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New Firmware Fixes Previously Bricked iPhones
drcagn writes "Ars Technica reports that Apple's new 1.1.3 firmware update unbricks iPhones damaged from unlocking and updating the firmware months ago. In September, users who hacked their iPhone's firmware to unlock it found their iPhone bricked when they updated to new firmware, creating a massive upset and internet furor. Although Apple claimed this was not an intended effect of the update, it held the stance that it is not their responsibility to ensure that updates work with users' warranty-voiding hacks, and many cried foul. This update, which provides new features Jobs showed off at Macworld, while not officially unbricking the iPhone, has restored iPhones from Gizmodo and a reader of the Unofficial Apple Weblog."
I should have gone with BIN on that ebay auction!
If a iPhone can receive an update that unbricks it, then it was never bricked in the first place.
If you can recover a device to a full operational state without opening its case or attaching a jTag cable, it wasn't bricked.
Flashed with a messed up firmware, or a bad flash, sure, but not bricked.
If you have to use a boot wait feature to load a new firmware over a network, it isn't bricked either because it was able to access a network and run a tftp server.
If I have nothing to hide, don't search me
"held the stance that it is not their responsibility to ensure that updates work with users' warranty-voiding hacks, "
They shouldn't be held liable. You buy a product and modify it the manufacture can't, and shouldn't, be held responsible for the results.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
If you look at http://www.hackint0sh.org/ (forums for the anysim iPhone unlock method), you'll see that some iBricks don't get fixed using this trick. So while this method may work for some, it isn't the cure all for all iPhone hacking mistakes.
Save yourself some frustration and realizer the term brick changed when it hit the mainstream market.
Like 'Hacker'. You can't stop it, just sigh and go on, otherwise your just screaming into the wind.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Dempsters releases update for bread that will turn toast back into bread!
Just wanted to drop a reply because I accidentally modded this redundant.
;)
I was aming for Insightful, but the new discussion system sure makes it easy to kinda 'miss'
I "unbricked" my phone back in October. The iPhone development community built a utility that rebuilt your lockstate tables way back then. Welcome to the party Apple.
Unlocking is stealing from the service provider who is footing half the bill for the phone. Unlocking phones is protected by law in the United States. Nor is it stealing, as 1) no contract is required to purchase the physical hardware (and once you own it, you can do pretty much whatever you want with the hardware -- but not the firmware/software), 2) apparently apple makes a fair amount of money from the sale of the hardware too, and 3) there is no difference for AT&T if you buy the hardware or just a different phone and then never activate with AT&T or even at all (all legal), in any event AT&T would get $0.
On that note, Don't you have to pay $20 to get this update? Seems like a nice plan. Put out a firmware update that will break phones, then put out a $20 update that will fix them.
Those who believe the Internet is private,
find their privates are on the Internet.
No you don't the $20 is for software that will turn the iPod touch into a PDA. Including mail client etc, that should have been included from the start.
that update has nothing to due with the iphone at all.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
Somehow the link to the story appears to have gotten lost.
Your insightful commentary has led me to re-evaluate my attitude to Apple and its products. DO you have a newsletter I could subscribe to?
Since the iPod touch is an iPod, and not a PDA, and since those features were not there to begin with and everybody who bought one knew that if they bothered to to do any research first, isn't $20 a small price to pay to add those features if you want them? Are you forced to spend the $20? Did Apple claim those features were there to begin with and then charge people $20 to get them?
I bricked about this happening to "meme" a couple years ago, then bricked the solution, so I'd like to brick some words of encouragement to anyone who feels bricked by the loss: brick your vengeance. If you can't brick "brick," then nobody can.
Heretofore, "to brick" can brick anything. You can brick a beer; you can brick a pizza. You can brick a computer; and you can brick your girlfriend. You can brick your hat, except in Soviet Russia, where hat bricks you.
Go brick something, and then brick somebody about it in the hopes that they'll brick someone else. Brick the word, so the whole world will brick that they bricked "brick." Hopefully after that, maybe they will have bricked that some words are better off left unbricked.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
Seriously, nothing indicates that these users updated the firmware by any abnormal method. The phone would be bricked if there were no way to get into recovery mode or whatever lets you update the firmware.
