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iPhone Application Key Leaked
HighWizard writes with word from Engadget that the iPhone SDK Key has been leaked early. "We're not exactly sure how this all went down, but we trust Erica Sadun over at TUAW when she says that it appears that the iPhone's SDK key — which will probably be required by all 'official' third-party apps — has been leaked. Two different sites currently have the key posted, but it's all just for show until next month, when the SDK hits for real — and the code is undoubtedly changed."
If you find something like this, you sit on it until after release. Now, Apple will probably update the release version of the SDK with a tighter authorisation system.
Regardless, it's fruitless for Apple to try & stop free third party apps. If enough people are interested, there will always be someone able & willing to crack Apple's DRM.
Oh, and here's a special message for any Apple Fanboi's in the house. (not my site)
There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
... when the SDK hits for real -- and the code is undoubtedly changed. ... and re-leaked.
Has anyone ACTUALLY seen someone in REAL LIFE with an iPhone?
I am surrounded by people who use Windows, Macs, and Linux and have huge amounts of disposable income they love to spend of giant HD TVs, computers, game consoles, and pretty much anything electronic and remotely interesting.
Not a single person I know has an iPhone, wants an iPhone, or expressed any interest in the product whatsoever.
And out in the street, at bars and restaurants, and the variety of high tech companies I've been to I have yet to actually see an iPhone. Obviously there are people who have bought the phone and most likely spend nights cradling it in their arms knowing their life is now complete.
Other than something the emo demographic buys to sit with at coffee shops hoping emo members of the opposite sex notice them using their iPhone and realize how special they are, who they hell would want this product? It basically looks like nothing more than a crappy phone with a gigantic marketing budget.
The key gets revoked, a new one is issued, and third party developers have their apps resigned with the new (and valid) key. Since it's public knowledge now, how is this a huge deal? Unless of course the iPhone doesn't check for key revocation... I know next to nothing about how it operates, since I don't own one.
512 MB RAM, 20 GB disk, 200 GB transfer, five datacenters. $19.95/month.
You appear to be emboldened by your puns.
Slashdot - where whining about luck is the new way to make the world you want.
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I like the iPhone because it's fun but why are we fighting so hard just to make it run programs that we want? Does anyone see something totally wrong with this? Sure DRM will always get broken but Apple also has a history of screwing users who do. I'm in the market for an iPhone but this constant back and forth is giving me pause. I don't Apple to nickel and dime me for every little thing that I put on the iPhone, especially since I would be stuck for 2 years with it.
"You can count how many keys are in apple, but not how many apples are in the key." --butchered ken kesey quote
In unrelated news, Steve Jobs announced today that he was going to change the combination on his luggage.
If I want a phone I can modify I should buy a phone that allows it.
Is the iPhone sleek and sexy? Of course, but so are a host of supermodels that I would not want to get into a 2 hour conversation with let alone a 2 yr relationship.
I feel the same way about the iPhone, I'd like to play with one for a little while, but thats about it.
OSGGFG - Open Source Gamers Guide to Free Games
Here's another SDK key that was apparently discovered on a blog so is probably true:
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"It's true, a blog confirms it!"
the iphone is a locked down piece of crap.
If anything locked down is a piece of crap then I guess you're right. But if you're saying it's locked down and is a piece of crap on its own, I think I disagree. Me and probably 95% of the people who have ever touched one.
Opinions aside, I wonder if Apple was so against opening it up because they wanted to reserve the right to change the APIs to fit any updates they planned in the future. With control of the few installed apps, they can make core changes to the OS to extend the abilities of the iPhone, then rewrite the parts of the apps to fit with the new core. If they let anyone make apps, they'd either break them everytime the core changed (see the last 3 updates for examples) or they'd have to stabilize the core (which is probably what they've done now that they're releasing an SDK).
I wonder if this is just prep for iPhone 2...let people go crazy with the first iPhone, and save the lockdown for the greater iPhone 2 soon to arrive.
