software update expected to be released on 5 July?

The new member · Jul 4, 2007

Found this...

http://www.macworld.co.uk/ipod-itunes/news/index.cfm?newsid=18450

Unlocked iPhones coming soon
Hackers work to unlock iPhone
Wednesday, 04 July 2007
Sumner Lemon

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hackers may successfully unlock an iPhone in as soon as three to seven days, according to a representative of one effort that aims to unlock Apple's new handset.

"We believe it will be easy. We are privately aware many of the iPhone engineers came from other handset manufacturers, and we understand their design techniques fairly well," said gj, speaking in an interview conducted using IRC (Internet Relay Chat). He requested that his real name not be used.

"Easy to us means inside one week," he said, offering an estimate of three to seven days.

Unlocking the iPhone means users will be able to use the handset with other service providers, not just AT&T, which has an exclusive deal to sell the phone in the US.

By Tuesday night, US time, hackers succeeded in cracking the iPhone's activation process, a minor step towards unlocking the iPhone but a significant technical challenge.

The activation process uses a software token that is sent from the phone via iTunes to Apple, which signs the token and returns it to the phone. When that process is completed, iTunes tells the phone to activate.

Hackers developed tools for both Windows and Mac OS that allow users to activate their phones without iTunes. But users will have to use a token from an activated iPhone, which can be used to activate multiple phones. The hackers are not providing a token with the tools.

"If you don't have a known token (which does contain identifying information) you won't be able to use the tool," gj said.

At least one other hacker found a way to activate the iPhone without using iTunes. Jon Lech Johansen - better known as DVD Jon, a hacker who helped develop the DeCSS tool for decrypting DVDs - released a tool that can activate the iPhone without iTunes on his blog.

"The iPhone does not have phone capability, but the iPod and WiFi work," Johansen wrote.

Cracking the activation process brings hackers one step closer to their goal of unlocking the iPhone. The phone requires iTunes to activate functions such as its camera and music player. But the process also requires signing up for a two-year data plan with AT&T.

"Activating the phone really just makes the device more 'usable' for those who want to use it as a WiFi device, for instance," gj said.

With the activation process cracked, hackers turned their focus to unlocking the iPhone, a challenge that is expected to be easier than cracking the activation process.

"Unlocking is a function of the radio and the radio's interaction with the SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) logic, and these are mostly standards based," gj said.

A rumoured software update for the iPhone, expected to be released on 5 July, could undo some of the progress hackers made towards unlocking the phone. "If Apple releases an update on 5 July that includes 'fixes' for our efforts so far, it will be a setback," gj said. "I don't know if it will be a permanent one."

Hackers working together to unlock the iPhone don't belong to a specific group, and don't plan to claim credit for their work, gj said. "We just want to see the hardware freed. We accept that others will exploit those works but hopefully it will be a lesson to Apple," he said.

"They're such a great company, it's a real shame for them to lock everything down like this. The design is top notch," he said. "They would win far more business by setting an example for the industry."

scotty1024 · Jul 4, 2007

Just thieves hurting Apple

Anyone using or creating this software is very likely violating the DMCA and the EULA of the iPhone. The iPhone contains at least 700MB of software that is shutdown and unusable until you properly activate it.

Substitute the legal word "license" for the cellphone term "activate" and I think you will begin to see the issue.

On a moral level this isn't your previous cellphone. The carriers gave you a small break on the price of the phone and then sucked your blood for years, often never allowing the phone to be unlocked. They would never upgrade the firmware of your phone (even if you begged), you never got improvements/fixes unless you bought a new phone. A bad bad bad deal and one of the major reasons I was standing patiently in line to get an iPhone.

Apple gets part of the data plan money. This money will be used to fund further improvements to the iPhone you bought. I'm tickled pink to give Apple $5 (or whatever they carved out of the greedy clutches of AT&T) per month for them to keep improving my iPhone with new capabilities.

If you want a 6G iPod: its coming. It will cost less than an iPhone, it will weigh less and it will have better battery life (no GSM radio). So why spend double, violate the EULA/DMCA and hurt Apple when you can just wait a few more months?

One last point: why is Apple taking the unusual, for them, move of not claiming profits on the iPhone in the quarter of the sales of the units?

Because Apple still hasn't made a profit on the iPhone. Even if Apple sells one million of them this week they won't have turned a profit. They've spent over two years with hundreds of people porting Mac OS X to the ARM CPU as well as developing the hardware itself. They've poured hundreds of millions of dollars into creating this device, and will continue to pour in even more. As iPhone haters keep pointing out: features are missing. Those features will require more $$$ to get them implemented.

Even worse in my opinion, these criminals writing this software to take money away from Apple will divert some of the resources that could be spent implementing iChat (or whatever your shiny shiny missing feature is) and they'll be spending them shutting down these thieves.

