Every day, we’re getting closer to a truly hacked iPad. I support this endeavor, but there are many who would say that Apple has our best interests in mind by limiting the iPad to what they think it should do. Well. Lately we’ve learned about apps being rejected for having “pad” in the name, apps being rejected because they weren’t written in the right coding environment (regardless of compatibility), a dashboard app that was rejected because it “contradicts the iPad user experience.”
It’s going to become increasingly clear over the next few weeks and months just how carefully delineated Apple means the iPad experience to be. So the question is, are you just going to take it? → Read More
Whether you’re excited about the iPad or not, you really have to admit that it’s a beautiful piece of hardware. What people disagree about is whether it’s worth having around, what with Apple’s chokehold on content and the limited inputs. Hell yeah, it is! But for flicking my way through word documents, watching scaled-down HD content in mono, and designing presentations? Nah. It’s not until one of the thousands of hackers out there, with teeth sharpened on jailbroken iPhone apps, gets their iPad and cracks the mother wide open, that we’re going to have the real fun. And I have reason to believe that’s going to happen mighty fast. → Read More
There was a wee bit of chaos amongst iPhone jailbreakers after this morning’s iTunes 9.1 update hit. Seemingly out of nowhere, “tethered” jailbreaks (the slightly-less-convenient type necessary for newer iPhones) stopped working. Panic!
Fortunately, the endlessly resourceful army behind the jailbreaking effort has already isolated the problem, and a fix is in the works. → Read More
Hurray, it’s cat and mouse time again! iTunes 9.1 was just released, and it looks like Apple has taken yet another step (or two) in their endless fight against jailbreaking. Take this with a grain of salt for the time being, but we’re hearing a lot of early reports that jailbroken devices will not sync with this latest iTunes release. → Read More
Web video star GeoHot just did a quick demo of his untethered iPhone/iPod Touch jailbreak. That’s right – you just have to put something on your device – and not directly connect it to your computer – and it will jailbreak that heck out of it in a few minutes. It’s just like the old days when you could download an image on the original iPhone and suddenly jailbreak it. While the video doesn’t explain anything, it’s nice to see America’s youth busily attending to the major issues of the day, especially if that issue is jailbreaking the iPad when it comes out next week. → Read More
I was going to use this graphic on the original story, in which Apple modified the bootrom in new 3GSes to make them resistant to current exploits, but Greg had already written it up. But now, as Wired clarifies what was pretty much clear from the start (it only protects against the current exploit), it has found a new place to shine. This is the great circle of mods, people. I can’t think of a single device that has been definitively protected from hacking. Although we give Apple an “B” for effort (Sony gets the “A” for its relentless PSP updates), the Sisyphean task of protecting a popular device from hackers is hardly worth pursuing any more. → Read More
If you’ve been waiting to upgrade, now you’re ready to rock. A new app, blackra1n, will jailbreak any 3.1.2 iPhone or iPod Touch. → Read More
If you’ve been dealing with a non-jailbroken 3GS running 3.1, now’s your chance to redeem it. The Dev-Team has upgraded PwnageTool to allow the 3GS (and the newest iPod touch) to be busted wide open, provided it was previously pwned in 3.0 or 3.0.1. So if your iPhone had 3.1 out of the box, you’re still out of luck. That is all. → Read More
We discuss a lot of wacky ideas in the CrunchGear chat room every single day. Most of the time, though, these ideas come to nothing and we just get on with being mildly informative. Not today! Presenting, um, a t-shirt we designed! It’s on CafePress, because that’s all we know how to use. → Read More
Don’t feel like dealing with jailbreaking you iPhone and killing iTunes updating? Got $799? Buy.com has an iPhone for you. The retailer is now selling the Jesusphone fully unlocked and with a full Apple warranty. It isn’t cheap at 800 bones, but think about what you get without all the legal worries. Finally, the iPhone can now legally work on the T-Mobile network and travel abroad too according to the Buy.com description. But why now is this fully unlocked iPhone available? Could it be an inventory clearing tactic before a new model launches. Probably. → Read More
The Dev Team has released a seven step process to jailbreak the 2.2.1 iPod touch firmware. Sure, it’s not packaged up in a nice and pretty app, but the steps don’t look to hard. Just follow ‘em to the letter and hopefully – *fingers-crossed* – you will be able to run jailbroken apps. → Read More
Cydia, the little app that you use to download homebrew apps to the iPhone, got paid apps last night, opening the door for an entire secondary market for app developers including, as Dan at Giz points out, porn. → Read More
MuscleNerd has posted a video showing how he jailbroke the iPod touch simply by connecting a micro controller – in this case a DefCon badge with some crazy chips in it – and sending eight characters to the iPod Touch during boot, thereby allowing the new firmware to be uploaded. → Read More
You’ll need a jailbroken iPhone for this but it appears that a developer called MeDevil is hot on the trail of facilitating Bluetooth file transfers between the iPhone and other compatible devices. → Read More
YellowSn0w is out and it’s ready to rock. Here’s how to become SIM-independent.
1. First, download quickpwn and jailbreak your phone. Use the latest firmware to pwn your phone (download it from Apple here). This will allow you to install Cydia or Installer. → Read More
iPhone owners have been foaming at the mouth for an iP3G unlocking solution since its release and it seems that hack is right around the corner. The Dev-Team has announced that they have successfully done the seemingly impossible and will make the hack available via PwnageTool and QuickPwn sometime around the New Year. Which is just in time for Steve Jobs to announce something new at Macworld and make the iPhone irrelevant. I kid, I kid. Speaking about PwnageTool, the Internet is swirling with reports that the 10.5.6 Leopard update breaks the DFU mode needed for the jailbreak. The Dev-Team seems to think that stopping iPhone hacking wasn’t Apple’s intent, and has suggested some workarounds. Chiefly, use the Windows version for now. Blasphemy! → Read More
A cabal of tinkers have managed to get root access on the G1 using telnetd. Now, whether or not that constitutes “jailbreaking” (which is an awkward word to use considering Android is supposed to be an open source operating system from the get-go) or something a little less dramatic is another matter. Or, to quote a Gizmodo commenter: This reminds me of the Spongebob episode where they steal a balloon on free balloon day. I think that says it all. via Slashdot → Read More
When the developer world first got glimpse of the iPhone 2.2 firmware back in late September, many were surprised to find out that nothing had been done to try and block users from jailbreaking (that is, hacking the handset to allow third party applications and modifications not approved by Apple). Nearly a month later, a second beta release of the firmware is in the hands of developers, and the iPhone-dev team has good news: jailbreaks are still working just fine. With 2.2 presumably nearing its public release, there are only a few possible explanations for this. Either Apple’s omitting the jailbreak-breaking code until the final release to prevent a workaround being discovered preemptively, they’re not quite sure how to fix it, or they’ve simply stopped caring about jailbreaks. We’re hoping it’s the latter. → Read More
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