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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.
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.
09 f9 11 02 9d 74 e3 5b d8 41 56 c5 63 56 88 c0?
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
Since you asked, I've seen plenty. Including two people I work with (a Java developer and an InstallShield developer), one unlocked for Tmobile. Seen a few at grocery stores and hockey rinks. Also know of at least one person at Harmonix who has one. I want one myself (but I'm waiting for the final word on first telecom immunity and second the current lawsuits against AT&T and friends). I like the interface. Everyone I know who has played with one agrees that it has the best interface. I've tried to use other similar features on nokia, samsung, and motorola phones, and even manage to convince myself of their adequacy. Until I pick up an iphone and realize the sad truth that for the market segment it targets, nothing else I've tried out comes close to the iphone.
The only person I know with one is a pharmacist I know. She said she loves it.
I don't many people with any phones running windows either. Most everyone has a regular (in the sense that it's not a touch screen) phone.
Gone!
Yes, I have seen someone with an iPhone and they don't even sell them here.
In unrelated news, Steve Jobs announced today that he was going to change the combination on his luggage.
From the department of redundancy department.
Sigh. Sorry about that.
Gone!
Seriously? You're sneering at 1 in 100? Selling one copy of your product to every 100 Americans in half a year? That's staggeringly successful. I'm no apple fanboy, but come on, that's freakin' impressive.
Alright. Not emo. Don't go to coffee shops very often (in Portland, of all places, second only to Seattle in people per coffee shop!)
Yet I see them very regularly. At a concert (not emo) over the weekend, I saw at least five within a 10-person radius of me.
Another non-functioning site was "uncertainty.microsoft.com."
The purpose of that site was not known.
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
vista?
Here's another SDK key that was apparently discovered on a blog so is probably true:
47 6F 47 65 74 41 46 69 72 73 74 69 4C 69 66 65
"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..."
Four off the top of my head. Three coworkers and a friend from Canada. (He unlocked it to work with Rogers.) I could probably come up with more if I thought hard enough about it.
In comparison, everyone I know who had a Windows Mobile phone ended up drop-kicking it and replacing with just a plain-jane phone. Biggest complaint? "At least I can make calls on this phone. Which is more than I can say for my Windows phone..."
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Microsoft isn't selling Vista at retail at all. Even new PCs, which typically all come with whatever version of Windows Microsoft wants, have vastly outnumbered the sales of 100M Vista licenses Microsoft is counting. That means most new PCs sold in 2007 shipped with XP!
As for the OP wondering where the iPhones are, if you live in the middle of nowhere, you might be seeing a diluted number of iPhones. Try going to a concert in a major US city and not spotting lots of them. An increasing number of the amateur porn mirror pics I've seen online are taken with iPhones. In other words, they're mostly in populated areas where affluent early adopter people live.
Sigh - it's not available in South Africa, and possibly won't ever be...
Seven Days with Ubuntu Unity
"You're sneering at 1 in 100?" well, since vista sales are around the 20 million mark, then it seems like you are sneering at a sales rate of 1 in 15 people.
I've seen a lot - I've got one - one of my close friends has one - her ex-boyfriend has one - several people (3 I can think of off the top of my head) I work with have them - I see them in the elevator - on the subway - in the airport - at parties - bars - I'm actually amazed how many people have them - and the diverse types of people, frankly.
calling all destroyers
One difference is that Vista isn't being sold only in the US.
The other difference is that Vista isn't an entirely new product entering a competitive market, but merely an adjusted version of a product that enjoys a monopoly position. Even so, it is clearly be rejected in the consumer market, at retail, and by corporations.
Another difference is that Vista is a liberally accounted software license, not a product people buy. So Microsoft can count all the vouchers it handed out as sales, and can count all the PCs that are hit with the Windows Tax as sales, despite the fact that corporations are re-imaging them with Win2k or XP. Many laptops ship with a Vista/XP Downgrade DVD for good reason.
CES: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
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
It's certainly taken hold of the enthusiast market rather than the world at large - but really, without contract subsidization that's the best they could hope for. I have one, I know 2 close friends that have one, and 3 more people I kind-of know that have one.
I've seen at least 5 others around town over the last 2-3 months.
Definitely not as popular as, say, the RAZR, but not doing too badly for itself I say.
