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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."
Wow, that took a long time... is Apple actually putting real security on these things now? Also, what *doesn't* this jailbreak permit?
There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
You can set the wallpaper and use third party ring tones without jailbreaking an iPhone. Apple doesn't restrict them THAT much.
Why would anyone buy a device where someone *else* decides what apps you can run and what you cannot run? You don't own such a device - someone else owns it, and is letting you use it only under conditions they decide.
I'm sure this will get modded down by iPhone fanboys, but I don't mean it as an anti-iPhone thing, more like an anti-any-device-where-the-mfg-regains-control-after-you-buy-it thing.
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.
They do make it much harder than necessary to make ringtones. You can't just use any old mp3/aac/etc file, and all the documentation etc makes it seem like you have to buy ringtones.
Pretty annoying.. even my old locked down verizon LG phone had the ability to use bluetooth to transfer mp3s and midis to the phone for usage as ringtones.
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).
Why would you run an app that would organize the contacts on your phone, if you're the least bit worried about who the heck they are? Now, the iBlacklist may be just as legit as any app in the App Store, but there's a rather large chance that a version is floating around that actually sends your contacts' names, emails, and phone numbers to an Asiatic hacker or something. Or that the crack itself sends your data to said Asiatic hacker.
I'd say "there's a reason they're unapproved", but the examples of apps rejected by Apple are, to be honest, rather ridiculous sometimes - and they don't inspect the traffic that comes out of their test machines, I'd presume - so I can't say that "there's a reason they're unapproved"... although it does seem like an apt comeback (cue the apt-get comeback joke) to this sort of cracking.
Point? Don't put your data on a machine you can't lock down yourself, I suppose.
Note: I was 13 when I wrote most of this. Take with several grains of salt.
Sticking it to M$ and Apple is all well and good (though Apple is starting to win me over, no pun intended), but i really wish these iPhone dev teams would figure out a method to use the phone with my favorite gnome system, ubuntu. Freeing it from the chains of iTunes would go a long way towards this.
Any word on whether or not this method enables tethering on AT&T networks?
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 have an iphone 3g. i jailbroke as soon as i got it a few months ago because of some stupid restrictions. if apple would remove these restrictions, then i'd have no reason to jailbreak.
#1 - on a standard iphone, you can't change the incoming email alert sound... it is what it is. that means, if you have 10 people in a room and they all have iphones, if anyone gets an email, then everyone will be checking their phones because none of that is customizable.
#2 - on a standard iphone, you are limited to a handful of incoming sms alert sounds.... again, same thing as with email sounds.
the only 2 jailbreak applications that i actually use are the 5 icon dock (with the dockflow theme) and cyntact (an app that allows me to see the pictures of my contacts while they are in the list as opposed to having to open the contact to see the picture).
if apple would alleviate the 2 restrictions about changing sounds, i could live without the 5 icon dock and cyntact. i would have no reason to jailbreak.... and by alleviate, i don't mean to make me buy the sounds off of itunes like they try to make you do with ringtones, which you can get around that by importing m4r files.. 8)
stephen
People buy the iPhone, or the kindle, or some other device that requires everything to be signed, then they either "jailbreak" them or whine about the restrictions.
If you want these restrictions to go away stop buying the devices, and educate everyone who'll listen about why YOU won't touch them, then let them make up their own minds.
You wouldn't buy a car that required you to call the manufacturer and get authorisation every time you wanted to put petrol in it or attach those sickly fluffy dice to the rear vision mirror, would you? And if you did buy it despite such a ridiculous restriction, would you then be complaining to everyone about the restriction?
We don't need 2 slashdot stories per week about this. We're just chasing our own tails here.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
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
I have never bought an apple product. I have gotton the ipod 3g, ipod nano (video), and the ipod touch 2g. After I have received the ipod touch and found out that apple has removed the "use as disk" feature, I knew that this ipod will be the last one I keep. Of course I will stop this boycott once apple starts lifting its proprietary state of mind (yeah right).
Only in apple world, you use a software running on a desktop/laptop and meant for music files to control your mobile phone.
