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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.
09 f9 11 02 9d 74 e3 5b d8 41 56 c5 63 56 88 c0?
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.
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.
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:
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..."
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
... 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.
(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.