You've obviously never been subjected to a Motorola KRZR.
... which is ironic knowing the vendor lock-in Apple does.Yeah, total lock-in. I just wish that, when the time comes that I start to feel the lock-in, it would be possible to install Windows XP, or Vista, or one of those many x86 Linux distros on my MacBook. Oh wait, I can install any one of those. I could even run all of them at the same time along with Mac OS X and run any application I feel like.
Dang Apple and their lock-in.
The iPod touch looks like it has a very nice interface. Much better than anything else out there, and making the whole thing the screen is brilliant for a device intended for video & music.
A few things could make iPod touch much better: GPS and internet access. To that end it has wifi, and no GPS, but as far as the wiki knows, the iPhone doesn't have GPS either? (This seems odd, since *all* phones in the past few years have GPS in them as the least hassle way of satisfying e911 requirements, I thought)
An internal graphing calculator also seems like a natural fit. There's no reason that those things should be stuck with basically mid-90s technology when there are now handheld devices with more processing power than early 2000s desktop computers.
Anyway, you're right. Sticking a phone and a crappy camera in an iPod touch just makes a less-than-ideal phone and adds cost to the pocket media player.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
I've seen at least three at work, and can think of two I've seen in the wild. I've thought about getting one to unlock for T-Mobile, but I like having a phone that I'm not going to worry too much about.
When did the future switch from being a promise to a threat? -C. Palahniuk
The key I got from an Apple insider is: 01 02 03 04 05
Bottom line - whether companies keep Vista on a desktop or not, Microsoft sold the license. They got the money for the product. They sell a LOT of Vista licenses. A lot more than iPhones.
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
It is awkward to talk into/listen to.
It too big/bulky compared to the better phones out there.
It is overpriced.
It has a shitty contract.
Fixed that to make it sound more like you just described my Blackberry 8830. However, unlike an iPhone owner, I was attracted to the Blackberry because of the convergence it offered me. I've had the device for two months now and I'm about an order of magnitude more organized than I was before I got it. Of course, that doesn't mean that everyone in the world is going to be attracted to my phone's sleek features... Er, I mean Exchange integration, but that one feature alone makes it better than any other phone I've ever used. Including the iPhone.
It's about market and desire. Some people will never see that. And Steve Jobs will keep getting richer because he can.
Boot Windows, Linux, and ESX over the network for free.
Which is the difference: Microsoft taxes the economy without adding value, while Apple introduces products people voluntarily buy.
That's why launching the iPhone successfully was notable, while Vista isn't impressing anyone for doing poorly despite its heavily leveraged and entrenched position as an automatically sold license tax.
How much more money did Microsoft make by releasing Vista? Any? Was it a loss? Why not just release XP SP3 and collect the same revenue? It's not like Microsoft is selling retail copies of the more expensive Vista Ultimate. Also, what's the satisfaction rating for users of each product? What's the likelihood users will buy additional products from the same company?
Pundits Pounce On Apple in a Contest of Epic Idiocy
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
I live in Las Vegas, and am out at Clubs 3-4 nights a week. Almost every guy I see in a tacky striped shirt (which is every guys pretty much) is sporting an iPhone. Windows Mobile, and such people are pretty much treated like lepers in such places. They are just, ugly...
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!
(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.
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.
I've got one, its bloody marvelous mate.
Had Windows Mobile and a stylus bout 3 years ago - eeew. Graduated to Blackberry's from WM, what a step up, Blackberry's rock, but not as much as the iPhone. Having a proper browser on something this size is really amazing, can log in to my bank etc, no other mobile device I have tried has a browser that actually *works*.
eBooks app (third party, via the excellent installer app from nullriver) is unreal, can read at night without having to hold up a heavy book, or have a light on as it is backlit of course.
Sometimes, just the sheer refinement and smoothness of the OS is a joy to experience, this device is how technology should work, straight forward, smooth and simple... WM is a fuckin dog compared to the iPhone or the BB for that matter. Oh I have a pc and work on windows networks...
Live a little, try one out.
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?
"Which is the difference: Microsoft taxes the economy without adding value, while Apple introduces products people voluntarily buy."
Please. I can't buy Mac hardware without buying MacOS X. That's lock-in, too.
Plausible conjecture should not be misrepresented as proof positive.