"Dude...3G is cool and all, but you can't even customize your apps on iPhone2. Check out this gnarly rdesktop client I've made..."
i guess it's not a total hunk of junk on it's own, but it's not providing anything other smart phones haven't had for atleast 12 months prior, when combined with the terrible contract you have to be on i'd say it's a piece of crap for sure.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
The purported key is only 16 bytes. There is no current public-key algorithm capable of maintaining security at a 128-bit key size. If that's a legitimate key, it's definitely a symmetric key. Symmetric cryptography has the obvious problem that the device necessarily must have the key inside of it somewhere, meaning that a reverse engineer could find it.
If Apple used a symmetric key to protect against unauthorized software, it would imply incompetence with cryptography. I highly doubt this is true. It's more likely that it's not.
"Screw Sun, cross-platform will never work. Let's move on and steal the Java language." - Visual J++ Product Manager
RIM makes it easy, with SDKs, documentation, and an open platform.
You also get strong end-to-end encryption that has been audited by many governments.
Admittedly, blackberries aren't as shiny as the iphone, but it's a much better platform.
Unless sleek=useful and sexy=intuitive. I dislike the locked-down nature of the phone, too, and it's criminal the way we can't use any phone on any network, and program our phones however we want them. But Apple hit it out of the park anyway. The thing represents a triumph of user interface, and a semi-triumph of engineering sensibility- it does what it does quite well, despite limited resources and restrictive licensing.
The key I got from an Apple insider is: 01 02 03 04 05
What kind of fanboy answer is that? Yes, the interface is superiour; I think we can all agree on that. But the phone IS a locked down piece of crap. Yes, compared other phones. It is the most unusable of all the phones out there. Symbian has a gcc port and a public API. You can download any of the software out there and it just runs. All those Microsoft phones has a compete Visual Studio IDE available. And all the phones in the world can run any of the zillion billion crappy java games out there. What did you compare it with? The xbox360? The iphone is close to the very definition of a locked down piece of crap.
An iPhone or the hands of a model (or for some, the searching hands of a model :-).
You know, I can buy an iPhone any time. Warehouses are full of them - easy choice.
--
Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got some drinking to do.
Insert
It's difficult with a phone, but it becomes easier when you write software that runs on hundreds of thousands or millions of phones. Write an e-mail client which checks mail every hour. Forget to randomize when that occurs every hour. Next time the check triggers, millions of phones access the network at the same time. And that was that.
I like the iPhone because it's fun but why are we fighting so hard just to make it run programs that we want?
The main reason Apple wants to control 3rd-party apps on the phone is because they've got a commitment to AT&T not to allow users to circumvent their traditional cell phone profit centers. This is: Ringtones, SMS, and cell phone minutes. If the thing were an open platform, the first thing people would install would be a VOIP client and an SMS app that uses email addresses instead of SMS phone numbers to send messages.
I got an iPhone 2 weeks ago. Best thing I've bought in years.
Seth
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
Although I largely agree with what you're implying, the fact that you can run Windows on your MBP is not an example of how Apple doesn't use vendor lock-in.
Say I have a bunch of mp3s, all indexed in itunes, with ratings, playlists, etc. I also have all my photos in iphoto. All my video work is in Final Cut. I'm running OSX Tiger.
On a whim, Apple decides to kill support for Tiger so people move on to Leopard, thus boosting sales.
Here's the lock-in part: if I can't export my itunes & iphoto db and fcp file format to something else, I have no choice but to move up to Leopard.
Yes, Apple does that too. They just don't rely on it as much as that other software vendor.
(Sorry, this is going to be a somewhat lengthy rant which isn't directed solely at parent, but at other posts asking about what people see in the iPhone)
I live in Switzerland, where the phone isn't even officially sold. I own an iPhone, I know six other people who own iPhones, and I've seen three people whom I don't know with iPhones on the street. So yeah, tons of people own iPhones, and they use them.
Personally, the iPhone is the best cell phone I've ever owned. It's also the cheapest cell phone I've ever owned. I use my cell phone as an organizer. I use the calendar extensively, I write and receive a lot of SMS messages. I generally use smartphones. I've owned a P800, a Treo 650, and a P990i. These phones suck compared to the iPhone.