Kudos to you and apple.
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.
You can unlock the baseband and go back to an un-Jailbroken state.
I wouldn't even see it as a hassle, it's no different to what you'd do on a nokia or any other phone, except you need to change the file extension.
AFAIK, that no longer works. You have to use Apple lossless now. My understanding is that they disabled the AAC method because they don't want people making their own ringtones.
Yes, it is a pain, it's unofficial and undocumented, and for all i know will break again in a future patch?
Hmm. I just did it again to make sure, and it still worked for me with latest iTunes and iPhone 3G S.
Jailbreaking is counterproductive. Apple and AT&T will never learn this way. I opted for N97 instead, sure it has some drawbacks, but I am simply not prepared to give any kind of money to companies as evil as Apple and AT&T.
Hey Mr. Jobs, whatever are you planning to buy with the money you make off of me? Oh wait, you don't get a single dime from me due to your draconian lockdown policies. Your brand of cool I can do without.
Odd, when i got the 3gs one of the first things I tried was to make a ring tone, and it didn't work (the mthod above) until I switched to apple lossless. Perhaps I did something differently, I'll try again tomorrow.
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
Someone has to protect you from yourself.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Why would anyone buy a device where someone *else* decides what apps you can run and what you cannot run?
Because programs vetted by Apple are likely to be accurately described, genuinely useful, and fully compatible with your phone.
I just thought bit different :-) -- see, Darwin has a very big portion of code from a FreeBSD and now Darwin went on iPhone. Obviously, jails are inherited from either FreeBSD or similar, though I am not sure (citation needed). Meaning... is these jails in iPhone has been so screwed up by Apple that can be easily broken, or it is just FreeBSD's code for jails that sucks?
Anyone knows here some details?
You can change the black background where the apps are and the app icons using an app named winterboard. (http://www.saurik.com/id/9)
Download the purplera1n tool and then unlock using ultraSnow using the guide here: http://www.iclarified.com/entry/index.php?enid=4253
The only problem with this hack is that Winterboard still doesn't work. For that you will want to wait until the iPhone Dev Team releases their updates. The Dev team STRONGLY RECOMMENDS that you obtain your IBEC/IBSS files and described on http://blog.iphone-dev.org/post/133799347/your-3gs-temporary-solution with a windows tutorial here: http://www.iclarified.com/entry/index.php?enid=4399
This program found here http://difrnt.com/blog/?p=25 will automatically copy the files out of the Windows Temp Directory when you do the restore on your iPhone in order to get the device. You don't need to perform a regular restore, just a DFU restore in order to obtain you iBEC and iBSS files (the guide tells you to restore once, normally, then once in DFU mode).
How did you go from, "one of the first things I tried was to make a ring tone, and it didn't work (the mthod above) until I switched to apple lossless" to "You have to use Apple lossless now. My understanding is that they disabled the AAC method because they don't want people making their own ringtones."?
Not to mention the fact that you can make your own ringtones both from within iTunes and from within GarageBand.
What an odd comment. Going from "it's still the best stuff out there" to "don't like em" in the space of three sentences.
I'm not sure why people like to whine about the iPhone. Just go get an Android phone and be done with it.
http://www.rootstrikers.org/
You can easily create a custom ringtone without jailbreaking. You can also put up your own wallpapers on the unlock screen as well. But jailbreaking let's you do a lot more.
Sorry, not to be mean, but I have used both devices and bought a 3GS. I am no Apple fan, but the iPhone has to be the most elegantly designed phone/mobile computer ever created. It blows android out the water, leaves Blackberry and Windows Mobile in the dust.
I have used Windows Mobile devices since 2003 and I must say, the iPhone is simply marvelous (note: I still hate Apple)
You need to jailbreak the phone in order to install it though... which is what this discussion is about.
