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Apple Bans Jailbreakers From the App Store
Hugh Pickens writes "Adam Mills writes in the Examiner that Apple has been cutting off access to the iTunes App Store for iPhone hackers and jailbreakers. Sherif Hashim, the iPhone developer who successfully hacked the iPhone OS 3.1.3 and unlocked the 05.12.01 baseband for iPhone 3GS and 3G devices, discovered he'd been cut off and twittered: '"Your Apple ID was banned for security reasons," that's what i get when i try to go to the app store, they must be really angry.' Another hacker, iH8Sn0w, who is behind the Sn0wbreeze tool, confirms that his account has also been deactivated even though iH8sn0w's exploit had only been revealed to Dev Team, the group responsible for the PwnageTool. 'It is kind of surprising that two people associated with jailbreaking have had this happen to them so soon after one another, but it's too early to say if this is a campaign that Apple is starting up,' writes Mills."
3.1.3 hasn't been "hacked". The chap discovered a specific crash which could trigger a crash in the baseband software, potentially being one day developed into an unlock. Long way off..
The other guy cobbled a VB front-end onto a load of other people's utilities to make a questionably legal Windows version of an existing OSX program for creating custom firmware bundles.
Bit of an overreaction on Apple's part if you ask me.
Is a lot like the experience you have after having a few too many drinks and wandering into a dark alley at 3AM.
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
where do you come up with this? Jail breaking exists because there is a demand for features that apple refuses to provide. It's no different than rooting a google phone, and for the same reasons.
Easy examples: Flash, multitasking, tethering.
I'm an apple hater, someone who doesn't even have an iphone, and even I know this. Basically, there wouldn't be jailbreaking if apple was actually giving their customers what they want.
Or it would be an effective way to encourage people to go Android.....
It's the 80's all over again......
DISCLAIMER: This post was not checked for speling and grammar- if you complain- you're a whiner
This obviously sucks for the people involved, but I can't help but feel this is actually superb news. Maybe this will finaly drive home that the ability to jailbreak your devices does not excuse manufactures for making locked-down closed devices. Far too often I've heard arguments of the form: "[DEVICES] are not locked down, because you can jailbreak them if you want to."
"linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)
I'll add my experience:
I've jailbroken my phone, and I have not placed a single app that was available on the appstore on my phone without purchasing it from the appstore.
I jailbroke my phone so I could get into the file system of the phone because I absolutely hate using iTunes to get files on and off my device. I also liked to be able to multitask and not have my preferred music player stop working because I wanted to look up something on the internet.
In fact, if I couldn't jailbreak my phone I wouldn't have purchased it in the first place since in its default state, it's a pretty crappy device for my needs.
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Indeed, and see this Apple KB article:
So who's to say it's not someone just messing with these guys? All it takes is a few bad login attempts to temporarily disable ANY Apple ID.
And even if Apple was disabling just these Apple IDs, it's clearly not of all people with jailbroken devices, else we would know about it; instead it's specific, individual people (who are probably in violation of Apple's terms of service for Apple IDs).
Christ almighty, it is 1986 all over again. "Yeah, Apple doesn't need all those people who just want to plug in any all video card. We aspire to a higher class of user." which, roughly translated meant "Okay, IBM and clone manufacturers, we seed 90%+ of market share to you to assure our purity."
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
I don't see any problem with it. I'm no Apple supporteer, but how is this different than MS banning hacked consoles from XBL or Blizzard banning cheaters from their servers.
If you want to use a service, you have to play by that service's rules. Don't like the rules, don't use the service.
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I jailbroke my phone to get these features:
1. A bash shell and openssh so I could have scripts for maintaining servers with me at all times.
2. Multitasking - why should GPS apps suspend and lose location info when someone calls? Why should Rhapsody not be allowed to run in the background? (Note to Apple: offer a Rhapsody-like streaming service please)
3. Steve Jobs may like how the iPhone GUI looks, but I don't worship Jobs and have my own ideas how my iPhone theme should look. Jobs is a brilliant guy, but he is a bit narcissistic. Why should he lock down my phone because I choose to use it differently than he uses his?
