Filed under: Cellphones

Still no baseband unlock, but if you’ve been dying to feel the marginal improvements of iPhone OS 2.0.2 while still rocking those crazy homebrew apps, the Dev Team has come through again with PwnageTool 2.0.3. A new Windows version of the QuickPwn tool is also out, with a Mac version to follow within the week — you know the drill, if you’re brave enough to update let us know how it goes in comments.

[Thanks, David]

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It’s not the iPhone 3G unlock yet, but at least those of you who held-off from updating your iPhone to the 2.0.1 firmware are about to get a taste of improved stability and snappy keyboarding while early updaters will once again gain access to their jailbroken apps. Or so says the DevTeam who claim that PwnageTool 2.0.2 is “undergoing final checks and will be packaged, signed and should be uploaded within the next few hours, so count on it being released sometime on Thursday.” The update will be provided via a direct link (which we’ll pass along) and over the PwnageTool’s software updater. So block out some time in your calendars, there’s plenty of newbie hackery to be done later on today.

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Filed under: Cellphones

As some of you already know, updating your iPhone to firmware 2.01 means that you’ve lost access to all your jailbroken apps. That’s pretty much expected and should be rectified by the DevTeam soon enough. What’s notable from an unlocking perspective, however, is that Apple’s 2.01 release also updates the iPhone 3G baseband. This puts iPhone 3G owners in a bit of a quandary: update now via iTunes in desperate hopes of the stability and improved keyboard response we’ve been seeing but do so at the risk not being able to unlock your iPhone 3G in the future (if and when the DevTeam gets around to releasing it for firmware 2.0). A lot can happen in the course of a 2 year (or longer) carrier commitment. According to the DevTeam, you’ll get all the benefits of Apple’s 2.01 update (without the pesky new baseband) just as soon as they can kick out the updated PwnageTool (current version is 2.01) onto the Internets. Decisions, decisions.

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Filed under: Cellphones

As some of you already know, updating your iPhone to firmware 2.0.1 means that you’ve lost access to all your jailbroken apps. That’s pretty much expected and should be rectified by the DevTeam soon enough. What’s notable from an unlocking perspective, however, is that Apple’s 2.0.1 release also updates the iPhone 3G baseband. This puts iPhone 3G owners in a bit of a quandary: update now via iTunes in desperate hopes of the stability and improved keyboard response we’ve been seeing but do so at the risk of not being able to unlock your iPhone 3G in the future (if and when the DevTeam gets around to releasing it for firmware 2.0). A lot can happen in the course of a 2 year (or longer) carrier commitment. According to the DevTeam, you’ll get all the benefits of Apple’s 2.0.1 update (without the pesky new baseband) just as soon as they can kick out the updated PwnageTool (current version is 2.0.1) onto the Internets. Decisions, decisions.

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Filed under: Cellphones

digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/apple/iPhone_apps_pirated_shared_but_not_GPL_d’; Seeing as Apple’s FairPlay DRM has already been cracked for music and movies, it’s not at all surprising that people are starting to poke holes in the FairPlay-based iPhone App Store. The first loophole is pretty simple, since it doesn’t appear that FairPlay links the iPhone hardware to specific Apple IDs: just log into iTunes from any of the machines authorized to use your account, and every app you’ve purchased will be available for free re-downloading to any attached phone. Since music and movies wrapped in FairPlay can be transferred to unlimited iPods and iPhones, we’re guessing this little trick will work indefinitely, but we wouldn’t depend on it.

Continue reading iPhone apps pirated, shared — but not GPL’d

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Filed under: Cellphones

Sure, it was already possible (if complicated) to jailbreak a first-gen iPhone running the 2.0 software under Windows, but this is the one-click tool all you crazy cats with those extra G’s need if you don’t have a Mac — too bad no one’s come up with a better name than “pwn” yet. Please, people. Let’s do better.

PS.- As usual, you run the risk of totally destroying your phone mucking around with this stuff, so don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Update: winpwn.com is down already, mirrors in the comments!