The hardware on the iPhone is one of the best as well. The G1 uses HTC handsets. HTC handsets will not let you get 30 hours of music out of your device like the iPhone does. I love the little touches. The iPhone has accelerometers, and great auto dimming features. Say, for example, you are on a call, and you need to press a phone key (like press 1 for English). Well, the screen automatically dimmed already so you you can't see anything. But as soon as you go to touch the screen, the backlight pops on! You can see your key and press it. What actually happens is the accelerometers sense your other hand move slightly BEFORE you go to press the button with the other hand, and it turns on the backlight. Very cool. When I first got the phone and I saw this I thought it was some sort of black magic. HTC (also used on Windows Mobiles devices like my XV6700) hardware just doesn't come close.
I hope Android does get better and a good piece of hardware does come out to run it, because I am all about open systems (although Android isn't as open as Google likes you to think it is).
Well, because you are interested in getting work done, not running porn programs other than Safari.
There. Fixed that for you.
If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.
Your example is flawed. Even if Apple dropped support for all non-Apple devices from iTunes, you could still find some other program to manage your contacts and music. Still no monopoly abuse.
If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.
Have you ever heard of Symbian Signed? No - then google for it - you will then see that instead of having all applications authorised you need the more interesting applications to be signed, and the very interesting applications signed and approved. Of I have never heard of an application getting improvement for the "AllFiles" privilege.
This is not to say that the N97 was the wrong choice - all phones have a protection mechanism to prevent the not so bright user to install malware.
You are right - but then we have no alternative. All mobile phones have some protection, Symbian Signed, Java Verified, Apples Shop. All a power user can do is choose the phone which suits his/her need and is jail broken easy enough.
No. But I might want software that allows me to download and read from Project Gutenberg. Which was banned because a text only version of the Karma Sutra is available.
They removed Stanza from the App Store? Funny, looks like it is still there to me. It has a direct link to Project Gutenberg under "online catalog". And the kamasutra shows up. I think you're misinformed here. I think one should be able to jailbreak the phone, and mine is, in fact, jailbroken. At the same time, one should be complete and honest about the real reasons for doing so, and not embellish the list with things that are actually quite possible without jailbreaking. Jailbreaking is not everyone's cup of tea, and not all of Apple's actions are evil-- especially ones they have not actually taken.
Or I might just want a vm for the scripting language of my choice for no reason at all. I've installed python on every phone I've had that supported it. To date I've never done anything useful with it, but I might one of these days.
This puts me in mind of the quote, "what's the point of defending your right to have babies when you can't have babies?"
cough how much more open do you want it? To an iphone fanboy^W owner, I have to ask where is the iphone source code.
You can buy an Android Dev Phone outright for $425 USD or hack an ordinary G1/Dream into an ADP with little effort.
Fair enough, this is HTC's M.O.. That being said the 3G transmitter is far superior to the iphone's transmitter and it can switch between 2G and 3G on both calls and data without dropping out. Also if battery life is important you can buy a larger battery. By all reports the iphone's battery lasts only slightly longer then the HTC Dream.
So does the HTC Dream/Magic
Strange, most phones with LED screens seem capable of this. Have you even used a HTC Dream?
Wrong. What it actually detects is the electrical field surrounding your hand (this is how a capacitive touch screen works and why a stylus will not work on them).
So, you're trying to tell me everything you know about the HTC Dream/Magic is based on an older WinMo device. The HTC dream differs a great deal from their previous WinMo offerings, all WinMo phones are limited due to the lack of driver support, including capacitive touch screens (which the Dream/Magic has).
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
The only reason i unlock my iPhone: upcoming calendar events in the lock screen and MMS support (1.gen iPhone). It's stupid to have to launch an application to ser todays meetings..
I am not a Apple fan boy. I actually dislike Apple, but I must give credit where credit is due. Apple engineers made a great phone, but alas it is not as polished for a business device as I would like it be (has a bunch of quarks, like no on AC power versus batter power settings).