You are lying.
iphones don't have the structural strength of bricks and are useless for construction use.
But... the future refused to change.
The TUAW reader who got his iPhone unbricked? Perl guru Randall Schwartz. He posted the info on his Jaiku microblog.
I also hear through Chicago Sun Times writer Andy Ihnatko that he's been able to unbrick a phone.
--
# Canmephians for a better Linux Kernel
$Stalag99{"URL"}="http://stalag99.net";
Brick you, geekoid. ;-)
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
They aren't worthless idiots, they are what they are, and Apple treats them exactly how they should be treated.
Fleecing are what sheep are for.
In Soviet Union, Brick is phone!
If the phones were 'bricked' how is this new firmware getting put onto them? Is there a jtag connector and it's easily connected to by to all the people with these 'bricked' Iphones??
I swear the level of ignorance about what 'bricked' means is staggering.
Ugh. You're right, my bad. Friday before the holiday and no one's here to break anything. I'm bored outta my mind and it's clearly left as a result.
Son of a Brick!
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Dude, if you were wanting a bargain product, Apple simply isn't making anything for you.
If you want a really nice product, particularly aesthetically nice, then Apple makes all kinds of shit you might like. But you have to give them MONEY for it.
That software was not advertised as included in the ipod touch. So you didn't get screwed. If you want this version of the software, pay 20$. Of course, a lot of people get it through a different avenue.
If you want a cheap PDA that has a lot of this functionality, you can get one pretty cheap. If $20 is a big deal for you.
Apple is going to always do this. They've found a niche that is profitable, has decent clientele, is fun to manage. I think Apple isn't going to change. They will charge you more for everything, but make good stuff.
Any company that installs firmware on a system in an unknown state "unintentionally" are morons. They've never heard of checksums? Don't trust your expensive iphone to them for updates because they're obviously not performing due diligence. I they can't detect a hacked phone before blindly installing, they will be unable to detect other problems/conditions which would break the phone when patched. As a matter of fact, were there not also
a small number of non-hacked phones which got bricked as well?
And where have you been lately? Apple is on record stating they don't aspire to a Microsoft/PC level of success.
Their bank account tends to support their strategy.
... even bricks phone home.
I'm an infovore...
good grief, listen to yourself!!!!
"irrevocable" is an absolute term, just like "bricked". By very definition, if something is eventually revoked, it wasn't irrevocable.
Please, go back to grade school. Do not pass go, do not collect 200 dollars.
Since the iPod touch is an iPod, and not a PDA, and since those features were not there to begin with and everybody who bought one knew that if they bothered to to do any research first, isn't $20 a small price to pay to add those features if you want them? Are you forced to spend the $20? Did Apple claim those features were there to begin with and then charge people $20 to get them?
No, those features were not there to begin with, but people who go to the store today and buy the exact same model get those features for the same original price. Why punish the early-adopters?
That they disavow any damage a firmware update will do to a modified piece of hardware? If that is the case, I would submit that 99.9% of companies are in the exact same class.
If you are talking about the fact that an SDK is not out yet, wait a month til it is.
If you are just turned off by Steve Jobs, that seems like a personal issue. but so long as they keep the snotty outlook on the world at large, they're just another tech company. Apple, you need to stop acting like assholes, and stop treating your customers like every last one is a worthless idiot. What are you *so* bitter about? I really don't understand this somewhat prevalent attitude that because they aren't supporting an unsupported 3rd party modification of one of their products, they are assholes.
And BTW, as just another tech company, their market cap is ~140 billion, have had a stock price increase of 56x in the past 5 years, and have the highest grossing ($/sqft) retail outlet of any retail outlet, bar none. If that is what you consider just another tech company, I guess we have very different standards.
This seems like the exact inverse of an apple fanbois post...ranting with no basis instead of raving with no basis.
-Ted
-=-=- Quantum physics - the dreams stuff are made of.
