All Articles Tagged jailbreak

Poll: Is Jailbreak the Answer to App Store Woes?

Yesterday we asked you if Apple should 1) keep on improving the App Store, 2) eliminate the App Store and let people side-load applications from any source, or 3( do both by keeping the App Store but adding side-loading as an option.

As commenter Shallomon pointed out, however, we technically already have option 3, with the App Store and Jailbreaking.

TiPb’s mentioned before that Jailbreak is easily something Apple might consider “expert mode” or “iPhone pro”, a second state of the device for those users willing and able to break the root jail and install their own apps, yet also something Apple doesn’t have to offer or support as a second SKU.

Likewise, complaints that Jailbreak could potentially reduce battery life or stability are covered by users doing it — or undoing it — themselves, thus taking on that responsibility (and lets face it, my previous smartphone, a Palm Treo 680 crashed multiple times a day when making or receiving calls, and that was with standard apps installed…)

Apple can make legal arguments against the EFF and the idea that Jailbreaking shouldn’t be made an official exception to the US DMCA laws, but they can also continue to ineffectively prevent it, much like they do with the Apple TV. Win, win?

It would leaves most users happy with the App Store, and those itching to go deeper with Jailbreak as an option.

GV Mobile is already there, after all…



The Competition: Palm Pre/webOS Homebrew the Flip Side of Jailbreaking?

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Our sibling site, PreCentral.net has put together something we’re openly and admittedly jealous of — a brand-spanking new Homebrew Apps gallery for the Palm Pre. For those unfamiliar with Homebrew, think of it as something akin to the iPhone’s Jailbreak ecosystem, where apps are developed outside “official” SDK channels and installed without the built in App Store (or App Catalog in this case).

Jailbreak, of course, is and has always been one of the brightest, most creative and vibrant parts of the iPhone (and TiPb!) community, and it looks like Homebrew is every bit the same for the Palm Pre (and likely future webOS devices).

Read the rest of this entry »

From the Forums: iPhone Jailbreak?, Yahoo vs Gmail, Tom Tom Car Kit, Wallpapers & Ringtones

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Welcome to From the Forums. If you are curious as to what all of the hot topics are on the TiPb forums, this is the place to be. In order to create any new threads of your own or reply to any of the following threads, you must be a registered member. Becoming a member is a simple process that will only take a few minutes out of your day, so if you haven’t already, head on over and register now.

First post on the agenda today comes to us from xultar, and he has a question for all of you iPhone owners who have chosen not to jailbreak your device, why have you not taken the jump to jailbreak your iPhone?

Next up we have a thread started by naviwilliams and he would like to know which email service do you prefer – Yahoo or Gmail and what are some of the pros and cons of each? Stop by this poll thread and cast your vote!

Earlier today forum member, supermanfos, posted a article regarding the upcoming Tom Tom GPS Car Kit and it’s pricing. So what do you think? Is this something you will spend your hard earned money on or will you stick with applications such as G-Map that are already in the App Store?

Last but not least, TiPb would like to remind everyone about our new forum dedicated to iPhone wallpapers and ringtones. We encourage you all to share some of your favorites with all of the forum members here at TiPb.

See you on the forums!

iPhone 3.0.1 redsn0w & ultrasn0w Safe for Jailbreak

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The iPhone Dev Team updated their blog to let all of you jailbreak crazed iPhone owners that you can safely update to the latest software, OS 3.0.1. It is a fairly straight forward procedure with one little twist.

You can re-use redsn0w v0.8 we released a few weeks ago to jailbreak today’s 3.0.1 update. Just let iTunes update or restore you to official 3.0.1 then run redsn0w. The only “trick” is that when redsn0w asks you to identify the IPSW used, point it at the 3.0 IPSW instead of the 3.0.1 one. After the jailbreak, reinstall ultrasn0w 0.9 if you need the unlock.

Sadly, George Hotz said you can forget using purplesn0w as it will not work. You may be wondering why not? The answer is he doesn’t know.

And for those of you curious as to whether or not ultrasn0w is still capable of unlocking a 3.0.1 device, yes it does. The 3.0.1 software update does not change your baseband so you are good to go.

If you’ve tried the Dev Teams process how did it go? Let us know in the comments!


Apple Officially Warns Against Jailbreaking

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Apple has finally gotten around to posting a support article based upon the dangers of hacking your iPhone via the process of jailbreaking. The list of possible side effects are indeed accurate, lets take a look at what is listed:

  • Device and application instability
  • Unreliable voice and data
  • Disruption of services
  • Compromised security
  • Shortened battery life
  • Inability to apply future software updates

The article is then ended with the warning that if you do jailbreak you run the risk of Apple denying you any type of service to your device if needed.

It is also important to note that unauthorized modification of the iPhone OS is a violation of the iPhone end-user license agreement and because of this, Apple may deny service for an iPhone or iPod touch that has installed any unauthorized software.

So everything mentioned here is 100% legitimate based upon what TiPb has seen with many users in our forums. On the flip side, many users have zero issues, including myself.

In the end, if you are considering jailbreaking your device or already have – you should be well aware of the possible negative side effects this process may cause.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Top 5 Must-Have Jailbreak Apps: Post iPhone 3.0 Edition

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Today TiPb brings you round four of the Top 5 Must-Have Jailbreak Apps series, this one focused on what still makes Jailbreak compelling in a post-iPhone 3.0 world.

