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.
Catch-up time: QuickPWN for Mac was released a few short days ago. This go-around is for all of the Mac peeps out there looking to jailbreak the 2.0.2 firmware. Still no software solution for unlocking, though… sorry folks.
It is important to note:
“QuickPwn is not a replacement for PwnageTool, they are different tools and provide different features, QuickPwn is for quickly pwning a device, whereas PwnageTool is designed to custom build and tailor the ipsw (Apple’s iPhone firmware files) production process, both tools will be actively developed in the future.”
“To use QuickPwn 1.0 Mac OS X your device should be running 2.0.2, if it isn’t then you can upgrade it to 2.0.2 using iTunes and then use the QuickPwn tool, we repeat, it’ll only work on version 2.0.2 of the iPhone or iPod touch firmware.”
Now I am not going to leave all of the Windows loyalists left out in the cold. Also recently released is WinPwn 2.5-Beta 2. Which is available here. Keep in mind that this is indeed a finished version but “beta” is used to simply say “Use at your own risk”.
While most of us have installed the 2.0.1 update (or, ahem, are still waiting for a backup we started last night to finish so we can install it), there’s a key group of folks that should stay away: Jailbreakers and unlockers. As is always the case when a new update comes out, our advice to these users is to wait and see how the iPhone hacking community responds. Right now, according to iphone-dev [via Engadget Mobile], they appear to be responding with a teensy bit of bravado:
We don’t see any major problems with the release that Apple made, but we have not released an update for PwnageTool for it as yet and therefore PwnageTool 2.0.1 will currently not work!
Their advice is pretty sound and mirrors ours: if you never intend on leaving your carrier, feel free to update away whenever if you don’t mind losing jailbroken apps. If you do (or already have), stay the heck away from updates until things clear up.
What about you? Are you law-abiding and currently enjoying a bug-free existence? Jailbreaker glancing longingly at 2.0.1’s reportedly better keyboard response? Unlocker living on the periphery of the cell phone ‘Verse, staring into the black and in danger of becoming a Reaver? Let us know!
We had sort of been expecting that the iPhone 3G would be more difficult to unlock because it would be impossible to walk out of a store without signing a contract and activating the iPhone. We all know how that worked out on launch day — iPhones were flying about unactivated anyway. Honestly, given that the 2.0 software has already been fully pwned (read: opened up, jailbroken, made to serve the whims of hackers everywhere), the early unlocking really should be no surprise.
Fernando writes in:
I just saw this today. A brazilian team seems to be the first one in the world to have a fully unlocked 3g iPhone. It’s using brazilian operator TIM, that does not support iPhones here in Brazil; actually the iPhone did not even start selling here, and when it does it will be Claro and maybe Vivo.
The video is in Portuguese, so it might not be clear exactly what’s happening to most readers. The method here, as Gizmodo notes, is
a special card that piggybacks to your SIM card, fooling the phone into thinking it’s using an official carrier. While this is not the software unlock being developed by the usual suspects, the video clearly shows that it works fine.
We know a lot of folks are waiting for a clear path to unlocking and jailbreaking to get the iPhone 3G — it looks like that wait isn’t going to be much longer than an Apple store line.
The undaunted hacker community has once again foiled Apple’s attempts to lock down its platform. Conceited Software (charming name) has released yet another Jailbreak script to free iPhone’s latest and rather hidden firmware update; 1.1.2…which can best be described as a DDS upgrade, or Doesn’t Do Shit. If you installed this firmware update, which I rarely advise these days, Apple being what it is…then reclaim your unauthorized apps.
Or Apple could simply stop breaking community software, right? Hello?
iNdependence 1.2.5 (Mac only, sorry Winlosers) is out and ready to liberate iPhones running firmware 1.1.1. This release comes complete with full SSH support, as well as anySIM 1.1 pre-installed… for those of you crazy brave enough to brick unlock your iPhone.
Now before you go trotting off to download this app on your Mac, like the slutty iCrack whore that you are, a word of warning: Unlocking, be it through anySIM or other hackery, can be a risky endeavor that may result in damaging your iPhone. The process used by such apps involves monkeying with iPhone’s baseband settings, the all important and tightly guarded driver software that controls phone connectivity, or lack thereof. If something should go wrong during the unlock execution, your iPhone becomes an expensive paperweight. At least until such time as the hacking community can create a fix to reverse the damage. So I do advise caution, and common sense… two qualities that are sorely lacking in me.
Free at last, Free at last… praise god almighty, my bricked iPhone is free at last! Well, not quite… I haven’t actully applied this method yet.
Here’s the deal – Civil war has broken out among iPhone Dev Team, leaving the group broken into several splinter factions, each with its own banner and coat of arms. The disunited groups plan to settle their differences on World of Warcraft, in a blood orgy of axe wielding carnage. One faction, modestly named “iPhone Elite”, has released a method for downgrading the all important baseband settings that turned anySIM unlocked iPhones into bricks upon updating to firmware 1.1.1. What makes this significant is that even downgrading from 1.1.1, back to 1.0.2 won’t restore a bricked iPhone due to changes made by anySIM to the iPhone’s baseband settings. This solution provides a way of undoing those changes, restoring baseband to its original state… resulting in unbricking.
And wouldn’t you know… this release comes just as I am headed out the door to meet with a client. But rest assured my comatose bricked iPhone, affectionately known ever more as Frankenphone, will be brought back to life shortly. The Doctor is in.
Hey, want to void your warranty and turn your iPhone into an expensive paperweight with future firmware updates? If so, iPhone Dev Team has a hack for you. They’ve successfully managed to jailbreak factory fresh iPhones running firmware 1.1.1, enabling support for black market third party applications, and utilize non-AT&T SIM cards to roll your own network. However, no workaround solution has been found for previously unlocked, now bricked, iPhones updated to 1.1.1.
Yes, yes, it all sounds well and good, but given the fact iPhone Dev Team has yet to undo the catastrophic damage created by anySIM with Apple’s new firmware, why would anyone place their trust in this process again? Trust me folks, if you value your iPhone, stay far away from Jailbreak or unlock software, in any form. You are playing with fire. These half-assed hacks are little more than Molotov cocktails ready to blow up in your face and brick your iPhone. But don’t take my word for it. Just ask my previous iPhone, now serving as doorstop and makeshift kitchen utensil.
Timothy Smith of California once loved his iPhone. You could see him wandering the streets of San Jose with his face glued to the phone’s shiny black screen, tapping and pinching away, oblivious to everything around him like people crying out for help, oncoming traffic, lamp posts, etc. But that love affair ended over a week ago when Smith updated his unlocked iPhone to the infamous firmware update 1.1.1, rendering it iBricked. Since Apple refuses to support iPhones which have been “tampered with”, Smith did what any self righteous American consumer would do… he called his attorney and filed a class action suit.
What makes this case even more interesting, and utterly hilarious, is that it seeks not only to collect damages from Apple for the bricking of iPhones, but also demands an end to the practice of carrier locking phones entirely. Nothing short of lightening bolts from the sky reigning down on AT&T will bring an end to that; it’s part of life. Death – Taxes – and Carrier exclusive contracts.
iPhone Dev Team has released a second version of its free GUI unlock software, anySIM, now available for download. This version (1.0.2) promises a stress free (and Kent free) unlock process that for many users (including yours truly) didn’t work with the last version.
Ever the sucker for punishment, I downloaded the software and ran the unlock process, which ended in failure just as last time. Fortunately this time around it didn’t have the adverse effect of bricking my iPhone.
If you’re made of tougher stuff, here is the link.