However, I demo'd a bunch of phones, including the G1, then decided on the iPhone. In my opinion it is simply the best device out there, and with the jailbreak, its nears perfection. The HTC Dream is a step in the right direction but the it is clunkier, has worse battery life (not "close to" the iPhone by any means) and the screen is plastic. The glass iPhone screen feels so great to the hand. It's so hard to go back. I read the reviews on the new Android phone coming out July/August, and they said the on-screen keyboard felt tacky and wasn't as nice as Apples due the the plastic screen. The latest Google device will have no pull out keyboard. Also, the G1 is slower, and I feel was rushed to market. It design is not as elegant.
Yes you can buy a dev kit and that is as close as your going to get, because mobile carriers do not want you flashing your own device. So it still has to be hacked. You can use your Andriod Dev Phone as your main phone if you wanted too, but its based off the G1, which mentioned above, is not as great as the iPhone. If Google makes a habit of releasing dev kits for each phone hardware iteration (without having to hack n flash) that will be a big plus versus the iPhone..
I have not noticed the auto-dimming features on the HTC Dream, so I cannot comment. But, it seems in this situation, a company that closely works on both the hardware and software integration of their product has produced a device that so far, not even HTC/Google has come to match.
. Just today I was using the iPod feature of the iPhone. I was amazed at the elegance. Shake the phone to pick a new random song, rotate to landscape to change the view to view by album art. It's the little polishing that is done that makes the difference. It makes using the device a joy. I can see why all the Apple fanboys always talk about this thing. If I was a fanboy, I would too!
Try remapping those features to different inputs. This is where the Iphone falls down, it has to be hacked just to allow the user to create a custom wall paper. Android allows the entire UI to be replaced, not just having a new skin put on but all the inputs changed as well. This is what HTC is doing with Sense (project named Rosie) on the HTC Hero.
The Iphone may be the favoured tool of today but a popularity contest is a fickle mistress and will turn on all in the end. The iphone cannot compete on function with Symbian or Android as they are, both are improving platforms. WinMo is slowly dying IMO and it should be. The image of the iphone will not keep it alive in the long run.
The HTC Dream and HTC Magic are faster then the iphone in all tests, what the iphone does is replaces transitions with animations, this is why it appeared faster. to get android to open a web page or even a text file is faster then on the iphone.
They don't get a say in it. There are already several community Android ROMs which are completely outside the control of telco's. I prefer to use JesusFreke's ADP ROM, mundanes will prefer the US or UK localised variants but I like the tools provided in the ADP version. Telco's in Australia (where I live) and Europe are not permitted to tell users what they can and cant do with their phones.
This is why I believe you to be a fanboy. Sorry but you lay too much lavish praise on the iphone and don't appear to have any experience with other devices. You rely on feelings and definitions like "clunkier" rather then debate the actual merits. BTW, the other Android phone from HTC (called the "Magic", but the "T-Mobile MyTouch 3G" for the yanks) has been out in Europe and Australia for over a month now, it has superior battery life to the iphone due to HTC using a larger battery (the one in the dream is tiny, this I admit).
I'm not a HTC/Android fanboy, the Dream's battery life is terrible but with a few useful tricks (keeping WiFi turned off until I use it, switching to 2G when I don't need data, turning down the screen brightness) it outlasts the iphone's default settings. Android 1.5 increased its default battery life by 20%.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
The iPhone is the first cell phone I've owned that I wasn't desperate to get rid of within months of purchase. It's the first one that actually does what it promises to do. Despite being annoyingly locked up by Apple, it's so much less locked up than any other cell phone I've had the misfortune to own that the fact that it's locked up doesn't bother me much. Since most cell phone providers do their best to get the terms of purchase of any phone you buy to just below your threshold of disgust, something that's substantially below the threshold of disgust feels revolutionary.
Nokias can use MP3, I usually use the phone Wifi to download them directly to the memory card, without passing through the PC.
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I bought one six months ago, and spend some time in selecting which open source OS to run on it. I finally chose one that was a bit bothersome on the phone side but much better on the GPS (using Openstreetmap).
To my knowledge this machine is still the only open-source GPS available on the market, and I was delighted with it.
For 15 days.
Until by pressing my finger a bit too strongly on the screen I crashed it. Not covered by guarantee, needless to say.
