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Cellphones Handhelds Iphone Apple

Verizon iPhone Is Now Jailbreakable 165

Posted by CmdrTaco from the can-you-hear-me-now dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The Chronic Dev Team have rolled out Greenpoison RC5_4 aka Greenpois0n RC5 b4 for both the Mac and Windows platform, which brings untethered jailbreak for the Verizon iPhone." Since 500k iPhones were sold on the first day it'll be interesting to see how Verizon throttles users.
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Verizon iPhone Is Now Jailbreakable More

Verizon iPhone Is Now Jailbreakable

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  • Remember, not illegal! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Skarecrow77 ( 1714214 ) on Tuesday February 08, 2011 @11:48AM (#35139338)

    Go for it guys! Jailbreak your iphone all you want, completely legal! Ruled as such by the Library of Congress! ... why doing the exact same thing to the black sony box setting next to my tv isn't legal, I'll never understand.

    • IIRC, the exception was limited to mobile phones.

      Which is stupid anyway, such lock down shouldn't be permitted.

      • Exactly my point. What differentiates the mobile phone in my pocket from the console on my desktop.

        Both are essentially custom-designed personal computers. I install and run programs on each. Each has a microprocessor, storage, ram, etc. Hell they both have usb connectivity and run linux (my mobile phone being android).

        Is the difference that the phone has a screen built in, is portable, and has built-in wi-fi connectivity??Pretty random way to differentiate, but let's say that for some strange reason that i

        • Remember, in this country, you are supposed to be grateful that you are allowed to hack your iPhone, and just accept that you cannot do the same to your PS3. You are only supposed to use your computer in the manner dictated to you by its manufacturer, with a handful of excepts granted by the government. The business of the United States is, after all, business.

          • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

            by magusxxx ( 751600 )

            You are only supposed to use your computer in the manner dictated to you by its manufacturer

            So that's why I got a cease and desist from TI when I turned my calculator upside down and spelt BOOBS.

          • Remember, in this country, you are supposed to be grateful that you are allowed to hack your iPhone, and just accept that you cannot do the same to your PS3.

            No, in this country we ignore stupid laws. When's the last time you saw most people going the speed limit? I would wager not one single person ever hesitated jailbreaking even when the legality was under question, just as I'm sure someone wanting to open the PS3 wouldn't hesitate to to so. After all, they can't even put Geohot in jail, so obviously n

            • However, potentially legitimate businesses that might remove the restriction systems from game consoles and cell phones did not open, because of the law. Believe it or not, there are a lot of people who would have difficulty running a jailbreak program, or who would be afraid to do so, and they would pay for the service of having their devices unlocked. Instead of allowing businesses to compete with each other (was that not the point of our capitalist system?), perhaps forcing consumers to decide between
        • The only serious comment I can make is, "Who the hell cares if it's legal?" As so many others have pointed out - when I buy it, it's mine. I WILL do as I please with my own property, licenses be damned. It might actually cause me to feel a little bit of pride if the American public finally stood up, and told Corporate America that "We aren't honoring ANY licensing schemes! We'll use what we buy in any manner we dream of, and we don't NEED your permission!" I'd pay to see a video of Bill Gates reading s

      • Re:Remember, not illegal! (Score:5, Insightful)

        by natehoy ( 1608657 ) on Tuesday February 08, 2011 @12:00PM (#35139518) Journal

        Just to play devil's advocate here, why should lock-down not be permitted?

        No, really. There are plenty of devices that you can buy that are not locked down. Most of the Nokia line offers non-locked-down phones. There are a decent handful of Android devices. Blackberries are generally available in an unlocked flavor.

        Yes, they are more expensive, but that's because you aren't being subsidized by a damned phone company when you get it. It's your phone, and all the features belong to you. The phone company can't turn off your GPS like Verizon likes to. They can't turn off the WiFi like AT&T likes to. You put their SIM in the phone and you use it for what you want to use it for, and pay accordingly.

