iPhone 3GS Finally Hacked 376
Well, the inevitable hacking of Apple's latest flavor of iPhone has happened. Named "purplera1n," the tool will only allow installation of unauthorized applications instead of a full unlock. "The purplera1n jailbreak will free your iPhone from the limitations imposed on it by AT&T and Apple. After jailbreaking, a user will be able to customize the iPhone with home-screen wallpapers and third-party ringtones. But the biggest advantage of jailbreaking is the support of unapproved apps such as iBlackList (blacklists and whitelists for contacts) and many others."
Re:Don't need to jailbreak for wallpaper/ring tone (Score:5, Interesting)
They do make it much harder than necessary to make ringtones. You can't just use any old mp3/aac/etc file, and all the documentation etc makes it seem like you have to buy ringtones.
Pretty annoying.. even my old locked down verizon LG phone had the ability to use bluetooth to transfer mp3s and midis to the phone for usage as ringtones.
Re:err, why? (Score:5, Interesting)
Why? Easy: it's a pretty good phone, it comes with some nice apps (including a great mobile browser) and has a lot of other great apps available to add to it.
Isn't that enough?
Yeah, I can't do everything I want with it. And that sucks. But the devices which are better about that are much worse in other areas. When it comes right down to it, the iPhone is the best device for me, despite its locked down nature.
How about hacking together some linux support? (Score:3, Interesting)
Any word on whether or not this method enables tethering on AT&T networks?
Re:err, why? (Score:1, Interesting)
Because maybe they seem to be the only people who can make a decent convergence device?
jailbreak justification (Score:5, Interesting)
#1 - on a standard iphone, you can't change the incoming email alert sound... it is what it is. that means, if you have 10 people in a room and they all have iphones, if anyone gets an email, then everyone will be checking their phones because none of that is customizable.
#2 - on a standard iphone, you are limited to a handful of incoming sms alert sounds.... again, same thing as with email sounds.
the only 2 jailbreak applications that i actually use are the 5 icon dock (with the dockflow theme) and cyntact (an app that allows me to see the pictures of my contacts while they are in the list as opposed to having to open the contact to see the picture).
if apple would alleviate the 2 restrictions about changing sounds, i could live without the 5 icon dock and cyntact. i would have no reason to jailbreak.... and by alleviate, i don't mean to make me buy the sounds off of itunes like they try to make you do with ringtones, which you can get around that by importing m4r files.. 8)
Re:iTunes The Real Problem (Score:0, Interesting)
So don't buy an iPhone. I'm tired of Slashdotters purchasing a product and then whining that they're "forced" to use some aspect of it. Nobody's forcing you to do anything.
Re:iTunes The Real Problem (Score:2, Interesting)
Apple and it's ridiculous limitations.. (Score:2, Interesting)
I have never bought an apple product. I have gotton the ipod 3g, ipod nano (video), and the ipod touch 2g. After I have received the ipod touch and found out that apple has removed the "use as disk" feature, I knew that this ipod will be the last one I keep. Of course I will stop this boycott once apple starts lifting its proprietary state of mind (yeah right).
Re:err, why? (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:"Finally"! (Score:3, Interesting)
Wow, so much aggression. No, I didn't RTFA, sorry if that offends your sense of how the /. community works.
However, the summary stated that this jailbreak "will free your iPhone from the limitations imposed on it by AT&T and Apple" which I took to mean that the carrier lock (certainly a limitation imposed by AT&T) was also lifted. For that matter, SIM unlock is usually relatively easy (for non-smartphones at least) whereas breaking the application lock requires gaining root control of the operating system. I suppose the two features (SIM lock and applicaiton lock) must be seprated somehow.
The real joke was the "finally" in the summary. I suppose to some people it felt like a long time, but they were, after all, looking for an exploitable hole in a very restricted device running an OS based on BSD. I suppose my sarcasm about the "security" didn't come through so well...
Re:Not necessarily (Score:3, Interesting)
Not with a 3G or a 3Gs.
Re:Don't need to jailbreak for wallpaper/ring tone (Score:3, Interesting)
How did you go from, "one of the first things I tried was to make a ring tone, and it didn't work (the mthod above) until I switched to apple lossless" to "You have to use Apple lossless now. My understanding is that they disabled the AAC method because they don't want people making their own ringtones."?
Not to mention the fact that you can make your own ringtones both from within iTunes and from within GarageBand.
Re:When it just has to work (Score:5, Interesting)
Because programs vetted by Apple are likely to be accurately described, genuinely useful, and fully compatible with your phone.
accurately described - ok.
fully compatible - sure... they still can crash, but its not like the situation on palm or windows mobile.
genuinely useful - er... say what now? take a look at the app store sometime. most of the paid ones are a waste of time and money, and most of the free ones are a waste of time. Lets see we have "Virtual Girl" who dances on your screen, and iFart which makes farting noises, and some bikini-girl-a-day gallery (ranked #1 in entertainment apps)... 426 apps that all make your screen white called 'flashlight' or some variation (although in practice just pulling up the general settings app is about the same brightness, or a blank page in safari...)
ooo a dictionary... because a dictionary.com bookmark is too much effort... ah but this resides on your phone so it works even when you have no service.... seriously... do you often need to look up the spelling or meaning of words while in a dead zone? Does this really happen to people enough to make it worth it? Hell... I ony lookup works once or twice a month... and I suspect that's well above average.
etc... etc...
Re:err, why? (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't treat the iPod as a computer. It's an MP3 player that happens to be able to run arbitrary software. Of course my access to that software is filtered by Apple but I don't care much because for me it's not the point of the device. My ultra-portable computing needs will be catered to by the much more suitable Pandora.
Just works? Is that all? (Score:3, Interesting)
A device that has to be hacked to get basic features working is "Just Works"? Well yes, I suppose it "Just works" in that it makes phone calls, and anything else is a bonus. I would hope that the standard here on Slashdot for high end expensive phones is something that can do more than just working.
I want a phone that Just Works, Out Of The Box. No messing about with hacks, it's as bad as fiddling around with extra cables... I get "device freedom, works, and does a whole lot more" with my Motorola V980 phone (which is a cheap years old phone, nothing special).
I've nothing against the Iphone - I just find it odd that the features that are trumpted as being its advantages are actually the things that are its major disadvantages (similar with the claims about its UI - when it misses something as fundamental as copy/paste). I mean, I can understanding giving up one feature because it is better in other areas (well, kind of - when those features are available as standard on even cheap phones, it seems odd to give them up when you're spending vastly more, but anyway), but that's not what I see happening here.
Here you go. (Score:1, Interesting)