For example, the P990i supports wifi - in theory. Actually using wifi means that you have to add each network you want to use to your list of networks (which involves going through a lengthy wizard where you tell the damn phone what specific setup the wifi network uses). This generally means that you have to create a second list of networks, because otherwise, you have wifi and umts in the same list, which means you never know whether the phone is actually using umts instead. So you create two lists, add wifi networks to the second list, tell the phone (or application, because sometimes that works on the application level and sometimes on the phone level) that you want to use the second list with the wifi network, then you connect to the network, and finally you can use the damn wifi network. After my P990i crashed half a year after I bought it and deleted all settings, I never bothered to go through this again. I simply avoided using wifi.
On the iPhone, you open Safari. If it can find a wifi network you've already used, it'll use that. If not, it'll give you a list of networks it can see. You pick one. If it's protected, it asks for the password. It connects. And that's all there is to it.
And don't get me started on how fucking abysimal the user interface on the P990i is. It's slow, with tons of crappy animations which add nothing to the UI other than preventing you from getting to where you want to be. The web browser on that thing is the worst piece of shit I've ever used. It's practically useless. Entering an appointment into the calendar actually takes around 20 taps with the stylus. In fact, it is so complicated that they added a second way of entering appointments using a shortcut menu entry, which takes a few taps less, but sometimes crashes or simply does not work at all. Oh, and when the phone crashes, it restarts and tels you that it had to restart in order to improve functionality. The phone crashes, and then it insults your intelligence, too.
The Treo was better - at least the UI was not designed by blind monkey on acid. Unfortunately, it had other issues, such as the fact that there is pretty much no multitasking. For example, if you open a site in the browser (which is better than the one in the P990i, but still sucks), get an SMS, write an answer to the SMS and go back to the browser, the state is lost and you start fresh.
I heard Windows Mobile was slightly better, but the last time I used it (admittedly a few years ago), it seemed to me the user interface was basically akin to using Windows 95 on a really really small screen.
In comparison to every other phone I've ever used, the iPhone is a breath of fresh air. It works the way you expect, it's damn fast, the browser is actually so usable that I often simply use the iPhone instead of going to my computer. The screen is beautiful and large, which makes it possible to watch movies during train rides. It synchronizes perfectly well with all computers I own, and when I start listening to a podcast on the iPhone, my iPod picks up where I stopped listening, and I can restart exactly where I was when I go jogging.
Everything about the iPhone is well thought out, and for once, I actaully like using my cell phone.
So screw the "emo demographic". People use the iPhone because it's quite simply one of the best - possibly the best - cell phones available, despite the fact that you can't install applications without jailbreaking it first.
So finally, there _is_ actually something in the air...
Why should developers FIGHT against the hardware manufacturers? Independent developers are doing a huge favour providing interesting apps on a platform. If the manufacturers don't want that, why bother? There are tons of other open and interesing platforms out there, Android being only the latest...
- There are no third-party console makers, so you can only buy your console from Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo. There are no grey-market companies selling consoles minus restrictions, as there are for DVD players. The closest you can get is a modchip: and that's too much effort for most gamers.
- Console software doesn't run on a PC, so you need specialist tools to attack the DRM. DVD Jon had it easy, really.
- There is no "analogue hole".
- Because the hardware is standardised, manufacturers can push updates on new games to detect and disable modchips.
So DRM on consoles is very different to DRM on music or video (analogue hole!) and DRM on PC software. It actually works! It is unfortunate that we have ended up in a world where game sales are effectively controlled by the console makers, since it leads to more EA games and less innovation. But hey, this is the march of technology. Games manufacturers who aren't willing to adapt to the new conditions and sell their games through Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo will go the way of the oil lamp and the record executive.>north
You're an immobile computer, remember?
Just want to understand the lingo...
Is it possible to be locked down and not be a piece of crap?
If you're going to spend all that time and effort, possibly getting an entire IP range banned from slashdot, just to troll... You have failed at life.
Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
Apple wants to sell hardware. They always have. The problem is, they can't distribute that hardware in the US and some other countries unless carriers will support it. Carriers want total control over what goes onto and comes off of your handset. They make crazy money on ringtones, mini java applications, and overcharging for text messages.