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Feeling a little left out after yesterday’s Mac-based Pwnage Tool festivities, Windows users? Fret not, because the ever-vigilant, ever-studious hacking community has managed to come up with a series of steps to get you back on your feet again with a fully pwned first-gen handset. The whole shebang isn’t necessarily for the most casual jailbreakers — let’s just say it isn’t quite as straightforward as the Mac procedure yet — but it’ll allegedly get you going if you’re starting with an iPhone running 1.1.4 (there are additional steps if you jumped the gun on 2.0, you impatient son of a gun, you — think of it as penance). As always, exercise extreme caution, understand that this could cause your iPhone to spontaneously combust into a useless pile of metal, plastic, and ash, and let us know how it goes in comments.

[Thanks, Z-]

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Filed under: Cellphones

Sort of. Pwnage Tool 2.0 can’t handle 3G iPhones just yet, and we’re also faced with the teensy little problem of the Dev Team’s server being totally destroyed by downloads already — mirror please? — but the friendly little jailbreak app has finally been unleashed upon the earth. We’d never suggest trying out software like this right out of the gate, but, um, let us know how it goes, yeah?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Filed under: Cellphones

var digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/tech_news/Screen_Grab_Woz_hacks_Kathy_Griffin_s_iPhone_on_TV’; Steve Wozniak is much more than a throbbing brain with a tie. He knows that the quickest way to a girl’s heart is to jailbreak her iPhone… on TV. As he tells Ms. Griffin, “You know, some people would criticize you for not having hacked your iPhone.” Certainly not you, Mr. Apple Co-founder? Watch it all go down after the break.

[Thanks, Karim S.]

Continue reading Screen Grab: Woz hacks Kathy Griffin’s iPhone… on TV

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Filed under: Cellphones

Those crafty kids on the iPhone Dev Team have already hacked the 2.0 firmware, but now they’re getting ready to release the oh-so-creatively-named PWNED tool, which takes iPhone hacking to the next level by patching the bootloader to let you load any firmware image you want — even images not signed by Apple. That means custom patched firmware can now be loaded directly from iTunes, which simplifies the jailbreaking / unlocking process tremendously, and also means that a patched version of the 2.0 firmware is coming soon. We’re putting the tool through its paces right now and we’ll have a hands-on with it (and the Dev Team’s patched 2.0 firmware) as soon as we get it all working, but check out some highlights after the break, and hit the read link for more info.

Continue reading Video of the iPhone Pwned project in action

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Filed under: Cellphones

This is just getting silly, don’t you think? The iPhone Dev Team has once again proven their totally gnarly talents by freeing up the latest firmware before it’s even the latest firmware. Apple, here’s our suggestion — just let people do what they want with your devices, since they’re clearly going to do it anyway. That way, instead of making enemies, you’re making lifelong buddies. Reasonable, right? Steve, give us a call, we’re more than happy to riff on some ideas for playing nice with the end-user.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Filed under: Cellphones

We know, we’re flat on our backs from being blown away here, but Apple confirmed to us in a post-keynote Q&A session that SIM unlock software will not be allowed in the iPhone App Store. You know what that means? The Jailbreak community lives to crack another day.

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Filed under: Cellphones

If you happen to own an iPhone, and you happen to have updated to the 1.1.4 firmware, you can now easily jailbreak, activate, and unlock your phone with a couple of simple solutions. As you may have heard, iNdependence 1.4 beta 5 is out, which will do all sorts of non-Apple approved things to your device from OS X, though if you’re looking for the ultimate cross-platform solution, you probably can’t do better than the latest version Zibri’s all-in-one package, Ziphone 2.5. Both apps make it about a million times easier than this was a few weeks ago, though we’ve seen video of a new solution — jailbreaking directly from iTunes — that could make this process even simpler (though considerably more illegal). Check that out after the break and get a glimpse of your deviant future.

[Via TUAW; Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Read - iNdependence
Read - Ziphone’s Blog

Continue reading Easy 1.1.4 jailbreaking with iNdependence, Ziphone, and… iTunes?

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Filed under: Cellphones

We’re not yet entirely sure how it works, but iPhone hacker Zibri’s just released a new app he’s calling ZiPhone, which claims to jailbreak any version iPhone — including new 1.1.3 phones right out of the box — without messy downgrades and baseband changes. We haven’t tested it ourselves, but prepare for the onslaught of downloaders to take it offline in five… four… three…

[Thanks, Tyler and Eugene]

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Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio, Portable Video

If you’ve got a certain brand loyalty to the official iPhone Dev Team then take note, they just released their own special flavor of the 1.1.3 jailbreak for iPhone / iPod touch. We guess that with the splitter version already outed (and it’s secrets revealed to Apple) there was no sense in keeping it under wraps any longer. The hack requires a v1.1.2 jailbroken device with the BSD Subsystem v1.5 or greater installed — it does NOT upgrade your baseband. All the usual cautions apply hacker-boy so be careful out there, we haven’t tested… yet.