        AT&T seems to welcome unlocked GSM phones (admittedly, their discount for using an unlocked unsubsidized phone is nonexistent, and they'll still force you on a data plan for certain phones whether locked or unlocked). From what I've heard, Sprint not only loves 'em, they offer a discount. There aren't as many unlocked phones available for Verizon, since they are LTE and the rest of the world is pretty much GSM, but it's not like there aren't offerings for unlocked phones.

        It's only the fact that we USAians are so used to having our phones subsidized that we've forgotten there is a whole universe of unlocked phones out there that we can use, if we want to get off the mobile carrier teat and buy them ourselves.

        • Nobody said that lock-down should not be permitted; go ahead, let them lock down the phones, and game consoles, and tablets, and desktops, and any other system. The real question is, why should we not be allowed to disable their restriction systems and use the computers we buy in any manner we see fit? If these companies want to subsidize phones, that is their problem; why should consumers have to worry about getting sued when they free their phone from some arbitrary restriction system?
          • I can really only come up with 2 good reasons. One is that they are concerned people might brick their electronics, or screw them up so badly that companies will get barraged with people looking for assistance. The second, and more likely, is that they are concerned people will expose functionality that they would otherwise have been able to charge money for.
            • Interestingly, your first reason seems to be the one they talk about publicly -- they are trying to protect consumers from themselves -- and the second seems to be the only actual reason, at least judging from my experience (as I said elsewhere, I saw my cell phones' modem capabilities disabled a while back, for no apparent technical reason, and was told that I should pay for a mobile broadband plan as a replacement). Frankly, if it was just a case of the carriers pulling these sorts of underhanded tactics

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by Lumpy ( 12016 )

              Big red letters on the front of the manual. "YOU BRICK IT WARRANTY IS VOID!"

              solves the first problem.

              Second problem? stop selling hardware crippled that needs to be unlocked with a secret "unlock code" to pump profits. Be honest and sell your $690.00 item for $690.00

              • It's like selling a badass car with a plastic block under the gas pedal as a governorl that you could very easily remove and then actually use the badassdedness of the car... I don't know a single person who, after knowing how easy it is to remove the plastic block, would not get MORE VALUE from their car....

                Matter of fact, I know many people, lets call them 'enthusiasts', who would notice the ease of modification and deliberately buy the governed car knowing that it would be a badass car with the simple r

                • Re: (Score:2)

                  by BobMcD ( 601576 )

                  Matter of fact, I know many people, lets call them 'enthusiasts', who would notice the ease of modification and deliberately buy the governed car knowing that it would be a badass car with the simple removal of the plastic block.

                  Take firearms, for example. There's quite a market for illegal modifications, such as firing pin mods, that grant considerably more value to modern weapons. They also make them suddenly illegal. Further, flaunting your defiance of the law in this way encourages new, tougher laws. So many, if not most, gun enthusiasts use legal versions of the firearms they want. In public, anyway.

                  And don't forget that there's an Amendment that says you get to keep your guns. Not so much for the iPhone.

                  • Arguably, restrictions on the capabilities of firearms are intended to keep law enforcement and other branches of lawful state power ahead in the literal arms race.

                    I don't know of any comparable state power or public safety rationale for prohibiting modification of personally-owned electronic communication or entertainment devices, although some apologists might raise half-hearted "unlicensed over-power radio transmitters" arguments.

                    • Re: (Score:2)

                      by BobMcD ( 601576 )

                      Again, though:

                      A) There is a CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT protecting firearms. No such protection exists for electronics devices. One would expect stricter controls on those devices, should the desire to pass such laws exist.

                      B) All power is granted to the government through the consent of the governed. They could mandate we all wear purple beards made of play-dough, and theoretically we'd either do it or be imprisoned/killed.

                      In short, the logic backing your position doesn't really hold up to scrutiny.

              • Big red letters on the front of the manual. "YOU BRICK IT WARRANTY IS VOID!"

                solves the first problem.