I still don't know if I'll buy the next model, assuming I can check the screen is less fragile. If I do this it'll be not from my french local retailer, given their polar suport...
Herve S.
The 'Convert to AAC...' option (or whatever it was called) has been removed from iTunes 8.2.
Maximum length for a ringtone is 40 seconds, btw.
the community desperately wanted an open phone, and thousands of openmoko neos and freerunners were purchased. the problem was the 1 day battery life. as well as a few problems with the GSM radio. the iphone is the next best device.
The 'Convert to AAC...' option (or whatever it was called) has been removed from iTunes 8.2.
You mean the "Create AAC Version" option..
I still very much have that context-menu option on iTunes 8.2 (23) on Mac and use it on an almost daily basis.
You can change the black background where the apps are and the app icons using an app named winterboard. (http://www.saurik.com/id/9)
Wasn't winterboard the app that makes iPhone glacially slow?
You can certainly put all the ringtones you want on there without jailbreaking. Not sure where this piece of disinformation came from, but 3rd party ringtones are easy to do, there are tons of articles on how to do it.
A device that has to be hacked to get basic features working is "Just Works"? Well yes, I suppose it "Just works" in that it makes phone calls, and anything else is a bonus. I would hope that the standard here on Slashdot for high end expensive phones is something that can do more than just working.
I want a phone that Just Works, Out Of The Box. No messing about with hacks, it's as bad as fiddling around with extra cables... I get "device freedom, works, and does a whole lot more" with my Motorola V980 phone (which is a cheap years old phone, nothing special).
I've nothing against the Iphone - I just find it odd that the features that are trumpted as being its advantages are actually the things that are its major disadvantages (similar with the claims about its UI - when it misses something as fundamental as copy/paste). I mean, I can understanding giving up one feature because it is better in other areas (well, kind of - when those features are available as standard on even cheap phones, it seems odd to give them up when you're spending vastly more, but anyway), but that's not what I see happening here.
Apple is doing extremely well with what they're doing. I don't think they really care about the small single digit percentage of people that want to jail break.
You and spartin are really good at following discussions.
Why would anyone buy a device where someone *else* decides what apps you can run and what you cannot run?
Because of a market failure. There is no comparable device that is sold in the same country (in this case, the United States of America) and allows easy execution of unsigned code. For example, three major handheld video gaming devices in the United States are the "Nintendo DS" by Nintendo, the "PlayStation Portable" by Sony, and the "iPod Touch" by Apple. All use some sort of cryptographic lockout to shut out unsigned code, and all have some obscure methods of defeating the lockout that firmware updates eventually fix. There is also the GP2X, an "open" system that is popular among people willing to use mail order, but it doesn't have a significant number of major-label titles, nor is it available to people who can't use mail order (such as children who have saved cash from birthday and lawn mowing).
UNLESS you pay full retail price, you do NOT own the device.
Then why don't I ever see phones in U.S. retail stores at retail price? Shopping online doesn't let me make sure the phone will fit in my hand. And why don't I see AT&T or T-Mobile advertising SIM-only plans for people who bring their own phone?
Even then.. you only own the hardware, not the OS, which is only LICENSED to you.
The owner of a lawfully made copy of an operating system has specific rights under United States copyright law (17 USC 117).
Nor do you, at that point, still have any right to use whatever SIM card you want to in it.
Citation needed.
NOR do you have any warranty.
Citation needed.
The equivalent of petrol in a phone is battery charge... last I checked, I didn't need to get apple authorization when I plug my phone into an outlet.
But other devices do use cryptography to control the flow of power. I've read about Motorola phones refusing to charge when connected to a charger that doesn't have Motorola's cryptographic key. I've read about Panasonic cameras refusing to boot when connected to a battery that doesn't have Panasonic's cryptographic key. Like the iPhone 3GS, these devices use cryptography to lock the user into buying complements from the same manufacturer.
To Jailbreak or not to Jailbreak that is the question.
Whether 'tis nobler in the iPod to suffer
the incompatible and non-standard applications
Or pay apple to ensure no troubles.