Just want to understand the lingo...
Is it possible to be locked down and not be a piece of crap?
No you can't export it, but you can copy all your photos, all of your music to another machine and just get on with life.
I'm not sure what the problem is here.
BUT, I wouldn't regard it as as a 'tech' product. It's much more of a yuppie product, hence why techs I meet don't have one, but middle managers seem to have them pouring out their ears.
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.
I have to agree. I am a Windows developer (c# and .net with some php thrown in every once in a while). I bought an iPhone yesterday and have nothing but good things to say. It's not a piece of hardware that I bought to modify and develop for (although i'm salivating for the SDK); rather, it's a very well integrated solution for a cell phone, mp3 player, and PDA. It also has the most intuitive and well-designed interface of any device i've used.
Am I an emo kid or fanboy? Nope...never even owned an Apple computer in my life. Is this the best mobile solution for me? Absolutely.
... 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."
Track your TV Shows with your iPhone - FREE
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.
Which is a shame, as the iPhone's camera is really bad. There should be a fund you can donate to in order to supply these women, these vital women, with decent cameraphones.
Yes, but not the project files, tags, notes, and other aggregated data. The added benefit of using anything except explorer to begin with.
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.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
...you can find more details at http://188458a6d15034dfe386f23b61d43774.com/
My wife
My Boss's wife (on 0 day)
My wife's coworker (on 0 day)
My sister-in-law
Her daughter (my niece)
I have a Blackberry 8830 from work. I've been using Palm since I got a Pilot 128k & still use it.
I think I'd get an iPhone, especially w/ the release of an SDK. The UI is terrific. Too bad it's only 8GB or else it could replace my 80GB iPod.
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
I wouldn't call that lock in. I would call that prioritizing features. Most users would not have the skills to export/reimport data between two different programs.
It's not like this is new, either. There's a cottage industry of email import/export programs due to Outlook, Eudora, etc.
-Stu
18 84 58 A6 D1 50 34 DF E3 86 F2 3B 61 D4 37 74
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.
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.
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.
In a way, you've served to highlight one area where Apple shines a bit brighter than most. In any of those problems, Apple has done work to conform to standards where possible. iTunes works with ID3 tags, iPhoto can read at least some EXIF data, etc. What you're proposing is that Apple allow you to export your media to a standard intermediary format that supports all the features that you use in Apple's products.
In short, I think that's unrealistic.
First of all, such a format doesn't exist for a lot of these things. There's metadata in iTunes that just doesn't translate beyond the single file level. If these features are dealbreakers for you, then you're most likely an Apple user and will continue to be one. If not, then simply take your collection with all the metadata you can to another program. As an end user, that's really all you can do.
I guess my point is this. None of us should expect Apple to accommodate our moving off of their platform, and why should they? As consumers, we should understand the lowest common denominator involved with the data we use and be prepared to lose some functionality we like when a company does something screwy that we can't abide. It's not their fault that they want customers. They're under no obligation to do what we tell them, so let's use them while we can and dump them when they disappoint.
Attention deficit disorder is a complicated issue, spanning several major... HEY LET'S GO RIDE BIKES!
...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!!!).
No, I'm sneering at GP's assertion that he ought to be seeing iPhones everywhere.
I *won* an iPhone - I jailbroke it, and I use it for everything except as a cell phone (until my Verizon contract runs out). I run sshd on it, an apache web server - I can't wait until someone finally ports Flash and a JRE to it (and a decent web browser, which Mobile Safari - is *not*).
I agree that it's an awesome device, in just about every regard. It's got great potential. (wish it had real GPS). Though I do think that the lack of tactile feedback for data entry is still an issue - despite how great their touch screen is.
Samsung has a nice smartphone, the u740, that has a lot of potential as a PDA - unfortunately, it's so locked-down that all of the really cool "potential features" are useless. But the keyboard, and dual-mode screen for text-entry are awesome. Truly a device that missed its potential due to ignorant and greedy marketing assholes at Verizon.
Is the u740 the equivalent of an iPhone? Hell no. But it has the mechanical potential to hit about 60-70% of the important functionality, plus, physical buttons for text-entry. Just as the iPhone has a lot of interesting potential (some of which must be HACKED to get at - if I didn't hack my iPhone, it would be a useless brick right now).
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.