                Second problem? stop selling hardware crippled that needs to be unlocked with a secret "unlock code" to pump profits. Be honest and sell your $690.00 item for $690.00

                How many people would swarm to buy the iphone 4 (I need an iphone 4 with lots of the Gee Bees and the Why Fies!) if the price wasn't subsidized? And how many of the mindless iphone drones jailbreak it? Yeah it is really a powerful device but what percentage are truly using its potential and how many are using it as a facebook posting appendage?

          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            by natehoy ( 1608657 )

            The real question is, why should we not be allowed to disable their restriction systems and use the computers we buy in any manner we see fit?

            It's a condition of the subsidy.

            If you choose to have someone else pay for all or part of your telephone, how is it suddenly patently unfair that you have to live by the terms you agreed to when you accepted the subsidy? You had the choice of buying your own phone without the subsidy and the restrictions.

            I'm sympathetic to your point of view, but you did accept a discount in return for your vendor-locked phone. The restrictions are part of the package you seem to have agreed to.

            That's why my wife's phone

            • I take a view that is a little less sympathetic to the phone companies. I purchased my phone at a discount, because it was sabotaged: certain features had been disabled. I can fix these problems, much in the same way that I could replace broken parts in a car that I might buy at a discount (since it is broken). Nobody would take you seriously if you bought cars, then tuned down the engines so they cannot accelerate beyond 30MPH, and then sold the cars at a loss; why should we feel sympathy for cell phon

            • Fine, sell me a phone, at a discount, tie me to a service plan for 2 years. When the contract is over, I want either an option for a discount for my service plan, or a new phone at subsidized prices. I don't want to pay the same monthly service price as the guy who has a subsidized phone, unless I am buying a subsidized phone.

              Why is that so friggin hard for the Cell Companies to figure out?

            • It's a condition of the subsidy.

              Go explain that to Motorola and every other Android vendor that don't make rooting trivial for those who buy their devices unlocked. The companies in question impose lock down regardless of how you buy it.

        • That's what contracts are for.
          If the phone is subsidized by the phone company and you lose/trash your (theirs, really) phone, you are still on the hook for the 3 year contract, regardless of what you do. The lock-down is moot.

          • (0) For those who haven't heard, Verizon is punishing high-bandwidth users. The top 5% shall be limited to dialup speeds for two months. See here - http://slashdot.org/submission/1462912/Verizon-Imposes-Limit-on-top-5#comments [slashdot.org]

            (1) My provider VirginMobile may have given me my phone for free (cost of $40 minus $40 sale price), nevertheless it is still MY phone and will be my phone even after I quit the company. (Just as I kept my Cingular phone after I quit them.)

            (2) Contracts are not as binding

            • (3) The phone argument does not apply to the PS3, which is neither leased nor subsidized by Sony. It is Your property just as surely as your house or car or TV is your property. There's no reason why we can't jailbreak consoles.

              Yes, and Sony is well within their rights to deny access to their PSN servers to anyone who jailbreaks a console. Hooray for personal freedom!

          • I'm on the side of being able to do what you want with the device, but to play devils advocate to your post means I have to suggest that no, contracts do not make lock-downs a moot point - its been well established that there are plenty of people here on Slashdot that don't care one iota for hte limits the contract places on your usage.

            Take tethering for example - data usage patterns varies wildly depending on whether you are using the data on the device itself, or via a connected PC (it really does, I l

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by mlts ( 1038732 ) *

          Depends on how means locked down:

          SIM unlocked devices can be purchased with some ease. It is tough with iPhones, since one probably would have to make a drive to Canada and physically get an unlocked one there. Android devices tend to be easier.

          Unlocked as in fully rootable and ROM-able. Good luck. The only Android phone on the market in the past six months that has this ability is the Nexus S. Other phones, the ROM cookers have to go to great pains to make sure their stuff works with the signed kernel

          • Well, my Desire CDMA is fully unlocked, rooted, S-OFF'ed, and running Cyanogenmod 7. I don't doubt that the unlockers behind Unrevoked were wizards and worked very hard to come up with the jailbreaks necessary, but from a user perspective? Turn on USB debugging, plug the phone into my laptop, and run two programs. Rooted and fully-write-enabled. After that, the world's my oyster and Bob's my uncle.

