Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Are the hackers getting that much smarter, or is Apple giving in?

anthonymoody

anthonymoody

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Aug 8, 2002
3,147
1,234
With Ziphone 2.5 and the upcoming jailbreak/unlock-within-iTunes, is it a sign that the hackers are getting that much smarter as they become more and more familiar with the inner workings of the iPhone? Or is Apple just easing up on any deliberate attempts to shut down the 'mayhem?'

OR, might Apple be going through a lax period leading up to the SDK, when a simultaneous FW update (1.2?, 1.5?, 2.0?) might *really* shut things down? For at least a couple weeks :D

Thoughts? Has Apple basically given in, or is it the quiet before the lockdown storm?
TM
 
I do not think it isa fair to say they are throwing in the towel. They have a contract with ATT, and I am sure there is language that they must keep the iPhone locked to the best of their ability, or some such.

I did not before, but now I take Apple at their work- that they will not intentionally break unlocks and 3rd party apps, but they will not do anything to insure they work, either. Fair.

But I also do not see them going out of their way to stop it. Sure, when there is a definite security breach like the TIFF exploit, they HAVE to fix it. Again, fair.
 
I really don't think they care all that much anymore. After all, apps are going to be supported on these things soon enough, and the fact that they already have a large software library out there for free can't be hurting sales of the buggers, so I'd think that they just don't care that much anymore.
 
1. I think that with all the Macbook, iPhone SDK etc stuff they are pretty bogged down in things.

2. I think that the stock for Apple shows point 1.

3. I think that maybe they have seen that they are probably getting quite alot of money with people buying iPhones just to get them jailbroken and get custom hacks!
 
lets face it... even with unlocked phones, apple is still making a killing on phone sales with an easily hackable phone.
 
bbplayer5 said:
lets face it... even with unlocked phones, apple is still making a killing on phone sales with an easily hackable phone.
Click to expand...

Good theory.... except the fact they turn away hundreds of sales per day because a lot of people only have cash. Up to 5 yrs ago I only paid with cash for everything. To cut their throats by millions per year... I'd say they care.
 
The other thing I noted was that they're now offering refurb 4GB (and 8GB) units in ATT stores. The 4GB has the earlier firmware of course. My thinking is that when it was tough(er) to unlock, they were sitting on the older, easier to unlock refurb'd phones. But now that 1.1.4 was cracked pretty much instantly (or more accurately, many of the tools used for 1.1.3 worked on 1.1.4 with little or no updating) they figured "eh what the hell just release all the old phones too since now any old iPhone can be jailbroken/unlocked..."

TM
 
anthonymoody said:
The other thing I noted was that they're now offering refurb 4GB (and 8GB) units in ATT stores. The 4GB has the earlier firmware of course. My thinking is that when it was tough(er) to unlock, they were sitting on the older, easier to unlock refurb'd phones. But now that 1.1.4 was cracked pretty much instantly (or more accurately, many of the tools used for 1.1.3 worked on 1.1.4 with little or no updating) they figured "eh what the hell just release all the old phones too since now any old iPhone can be jailbroken/unlocked..."

TM
Click to expand...

Also better to dump those 4/8gb phones on the market now while there is still demand....higher capacity phones are only around the corner and once released the value of those tiddlers will rapidly decline. Makes good business sense.
 
Actually, it depends on how you define your business goals. You could say that it would make the most "business sense" to have sold those 4GB units on eBay to unlockers when 1.1.2 was the lastest firmware. That was when those phones was most in demand. That would have been the most profitable play for that hardware.

You could also define business sense as "protecting the contract terms with AT&T" which, if they include a best-efforts clause to fight the unlocking battle, would lead to the actions we've seen: *not* selling the 4GB inventory when they were more financially valuable, and instead waiting to puke them out once every FW version is easily unlocked.
 
Seems to me ATT probably required a good faith effort on the part of Apple to keep them locked down but it was only a matter of time before someone cut the right "key" to the door and the flood gates were opened. There is no way Apple or anyone else can keep the "brains" out there from doing their thing and continually coming up with hacks. Apple and ATT both knew this from the beginning. Apple has been writing code for years. They know there is no way to keep hackers out forever - they are a lot smarter than that. :p

Its like the generals who look at a battle and try to determine how much "collaterial" damage there will be and then decide whether it is worth it.

Good grief, it is only a cellphone we are talking about, albiet a damned fine one (still lacking however). Apple has other things to do besides spending all the time and efforts trying to keep us "out" of their phone. It wouldn't do any good anyway - not in the long haul. :p
 
Irony

The irony of hacking the Apple iPhone is that Steve Jobs started out as a Phone Phreaker and was hacking (more correctly illegally making) Bell Telephone long distance phone calls.

What I find humorous is all the people out there screaming that unlocking your iPhone is illegal. Well, less than a 100 years ago, women couldn't vote - another stupid law.
 
Don't know that I necessarily agree that Apple is giving in. In terms of preventing unlocks, all Apple needs to do is close the current exploit in the 4.6 bootloader, and then from that point on all OOB iPhones are not unlockable until another exploit is found (assuming that's even possible).

In terms of the jailbreaking/3rd party apps, well, there are quite a few attack vectors being that there are so many applications, and every firmware version so far has been cracked wide open. Although I guess this will become less of an issue if Apple decides to implement the SDK in a sensible fashion.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back