple leave gaping security holes in a product open or someone WILL exploit them eventually. Would you rather Apple left open the hole that let anyone execute code on your phone with the right TIFF file?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Funny. Microsoft allows complete and open access to their Windows Mobile OS (whether or not you can load your apps onto the phone is left to the decision of the carriers). In fact they even opened the source for the OS (okay, it's a Shared Source license, and it requires having an officially licensed version of Windows Embedded CE 6.0, but the source code is all there if you want to modify it while building a new device of your own). I think this is a case where you want Apple to act more like Microsoft rather than less.
On the other hand, I'm an iPhone user. I spent a fair amount of time playing with Windows CE in the past, and while I like the system I was not a fan of any of the current phones using it today. So I bought an iPhone, and I like it. The current lack of an SDK isn't slowing me down, since I probably wouldn't write any iPhone apps anyway (as much as I'd like to think I would, I know that I'd just dabble a bit and never actually finish anything). Sure, there are some things that are missing (GPS, full Exchange connectivity, an IM app), but I can live without those at least for now.
Apple wants to SELL the applications. If any coder can spend a weekend working up a decent solitaire game then that means they won't be able to charge $5 (or whatever) for their solitaire game on iTunes. The cell phone market has ALWAYS been about nickel and diming the customer to death. Charging for text messages?
The movement to provide on-demand services is NOT about improving life for the customer. It has ALWAYS been about improving revenue. Getting more for less.
and anyway...
I own a hacked iPhone with the 1.1.2 firmware with about 15 third-party applications on it. This thing is by far the most useful consumer electronics device I've ever owned (besides my pc of course). I don't have to upgrade to 1.1.3 and it is still useful to me. When it's cracked I'll upgrade.... but either way it's still a win/win for me.
Rats would be more funny if they could fart.
Okay, I hate the fact that the iPhone didn't come out with an SDK at launch, and the fact that there's an existing playform for building phone apps (Java ME) that they completely ignored,
I have been doing Java stuff for a long time. And I've even done a few small things in J2ME in the past.
But if you think about it, there's a good reason the iPhone doesn't have J2ME - it's not M. That is, nothing about the iPhone is anything like the reference J2ME platform, and it's really not a "Micro" kind of platform in the traditional sense of the word. But there's also no good Java GUI API to an all touch input device either, so you combine that with Java processor and memory requirements and it's really not a good fit for the iPhone, at least right now.
Now that XCode/ObjC has garbage collection, there's really no good reason a Java developer couldn't move over to Objective C if they really want to develop something for the platform.
When the API is finally released, we probably will see someone release a J2ME emulator for the iPhone which would be kind of interesting. But I think it would be some work to put that together.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Not quite a chip, but yes.
Apple isn't trying to stifle 3rd party developers --they are trying to close potential security holes in the OS, such as the ones that are exploited to install 3rd party apps. As someone has already pointed out, Apple is interested in serving the large majority of iPhone users who want to use the goddam phone, not replace the keypad icons with images of boobies and penguins. Or penguins with boobies. I knew what the iPhone did and did not do when I bought it, it does it, I'm happy with it. If later they settle on a method to install signed 3rd party apps on the iPhone, I'll look into it. For now, I would prefer they concentrate their fire on any lingering security issues. As for Microsoft understanding the importance of developers, they pretty much have to. Windows Mobile is a major-league atrocity, and given the usual level of security quality control from Redmond, it's not like they could stop apps from being installed anyway.
"I guess the moral of the story is, don't paint your airship with rocket fuel." -- Addison Bain
Are we safe in assuming that this patch does not render iphones unusable? Simply disabling third party apps and patching holes, NOT locking it up so that you have to go to apple and pray for forgiveness?
Corrected that for you.
Yes they're releasing an SDK as a business response to Android.
The iPhone SDK was announced before android.
But even if it was not, apply Occam's Razor - what is the simplest explanation for the iPhone SDK? Simply put it's the entire internet whining to no end ever since the iPhone launch that they want an SDK for the iPhone - more importantly, among them many registered Apple developers. It could be that Apple actually listens to customers and developers, a plan so crazy it just might work!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I'm not sure who the loyal fans are that are supposed to be so pissed. As a developer, I develop apps for the iPhone/iPod touch because it's a fun platform. I expect Apple to patch their security issues, so that doesn't make me pissed when they do. We'll just have to find a new one until Apple releases their official SDK. No biggie. Honestly, I'd be much more pissed if they _didn't_ patch their own security holes.
As a user, it doesn't make me upset either since I know exactly what I bought. I didn't expect it to do more than advertised, so why would I be upset when I can do even more by way of jailbreak for a while until Apple patches their software? Plus, if there are 3rd-party apps I've come to rely on, there certainly is nobody forcing me to upgrade to Apple's new patch. I'll do it when I'm good and ready. Should I be mad that Apple patches their software? No, that's irrational.
You could try to argue the point that Apple should just patch the bugs and leave the apps, but you would be ignoring the fact that the apps are still unauthorized and (for all they know) malware. Under the current model, it would be a security problem for Apple to leave unknown apps on peoples' iPhones and iPod touches until they have established the "right way" via an SDK and probably some sort of authorization system.
So no, as a developer and owner of an iPod touch, this does not make me angry. Who knows when the official SDK will be ready, but until that time it will be fun trying to jailbreak Mobile Mac OS X again.
This author takes full ownership and responsibility for the unpopular opinions outlined above.
Wake Up! Apple doesn't count these 18% as users. They count it as consumers but not as users, not as the market place they want to have.
It's too damn simple, can't you fools understand ?
1. Apple sells you a phone, they say it's locked, they say it's fixed networked.
2. Every legal paper along the way tells you it's supposed to be locked down.
3. Now some idiots come along and protest that they can't keep it broken.
4. Profit ? Yes and no.
Apple enjoys the buzz around "locked or unlocked, how exciting", it's probably a minor part of their strategy. They just want to sell you the phones, they don't want you (hackers, crackers or dummy followers) as their main client base.
Bmw counts medium rich people as their "users", not the dumb wit 18 y/o death racers. But they still sell to them.
Microsoft counts companies and honest home users as their clients, not the illegal-copy-using people.
Pharmacies count ill people as their clients, not drug dealers that synthesize addictive drugs out from legal ones.
Why Should Apple Differ or Care ? --> Simple, they don't.
As far as apple cares: you bought a car and you complain that the f*cker can't fly, oh my !
End of story, stop dreaming. This is life, if it's too much for you too take, go play WoW or something.
I'd tell you the chances of this story being a dupe, but you wouldn't like it.
I really don't understand where you're coming from here, particularly as the Maps application is third party--lest you forget, it's designed & maintained by Google.
I highly doubt Apple's primary intent with that partnership is profit. More likely, the partnership smokescreens an information exchange program with Google. I'm not entirely sure what was exchanged, but I wouldn't be surprised if Apple's SDK resembles (or even implements) Android.
We'll know if I'm right in February.
Everything I have read indicates that the UI components use a new UIKit, which is similar to AppKit but not the same. It's a shame, since QuantumStep already implements a full AppKit on a number of mobile devices.
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