All Articles Tagged 1.1.4

Real nice, Bohn. Fine. Let’s do this.

As most probably know, Canada doesn’t have the iPhone. Well, we do, but it’s a cr@ppy piece of VoIP. Nothing near as revolutionary or useful as Le Steve’s little universe denter. We also have a GSM monopoly with data rates so high Warren Buffet wants no part of them. (A national newspaper once calculated that to even approach an AT&T type iPhone plan on Rogers would cost well over $1000 a month, and would still offer less service).

Despite that, there are many iPhones up in the frozen north, unlocked, unsupported, but much loved by their users. I’ve personally been rocking a 1.1.1 firmware iPhone ever since I stomped my WinMob into oblivion and skipped my Treo across the St. Lawrence seaway.

Today, I decided to take the leap and upgrade my most precious of gadgets, my Unix in-the-pocket, my multi-touch new-interfacer, to 1.1.4.

Since I’m petrified of bricking the poor little fellow, I’m going with the easiest and most straight-forward solution, iLiberty X.

First I sync everything. Nice and safe. Now I’m going to restore to 1.1.4. Not upgrade — restore. They’re pretty clear on that point.

Okay, launching the iLiberty X GUI. iTunes shuts down, iTunes service shuts down, I bite down — hard enough to draw blood, and pray to every god and deity I could think of.

GUI starts to work — Step 1. iPhone streams tons and tons of text. UNIX friend over my shoulder seems to think it makes sense. Seems to…

Step 2… Some parts seem to tic away for an exasperatingly long time… Will it brick any second? Is Steve Jobs chuckling even now, cracking his knuckles, and preparing to “unleash the hounds”?

YES! Complete!

iTunes is coming up and recognizing an iPhone! Quick test — we have jigglies!! Looking for cell network… CAN Rogers! (Used to just say Rogers, the CAN part is new…) Installer.app is there, non-AT&T SIM is working, phone is working. That’s jailbreak, unlock, and activation FTW!

Okay, now all that’s left is to re-enter a bunch of Wi-Fi keys, reassign favorites, and I’m sure fix up a dozen or so other minor settings, but after languishing in the 3rd world for so long, it feels nice to be a second-class citizen again.

Hello proper podcast place-keeping! Hello screen dim and sleep! Hello 1.1.4!

Hmmm, now what’s this about 2.0…

Note: jailbreaking, unlocking, and activating are not Apple approved procedures, might violate your ULA, certainly voids your warranty, and could well brick you phone. No one here advises anyone to do it, or takes any responsibility for results, good or ill, from doing it. Proceed at your own risk. Ed. Note: Actually, we fully support you doing whatever you want to your iPhone, just don’t blame us if it goes wrong! :p

If you have an iPhone on firmware 1.1.4 you’re just dying to jailbreak and/or unlock, or an iPod Touch you want to liberate (and add apps to before June!), and you trust software created by 13-year olds(!), then iJailBreak may just be what you’re looking for.

If you’ve previously used iJailBreak, you can update automatically. If you’re new to the pirate scene and don’t mind violating the ULA and your warranty, then this implementation is about as simple as it can get. Ars Technica reports you just download, install, run, connect, and viola!

A pirate’s life indeed…

Engadget has put together a veritable jolly roger of an update to iPhone firmware 1.1.4 jailbreaking and SIM unlocking.

These methods include the usual scurvy gang of iNdependence 1.4 beta 5 for OS X, Zibri’s cross-platform Ziphone 2.5, and a new, and potentially mega-infringing stow-away: iTunes (looks to be purely proof-of-concept at the moment).

As always, jailbreaking and unlocking are not for the faint of heart, so explore at your own risk, lest your precious iPhone end up on the receiving end of a one way trip to Davey Jones’ locker…

Well the news about 1.1.4 is that there’s no news — the apps are the same, the features are the same. The good news is the popular ZiPhone / iJailBreak method of jailbreaking works just fine — for Jailbreaking. Unlocking is apparently still a no-go, but just you wait, it will be.

We’re also hearing reports that the Bluetooth-dropped call issue has been fixed, along with the SMS order bug. Huzzah!

Wired.com

If you’re a dirty, dirty iPhone Jailbreaker or iPhone Unlocker, move right along because I’m sure it’s going to take awhile for this to shake out. If you’re a mere mortal, though, go on and open up iTunes and apply the update to version 1.1.4. What’s on it? “Bug fixes.” That’s all we know for sure just now.

Hopefully one of the bug fixes is getting rid of the dropped calls (especially with Bluetooth) that folks have been reporting (hat tip to Merlyn3D for reminding me that this issue persists).

Hopefully it also contains some behind-the-scenes updates to get every little thing ready for the SDK. Good thing this year is a leap year - it gives Apple one more day to get that SDK out. Or maybe it really will be late. I guess we’ll know for sure before the week is out.

Thanks for the heads-up, Chadman!

Update: Installed and I’m still impressed with iTunes’ backup and restoration ability - everything was exactly as I left it, from the pin I was looking at on Google Maps to Web Clip icons on my homescreen. Poking around, it sure doesn’t look like there are any new features. Chadman mentions that it’s a full 162.1mb download, that sounds like a “bug fix and framework for the SDK” to me…

That giant gaping hole you see in my cheek, that would be the result of the hook that KellyTM of Tiny Code used to fish me in. Thankfully, I’m not alone. Turns out that, per this MacRumors post, he was just joking around. Yeah: No 1.1.4. No NDA broken (or ever even signed). No wrist slap. No nothing.

At least the rumors were plausible, right? Oh well, we shouldn’t be surprised. With the official SDK so close, it was inevitable that there’s be some crazy rumors floated about.

Tiny Code (more on that mysterious link in a moment) pulled their apps off of installer.app, saying the following:

Tiny Code no longer produces fixes or applications for firmware 1.1.3. We can’t say much, but we are working with Apple and with their SDK for the next firmware release and SDK applications and we shouldn’t be missed for long. We will no longer update our Installer.app repo for legality reasons and you should see us soon on iTunes.

They said this at http://tiny-code.com, which if you visit you’ll note is now redirected at the iPhone Dev Center. This, it turns out, was something developer “Kelly” did in order to, well, stop the tsunami of questions that followed his statement. It also turns out Apple was none too pleased about the leaks in the above statement.

Leaks? Yep:

1. “shouldn’t be missed for long” sounds a lot like “that event that’s coming on February 26th“
2. “you should see us soon on iTunes” sounds a lot like “iTunes is definitely going to be the way that these apps get distributed, sold, and installed.”
3. Next to the statement above was “Now targeting fw 1.1.4 Alpha 2.” Oops.

Each of the three above “leaks” is a surprise to exactly nobody who’s been watching the iPhone news with any degree of attention lately, but nevertheless Apple did some hand-slapping, as Kelly explains in this MacRumors forum post

One: Yes, I have a copy of the Apple SDK for the iPhone targeting firmware 1.1.4. Two: Yes, Tiny-Code.com was ordered to be removed from operation by Apple, Inc because by releasing firmware versions and stating I had possession of the firmware and SDK was apparently a violation of the Non-Disclosure Agreement I agreed to when I accepted a copy of the SDK and firmware. Three: Yes I was wrist-slapped by Apple and won’t be included in any further firmware beta’s or testing/coding.

Yeouch.