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Toyota Yields To Apple Over Jailbroken Phones 134

Posted by Roblimo from the typo-in-the-headline-is-embarassing dept.
zakkie writes "Toyota has caved to pressure from Apple and pulled custom themes for jailbroken iPhones. According to ModMyi.com founder Kyle Matthews, a representative of Toyota's ad agency said that Toyota gave in to Apple's request in order to 'maintain their good relationship with Apple', and amounted to a direct attack by Apple on jailbroken iPhones."
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Toyota Yields To Apple Over Jailbroken Phones More

Toyota Yields To Apple Over Jailbroken Phones

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  • now jobs tries to fucking put kids in jail for doing the same thing.

    all you hackers out there should remember. this is what 'business success' means, this is your future in corporate america. putting a younger version of you in prison (or tortured to the point of suicide, like in China).

    • Re:jobs and woz got their start doing blueboxes (Score:5, Insightful)

      by $RANDOMLUSER ( 804576 ) on Saturday April 09, 2011 @01:23PM (#35768874)
      While it IS an interesting point that Jobs & Wozniak got their start making/using blueboxes (which was sort of similar to jailbreaking Ma Bell - except it really WAS out-and-out theft), it's a step too far to say that Apple is trying to jail (or even more ludicrously, torture) people trying to jailbreak their phones. Suffice it to say that the Apple walled garden has concertina wire on top (which we all knew already) and leave it at that.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Shadowmist ( 57488 )
      Apple isn't putting anyone in jail. What they did...and did rightly was to tell Toyota to stop encouraging people to jailbreak thier phones and violating thier terms of use. And quite frankly since hackers in Russia are busy trying to squelch Livejournal to squelch out one of the few unified areas of actual free public discussion and dissent, I've long put aside any myths regarding hackers as misunderstood champions of freedom.
      • I think then perhaps you should stop using "hacker" as a blanket term and accept that many people mean different things by it. Obviously, lifehacker.com doesn't use the word the same way foxnews.com does. Just mentally replace it with "technically-capable and imaginative person with a disinterest in authoritarianism" and your problems will go away.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by juasko ( 1720212 )

          Yep, a hacker is basically a programmer, or a mechanic.

          A cracker is something else.

          • Well, that's splitting a few more hairs than is common these days, as much as it hurts. Shadowmist (the great grandparent) was not using a mindset that made the distinction. But we can dream, especially now that so many hardware-tweaking sites are using 'to hack' as a positive verb. It's certainly made a resurgence since the dot-com era.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by TyFoN ( 12980 )

        Meanwhile I'm running Cyanogenmod with no restrictions on my DHD.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by perpenso ( 1613749 )

      jobs and woz got their start doing blueboxes ... now jobs tries to fucking put kids in jail for doing the same thing.

      Jobs is just trying to recreate the conditions that his generation's hackers evolved in. There has to be some risk involved. If there were no risk then jailbreaking is about as much of a hack as putting LEDs in a tower case and installing a transparent side panel.

      Then again, given how wild of an exaggeration your "put kids in jail" comment is jailbreaking does seems closer to case mod 'ing than bluebox'ing. The actual risk to some "kid" jailbreaking his phone is more like having to explain to dad/mom tha

    • Since when has Jobs tried to put kids in jail for jailbreaking the iPhone?

  • Non-free market (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Omnifarious ( 11933 ) * <eric-slashNO@SPAMomnifarious.org> on Saturday April 09, 2011 @01:50PM (#35769034) Homepage Journal

    Yet another example of how the idea of a 'free' market is an illusion with the way things currently work. I wonder how far a suit for tortious interference [wikipedia.org] by all the users of jail-broken iPhones would get? Probably not very far, or perhaps they would get coupons to the Apple App store.

    • Right, because you HAVE to buy an iPhone and a toyota or hell a car and a cell phone for that matter. I know successful well to-do people with neither.

      • *looks at you funny* Are you sure you scored well enough on reading comprehension to be able to qualify as literate?

        It's a non-free market because basically Apple is able to throw their weight around and prevent another company from offering a perfectly valid and legal product. I have no desire for that product, but the world is a less interesting place overall because it's gone. There may be people who did want it.