Unless they make a determined effort to render the product unusable as a form of retribution or punishment. For instance, you take your automobile to the dealership. They see it has a non-factory radio unit or non-factory wheels and tires. They may not deliberately damage the engine, rendering the vehicle useless.
Of course the burden would fall upon the owner of the damaged phone to prove in court that Apple set out to render the hacked iPhones inoperative, but that's what discovery is all about.
Ultimately it may be an issue for a jury to decide.
Like 'Hacker'. You can't stop it, just sigh and go on, otherwise your just screaming into the wind. What you said is true when talking to the general public. But with how these "bricked" articles keep popping up, one can only assume that the slashdot editors are TRYING to piss off it's readers (perhaps to get more comments and indirectly more ad revenue.) When talking to other specialists about their specialty, you don't go around purposely misusing words. I'm looking at you slashdot, home of news for nerds, stuff that matters. Commander Taco and company might just have some atomic wedgies in their near futures.
Once you start despising the jerks, you become one.
This isn't flamebait, I'm just saying this scared me away from buying an iPhone
Why, because you have uncontrollable urges to modify anything you buy in ways not supported by the manufacturer?
Remind me not to be within a mile of you starting your car - or your blender.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Crap! I managed to brick my iPhone into a firewall. But I didn't think that Windows CE-ME-NT would dry so quickly all over it! Seriously, the 2000 grade formula drys in XP amount of time. Please, feel free to brick me now with your brick iPhone that I know you think are now just useless bricks now. Mwa ha ha ha ha. Score.
Once you start despising the jerks, you become one.
Apple makes a good chunk of their money on end users buying their operating system interfaces. They then turn around and use that to improve their OS. Hence, why their stuff is so easy to use.
Microsoft makes a small amount on end user OS sales compared to OEM OS sales, MS Office sales, consulting, etc. And their interface can be infuriating.
The ______ Agenda
WRONG. Punishing early adopters would be if Apple started adding these apps to NEW Touches, and NOT offering an upgrade to existing Touch owners at all.
What happens when you buy a computer with Windows XP and then Vista comes out and you want the computer to have that instead? You have to pay to upgrade it, that's what. Even if its the same hardware... costing the SAME price (or less).
Yes, it'd be very cool if manufacturers just doled out free software/feature updates for everyone in perpetuity... but that's not realistic. Apple simply doesn't treat the Touch as a product that gets free feature upgrades. You can get the latest firmware, you just won't get the new APPS. Pay close attention to how this works. In about one month, or so... you'll look at 5 high-calibre apps for $20 as a nice deal. Apple DOES treat the iPhone and Apple TV as products that will receive free updates and features. WHY? Because they structured their accounting that way, and specifically because they represent two NEW fields for Apple (cellphone/video) that Apple wants to remain competitive in. Those 5 apps have NOTHING to do with being competitive in the PMP/Mp3 market. They're already KING BANANA their, and NO ONE else offers features that these 5 apps do on your mp3 player. NO ONE. --So, $20. Big whoop. Does it make iPod Touch a PDA now? Yes, basically. They've now changed the product from an PMP to a PDA... and you get to stay current by paying $20. If only all manufacturer upgrades were that easy to jump on-board with.
Marklar.
I wish someone could do something to recover the iPaq 3670 I half-installed uCLinux on that bricked it.
--
make install -not war
Inconceivable!
I bought an ipod touch for my dad for christmas. In reality I could get this update for free because it can still be returned to the store. I think it would be in their interest to offer the update free to people who have had theirs for less than the return period, to keep returns down. Am I gonna return the thing for the update? No, because I know my dad wouldn't be interested in the extra functionality.
whatever sort of recovery mode these phones could go into was of no use without the existence of the new firmware. Phones with no ability other than to potentially install future software yet to be written are exactly as useful as a brick, hence the correct usage of the term 'bricked' to describe them. With no means in existence to revoke the changes, the phones were (at the time) irrevocably bricked. If your definition of irrevocable extends to all concievable future technological breakthroughs, then it's use would barely ever be justified by anyone other than theoretical physicists.
A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
So a Ford truck only accepts Ford Fuel from Ford gas stations?
