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Can Apple force a firmware upgrade via iTunes?

P

philipz

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 28, 2006
22
0
All,

I am about to buy an iPhone, but have some questions left. They've probably been answered already, but searching the many posts didn't answer them anyway.

Can I just stick with firmware 1.0.2 on my iPhone and keep on using iTunes and whatever software I'd use, without the risk that Apple silently upgrades the firmware (and locks the phone again)?

Also, I suspect that as soon as an unlock is available for 1.1.1 is available, Apple will upgrade the firmware again (and remove the upgrade to 1.1.1). Can I download and store the 1.1.1 firmware somewhere and wait to upgrade my phone until there's an unlock?

Sorry if these questions are trivial; have no iPhone experience whatsoever (yet)

Thx,

Phil
 
Yes, in the future, from my understanding.

Apple, can make the iPhone have a minimum version of the firmware to connect to a certain version of OS X or iTunes.

Also, Apple can make it so iTunes itself checks the validity of the iPhone (like whether or not it has the latest firmware or is currently activated on an "approved carrier") and if not valid, lock the phone down...

There are people that would argue otherwise, but with Apple and AT&T so against hacking, it's more than possible.

I don't update iTunes until I know for sure it doesn't brick an unlocked iPhone and I won't be doing any firmware upgrades either.

If Apple makes it so that you need the latest iTunes with Leopard, and then you need the latest iPhone firmware to hook it up, then I won't be hooking up my iPhone to my computer anymore (or at least try to get away with the older iTunes).
 
I totally agree with this statement. If you are considering updating to Leopard, you can almost rest assured that a new iTunes version(8.0?) will be required and Apple will prevent any older versions from being able to run.

If you recall, Apple required 10.4.10 I believe and iTunes 7.4 to be able to use the iPhone.

AT&T probably could do something on there end as well if they wanted to get really ugly.



gkarris said:
Yes, in the future, from my understanding.

Apple, can make the iPhone have a minimum version of the firmware to connect to a certain version of OS X or iTunes.

Also, Apple can make it so iTunes itself checks the validity of the iPhone (like whether or not it has the latest firmware or is currently activated on an "approved carrier") and if not valid, lock the phone down...

There are people that would argue otherwise, but with Apple and AT&T so against hacking, it's more than possible.

I don't update iTunes until I know for sure it doesn't brick an unlocked iPhone and I won't be doing any firmware upgrades either.

If Apple makes it so that you need the latest iTunes with Leopard, and then you need the latest iPhone firmware to hook it up, then I won't be hooking up my iPhone to my computer anymore (or at least try to get away with the older iTunes).
Click to expand...
 
I'm a bit confused.

I have an unlocked iphone running the 1.02 software - I'm using itunes 7.4.2 and have set it up to not download the latest firmware and never ask again. So far everything works fine, but are you saying that Apple may be able to use the fact that itunes is connected to the internet to block my phone, even if I stick to my current version of itunes? As I don't use the itunes store very often, should I just stop it from accessing the internet using my firewall?

I wouldn't be so paranoid but I know how militant Apple has got and recently (although chances are it's not related) I had several error messages when I connected my iphone, first saying 'there was an error connecting to the itunes music store', then immediately followed by something like 'the iphone disk cannot be written to error****' - i force quit and rebooted itunes and from then on it has been fine.

OR, do you guys mean that only newer versions of itunes (after 7.4.2) may mess with unlocked phones, and that people shouldn't update until they know for sure that they don't?

Finally, I think it highly likely that Leopard will lock out or brick users with unlocked iphones by demanding a firmware/itunes update - there'll be a hack though eventually.
 
It is unlikely Apple will create a version of iTunes or Apple Software Update that would force a firmware update to the iPhone for liability issues - if the software bricks your phone and you didn't modify it (or Apple can't prove you did), then they would be on the hook to replace it.

What is more likely is newer versions of iTunes might require a minimum iPhone firmware level to enable new features or even just to sync (though that might be too extreme). So instead of requiring iTunes 7.4.1 to enable ringtones, you would have had to be at iPhone firmware 1.1.1. You can keep your iPhone firmware at a lower level, but you will lose new functionality.
 
Apple cant (legally?) force a user to update. I feel like they may add some features into leopard which require a certain version of the firmware, such as syncing notes, or something of that sort. I dont think apple would force a firmware update on anyone, because that would just be bad business practices. They usually compare the iPhone to a computer in may of their discussions about it, and whens the last time apple forced you to upgrade to a new operating system? In response to the person who typed out how apple is so militant about the iPhone i truly believe (and you can disagree) that this is apples part of the contract with ATT. Apple is getting a huge sum of money from ATT (like more money then we can imagine) because of them taking percentages of the contracts. If ATT agreed that apple can take that much money from them, you know damn well ATT is going to force apple to make sure the iphone cant be unlocked (and taken to a competitors network) and that people wont be able to write 3rd party apps for it, because not only is that dangerous to their network, alot of 3rd party apps put a giant strain on their EDGE network.

Just my thoughts,
Daniel
 
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