  • You have to jailbreak an iPhone... (Score:4, Funny)

    by s.whiplash ( 1810776 ) on Saturday April 09, 2011 @02:02PM (#35769134)
    You have to jailbreak an iPhone to put a custom theme on it? That seems pretty restrictive. Seems like a basic customization that you should be able to do on any smartphone.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      You have to jailbreak an iPhone to put a custom theme on it? That seems pretty restrictive. Seems like a basic customization that you should be able to do on any smartphone.

      But then it wouldn't look the way Steve Jobs intended it to look. You should be grateful Steve lets you install apps (as long as he gets a cut of the money).

      • Re:You have to jailbreak an iPhone... (Score:4, Interesting)

        by porl ( 932021 ) on Saturday April 09, 2011 @10:13PM (#35771718)

        You should be grateful Steve lets you install apps

        not many people seem to remember that they originally didn't want you to do that. it was *after* the jailbroken phones started to become more popular with their ability to install 'custom' apps that apple opened it up.

        • You're not seriously buying into the BS idea that Apple gave in to the opinions of some nerds, are you? Anyone who doesn't think Apple planned to allow 3rd party apps all along is clueless.

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by juasko ( 1720212 )

            Yepp, your right, though there where some restrictions on what kind of apps where allowed. Apps where to use only web tech i the beginning. Though the interest of making native apps where huge enough for Apple to open that up.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by pla ( 258480 )
      Seems like a basic customization that you should be able to do on any smartphone.

      Smartphone? Hell, my 10+ year old Nokia piece-of-crap had custom skins the user could select.

      Or more to the point - Don't buy a phone that won't let you skin it, won't let you tether it, won't even let you make calls ya left-handed bastards... Just get an Android (Like the majority of non-Apple fanboys - can ya smell the coffee, Steve?).

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by juasko ( 1720212 )

        Yepp, and they all where trojans and the "certificates" had been too old, as with any other app for nokia phones. So you installed all the trojans without hesitating.

        I know I had nokia my self and wanted to create a theme or UI that wouldn't have been faulty because the originals and the aftermarket ones sucked.

    • Who cares about custom themes? I'd really like to see a custom theme that actually looked better than the original.

  • As a long time apple fan..... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by nurb432 ( 527695 ) on Saturday April 09, 2011 @02:19PM (#35769224) Homepage Journal

    I'm beginning to lose faith and have actually started considering an Android phone ( but to find something that is comparable that isn't locked down as bad by the carrier. )

    I still have every aple device i ever owned, from my first apple ][, and I'm really getting tired of this. Its my "box", let me use it as i want. If you don't want to support/warrant me, fine..

    I'm also worried about the long term future of the computer side of things, if it will end up in a similar locked down state.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      They do have a legit reason to lock it down as it's first and primary job is to act as a phone. Both AT&T and Apple tech support HAVE to support these devices when things stop working on them. For a smart user who knows what they are doing it's harmless to jailbreak, but for every intelligent jailbreaker, there are probably 1,000 others that are complete idiots that would install some sort of firewall or other app and adjust settings to the point where they fuck something up so bad it can't make phone

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by nurb432 ( 527695 )

        No, they don't *have* to support it. Technically you broke the contract/warranty so they could easily add it to the EULA that they can simply say you are out of support and charge you full price for the phone since you 'damaged it' then cancel your contract on the spot. OR charge you a sizable fee to 'unbreak' it at one of their stores. ( reload/restore/etc )

        And yes i do realize that the carriers want to/will lock them down, regardless of what OS, for a number of 'network protection' reasons. However it see

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Zebedeu ( 739988 )

      Have you looked at the Nexus S?

      I have one and I'm really happy with it. I did have to unlock the bootloader in order to reset the colour temperature change Google did with Android 2.3.3.
      The unlock was incredibly easy, and official (you get the intructions on how to do it when you try to flash the bootloader, and it's still locked).

      From now on I'm sticking to the Nexus devices, until the vendors stop playing the cat-and-mouse lock games.