The problem with quotes on the internet, is that nobody bothers to check their veracity. -- Abraham Lincoln
That's why the 360 isn't cracked wide open already. Lack of interest. And why the PS3 is even less cracked - no interest. Sure. Yea.
... all because some developer can't spell "N D A"
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
Please. I can't buy Mac hardware without buying MacOS X.
You mean you can't run Mac OS X without buying Apple hardware. While I'm sure there are a few people who buy into the Mac chic and buy Macs to run Windows or Linux on, the vast majority of people are buying Macs to run OS X. The Windows Tax is the extra cost of an OS you don't want to get the hardware you do. The Mac Tax is the extra cost of the hardware you have to buy to run the software you're buying it for.
Why does it seem like Apple is becoming increasingly more anti-developer / 3rd party developer? I wanted an iPhone, but when after discovering the lack of existing and inability to develop applications on my own for the platform I backed away.
It seems like a company like Apple should be going the exact opposite what their currently trending...
I can see why they would want an authorization system, because they have already expressed their worries about iPhone malware.
That's their excuse. But that's not how effective malware typically gets into mobile devices... not that there's much malware for mobile devices out there at all, but what there is tends to be good old backdoors and buffer overflows, not crocked installers, because you don't typically download and install software directly to these devices so there's no way for malware to propagate from one device to the next.
I've been pointing this out since the antivirus companies started really pushing AV for Palm and Pocket PC several years back. There's no viral ecosystem for these devices, because there's no device-to-device transmission path that supports execution of code, with or without social engineering being involved. You don't install software directly on your handhelds (PDAs or phones), you do it on your desktop or laptop and download it to the handheld from there. And the iPhone is no different.
So there's no technical reason for this, and the security argument is devastatingly weak. It's all about control. Malware is just the excuse.
...you can find more details at http://188458a6d15034dfe386f23b61d43774.com/
that it was leaked. It could also be a flawed crypto implementation.
-Stu
Stop the presses, so this huge iPhone hacker / app development community that's emerged is made of.... yuppies?
I mean , I know Cocoa is easy to program, but not THAT easy...
-Stu
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until the SDK was released, then its already out there to be used.
Now Apple will just change the key before release and keep the iPhone locked down.
Troll? Flamebait? Read the moderation guidelines dipshits.
These moderations do not equal "I'm a retard buying overhyped shit and I hate someone pointing it out."
Bot Assisted Blogging
I would personally find it funny as hell if Apple had distributed individual keys to ADC members (MD5 of username, password, and a random number or something), and all people posting this key were building a ten-mile-high billboard that tells Apple just exactly who violated their NDA.
Apple has already said that iPhone application signing isn't a DRM measure, it's an accountability measure for developers. They don't care who writes code for the iPhone, they just want to make it a little easier to prevent malware and/or make it easier to track down the people who write it.
And while I appreciate the mental exercise involved in a good piece of reverse-engineering, this whole "independent iPhone/touch SDK" project strikes me as pretty much moot since the official SDK will come out in the next few weeks.
The difference is that this makes Apple a gatekeeper to your iPhone. Who decides which applications you can run on your own computer. You do! You can even program your own. Who decides which applications you can run on your iPhone? Apple does. If the applications aren't digitally signed, then your iPhone won't run them.
It may surprise you that the following language is generally considered inflammatory:
Add to that a complete lack of factual information and a derisive tone, and it's hard to argue that you weren't trolling.
...It sounds like a platform that I can load up w/ nifty apps and hacks, as I do with my Palm T|X. NOT like my Verizon Wireless POS platform, where I can't even enlarge the tiny time display, or have my T|X command it to dial via the Bluetooth. Verizon Wireless, now there is the pivot point of the tech Axis of Evil. Whew, I feel better now. Thanx.
...Lorenzo / I'm into kinky crustaceans. I just discovered internet praWn.
just don't complain when a firmware upgrades breaks it.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
It is the security on consoles that makes it so hard. Otherwise there would be torrents of cracked games anyone could download and burn.
Just check: http://zibree.blogspot.com/2008/01/seda-give.html
Either the guy has regretted lying so bluntly or this is just another example of the media overreacting (and in this case media means Erica Sadun, PhD in GATECH, for christ sake!!!).