To me it is simple... Apple highly restrict software makes sure that for the average dough head their authorized software will work on there product. Unauthorized software on a jailbroken device might not. Look at all the hassle and flak that MS must take for trying to allow for every possible hardware configuration and crappy written software.
To me it is simple... if I download and install authorized apple software I trust it will work. The alternative has failed to gain my trust yet. When my device is old or I have a new one I will take significantly more risks with but that time has not come.
My Sig indicates the end of the comment I posted.
Why would anyone buy a device where someone *else* decides what apps you can run and what you cannot run?
I wouldn't.
The reality is that:
(a) Jailbroken, I can run things Apple or AT&T don't want me to.
(b) As a developer, I can write and deploy ANYTHING I want to the phone (and if you don't care to make it dead simple for $99/year, you can always use the open toolchain to do the compiling).
You don't even always have to jailbreak to do something, for instance there's a simple file you download on the phone itself to enable tethering on AT&T in the U.S....
I don't understand why people ignore the reality of a situation to complain about the way something ships from the factory. The truth is the iPhone is jailbroken, and always will be - Apple doesn't really care so I don't see why anyone else should. As technical people we should be focused on what is possible, not how something arrives to us initially.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Sorry, I'm not understanding from where your confusion stems.
The first thing I tried to do after getting the iphone 3gs was to make a ringtone. I tried with AAC as numerous forums/blogs/etc mentioned--it did not work. I tried with apple lossless as other posts suggested if the first method didn't work. That worked. Does that make sense?
I just tried again with several different files...oddity upon oddity, aac method worked fine on all except for the first file I had tried which simply does not import into itunes after converted to aac and changed to m4r. So it appears I was more or less wrong--AAC _does_ still work (at least most of the time). The file that fails as a aac ringtone is an ogg file before conversion...I wonder if that could be an issue.
And also, FWIW, have no idea if this is trustworthy or not... http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19512_7-10115290-233.html
What makes you think that?
After all, the 3.0 jailbreak uses the same exploit that the 2.2.1 jailbreak did. If Apple were "actively working to stop" jailbreaking they would have changed that. A number of updates have done nothing to lock down already jailbroken phones.
They provide one walled garden, but don't care what other gardens you wander in. So how is that equal to "actively working to stop" you from using non-Apple approved apps when north of a million people do so every day?
The truth is that Apple looks at jailbroken apps as a research opporunity and looks to see what people do outside the confines of the normal SDK.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Maybe I'm being a dick here, but saying the 3Gs has Finally been hacked is a bit of an insult to the crackers that made it happen. I mean, the thing has been out a couple weeks and the fact that it took Only 2 weeks to accomplish is a pretty great thing.
When Apple released the 3.0 firmware, there was a lull in the QuickPwn software where they had not worked out some bugs and several people had to go without an unlocked/unjailbroken iPhone for a couple days. Reading the posts on the forums, I was very disappointed in the people that were demanding that the DevTeam hurry the hell up and make their phones work again. Instead of basking in the glory of iPhone freedom, they wanted to bitch and complain that things were moving too slowly and that they couldn't use their precious iPhones to Facebook or Tweet or whatever they needed to do. I can remember back in the day, sitting on BitchX and waiting for a crack-team to post the newest keygen for whatever the latest release of (game/software, etc...) and being patient about it because those guys were doing something I couldn't. They were providing a service that was completely free and that I had no right bitching at them about taking too long to add it to their servbots.
I'm too young to know if kids in past generations were this disrespectful to people that were doing favors for the community for free, but I'm too old to know if this is something that all young people do nowadays. Is this what happens when we make so many things quickly and easily accessible? I think kids today would do well to learn a little patience and develop an appreciation for how difficult some things in life can be, even if to them it's just a click away.
Now get off my lawn!
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Any other phone?
On my G1, I just drag the music I like to anywhere on the SD card. Then I can use the app Ringdroid to cut it down to the length I want and set it as the active ringtone, or if I just want it to ring from the beginning I can select it right from the music app while listening to it (Menu button > Use as ringtone).