4. To enable tethering, which I haven't used other than to test it, but to know it's there if I am in a pinch and need internet access from a laptop immediately while on the road
And yet, I've not "pirated"[sic] a single application. I know people who don't jailbreak who claim to "pirate"[sic] apps, by syncing friends' phones to their macs (I don't know if it can be done as I'm not interested in "stealing"[sic] apps). I download plenty of apps from the app store - and some music (I'm mostly happy with my CD rips, but I do want to buy some tracks on occasion). I even purchase paid apps, such as TomTom, bejeweled, and quite a few others. Funny thing though, aside from TomTom, Defend Your Castle, and bejeweled, I don't bother with the apps I paid for all that much. I've found that many of the free ones are better, or just about as good! Why buy "fastlane" when the only real improvement over the free version is additional scenery?
I don't "pirate"[sic] apps or music, and have no desire to. And yet, I jailbroke my phone. In fact when I mistakenly downgraded to 3.1.3 (and did not have my hashes on file) I figured out a way to upgrade generate the hashes and upgrade from 3.1.3 back up to 3.1.2.
Posted anon since I figured out how to successfully revert back to 3.1.2 and I do not want Apple to ban me from the app store, since I actually LIKE giving Apple money in exchange for product on occasion.
Get a grip people. There haven't been any reports that Apple is banning people who jailbreak their own personal phones, they have banned TWO people who are involved in discovering and propagating exploits for the iPhone. Yes, these hacks are being used to jailbreak but it's a much different thing to ban someone who is actively seeking new ways to break into the iPhone OS than it is to ban someone unlocking their own phone.
If Apple starts banning en-masse people who have jailbroken their iPhones then we can break out the torches and pitchforks. Until then it's a company saying "no more soup for you" to a couple of hackers who are looking to exploit the company's secure system. And yes, I'll be right there with the rest of you if Apple does start pushing around joe average over this issue.
Sapere aude!
Really? Wow, so Google doesn't lock people out of accounts that have had too many bad login attempts?
Because that is exactly what has happened here; nothing sinister.
Cite that please. You're arguing that they make little to no money from content distribution through iTunes? I think you're full of it.
Sure. http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/11/steve-jobs-tries-to-downplay-the-itunes-stores-profit/ ...is an article where a NYT pundit postulates that despite Apple having publicly stated they make little money on the operation, he thinks they might actually be making a billion dollars a year (they make 25 billion or so a year as a company). Be sure to read the update at the end where he acknowledges he was mostly wrong after someone explained to him how much credit card transaction fees cost.
This is why I do not buy anything from Apple. I will not be forced into a little bubble like all of you cattle out there. I have missed nothing as the result. By the way, my phone dose multitasking and I am not banned from anything (except Apple).
Athiesm is a religion like not collecting stamps is a hobby.
cede , not seed.
They aren't turning off the device, they are removing your access to the iTunes store. Which is a service. Apple has a real and growing problem with people stealing the paid apps. It would be one thing if jail broken phones were just used for loading free software. But it's not.
If you want to use a service, you have to play by that service's rules. Don't like the rules, don't use the service.
XBL and Blizzard are services. If I hack I can cheat and degrade the experiences of others. The iPhone is a device. It's mine. No one else should care what I do with it.
But the App Store is a service. The device is yours but you play by their rules to use the services for it.
Anything can be found funny, from a certain point of view.
Here's a possible other side: Someone learned their login credentials, or at least the name, and tried too many times to log on as them. Poof, account locked for security reasons.
I'm usually not the first to come to Apple's defense (personally, I try hard to avoid their products exactly for the same reason I avoid Sony, I'm not a big fan of vendor lock-in), but I think we should first of all wait 'til it's verified that this is due to their jailbreaking.
Then there's still enough time to give them the verbal smackdown they (then) deserve.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Back in Oct 09 there were 4 million jailbroken iphones, of those at 38% have at least one pirated application. The numbers are real and growing. In order for the app store to be a viable business Apple has to protect the IP of the app holders. It's really sad, because there are great free uses of jail broken phones. It's too bad the pirate community ruined things for the free software community.