      I'm now looking into getting an Android tablet. Rumours are that there w

      • I'm now looking into getting an Android tablet. Rumours are that there will be a Nexus tablet

        A "Nexus tablet" exists - it's Motorola Xoom. The official terms for these is "Google experience devices". That basically means two things:

        First, they have stock Google software, not modified by phone manufacturer or operator (Google does include some 3rd party stuff there, such as Facebook and Amazon MP3, but it's part of their "experience"). This means that your device will get updates much earlier than operator-controlled phones. This also means that you won't have "Install outside Market" chechbox disab

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by Zebedeu ( 739988 )

          A "Nexus tablet" exists - it's Motorola Xoom

          I don't think the Xoom is a "Nexus device".
          Granted the Xoom is the first device with Android 3.0, and it was what the Google engineers used to develop and test Honeycomb, but as far as I understand, it's being sold and supported exclusively by Motorola.

          A Nexus device is built by a manufacturer, but the support is directly from Google. That means that software updates are coming from G directly.

          First, they have stock Google software, not modified by phone manufacturer or operator (Google does include some 3rd party stuff there, such as Facebook and Amazon MP3, but it's part of their "experience").

          Not in my Nexus S. There are zero third-party apps in the Nexus S (except for the Google ones, obviously). No Faceb

          • A Nexus device is built by a manufacturer, but the support is directly from Google. That means that software updates are coming from G directly.

            I don't know about support, but so far as I know, updates for Xoom do come from Google.

            Anyway, thanks to unlocked bootloader, you won't be out of updates for as long as there are people on XDA running those things. Which will likely be far longer than most operator-locked tablets that'll come later.

            Not in my Nexus S. There are zero third-party apps in the Nexus S (except for the Google ones, obviously). No Facebook or Twitter or anything.

            However, Facebook and Amazon were present in stock ROM for Nexus One (and its updates).

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by maccodemonkey ( 1438585 )

      Apple isn't stopping you from using it however you want. You can do whatever you want with it.

      What you are asking for is Apple to help you do whatever you want to do, which I don't think even the most nerdy of nerds would say Apple has to do. It is totally legal for you to jailbreak it and load whatever you want on there.

      Apple didn't threaten to sue Toyota, they just asked them to stop distributing the theme, which from a business standpoint is totally reasonable. Toyota also could have said no. Nothing fan

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by nurb432 ( 527695 )

        Umm, they actively try to prevent jail breaking, so yes they are trying to stop you. They also have the 'right' to do this with their products. I also never said about it being illegal for me to do what i wanted with my device.

        The point is just that its getting tiresome of having to "fight" to do what i want with it.

        • "Umm, they actively try to prevent jail breaking, so yes they are trying to stop you. They also have the 'right' to do this with their products. I also never said about it being illegal for me to do what i wanted with my device."

          How so? I haven't seen them actively try to prevent jailbreaking since jailbreaking was declared legal under US law.

          They won't support a jailbroken phone, either through hardware support or the update system, which is exactly what every other phone maker does. This is not Apple acti

          • Re: (Score:3)

            by nurb432 ( 527695 )

            To me, until it doesn't require any 'tricks' to make it happen and becomes a simple 'press this button at your own risk' function they are actively trying to prevent it .

            Remember too, that with each OS release they fix the holes that were exploited in the previous to accomplish it, so again i say they are making an effort.

            • "To me, until it doesn't require any 'tricks' to make it happen and becomes a simple 'press this button at your own risk' function they are actively trying to prevent it ."

              Huh? This is horrible logic.

              If I don't bring you your dinner tonight, am I actively trying to stop you from eating dinner?

              "Remember too, that with each OS release they fix the holes that were exploited in the previous to accomplish it, so again i say they are making an effort."

              Yes, because bugs that allow you to inject code on a device ar

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by nurb432 ( 527695 )

                If i come to your house for dinner, bought a covered dish and then you hide the utensils on me, it would be a more accurate analogy.

                Until they offer a supported way to do this, they are working to prevent it. This is a black and white issue, don't try to make it into something its not.

                And no, i haven't ditched my iphone yet. But i guarantee you the day i cant JB a new version if iOS it goes into the garbage and i wont ever buy another apple product.

                • "If i come to your house for dinner, bought a covered dish and then you hide the utensils on me, it would be a more accurate analogy."

