Slashdot Mirror
iPhone 3GS Finally Hacked
Well, the inevitable hacking of Apple's latest flavor of iPhone has happened. Named "purplera1n," the tool will only allow installation of unauthorized applications instead of a full unlock. "The purplera1n jailbreak will free your iPhone from the limitations imposed on it by AT&T and Apple. After jailbreaking, a user will be able to customize the iPhone with home-screen wallpapers and third-party ringtones. But the biggest advantage of jailbreaking is the support of unapproved apps such as iBlackList (blacklists and whitelists for contacts) and many others."
How? Yes, you can set your wallpaper for the "Slide to unlock" screen, but for the screen where your apps are? No, I know of no way to change that short of jailbreaking.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
I love my iPhone, I wouldn't trade it. But my biggest problem is not the software the phone runs (or doesn't run), its being locked in to using iTunes. I hate it, I want to use something else, but Apple has locked me out. Don't want me to run stuff on the phone because the network (ATT) does not want to support it? I almost understand that. Don't want me to run software you haven't checked to make sure the user experience it up to par? Really? Don't want me to use software of my choice to allow two pieces of hardware I own to interact with each other (PC to iPhone)? That's pretty evil.
Unlocking the damn thing would be the single most useful feature (for use with providers other than ATT).
The 3GS unlock & jailbreak has been available since midnight last night.
http://blog.iphone-dev.org/
The usual culprits (the iPhone DevTeam) were waiting until the 3.1 release but it looks like their hand was forced by an independent hacker releasing his jailbreak on Friday.
There was a LOT of stuff you after jailbreaking (background apps, tether, etc) on the 1.x and 2.x OS releases but as Apple adds more features with each consecutive release, I'm finding the need to jailbreak a little less compelling. I still will, b/c I find a terminal + SSH alone to be compelling but once tethering is official, I may just go back to an un-jailbroken state. I still need the unlock, of course.
I've been watching this carefully. I bought the original iPhone in the US before they made you sign up for AT&T in the store, I'm English but these didn't sell them out of the US at the time but as the dollar was so low they were extremely cheap (for us). For several months I used it a rather nice iPod until a rather complex jailbreak and unlock came out later that year. From then on my new Nokia E90 was put in a draw and I became a proud iPhone owner. For many more months it remained unavailable outside the US and it became a show piece in meetings. I didn't get the 3G, mainly because it remained un-hackable for some time but last month I was in line outside the London Apple store at 7:30am waiting to get my hands on a new 3GS. For the last few weeks I've been walking around with two iPhones, one old one with my Vodafone card in it and one new one with a pay-as-you-go (£10/month) O2 card in it. Tonight I downloaded the Purplera1n (mac version), connected my 3GS to my Mac, backed it up and clicked on the "Make it Ra1n" button. A couple or re-boots later, some 5 minutes and I was the proud owner of a jailbroken iPhone 3GS. I downloaded Ultrasn0w on Cydia, installed it, rebooted and inserted my UK Vodafone SIM and it's now all working perfectly. I wouldn't recommend doing this unless you really need to, I could have switched to O2 but I think they rip people off with their data prices (as do AT&T), I can get a full 7.2 meg HSDPA and UPA where I live on Vodafone compared to O2's rather slow 3G service. Although most people I know are using a hack to tether their 3GS on O2 I've been doing this on Vodafone for some ten years now starting with my trusty Psion and an RS232 link to my old Nokia phones, sadly that was still faster than today's data service on AT&T though in most of the US. If you're adventurous or want to have a bit more flexibility over your provider then go for the jailbreak and unlock, I can verify that it works on the iPhone 3GS. -John- @jtdavies
"The G1 is controlled by T-mobile, and t-mobile can change features as it wishes."
If you keep repeating it, it may become true.
Not that G1 is greatest phone ever made (and you have to be a fanboi to make such a claim, which seems to be iphone-only case), but if you are talking about being able to install apps I want to, I can do it today, without worrying about it being locked out/bricked when next updates come along. Also, I do not have to pay for features when they are released - Android update to 1.5 was free. ("free" - look it up in dictionary).
Assuming you're using windows: Open iTunes. Edit ---> Preferences General Tab Change your Import Settings to AAC Encoder. Right click on the song that will become your future ringtone and go to Options. Make it start and end at the desired times (around 30 seconds between start and end). Now right click on the song (it will appear in iTunes) and show the file in Explorer. Rename it from .m4a to .m4r.
Drag it into iTunes. If you didn't have any ringtones before, a new Ringtones folder will be created (icon looks like a bell).
A hassle, yes, but certainly possible.
I have an iPhone 3GS and you CAN get Project Gutenberg on it -- it's just not called that. Download Stanza, then when you open it go to "online catalog", then scroll down and select Project Gutenberg (there are many other free places to get books from with Stanza). It's simple and doesn't require jailbreaking.
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." ~Thomas Jefferson
That's not particularly evil - the itunes-iphone connection does more than just sync files. What is borderline insanity is:
Like all pain, suffering is a signal that something isn't right
UNLESS you pay full retail price, you do NOT own the device. Even then.. you only own the hardware, not the OS, which is only LICENSED to you. Nor do you, at that point, still have any right to use whatever SIM card you want to in it. NOR do you have any warranty.
First, wrong. I DO own the device if I purchase it. If I am specifically LEASING it, I don't. If I stop paying my bill they can turn off my service and send me to collections for the service, NOT the device.
Second, I DO have the right to use any SIM card I want. Wireless providers are required to unlock your phone. They can charge for it, but that wasn't the statement.
Not necessarily.
From a security point of view, it can be very sensible to have a locked down device. Take computers. A lot of users out there would want a computer that can do nothing but browse the web and write emails, along with the ability to view pictures and movies and maybe do a little office work. That's it. Essentially, they don't need or want a full blown machine.
Sure, they could make a restricted account and use that. But they neither know how to do that nor do they want to learn. So what happens? They surf around with administrator privileges (because "it works") and likely become a spambot.
For them, outsourcing that problem to someone else would certainly be something they would not mind. And, frankly, I'd welcome it as a step towards more security.
I wouldn't want such a computer, and I would not buy it. Just as much as I did not and will not buy an iPhone. But just because it would be the wrong device for me doesn't mean it can't be the right device for anyone else.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.