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/new_iphone_app_piracy_statistics_reveal_try_before_you_buy_myth.php
As of oct 09 38% of jail broken iPhones had pirated apps on them. The number is rising. It's more or less a case that the pirates ruined it for the free software folks.
Except they didn't ban the people. they banned the hardware from live, since it's untrustworthy. The people still have their gold status, and can sign in on another unhacked console, and use xbox live the way they always did.
Putting people on silver status would involve taking away a service they paid for. The fact that the device they were using is no longer considered kosher to use to access that service is a related, but seperatable issue. They still have all of the stuff they owned, and can use it on another console if they transfer the rights to that console. MS didn't steal money from them.
Personally, if I was going to mod an xbox, I'd have a second, unmodified one for normal usage nearby. Anyone who decided to take the risk also has the old owner onus applicable.
Here's a rather silly question - why did you buy it in the first place?
In its default state, I wouldn't have, and I didn't. I waited until it was possible to hack the device, then I purchased it once I saw that it wasn't a flakey hack and it was established that I wouldn't brick the device by breathing on it the wrong way. At that point, when I considered the total package (jailbroken iphone), it WAS what I wanted in a device since the alternatives (Verizon, Tmobile, Sprint) were not actually viable alternatives.
So in short, the unjailbroken iPhone was not something I wanted. The Jailbroken iPhone was.
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If Apple starts banning en-masse people who have jailbroken their iPhones then we can break out the torches and pitchforks. Until then it's a company saying "no more soup for you" to a couple of hackers who are looking to exploit the company's secure system.
So you're willing to protest when you get cut off but not when the guys whose software freed your phone get cut off? That's mighty neighborly of you.
"We can categorically state we have not released man-eating badgers into the area." - UK military spokesman, July 2007
And you can still use your iPhone. You just don't get access to iTunes.
With a reply like that you don't need to point out that you aren't a lawyer, really.
I cannot believe Apple did not learn this lesson the last time in the 80s. They were in the drivers seat with the PC and they refused to let anyone develop any software for it. Well, everyone gave them the finger and now almost everyone uses a Microsoft OS (although I am glad that is finally changing). Looks like Apple's need to control every thing and try to sell all the software themselves is catching up with them now that Android is out.
Perhaps I don't understand you right, but when did Apple refuse to allow anyone to develop software for their PC's?
-Turkey
This is the exact warning you get when your password is entered several times incorrectly, it is possible somebody got a list of developers apple ID's and was trying to brute force their way in. A quick trip to iforgot.apple.com would solve this pretty quickly.
So you're willing to protest when you get cut off but not when the guys whose software freed your phone get cut off?
It's a matter of scale and purpose. Someone hacking their own device and keeping that action to themselves is a single event. Someone making tools and enabling others (most likely people who couldn't do it in the first place) to hack their device is a manifold increase in the number of hacks, possibly also enabling further, deeper hacks of the device and network security.
There's no hard and fast cutoff as to what I would consider a reasonable degree of a company's ability to defend its closed system. When we are talking about cellular networks it wouldn't take much to cause major problems, even legitimate users can bring down the system. Add in people changing the software in unanticipated ways and then DISTRIBUTING those changes and you can easily cause havoc. On the other hand, stuff like DeCSS which enables a person to make backups of their DVDs has a less direct effect upon other users. It can still cause problems with piracy and such but it's not going to suddenly make everyone's DVDs unusable.
In this case I think that perhaps the iPhone hackers broke the terms of service of the iTunes Store and they had their accounts terminated. Apple has a right to do this, it's spelled out in the TOS. As long as they use it selectively for major infractions I'm not too worried about it, it's when they use it to ban every single little violation that I'll be worried. Is that arbitrary? Perhaps but everyone draws the line somewhere.
Finally, I don't jailbreak. If I didn't care for Apple's rules I wouldn't have bought the iPhone in the first place. If I wanted a more open device there are some out there and I would have gotten one. My iPhone works just fine for me without hacking anything.
Sapere aude!