            Well, I guess I haven't tried carrier-unlocking the thing. So far, my carrier hasn't pissed me off. I guess a f

        • why should lock-down not be permitted?

          If all devices in the relevant market are locked down, which is the case in the market for set-top video game players, and all makers of devices in the relevant market decline to allow someone to develop and market software for their devices, then any statutory or regulatory support for this lockdown would have free speech and antitrust implications. A video game is an audiovisual work, and audiovisual works are speech, so a government restriction on circumvention that is necessary to publish speech likely

        • Alright, Devil's Advocate - I say that nothing should be "locked down" because it's a deceptive practice. Both you and I have our geek sides, and we can look at a phone, computer, console, or other electronic device, and satisfy ourselves that we are, or we are not, getting value for our money. But, what about the REST of the world? That 92% or more who don't have a geeky bone in their bodies? They see the claims of (fill in the blank) but fail to see how restrictive all the REST of that contract really

    • ... why doing the exact same thing to the black sony box setting next to my tv isn't legal, I'll never understand.

      Because the MAFIAA pays waaayyy better.

      • The Librarian of Congress didn't say it's ok for you to do it to your PS3, that's why.

        The DMCA is an excellent law, after all.

    • What is the point?
      It's one thing to jailbreak your phone so you can unclock the carrier and another to allow arbitrary app deployment. In my case I unlock my at&T iphone to use tmobile (AT&T does not allow iphones in my zipcode if they use more than 1/2 their minutes here). But I find the jailbreaking a Giant pain in the ass since it means I can't easily update my phone to the latest OS. The process of doing it is so fragile and so poorly documented that one takes a risk every time of bricking it

      • Re:Remember, not illegal! (Score:4, Informative)

        by SuricouRaven ( 1897204 ) on Tuesday February 08, 2011 @12:08PM (#35139612)
        "I always wonder who these folks are that want to jailbreak for purposes other than unlocking."

        Emulators. Apple strictly prohibits any app from running or emulating, or executing in any way, code that hasn't been Apple approved. A lot of people like their retro gaming. Jailbreak a mobile and you can run emulators on it. A NES or SNES in your pocket. Or a gameboy - it's smaller than the original. Aside from that... pirate apps, various wireless network utilities Apple prohibits due to their potential hacking uses, and the big one: Tethering.

        • Tethering has been moot since AT&T went away from unlimited data plans. And moreover they are going to allow tethering shortly since Verizon does.

          Most people can live without pirate-ware utilities. And as for NES and such, do you really need to run that on your phone? Just get a gameboy or something. Is it possible this is actually in demand by more than a few people? or is it simply the novelty of running linux on your netgear router or toaster that excites people, who then forget about it after a

          • What I'd like for my AT&T phone is something that unlocks it but does NOT jail break it. (I tried using a rebel sim and it nearly broke my sim slot before I tossed the POS). I want something that does not install any software besides causing the unlock and does not interferre with updating the phone. I want a relible phone. I just want it on T-mobile. I would think I'm in the majority of people who use jailbreaks.

            It seems like this should be possible. Many companies will provide an unlock for the phone that is permenant (once you pay it off). This is done via Itunes and some magic code. Why can't someone crack that code right in iTunes? That way the phone is not altered and can be updated.

          • And as for NES and such, do you really need to run that on your phone? Just get a gameboy or something.

            For one thing, getting a Game Boy Advance SP would involve carrying two devices, and if I wanted to carry two devices, I'd buy a dumbphone and a PDA because dumbphone service is an order of magnitude cheaper. For another, not all NES games are ported to the Game Boy or GBA.

          • AT&T is limited now? What's the limit? All the carriers have limits and always have, they just don't publish them. The limits are set to only hit the heaviest 5% or less of users who are mostly just heavy bittorrent movie downloaders. If all you can see someone using tethering for is high bandwidth stuff like bittorent then I can see why having a limit would kill it's usefulness. Depending what you do tethering can be a very useful feature if you have work that needs to be done without requiring more

          • "Tethering has been moot since AT&T went away from unlimited data plans. And moreover they are going to allow tethering shortly since Verizon does."

