AnySIM, the free software unlock by the iPhone Dev Wiki crowd, now works with iPhones that are running firmware version 1.1.1. The first version of AnySIM, released for 1.0 versions of the iPhone firmware, didn’t unlock the iPhone correctly. So, when folks that unlocked their iPhones with AnySIM updated to 1.1.1, it bricked their iPhones. This version of AnySIM doesn’t fix that issue. They claim that this version won’t cause the same problems as the earlier versions, but it might be a good idea to hold off on unlocking with AnySIM for a while anyway, caveat emptor. You have been warned. Speaking personally, I went crawling back to iPhoneSimFree to fix the broken AnySIM unlock. But, if all of those warnings are of no use to you, you can get the new version of Anysim here.
The process for jailbreaking an iPhone manually is pretty involved; Apple’s process of securing the iPhone and iPod Touch have made the barrier to entry for installing 3rd party applications on an iPhone much tougher. If you’re looking to jailbreak your iPhone or iPod touch in the hopes of installing other applications or non-Apple-sanctioned ringtones, however, there are now some easier ways to do it.
First, iNdependence has been updated to perform the jailbreak for iPhones running firmware 1.1.1. So if you’ve got a Mac around, there’s now a GUI tool to run your iPhone through the hoops to get it jailbroken. I’ll post up a tool for Windows as soon as I see one, but for now it seems Windows users are stuck with the tough method; iBrickr hasn’t been updated yet but remains the best hope for you.
Second, if you’ve got an iPod Touch, there’s an automatic jailbreak tool that’s available from iPod Touch Hacks that will do it all for you on both mac and windows. Both use the recent TIFF vulnerability.
It appears that the iPhone dev team is splintering. I wouldn’t consider this news usually, but it provides insight as to what folks are working on, and it also shows the frustration of unlockers that are stuck in limbo with 1.0.2 with no way to fix their baseband radio. The splinter group, iPhone Elite, promise that brick reversal is on the way, and soon.
The jailbreak for 1.1.1 based on the tiff vulnerability has been out for a few days, but not available for public consumption. It appears that the iPhone Dev Wiki crowd is ready to unleash it on us. To install the jailbreak on a 1.1.1 iPhone, point Safari on your iPhone to http://conceitedsoftware.com/iphone/beta/. Their exploit code will install Installer.app on the iPhone, assuming you say yes to the prompts.
If you want to downgrade the firmware on your iPhone, iBrickr has an easy option for downgrading the firmware from 1.1.1 to 1.0.2. Thus spoke Nate True:
Just a small update – if you want to downgrade your iPhone from 1.1.1 back to 1.0.2, iBrickr will guide you through it. No button holding either, it’s easy!
And if you’d like to download it, iBrickr has its own web domain that will redirect you to the proper place. The update doesn’t work with unlocked iPhones that were bricked by upgrading to 1.1.1, but that tool is still on the way from possibly multiple sources.
That’s right, the folks at the iPhone Dev reported via TUAW that they have accomplished jailbreaking on iPhones with the 1.1.1 firmware. Third party apps do run, though most of them will require a recompile. Most of the 1.1.1 applications won’t work with 1.0.2 firmwares, which isn’t surprising — Apple probably did a bunch of work on their ABI though the API itself remained stable. The jailbreak method isn’t ready for general consumption, so they ask our patience, but there are some tidbits that they’ve found buried in the update: “1.1.1 references both com.apple.mobile.radio and com.apple.mobile.nike”. This probably isn’t the first of little hidden tidbits about 1.1.1 that we’ve seen.
There hasn’t been a lot of noteworthy progress on opening up 1.1.1 like there was on version 1.0 of the firmware, and that’s to be expected. However, there were some valiant pushes forward last week, by prominent iPhone hacker Erica Sadun who mapped out the filesystem of the 1.1.1 update. This is notable as it pre-empts the requirement to decrypt the filesystem before inspecting files and whatnot.
The other notable incidence is a TIFF image buffer overflow, which essentially means that interesting things could be launched on an iPhone by viewing a malformed image in Safari. It’s within the realm of possibility that a custom-crafted TIFF picture could, for example, install a running copy of ssh on an iPhone. Or download and install a ringtone. Or any other payload a creative hacker could stuff in there, really. It’s altogether possible that the next wave of users hacking their iPhone’s software could be through browsing to a web page and viewing large malformed TIFF files in a particular order.
My guess is that it’s safe to say that it will still probably be at least a week or two before it’s possible for your average user to hack the new firmware; there’s no guarantee that either method will bear fruit. The malformed TIFF will likely require a less-straightforward heap overflow, as the stack on the iPhone is set to no-execute. To rephrase that last sentence in English, it will probably take the hackers a while to get the corrupt TIFF image with code inside to do exactly what they want it to do.
Someone has posted a YouTube parody video of Apple’s ‘Think different’ campaign. Until folks manage to crack and hack the 1.1.1 firmware, it probably functions as a eulogy for the 1.0.2 firmware that allowed us to install 3rd party applications and unlock our iPhones. There was a nice little ecosystem going on the iPhone for a while, and it was pretty much nipped in the bud.
It is possible to downgrade your iPhone from 1.1.1 to 1.0.2, restoring some functionality of your iPhone. See here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and last but not least, here. We’ll have a guide up on how to perform this shortly if anyone is still stuck in brickville.
There’s a bug in the 1.1.1 firmware that lets you stream audio through bluetooth. It’s not quite Stereo Bluetooth. It’s essentially mono Bluetooth, but it brings some functionality, and may be useful for podcasts and the like. To get audio through Bluetooth:
pair your Bluetooth, if you haven’t done so already
open Visual voicemail
select ‘Audio’ at top right. If it doesn’t say ‘Audio,’ reconsider step 1.
It will bring up a dialogue box to choose sound output. Select your Bluetooth headset
Presto! Enjoy your audio through both the speaker and your Bluetooth headset.