[Thanks, Ben]

Download — official 1.1.3 Dev Team jailbreak

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Filed under: Cellphones

While it likely won’t come as much of a surprise to those reading this, it seems that Apple’s recently released iPhone sales numbers and AT&T’s customer number don’t exactly match up, leading those ever so insightful analysts to conclude that many of the phones are being sold with the sole intention of being unlocked. What is somewhat surprising, however, is exactly how many phones that might be. As MacWorld reports, Apple says it sold 3.7 million iPhones in 2007, while AT&T says it signed up about two million or so iPhone customers during the same time period. While those aforementioned analysts point out that Apple’s numbers were boosted by 300,000-400,000 sales in Europe, and likely a few sold over the holidays that were yet to be activated, that still leaves over a million iPhones running free out there. If you do the math, that seems to suggest that roughly one in three iPhones sold are being unlocked although, obviously, we’re not about to get a confirmation on that number from anyone.

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Filed under: Cellphones

Those of you torn between having an SNES emulator and vibrating icons need worry no more — a team of iPhone hackers led by the illustrious Nate True has just posted an iPhone 1.1.3 jailbreak. There are some hacker politics between the iPhone Dev Team and Nate involved, and the jailbreak is currently only for Windows users with previously-jailbroken 1.1.1 or 1.1.2 iPhones, but it’s still sweet, sweet freedom. We’re busy getting it up on one of our iPhones here at Engadget HQ, we’ll let you know all the gory details when we’re done.

[Via TUAW]

Update: We tested it to a spec jailbroken 1.1.2 phone, as the app requested — it works alright.

Update 2: Now available for Mac-heads.

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Filed under: Cellphones

The kind folks at Conceited Software / TouchFree have just dropped their 1.1.2 jailbreak GUI on the freedom-lovin’ iPhone world. According to Erica at TUAW, the OS X software siphons data from your downgraded (or pre-existing) 1.1.1 iPod touch or iPhone, upgrades it with the Jailbreak, installs Installer.app and SSH.app, and then ups the whole shebang to your device. As mentioned, you’ll need to have 1.1.1 on your system (if you’ve upgraded or purchased a device with 1.1.2 installed), and this won’t fly on units that have been “hactivated” (i.e., it only works with iTunes-activated devices). Hit the read link and learn all about sticking it to Apple… proper-like.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

As you’d expect, Apple has released version 1.1.2 of the iPod touch firmware hot on the jailbreak-breaking heels of its iPhone update. Early reports on MacRumors indicate a new “Add Event” functionality in the Calendar — something that should have been included in v 1.0. Anyone else getting dirty with the firmware who wants to share changes? We’ll keep you updated of course as this and the iPhone 1.1.2 status develops.

Update: Whoa, TUAW’s in-house hacker — Erica Sadun — is reporting that v1.1.2 is already hacked on the iPod touch. That bodes well for opening up your new UK and German iPhone, eh readers?

Download - iPod1,1_1.1.2_3B48b_Restore.ipsw, 158MB

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio, Portable Video

When we first got our hands on the UK iPhone back in September, it was already running the 1.1.1 firmware. The same firmware which helpfully bricked a number of hacked iPhones Stateside upon later release. Now T3 is claiming that the UK iPhone — set for release on November 9th — is kicking 1.1.2 under the glass. Besides support for French and German keyboard layouts and characters, the other notable change is the shuttering of the TIFF exploit used to jailbreak and then install (and unlock) third party applications on the 1.1.1 iPhone and iPod touch. With the possibility that Apple might release 1.1.2 globally with the UK launch on Friday, consider yourselves warned. It’s not like there’s a lot of incentive for you to update anyway (remember, it’s optional) what with the latest jailbreak simultaneously exploiting and then plugging the TIFF exploit to keep your browsing safe. For whatever it’s worth, the February SDK isn’t too far away — perhaps you should wait ’till then to get right with The Steve.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!