Now, all of the Jailbreak experts out there will (or should!) know about all these apps already. The purpose of this article is to give our readers who may not be familiar with the jailbreak community just a little taste of what is out there. So, if you’re still debating whether or not to jailbreak your iPhone, after reading this we are guessing that you will make up your mind one way or another…

All of the following applications can be downloaded via Cydia on your Jailbroken iPhone.

Read on after the jump! Read the rest of this entry »

GV Mobile Brings Google Voice to iPhone… via Cydia for Jailbreak

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As Jeremy posted earlier, Apple wiped the iTunes App Store clean of all traces of Google Voice, both the official Google version and third party clients like GV Voice. (Rumor has it at the behest of AT&T)

GV Voice, however, didn’t take their removal lying down. Nope, they (meaning developer Sean Kovacs) picked themselves right up, marched over to Cydia, and promptly made themselves available for Jailbreak.

And, weirdly, it’s getting to the point that we’re wondering if this isn’t “the plan” all along.

Apple provides a closed appliance with strict and nebulously enforced rules for its App Store, placating carriers, and making a device so simple it’s become the first true consumer smartphone success. At the same time, Jailbreak provides a de facto “expert” or “pro” version of the iPhone for those willing (and able) to do the work, at no training or support cost to Apple, and with complete deniability in terms of carrier and media agreements.

Whether we think Apple and/or AT&T are evil, Google is competitive, or whatever, with GV Mobile, Qik, and all the other apps available via Jailbreak, are iPhone users actually getting the best of both worlds…?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Pro Tips: How to Secure Your Jailbroken (or Regular) iPhone Against Hackers

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The Jailbreak and Unlock wizards behind the iPhone DevTeam are off to DEFCON 17, the security/hacking convention that juxtaposes Black Hat 2009, and have provided a set of tips to help those at the conferences (or anywhere really) avoid getting their iPhone hacked into. The tips are really targeted at Jailbroken iPhones, but some cross over to regular iPhone users as well.

Disable all your login cookies in Safari. If you use the hotel or conference wifi, it is 100% guaranteed that your traffic will be sniffed. If you allow a web site (like twitter.com) to store your login info in a cookie, and if you connect to that site through a normal http connection, your login info will be exposed. At the very least, you’ll end up on the Wall of Sheep. But you’ll be giving up your password to anyone else sniffing too.

They also advise avoiding any public Wi-Fi at hotels, conference centers, airports, etc. (and to tether instead), and either uninstalling or disabling SSH access, or at the very least changing the root and mobile password from Apple’s default.

They also provide their suggestions for talks that might interest the iPhone jailbreak community. If anyone attends, let us know how it goes via our iPhone Jailbreak and Unlock Forum. And If you have more pro tips, send them our way!

From the Forums: iPhone 3.0 Jailbreak Apps, Overheating, 3GS Photos, Battery Tips

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The weekend is finally here, so you might as well spend some time relaxing in TiPb forums. In order to reply to any of the following threads, you must be a registered member. Becoming a member is a simple process that will only take a few minutes out of your day, so if you haven’t already, head on over and register now.

So you say you are currently running the iPhone 3.0 software and you decided to jailbreak. Well TiPb needs your help on this one, we need to know what you’re current favorite iPhone 3.0 compatible jailbreak applications are. Thanks for the help in advance!

This thread was started by Jason McConnell, and Jason wants to know how just how warm does your iPhone get? Seems as if his is getting so hot that he can not even hold the phone up to his ear to make a call. Our advice to anyone who has had this issue, perform a restore and if the problem persists make an appointment at your local Apple store to get your phone exchanged for a new one. Anyone else having overheating issues?

It’s no secret that most of you visiting TiPb have purchased Apple’s latest and greatest, iPhone 3GS. Well one of the nicest updates to the iPhone is the update to the camera. Stop by the thread, iPhone 3GS Photos, and you guessed it – post some of your best photos you’ve taken!

Last up for today we have a great battery tips thread. So many people out there have questions regarding battery life, charging, care, etc… the list goes on. This is your one stop thread to get all the information you possibly can regarding your iPhones battery.

See you on the forums!


AIM Push Problems – Hacktivated iPhones to Blame?

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Crunchgear is reporting that Till Schadde of Equinux has been noticing some weirdness with his AIM app and push notifications. Namely, Schadde has been seeing his AIM messages go to random recipients. He discovered this by being notified that a message he had sent to his iPhone version of AIM was redirected to a random stranger. That stranger then contacted Schaddle to let him know and to supply him with a screen shot of his message.

In the past, TiPb has speculated that there are indeed some issues with hacktivated iPhones. And for those of you who are unfamiliar with “hackivation”, it’s simply a process that tricks an iPhone into believing it has authorized itself with Apple via iTunes and is ready to be used, but is actually activated by other, non-Apple software.

These hacktivated iPhones are not being assigned a unique push ID by Apple the way iTunes activiated iPhones with legit SIMs are. One of our readers, Greg, summed it up best in the comments from our last push notification issue post:

The difference is hacktivation, not jailbreaking. There’s a fair bit of crypto involved in the activation process and the “fixes” so far involve taking certs from other phones. This will only work for so long; eventually people are going to have to be on official carriers and paying official plan rates for Push and YouTube and who knows what they’ll cert off in 3.1 or 4.0?

The Dev Team seem to be working on a fix but it does not appear it will come anytime soon as they’ve avoided even posting a fix on their blog. Instead, they quietly posted a link on their Twitter page to a very beta fix.

All of this is yet another part of the cat and mouse game, but it’s important to try and understand what’s going on: normal iPhone users should have nothing to worry about at this time.

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