All Articles Tagged unlock

UPDATE: Pawnage has been updated to address some of the problems users faced over the weekend, including better discovery of the boot loaders, creation of the devices folder, etc.

Original post:

Starting with the cryptic announcement “We love Sundays. We think you will too”, the iphone-dev-team followed up quickly with the words many (including all those with unsupported countries and carriers) have been waiting clamoring for:

We’ll be releasing a more official announcement soon, but we wanted to get the tool out there. We sincerely hope you enjoy using it as much as we enjoyed making it

Of course, the site’s being hit so hard right now the links are down, if pwnage is what you seek, and you want to jailbreak and unlock 2.0 on your original iPhone 2G, or jailbreak your iPhone 3G (I don’t believe unlock is supported yet on the 3G but will be following soon), new mirrors, seeds, rapidshares, etc. should be popping up.

JAR!

We’ve been all over the jailbreak/unlock situation for both the iPhone 3G and the original iPhone 2G updated to 2.0, and here’s the latest.

The iphone-dev team’s pwnage hasn’t been released yet, but will be soon. According to their blog, Apple’s firmware update slowed them down a little, as has the 3G baseband, so what you’ll get short term is:

iPhone (1st Gen) with 2.0 – Activated, Unlocked & Jailbroken, (with support for third party applications). iPod Touch with 2.0 – Activated & Jailbroken, (with support for third party applications). iPhone (3G) with 2.0 – Activated, Jailbroken (with support for third party applications).

Can’t wait? Willing to risk mail order? Engadget Mobile says you can order a $1000 worth of unlocked iPhone 3G now:

According to the [Alibaba.com] wholesale goods supply site, you can just order up the “original” Apple device direct from a company called Union Camera and have them sent to whatever poorly lit dock, abandoned warehouse, or suburban safe-house you desire. The best part? They’re network unlocked.

Dunno if I’d risk it yet. How about you?

JAR! Avast ye scurvy 2.0 firmware and prepare to be unlocked!

Didn’t take long, did it? Well, actually it did — the iPhoneDevTeam has been hax0ring away at it since the SDK went wide and Apple, in an attempt to woo legitimate developers, made the beta 2.0 firmware (all 8 versions of it), widely available.

Their latest, release version 2.0, Pwnage tool hasn’t gone public yet, but will soon. Are you willing to unlock? 22 countries are getting the iPhone tomorrow, and 50 more are following, but with Apple’s tight control of the SDK, my bet is there will still be a few folks out there who want to run anything they dang-well please on their iPhone.

What about you? Are you one of the crazy-ones, the pirates? Are you going to jailbreak/unlock?

Read

We mentioned yesterday that the Canadian Government was poised to bring down the DMCA hammer on us humble citizens, handing the reins of power more overtly than ever to Big Media and Big Telco.

Not so, says the Government, listing off ways in which their new bill is mildly less offensive than it’s American progenitor, but I’m struck by what they don’t mention. Will cell phone unlocking, including iPhone 3G unlocking, be made illegal? And what about DVD ripping? Can I not take a movie I pay money for and put it into iTunes so I can watch it on my new iPhone 3G? And why, to balance the rights you’re stripping from Canadians, have you not long ago introduced a bill to prevent GSM monopolies in the telco industry from charging Canadians among the highest prices in the world for data?

How about that?

(Read on for the full text of the Canadian Government’s preemptive email blast)

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[Updated following Phone Different Podcast #19, see below!]

Way back in February, Apple’s Chief Operating Officer, Tim Cook said:

“We’re not married to any business model.”

At the time — and it’s scary how long ago it seems already — the iPhone was only available in the US, UK, Germany, and France, with rumors of Ireland and Austria waiting in the wings. What’s more, these were all exclusive deals, with Apple doing their best to lock the iPhone down to single carriers in each territory in exchange for lucrative — and unprecedented — revenue-sharing deals that some have estimated could be netting Apple up to $15 per month, per subscriber.

So, with a potential billion dollars on the table, while they weren’t married to it, they no doubt felt more than a little lusty.

But in true Apple fashion, invoking perhaps the pirate mantra of old, and embracing the same mindset that has them run iTunes as a near-loss leader, price-cut the iPhone a scant few months in, and offer cheap family upgrade options on their OS and iApps, it looks like Tim Cook was serious.

