iPhone 1.1.3 Update Confirmed, Breaks Apps and Unlocks 412
An anonymous reader writes "Gizmodo has gathered conclusive evidence which confirms that the iPhone Firmware 1.1.3 update is 100% real. It installs only from iTunes using the obligatory Apple private encryption key, which nobody has. The list of new features, like GPS-like triangulation positioning in Google Maps, has been confirmed too. Apparently it will be coming out next week, but there's bad news as expected: it breaks the unlocks, patches the previous vulnerabilities used by hackers and takes away all your third-party applications."
Not remotely GPS-like.. (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Tis the Season (Score:4, Informative)
Unlocking is not the same as running applications (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Not remotely GPS-like.. (Score:5, Informative)
I'd imagine towers are denser in most dense walking areas, allowing more accurate positions (with more intersecting hyperbolae), and that's where I see the feature being most useful. T
That is, the feature isn't a replacement for something like a Garmin or TomTom, but I can see it being very useful for when you're lost in a pedestrian area and have time to look at a street sign and get your precise position once it gets you very close.
Re:Not remotely GPS-like.. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Why do people like the iphone? (Score:3, Informative)
For what it's worth, I was at apple when iTunes for windows came out. Apple didn't write iTunes for windows, it was outsourced to a bangalore programming team. This might be one of the reasons it sucks so badly.
Re:Tis the Season (Score:3, Informative)
Apple's not fighting their users, they're protecting them, from their perspective.
The jailbreaks are dependent on vulnerabilities which really can't be allowed to remain, for the security of the entire userbase. When the SDK is released all the developers who've already made apps will have a big head start and the good ones will even have an opportunity to get paid for their hard work if they choose.
Should be unnecessary to point this out on /. but a hack is, well, a hack. Isn't that the fun of it?
Re:Just need to wait until it's jailbreaked... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Jesus Christ, iPhone is not life or death (Score:5, Informative)
AT&T iPhone 900 minutes + unlimited data + rollover minutes = $85ish after taxes.
As for the 3rd party apps, I'll reserve judgment until after the SDK comes out. Like any half intelligent consumer, I bought the iPhone because I was happy with what it did, out of the box, at the price they charged. I did install the jailbreak + some third party apps on the original OS, but none of them were that useful. When the software update came out I knew it would trash my 3rd party apps but didn't care, so I installed it.
To be honest, I didn't need any of the apps and am not really missing any functionality. I didn't even know there were ways to install 3rd party apps on the newer firmwares, that's how little I care.
Once the SDK comes out and apps are "officially" available I'll take another look and see if there's anything I can't live without.
Re:Walled Garden (Score:3, Informative)
Given the demographic, I was amazed by that-- well over half the people with an iPhone love it, but identify the fact that there is something fundamental missing to the point tha they are willing to void the warrantee to fix it.
The key is that people's needs are different, and there needs to be a fair way to address them. The walled garden won't sell 10m phones in 2008.
Real GPS feature coming to the iPhone (Score:3, Informative)
(I don't have an iPhone and don't want one, aside from the fact that they're not available in Canada anyway
Re:Just need to wait until it's jailbreaked... (Score:3, Informative)
What did you expect? You purchased a product from a company. Said Company makes very clear that they do not authorize you to use third party applications and so when you do... they have an interest in tearing your mods out of the software. That's the nature of the product right now.
I don't think Apple is evil but they are working on a very fine edge right now. They are taking on the entire cellular industry with a product that they have tried previously to launch (Anyone remember Newton?) with updates to the 21st century. It's a major project trying to consolidate so many products into one.
Unlike the notebooks and PC's they cannot afford to have anyone's third part software screw up the iPhone. The fallout on the consumer market would be too damaging for them to take on right now. Even if it was someone elses fault for a bad product, Apple would be blamed for it.
Add to this the fact that they originally delayed the Mac OSX launch to get the iPhone launched last year. I would suspect that they have just barely managed to release their products with the stability that Apple strives for. With that delicate stability, third party software isn't going to help them.
I do believe that eventually Apple will be required through consumer pressure to open up the iPhone but they are not about to do it right now. Once they get some market share and solid progress in the market, they can start taking a more open road.
But for now, they are taking on a lot of companies: Verizon, AllTel, T-Mobile, Microsoft, LG, Nokia in this bid. they are not about to take up company with some 1/2 baked software that maybe works most of the time.
Re:Just need to wait until it's jailbreaked... (Score:3, Informative)