Little comfort to those who face bricking their unlocked iPhones or languishing on old firmware forever, but the iPhone DevTeam have been pretty unequivocal at accusing Apple of taking the, let’s say, AT&T pleasing option when it comes to constructing their upgrade. As they told Gizmodo:
“Apple has multiple ways of upgrading the [firmware of the] baseband [radio chip] without committing a 500,000-phone massacre. First, they can issue a secpack [security pack] for everything in the firmware. They could simply issue one of these to restore the value if a regular token is not detected, thus rewriting this part to its original state. This process would most likely defeat any unlock available, Dev Team or iPhone Sim Free, without bricking the iPhone in any way. New firmware updates could also employ new firmware which closes the loophole that allows the use of a secpack for other operations. They could make this method of updating even resistant to tampering or abuse for a unlock. The possibilities are there”
However frustrating, financially-shortsighted or, as one commenter here on MY iTablet put it, “un-American” the current situation is, though, it looks as if unleashing another class action against Apple would be a waste of time. Legal beavers have compared firmware consequence to warranty clauses and decided – even though the T&Cs are worded so confusingly that you’d need to be a genius or perhaps a post-modernist poet to understand them – that Apple are well within their rights to ignore the potential risk to modified iPhones since they are different to the original specification.
It gets worse, though; as suspected, unlocking an iPhone that’s using firmware version 1.1.1 looks to be a far tougher prospect than previous, and the DevTeam, while busy working on it, say it may take some time.
I have used Ifuntastic to add new ring tones to my phone….. I am not sure if this is considered unlocked or not since my phone is still very much locked. What do you guys suggest… I am a little worried about this update..
As an application developer in the ’80′s I started developing apps for the MAC. But it was such a pain and the idea that I had to give them a piece of my action steered me to develop on the PC (DOS and then windows applications). As it turned out the MAC never recovered from that initial geed and the available applications for the PC simply skyrocketed, along with the PC itself. I get a distinct feeling that the iphone and itouch platforms are repeating history here. Rember IBM’s micro channel attempt at locking in the customer?
[quote comment="9936"]Rember IBM’s micro channel attempt at locking in the customer?[/quote]Boy this is interesting to watch the human condition in action. Watch as we collapse facts and interpretation and stretch truth beyond all recognition. Why bring up old stories about IBMs aspirations when that mindset has nothing to do with this? Apple tries to release a product that revolutionizes the phone experience, and they largely succeed. One of the things that keeps costs down with their iPod line, is not expanding third party support. Moreover, I personally noticed an interesting phenomena… After restoring my iPhone from AppTap use, days ago in anticipation of the new firmware, I noticed a curious feeling which was echoed by a comment I read on the net. I’d almost forgetten how much MORE stable and responsive the phone was after running so many third party apps on it. Anyway… Whether its ringtones or 3rd party apps, I trust Apple’s final judgment, but like everyone should… I’m sending in my comments and requests for the record. I honestly believe Apple’s stance is solid, if not compromised. They wanted to do free ringtones… RIAA said “NO!” not Apple’s business to piss of close partners more than they already are.
James, I used iFuntastic, and I restored my iPhone to factory settings in iTunes. I updated to 1.1.1 with absolutely no problems. Hope that helps.
Get over it. i am so tired of hearing all the whining from the hacks when you all knew damn well that your hacks would have repercussions. Hell, even when you install 1.1.1 you get a warning message in caps that says as much!!! Face it… most of us buy the phone to enjoy the out-of-the-box functionality and do not hack the product. Class action lawsuit? Give me a break. You guys are the problem, not Apple.
I’m going to go and enjoy my newly updated iPhone and browse the wi-fi store while you guys can play with your brick. Enjoy.
#5:
Hear, hear. You’re going to get some grief for your post, but the hackers are getting a bit full of themselves. I like the idea of putting (my own) ringtones on the iPhone, too. But when people say ridiculous crap like — “committing a 500,000-phone massacre” — they’re just asking to be made fun of. Let’s not worry about actual facts or anything. Why not just say they committed a 50 bajillion iPhone massacre? That sounds like an even biggerer number, yeah?
Can I still unlock a brand new “out of the box” iphone? What special precausions should I take while doing so? What software do you recomend me to use to successfully activate my iphone with a non AT&T sim card?
Ditto on the new, out-of-the-box iphone. I have one arriving in the mail tomorrow (I’m a US GI not living in the US) and wondering if I’m going to be able to unlock it if my iTunes hasn’t been updated? Any ideas of new phones?
Re. the brand new iPhone query, it really depends on whether Apple are pre-installing 1.1.1 on all store-bought handsets or if there’ll be some delay while older stock is cleared. If you’re running earlier firmware then you’ll be able to unlock it; if it’s 1.1.1 then I’m afraid not.
I also had third party apps on my iPhone. But when I read about the warnings from Apple I restored back to original settings. When the update came out I hooked up the phone so iTunes opened. There was no automatic update. I had to click the check for update buttons. Even when this came up the was the warning right at the beginning and I had to click the agree button. So ,it seems to me, anyone with a hacked iPhone had to voluntarily ignore the software license warning, the numerous warning posts online and finally still had to agree with the software license. Everybody who bought the phone knew they would be stuck with AT&T for two years. If this was too much for them they should not have made the purchase. If your phone has become a brick it was because you chose to ignore everything.
Good already it happens for that reason the first costupid error of of sim with which it wastes but of 30 hours in telephono with representatives of Apple and att and in the end decidi to pass by an Apple store where commanded to me to cojer my iphone of steps on paper since abia hakeado.
desidi to implement ibrick but this you see again as if outside I telephone new of box without activating and I work me but when pareser there are bad aplicasiones and now I telephone this colaughing very slow in home and when the Lock activates and I cannot recover it because he requests to me that he lowers the 1-1-1 who sujieren to me?
omggggg
did you all know you can unlock your phone with your tongue?
well you can!!!!
[quote comment="9988"]Should Apple’s firmware programmers have tried to prevent this from happening? Well, up to a point they certainly did, as many problems other than hackers can cause such errors – electrical noise, badly seated or marginally defective SIM card, low battery, for instance. The system has to fail gracefully. However, [b]it’s certainly not reasonable to expect them to specifically recognize and work around (or even tolerate!) the various hacks; after all Apple’s contract with AT&T certainly requires them to evidence due diligence in preventing that.[/b][/quote] This is a good article:
http://brockerhoff.net/bb/viewtopic.php?p=2191
Everyone else is on crack, and the Unofficial iPhone Dev Team is totally full of themselves. I know its silly to ask hackers to be more responsible, but hey, what can you do.
errrr if i have an unlocked iphone can i update it and have it to be working on a different network???
to all the ppl with the “brown nosing” of apple comments: just shut up!!!
I know in the US, its difficult to understand why we need unlocked phones but for the rest of the world, the iphone wont sell if we cant have it unlocked, if you dont understand that, dont talk to me.
and please…….. stop giving brains to apple……. they’re not god and they can do wrong…….. weird creeps defending apple….. makes me shudder………you sound like that loser kid in elementary school who kissed ass to the teacher….ha