Nope. A ford works anywhere.
However, what if someone built a hydrogen car that got 100x the milage of gas cars, and partnered with the only chain of hydrogen stations there were. Would you still refuse to use it? Or instead would you support a better idea in cars?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
This wasn't some magical unforseen technology, like a flux capacitor that allowed users to go back in time and prevent themselves from unlocking the phones, it was some software to run on the device, which was apparently perfectly capable of installing and running whatever you gave it. It was obvious from the initial reports that the problem was not irreversible. So, again, "(at the time) irrevocably"?? In response to that Princess Bride quote?
If I had some old weird computer like an Amiga with the optional hard drive, and one day I corrupted the OS and found I'd lost all my disks for it, it wouldn't be "bricked" just because I personally couldn't find anything to run on it, even if such software seemed impossible to find anymore.
Last time I checked, at least with respect to the iphone, Apple went out of their way to make available information about how to write Web 2.0 apps for it within days of its release. Then, when people complained that they wanted real apps, they decided to release an SDK (which was probably planned all along, just not complete enough to release when the phone hit). So in the 6 months between the iphone debut and the release of the SDK, a lot of people trashed their iphones with hacks because they couldn't wait for the real deal. Yep, thats pretty much what happened. What now about Apple's fault? :-)
New iPod Touches do in fact, get these 'apps' for free. Either it was a pain in the ass to get them working correctly on the iPod version, or.. I don't know.
Although if you've already paid for an iPod touch, 20$ is not that much for all those apps. And honestly, you were happy with the original featureset if you DID buy one.
"We need to get over this notion, that, for Apple to win... Microsoft must lose." - Steve Jobs, 1997
Why do we have this "it's fun to waste shit" culture? That phone could have been used for years. Instead he stuck it in a blender and set it on fire. Now all the bad stuff in the battery is released into the atmosphere or a landfill somewhere, and all those chemical processes required to manufacture that thing are for nothing.
I swear, sometimes I am ashamed of my country.
weirdest thing I ever saw: scientology advertising on slashdot.
Or perhaps they just trust their customers not to be morons? After all, what would you call somebody who installs an update on a modified phone in defiance of a prominent warning IN ALL CAPS that the update will damage modified phones? And then complains about it when that happens?
They can't be held liable, because they can't support a different product than the one they sold. If you break your car yourself, why should the carmaker be held liable.
/. was made up of a crowd of exactly those people. And they have every right to be furious at Apple. After all Apple uses a lot of code in their products that was written by those hackers.
/. just "do as Jobs says".
BUT: Apple knew that a lot of people used a specific hack on the phone to "unlock" it. And while testing they found out that their upgrade would "brick" those phones.
They could have changed the upgrade so it wouldn't "brick" the unlocked phones, but they chose not to. Now they were even able to "unbrick" those phones.
To me this looks more like a plan. Apple wanted to communicate to their users: "Only use our products as we intended or we will simply break them." And now that the users got the message they play good cop and "unbrick" them for the users, so that the now "good" users will keep on purchasing Apple products, but will never try to use them in any way other than the intended one again.
Many people define hackers as people that use products in other ways than the producers intended (and/or find more/new ways to use a certai product by playing around with it). It used to be that the overwhelming majority on
I guess now many people on
Yeah! How dare they release a $20 upgrade to an MP3 player that turns it into a wifi-connected PDA! What jerks those guys are! The nerve of them! To show how big of jerks they are, they even went further and added those features to the new ones, for free! Someone should do something about this!
... has to be different ... I'd choose the fake Apple bricking method(tm) ...
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
Funny, it seems to me, that it's an example of Apple fixing phones that third-party unlocking (not unjailing, installation of other apps, but unlocking - modifying the firmware of the cellphone section of the iPhone) caused. The 1.1.2 firmware changed how the OS interacted with the radio - the 1.1.3 firmware made it so phones that worked on 1.1.1 but stopped working on 1.1.2, would now work in 1.1.3. In other words, they _fixed_ those phones, despite having no compelling reason to do that. Yet people like you now claim that proves they're evil somehow.