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."

Comments

err, why?

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:err, why?

[kzieli]

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. 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. If you want freedom then you must be doing something illegal sounds like the first step towards tyranny. (Yes I'm aware that its just a Phone, and no I don't plan to get one).

Re:err, why?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why? Easy: it's a pretty good phone, it comes with some nice apps (including a great mobile browser) and has a lot of other great apps available to add to it.

Isn't that enough?

Yeah, I can't do everything I want with it. And that sucks. But the devices which are better about that are much worse in other areas. When it comes right down to it, the iPhone is the best device for me, despite its locked down nature.

Re:err, why?

[cowscows]

Because even with that restriction, the iphone is still a zillion times more useful than my old phone.

Sure, I can only choose from Apple-authorized apps, but seeing as there's tens of thousands of those apps, chances are I can find at least one app (or more likely a few to choose from) for pretty much anything I want to do. For most practical purposes, it really doesn't make a difference to me, seeing as I don't really care from any philosophical or ideological angle.

And if I ever have the need, jail-breaking my phone will always be an option.

Re:err, why?

[E IS mC(Square)]

"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).

Re:err, why?

[cawpin]

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.

Re:err, why?

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't you people ever read contracts and EULA's anymore? So... well, I think that sums it up. Let me know if you still have questions.

Read EULAs? Crap, I've tried. I usually glaze over long before the midpoint. I've gone through days where I have 4 or 5 updates that each demand I read a new EULA before installing - I don't have the time, the legal skills, or the money to hire a lawyer with the time and legal skills necessary to understand all that. It's a farce. We need a UCC for software and services. I would love to do a social experiment at a Walmart (or similar) store, where every time a product was swiped across the UPC scanner, it would ask the purchaser to read a 15 page legal document before letting them proceed. It'd be interesting. I wonder how many people would read them before clicking "OK". Then I'd like to detain a few of them as they left the store, and inform them that the EULA they agreed to at the register limited them to using one or two of the products they paid for only inside the store, and by removing the product from the store they were stealing. That'd be a hoot.

iTunes The Real Problem

[rshol]

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.

Re:iTunes The Real Problem

[BalorTFL]

There's a difference between not supporting third-party applications and actively working to stop their use.

In this case, Apple's doing the latter, and that's pretty evil.

jailbreak justification

[tresstatus]

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)

Mine's hacked and unlocked

[johntdavies]

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

Only in apple world...

[E IS mC(Square)]

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.

why doing this?

[PineGreen]

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.