                  It's like selling you sandwich but not giving you utensils. If you want to eat your sandwich with a fork, I'm not going to stop you. But I'm not going to go out of my way to make my sandwiches fork friendly. This doesn't mean I'm actively trying to stop you from eating your sandwiches with a fork.

            • a simple 'press this button at your own risk' function

              would mean they actively support it, which means they are legally responsible for any damages. You will never see that happen.

              • would mean they actively support it, which means they are legally responsible for any damages.

                really? sounds like the same thing that people said about hackintoshes. you don't have to support it if you say you won't from the get-go unless there are some nefarious laws requiring every company to directly support every product they've ever made... for all eternity? does this apply to all products? are people who leave their homes unlocked now actively supporting burglary? where does it end?


                off-topic side note: if phone makers can make exclusivity deals with carriers, can automobile makers do the sa

          • Re:As a long time apple fan..... (Score:4, Insightful)

            by gnasher719 ( 869701 ) on Saturday April 09, 2011 @06:58PM (#35770972)

            How so? I haven't seen them actively try to prevent jailbreaking since jailbreaking was declared legal under US law.

            Every jailbreak is based on some vulnerability in the OS. Each such vulnerability is an opportunity for some malware to break into your iPhone, and therefore must be removed. By removing a vulnerability, Apple hinders jailbreaking. How far this is intended, I couldn't say.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by juasko ( 1720212 )

          Trying to prevent you from is not the same as stopping you.

      • Yeah, just like Big Tony didn't threaten to burn down Joe's Bar. He just asked him if he wanted some insurance. Joe could have said no.

    • Go figure. (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      As a long time Apple hater, I've been considering an iPhone. Android's interface is pants, and I can't remove bullshit applications (Amazon? Nascar, FFS?) without rooting my phone.

      Rooting my phone.

      Yes, this is Slashdot, but do you hear me? Rooting my phone. Phone. Root.

      It's a phone. The fact that I'm supposed to go geek out with a ... A phone? Just to stop my battery being drained by auto-running bullshit?

      Steve Jobs' tyranny is looking better than the rest, I'll admit. At least the man assumed

  • Toyota Marketing (Score:5, Insightful)

    by chimerafun ( 1364591 ) on Saturday April 09, 2011 @02:21PM (#35769238)
    As someone who has worked on the digital end of a tremendous number of campaigns for some very (very) large clients, please understand that oftentimes the larger company is not aware of what is going on. Campaigns are pulled quite often for even smaller, sillier, brand infringments. The only reason anyone cares about this one is that Apple's walled garden is a hot button topic.
  • Toyota isn't doing very well as a company - first the unexplained acceleration issues, followed by plenty of other recalls, and now the earthquakes. Their stocks have taken a serious hit, I suspect they are starting to show up on other companies' lists for acquisition.

    I for one expect that the most likely suitor will be none other than Sony. Laugh at it now, but you won't be laughing when Toyotas all have memory stick slots in the seat to remember the shape of the driver's ass...
    • Go look at chimerafun's post above yours. This is really a non issue. Some 20 something marketing zombie thought it would be cool. Their 30 year old marketing manager droid didn't think it through completely. Since it was likely really low budget, it just got done, then slapped down.

      Nobody else cares.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by im3w1l ( 2009474 )
        Or maybe, they WANTED exactly this to happen. They come out looking good to the people they want to sell to.
        • Exactly. Thousands of more eyes on a Scion that would have never seen it before, and all for free. Same goes for Cydia. A win for everyone (selling crap). I've got a jailbroken phone, and wall or no wall, everyone wants to sell me something. It's almost like phones are becoming the new advertising sections of the Sunday Papers of Olde...

        • Or maybe, they WANTED exactly this to happen. They come out looking good to the people they want to sell to.

          And they wouldn't even have to wait for Apple to react - what's Apple going to do, deny they contacted Toyota about the adds?

  • What a bunch of cowards!! Jailbroken phones are legal in the USA - one of the few places where that country still leads the world - even if it was a hard fight to get there.

    I think less of Toyota for this retreat, not more.

  • Fuck Apple.

    That is all.

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