Read on to find out just how serious he was…

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Avast ye scurvy 2.0 firmware — prepare to be pwned! Erica Sadun of TUAW tells us the cartoon Jobs’ing, Russian slang’ing, custom firmware making, iTunes loading unlock solution has hit version 1.1:

The new tool allows you to add custom packages, logos and fixes EDGE settings under 1.1.4. Either pop over to iPhone-dev.org or choose PwnageTool > Check for Updates (Command-U) directly from the app.

But don’t raise the Jolly Roger too soon, rumors are also circulating that Cap’n Jobs is coming about hard, cannon’s loaded, and may just be upping the ante soon in the great unloack cat’n'mouse game.

Will Apple be able to hang the rascally pirates from the highest yard arm? Are the pirates too far ahead at this point? And how ironic is it that Jobs and co. once styled themselves as the pirates? What do you think?

Roughly Drafted recently proposed that neither impending 3G nor poor supply chain management were to blame for Apple Store’s lack of iPhone stock, but rather the international gray market for unlocked handsets.

Now, based on a post from Infrageeks, they’re back with a look at how Apple could replace some carrier kick-back revenue with .Mac subscription revenue, if El Jobso saw fit to beef up the service and better tie it into the iPhone.

Our own Chad Garrett has already made the case for .Mac syncing via the iPhone, and iPhone Alley, (via TUAW) has said it’s coming, so what’s Dilger’s take?

Integrating .Mac services into its iPhone and iPod Touch mobile platform would not only make the devices more valuable and competitive, but would also add a layer of ongoing subscription revenue that would enable the company to more profitably sell unlocked iPhones at regular prices in emerging markets where demand is off the charts. Rather than paying a smuggler $800, Apple could sell customers the iPhone at the regular $399 price, bundled with a two year .Mac subscription for another $99 a year. This would rapidly develop Apple’s software service revenue and allow the company a significant budget for investing to keep the services up to date and valuable for users.

What value would $99 bring? The details are in the full article, but include network data sync, file sharing, back-to-my-mac, blogging, hyperblogging, a reputation system, community profiles, secure identity services, marketplace, privacy management, data sharing/networking, and subscription music.

Would those services be worth $99 a year to you? Would they be worth giving up the carrier revenue for Apple? What do you think?

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

As previously mentioned, US Apple Store’s have been surprisingly (or suspiciously) out of iPhone stock lately.

Some have speculated that this is due to the immanent release of a 3G iPhone, others have cited atypical supply chain management issues, component shortages, or shipping problems.

In a long post based on info from an anonymous source nom-de-tip’d, Tantrum, Roughly Drafted brings a third option to the table: Pirates. (JAR!)

“Demand for iPhones outside the United States, particularly in emerging markets, is out of control and has reached the point where it has started to impact Apple’s normalized supply chain projections,” Tantrum wrote. “It’s okay to have a delta of, say, 100,000 units or so per year between actual and forecast. International demand is driving that delta upwards of 1 million. That’s a whole different ball game for component sourcing, quality control and production ramp-up and some things are starting to come unstuck, even for a finely managed company like Apple.”

Tantrum mentions 5 specific reasons for the increased international demand:

Ease of jailbreak/unlock with new GUI-based solution. Organizations specializing in getting iPhones into Eastern Europe and Asia. Spread of Wi-Fi and EDGE being “good enough” in most countries. GSM compatibility. Low price (due to weak American dollar and high local smartphone costs).

There’s much more in the original post, so be sure to check it out. Could the pirates (JAR!) be sucking the US channels dry? Or is this just another crazy theory in face of the impending 3G monster birthing any minute now? What do you think?

JAR! The “Cat and Mouse Game” between the nasty pirates and the royal Cupertino navy seems to have shifted decidedly in the pirates favor, or so says Engadget:

Those crafty kids on the iPhone Dev Team have already hacked the 2.0 firmware, but now they’re getting ready to release the oh-so-creatively-named PWNED tool, which takes iPhone hacking to the next level by patching the bootloader to let you load any firmware image you want — even images not signed by Apple. That means custom patched firmware can now be loaded directly from iTunes, which simplifies the jailbreaking / unlocking process tremendously, and also means that a patched version of the 2.0 firmware is coming soon.

Video after the break!

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