            AT&T has allowed tethering for a while now, actually, but only USB tethering. The Verizon iPhone will allow you to create an ad-hoc hotspot and do wireless tethering, and supposedly AT&T will be adding this feature as well when iOS 3.2 comes out (this is something you've been able to do on jailbroken iPhones for quite a while now, though). The big

        • Jailbreak a mobile and you can run emulators on it. A NES or SNES in your pocket.

          For one thing, few smartphones have a D-pad and physical buttons designed for gaming. A multitouch surface doesn't cut it because without tactile feedback, it's hard to tell whether your thumb is properly aligned over the buttons. For another, there are very few good homebrew games for NES [pdroms.de] and fewer still for Super NES [pdroms.de]. It's easier for a programmer to write a native Android or iOS app than to write an NES game in assembly language, even though that doesn't stop some people [pineight.com]. Or are you talking about making i

      • Re:Remember, not illegal! (Score:5, Insightful)

        by betterunixthanunix ( 980855 ) on Tuesday February 08, 2011 @12:13PM (#35139682)

        I always wonder who these folks are that want to jailbreak for purposes other than unlocking

        How about to keep features that are arbitrarily taken away? I used to use my phone as a dialup modem, low bandwidth but enough to fetch some email, which is all I really want. My phone broke; my new phone is programmed to always say "CARRIER ERROR" when I try to use the modem feature. I am not paying less, and when I demanded an explanation, I was told that only people deploying telemetry devices or doing government work were allowed to use their phones in that manner, and that I should just sign up for mobile broadband.

        There is no technical reason for this restriction; jailbreaking can remove it. Why would I not jailbreak? The phone still has a built-in modem, the network still supports it, and the carrier is still going to get paid (since I use minutes just like I would for a voice call).

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Fusen ( 841730 )
        I love that sort of attitude, "I don't need it so you shouldn't need it either".
        Here's just a few reasons to jailbreak;
        http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/3563/photomnk.png [imageshack.us]
        The iPhone lacks so many features or seemingly obvious functions that without the tweaks that jailbreaking provides, I'd probably swap phones.

      • Re:Remember, not illegal! (Score:5, Informative)

        by Iphtashu Fitz ( 263795 ) on Tuesday February 08, 2011 @12:30PM (#35139936)

        There are plenty of reasons to jailbreak. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of apps available through Cydia that Apple doesn't allow on their App Store for one reason or another. Many of those apps are simply not in line with the way Steve Jobs and his employees think your phone should be allowed to operate.

        Case in point - an app called iBlacklist that lets you set up filters for incoming phone calls and test messages. If you block an incoming phone call you can choose to have it go straight to voicemail, get a busy signal, simply pick up & hang up, etc. Very handy if you ever get harassing phone calls from people you don't want to hear from (like sales & marketing people, etc)

        Then there's RemindYou, which is an app that displays your upcoming calendar events on the screen every time you pick up your phone. Very handy for people who live by their Outlook or iCal schedules.

        Nettalk adds Apple's network file sharing protocol to your iPhone, making it much easier to transfer files to/from the phone instead of having to rely on iTunes. It effectively turns your iPhone into a large thumb drive.

        Those are just a couple examples of apps that many people want and find extremely useful, but Steve Jobs and Apple say you can't have. So by jailbreaking your phone you can tell Apple to bugger off and install these apps anyway.

      • I always wonder who these folks are that want to jailbreak for purposes other than unlocking.

        I can't speak for anyone else, but I would jb for two major reasons.

        • 1. BiteSMS - Ability to send/receive SMS within another application. Not having iOS exit my current application in order to just read an incoming messages makes me wonder why this isn't a part of the core OS yet.
        • 2. 3G Unrestrictor - It is nice to be able to download or use various applications without having to be near a WiFi spot.

      • I always wonder who these folks are that want to jailbreak for purposes other than unlocking. What is the point? oh sure there are a few convincing reasons for developers to do it. But ordinary people?

