Unreleased iPhone 2.0 May Already Be Hacked 183
The as-yet unreleased second iteration of iPhone hardware may already be compromised, reports Engadget and News.com. Members of the 'iPhone Dev Team' have (supposedly) made use of the recently released SDK to gin up a Beta 2.0 software hack. "Unlike previous hacks, this one isn't specific to the latest firmware version, it exploits the way that Apple designed the iPhone's main bootloader. According to the iPhone Dev Team, the iPhone verifies whether or not firmware code has been signed with an RSA certificate before allowing it to be written to memory. The team has apparently figured out a way to disable that check and allow unsigned code to be written to memory."
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I'm sure the iPhone 2 will be held back until this is fixed.
Feasable? (Score:4, Interesting)
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If you do, so what? You still have to sell it somehow, unless you write it just for your own amusement. Do you think that people will sell your stuff for free, no matter even if it is insanely great? If given the choice of your "killer" app which may be virus infested, or a clean "vetted by Apple" program, directly from Apple's servers, which with most people pay money for?
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Well, one difference is that when your download "breaks", you can download it again or you are SOL (depending on the agreement you made when you downloaded it). A "broken" iPhone goes back to the store which starts a *very* expensive process (to AT&T and Apple). Hardware != Content. He just wants the goddam thing to work, which is why I bought the wifey a Mac instead of a PC. That's a revenue model I'm on board with.
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What is happening on the iPhone is not DRM. DRM is about copy-protection.
There are many parallels between DRM and closed hardware platforms, but they are two very distinct issues.
Apple's reasons for clamping down on the iPhone are very likely to be quite numerous, not to mention whatever sort of contractual obligations they have to fulfill with AT&T. It's not pretty, but it's how the mobile phone industry works in the US.
I can understand people being disappointed that the iPhone is a closed and locked platform, but displaying outright anger over the issue is absurd. Nobody's forcing you to buy an iPhone, nor is anything preventing some bright entrepreneur from making something better.
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Saving money on doing tech. support has nothing to do with Apple's response to iphone hacks! Anyone who would have the capability to hack an iphone would know that if you hack it, you can't get support for it.
Apple is concerned with money. More specifically, they got big bucks from AT&T to make it exclusive. AT&T have a vested interest to make sure that their investment is worth it. Apple has to prove to AT&T that all possible measures are being taken to ensure that if someone buys an iphone, they use AT&T service. That's what's in play here. Tech support is irrelevant.
I bet Jobs personally at least sympathizes with those who want to hack iphones so they can use them with any phone services. The deal with AT&T may not have been his call in the end.
off-topic, Parent post is a troll in disguise...basically he's ranting about frustrations of doing tech support and somehow managed to loosely connect it to the topic
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Any geek willing to break the seal is willing to forego support when they inevitably break the machine.
Right. As an iPhone owner, I hacked mine a while back. It was really easy. Part of the problem, though, is that the OS has been changing often enough that most apps won't work unless they're written for the specific firmware you're using, so the payoff of hacking your phone is diminished. I think lots of developers stopped keeping up figuring they'd wait for the official SDK.
Anyway, I don't doubt that the iPhone will keep getting hacked for as long as it's useful to hack it. I'm betting either Apple will be very reasonable about letting people distribute on iTunes, or else people will immediately hack a different distribution method for unauthorized apps. Either way you'll be able to get the apps you want with a minimum of hassle.
It's going to happen, and the iPhone will be a cool platform. If Apple's smart (which they often show themselves to be) then they won't fight it.
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iPhone 2.0 Hardware...huh..what? VAPORWARE? (Score:3, Interesting)
Huh...
Either, they hacked this themselves so as to determine how to protect against it. Or this whole story is hogwash and not worth two grains of salt.