That hardly seems as much of a hassle as importing, transcoding, and renaming. Maybe I'm just too dumb to see Apple's brilliance on this matter.
I'm a fan of the e70, and it's a nice phone, but other than bluetooth tethering and mobility across GSM providers, there's not much in terms of objective advantages to it vs the iPhone.
Tweet, tweet.
That may be true, but GSM is not the ULTIMATE platform either. CDMA rev. a can smoke GSM f depending on many factors.
CDMA will be basically dead in North America within 5 years. By September of this year, Telus (Canadian CDMA Provider) will have 3G GSM running in parallel with their CDMA network and by 2010, Bell (Canadian CDMA provider) will have brought online their 3G GSM network. By 2011, Verizon(CDMA), Bell(CDMA), Telus(CDMA), Rogers(GSM/UTMS), Fido(GSM/UTMS) and MetroPCS(CDMA) will have switched to LTE (4G GSM) leaving Sprint and a handful of small CDMA providers using that old technology.
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
"You rely on feelings and definitions like 'clunkier' rather then debate the actual merits."
I noticed this as well. Almost every iPhone fanboy's arguments boil down to how much more 'elegant' and 'polished' the iPhone is. I'm surprised that the fanboy (yes, you're a fanboy; you said so yourself) you're responding to was actually able to bring up examples of this elegance, such as shaking it to select a random song. But, how many people actually use this feature? If you're on a set playlist, and you shake it, does it select a random song from the playlist? From all your music? If the latter, what does it play after that? Another random song? Back to your playlist? If you're already playing a playlist set to random, then what's the point? Why not just click the 'next' button? What happens if you like to go jogging while listening to music? Will it pick a new song every step? If the phone has to be unlocked to use the feature, then why not just hit the next button, since it's already in your hands and you're looking at the screen? In what way is this feature elegant or intuitive? The album art appearing in landscape view is also a feature that, while seemingly cool, doesn't have much actual elegance or usefulness. Unless you bought all your music from Apple, you're not likely to have all the album art, and it's nowhere near the most efficient way to find the music you're looking for. Even if you do remember the album art to every song you like, you can only view full covers for something like three albums at a time.
Really, the only solid merits I could find him attributing to the iPhone were the auto-dimming (which actually IS elegant and well-designed) and the fact that he likes the feel of glass over plastic. Meanwhile, he admits that the iPhone lacks features that would be genuinely useful to him, like custom settings based on power source.
The reality distortion field truly is amazing.
Every test I have ever read said the iPhone browser is faster.
This is why I believe you to be a fanboy. Well, that kind of destroys your entire argument because you 100% incorrect. Since I just got the iPhone, did a ton of research, talked to a bunch of people who owned all the different devices, and, as a matter of fact, I despise Apple.
The fact of the matter is, the web browser on the iPhone 3GS is the fastest from what I have read and from my own experience, and the majority of the features are simply better than anything that is out. The new android phone isn't even out in the US.
Will the iPhone be dethroned. Of course. And I hope it is HTC/Android, and then I will buy that.
But I am sorry, but try getting 30 hours of music out of HTC coupled with the same interface as the iPod app in the iPhone. I really want to see that.
Umm, those feelings are my opinion. And yes, elegance in design is something pretty big in computer science. There is an entire field devoted to UI and design of interfaces. Apples scores a lot in this area, and it make using the device a pleasure.
See, I think you dislike Apple as much as I do, and are upset to see a non-fanboy like myself actually admin, hey, Apple created a really nice device. These fanboys are right. Yes it has lots of issues. No device is perfect. But in my opinion, this is the best device that is currently out on the market. Period. End of story.
"If you care about security, don't use a jailbroken iPhone," said security researcher Charlie Miller, speaking at the SyScan security conference in Singapore on Thursday.
The process removes around 80 percent of the security protections built into the phone's software, making it more vulnerable, Miller said.
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck
I am of a differing opinion.
I prefer the old Slashdot, just after karma was implemented but before all of the anti-trolling/anti-crapflooding countermeasures. It certainly was more entertaining and it was eaiser to use, even for non-trolls.