If you are tired of the tyranny that has been Motorola, Nokia and Sony then now is the time to stand up and tell these criminals: NO! And I hope MacRumors gets a DMCA take down notice or ten for linking to this material.

mkrishnan · Jul 4, 2007

scotty1024 said:
If you are tired of the tyranny that has been Motorola, Nokia and Sony then now is the time to stand up and tell these criminals: NO! And I hope MacRumors gets a DMCA take down notice or ten for linking to this material.

Software that is used for unlocking phones is an exempted category under the DMCA.

pdpfilms · Jul 4, 2007

Scotty-
I too appreciate Apple's efforts to thwart those of other corporations. But one of the huuuge reasons for these hacks is to enable Apple fans who don't have access to AT&T use of the iphone. I am one of these people. I cannot get an AT&T plan in my area, but want so badly to get rid of my crappy RAZR. Thus, I am hoping that these guys succeed in hacking the activation.

Sure, I may not be paying $5 to Apple each month I use the iPhone. But my intentions are not to cheat them- I intend on using my phone and praising Apple for it. At the very least Apple will have sold one more unit because of it, and AT&T will have one less customer. More likely is that Apple will have sold one more unit and gained a whole lot of "I want one!"s in Montana. Point out for me, if you will, where harm is being done here.

dashiel · Jul 4, 2007

scotty1024 said:
Anyone using or creating this software is very likely violating the DMCA and the EULA of the iPhone. The iPhone contains at least 700MB of software that is shutdown and unusable until you properly activate it.

have you read the EULA on most products? it's nigh impossible not to be violating the restrictive and probably illegal terms that you "agree to". fast forwarding through the FBI warning at the beginning of a DVD is technically violating the DMCA.

if companies, i don't care whether it's apple or microsoft, insist on treating people like a criminals then don't be shocked when people start becoming criminals.

scotty1024 said:
On a moral level this isn't your previous cellphone. The carriers gave you a small break on the price of the phone and then sucked your blood for years, often never allowing the phone to be unlocked. They would never upgrade the firmware of your phone (even if you begged), you never got improvements/fixes unless you bought a new phone. A bad bad bad deal and one of the major reasons I was standing patiently in line to get an iPhone.

there is nothing moral about a cell phone. period. the only economic difference between the ipod and a razr, is that apple insists on charging full price. at&t is still charging the exact same monthly fees.

scotty1024 said:
Apple gets part of the data plan money. This money will be used to fund further improvements to the iPhone you bought. I'm tickled pink to give Apple $5 (or whatever they carved out of the greedy clutches of AT&T) per month for them to keep improving my iPhone with new capabilities.

apple would be improving the iphone regardless of any monthly income. os x receives improvements all the time, no monthly fee. ditto :apple:

tv and ipod.

scotty1024 said:
One last point: why is Apple taking the unusual, for them, move of not claiming profits on the iPhone in the quarter of the sales of the units?

Because Apple still hasn't made a profit on the iPhone. Even if Apple sells one million of them this week they won't have turned a profit. They've spent over two years with hundreds of people porting Mac OS X to the ARM CPU as well as developing the hardware itself. They've poured hundreds of millions of dollars into creating this device, and will continue to pour in even more. As iPhone haters keep pointing out: features are missing. Those features will require more $$$ to get them implemented.

apple is amortizing the revenue from the iphone over 24 months in order to add additional features down the road without violating sorbanes-oxley avoiding the $5 802.11n style costs -- though many may dispute the actual necessity of this, apple believe it needs to.

apple spends about $500 million dollars a year on R&D. i have no doubt apple spent a lot, but "hundreds of millions" on the iphone alone? doubtful.

scotty1024 said:
Even worse in my opinion, these criminals writing this software to take money away from Apple will divert some of the resources that could be spent implementing iChat (or whatever your shiny shiny missing feature is) and they'll be spending them shutting down these thieves.

apple hasn't shut down any of the :apple:

tv projects, and because of them we have larger hard drives, more codec support, youtube support, rss features, games, etc... in fact far from shutting these projects down -- apple actually responded with an upgraded :apple:

tv that supported youtube and larger hard drives

scotty1024 said:
If you are tired of the tyranny that has been Motorola, Nokia and Sony then now is the time to stand up and tell these criminals: NO! And I hope MacRumors gets a DMCA take down notice or ten for linking to this material.

how ironic that you throw around the accusation of "criminal" and then fall back on the DMCA, which is nothing more than a government funded and enforced gestapo tactic to maintain the "criminal" strangle hold corporations have over the little guy. the DMCA is right behind the patriot act in terms of disgusting legislation.

fwiw, motoroal, nokia, sony, et al. are far from the "bad guys" in the US cell phone market. it's the carriers who dictate phone features and capabilities. just look at europe and asian versions of their phones -- light years more advanced than the american models.

bottom line: without hackers like these verizon customers wouldn't have bluetooth access to their phones, appleTV users would be stuck with quicktime/h.264 as their only codec. DVD owners wouldn't be able to back up their legally purchased content, or store them on their hard drives.

sunnywala · Jul 4, 2007

wow somebody that knows sox

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software update expected to be released on 5 July?

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