Here I am a user who has never done any actual trolling, yet I have to wait XX number of seconds between posts. If I want to comment anonymously I have to wait who knows how long between each. Hours? I can't make short posts no matter how useful. Can't use all caps even when appropriate. Can't make the same post twice.
Back in the day I could do all those things. Sure we had penis birds everywhere if you browsed a -1 and Shoeboy got a +5 Funny FP on every article, but that was a small price to pay for freedom. Another ancilliary benefit was that people usually recognized actual trolls rather than got trolled by them. If you were in doubt you could crosscheck a post at inchfan.
Page widening and goatse links did more to wreck the place than any actual trolls.
"Sacrifice for the good of The State" - The State
Also, I do not have to pay for features when they are released - Android update to 1.5 was free.
and that matters how?
You could always import it, you'll have to forgive this little bit of schadenfreude, its not often Australia gets a new piece of tech before the US.
Then what you need is a dedicated MP3 player. My two year old Iriver X20 still gets 45 Hours of play time between recharges. The HTC Dream is a phone, not designed solely for playing music. Secondly demanding the ipod app interface is a bit rich, you should be able to figure out how to use the default interface (its not that hard).
But I'll bite, you can change the interface if you like, in order to get 30 hours of playback out of a HTC Dream, you will need to first update to Android 1.5 (Cupcake), turn off wireless and GPS, set the screen brightness to less then 25% (having good vision, I have to do this anyway otherwise the screen is too bright to read in a dark area). You will easily have 30 hours of playback as a backgrounded app in Android uses little power.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
daysbehind...... ...this was out late last week, where've you been?
I remember when /. had the bleeding edge in nerd-news....now; more and more, a day late and a dollar short.
There are 2 groups of people you can make fun of on the Internet without fear of attack. The illiterate, and the Amish.
Sorry, I'm not understanding from where your confusion stems.
It stems from the fact that you went from "it didn't work for me" to conclude, presenting it as fact, that it was because Apple doesn't want people making their own ringtones.
I know you were being honest, it's just the logical leap you made coupled with the fact that you didn't say something like, "probably because Apple doesn't want..." but instead, "my understanding is that...". Both are wrong, but one pretends to have actual knowledge.
The CNET article is probably true, but is from back before there was a proper way to put custom ringtones on an iPhone.
For quite some time now, though, Apple absolutely and under no uncertain terms allows you to make your own ringtones for your iPhone. If you're on a Mac, open GarageBand and notice the "iPhone Ringtone" option. If you're not, open iTunes and notice the "Store -> Create Ringtone..." menu item. If you do it through iTunes, you have to pay for it, and it's only available for some songs (the limitations and the charge are both absurd, but it's a music label thing). If you do it through GarageBand, it's absolutely free, and works in any non-DRM format that QuickTime supports (either natively or through a codec plug-in).
It stems from the fact that you went from "it didn't work for me" to conclude, presenting it as fact, that it was because Apple doesn't want people making their own ringtones.
If you go back and actually read my post, it started with "AFAIK" and preceded the statement about Apple not wanting people making their own ringtones with "my understanding." Given that I *wasn't* sure I ouched it in exactly those terms... Yeah, I was absolutely wrong, I totally admit that, but it didn't just come out of thin air--the blog/forum I can't remember which that recommended trying Apple lossless suggested the same thing.
I wonder if most iPhone users are on mac or not? I can tell you that with my parents (who just got iphnes as well), they were clueless as to how to make ringtones, and never would have been able to figure out (or correctly create) ringtones without my assistance. I never would have thought of using Garageband (which I actually deleted off my laptop) to make a ringtone...itunes is the logical place. Again, you're absolutely right that it's possible to create ringtones, but I do think my original point--that apple makes it a PITA to make ringtones, remains true...after all, why not be allowed to use any mp3/aac on the phone or easily make one in itunes? It's about the money...
Hey, rereading this post, I just wanted to make clear that you are right -- I shouldn't have posted unsubstantiated claims -- point taken!