        Ordinary people who want to play games made by developers who are too small to meet the console makers' minimum criteria [warioworld.com] might choose to jailbreak. See, for example, the story of Bob's Game [wikipedia.org]. And in the case of iPhone and iPod touch, there are whole classes of applications that Apple will never accept into its App Store; to run those without jailbreaking, you have to buy a Mac and then pay $99 per year for a developer certificate.

      • Other people posted already an answer to why one would want to jailbreak. As to the hassle of jailbreaking - that is why I like Android. Since it is based on an OSS project you can always go around the carrier/handset manufacturer to get updates. I have a nice easy to use App installed on mine that lets me choose between a number of 3rd party roms. It alerts me when there are updates available and almost entirely automates the process. I just have to click install and then answer yes, I do want it to pe

    • Re:Remember, not illegal! (Score:4, Insightful)

      by elrous0 ( 869638 ) * on Tuesday February 08, 2011 @12:14PM (#35139704)

      Because Sony has more lobbying money to bribe Congress?

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by alen ( 225700 )

      iphone jailbreakers didn't re-engineer the apple digital cert or codes. they just found a way to install their own software via apple's security holes

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by Amouth ( 879122 )

        i would say having a random number generator spit out the same (not so random) value each time in each unit for the seed for the keys.. qualifies as a "security hole"

    • Jailbreak your iphone all you want, completely legal! Ruled as such by the Library of Congress!

      Not to dispute what you say, I'm sure it's true ... but, really, the Library of Congress?

      How is it that they have any authority on this issue? I'm totally confused by this.

      • I think it was actually the "Copyright Office" but they apparently work with the LoC a lot... Wired link... [wired.com].

        Every three years, the Librarian of Congress and the Copyright Office entertain proposed exemptions to the DMCA, passed in 1998.

    • why doing the exact same thing to the black sony box setting next to my tv isn't legal, I'll never understand.

      Big media is above the law. Apparently.

  • because i had mine jailbroken for a few months last year and got tired of it. don't care about pirated apps or the themes. don't want to pay $10 for sbs settings or tethering apps either. and i don't tether so i don't care about it

    with the iphone 3g and before ios4 there was multi-tasking. but now is there any feature i'm missing because i'm not jailbroken?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tixxit ( 1107127 )
      Switching carriers is one of the big, legitimate, value adds to jail breaking your phone. Tethering is also another good value add. I pay for xGB of data, so why should my carrier care how I use it up? Tethering was a Godsend during my last vacation (2.5 week road trip). My wife or I would upload photos, download music, and whatnot while the other drove. My phone (an Android) actually allowed tethering when I got it (and during the vacation). The feature was actually removed after a recent update from my ca

    • Re:is there any value in JB'ing your iphone? (Score:4, Informative)

      by Conception ( 212279 ) on Tuesday February 08, 2011 @12:45PM (#35140156)

      There is value but if you don't use the items that have value, then for you, no.

      I just use a few things in jailbreak... If these sound interesting, then there is value for you.

      1) Replacement SMS app - Let's you do things like reply from the SMS notification instead of having to unlock your phone, open the messaging app, and then send on.
      2) Tethering and Hot Spotting - Let me and others use my phone as a mobile access point.
      3) Auto3g - Disables 3g when the phone is locked so it uses far less battery power. Doubles battery life for me.
      4) Lockscreen replacement - Makes my lock screen have calendar information. It also does stuff like remind me if I haven't acknowledged an event and sets quiet hours for SMS and stuff like that.
      5) Application Backups - If you have to restore your phone, all your saved games and information on the phone is gone.
      6) SMS export - Let's me archive and delete my SMS messages.
      7) Unlock - Useful when traveling abroad.
      8) Notification Replacement - Gives me Growl (the program) like notifications.
      9) SBSettings - Which is free, is just nice to be able to turn certain things off and on with a quick swipe. Also, fixes the status bar to have things like the date.

      If there is no value in these things for you, then no, don't jailbreak your phone.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by jo_ham ( 604554 )

        All those are excellent enhancements, but number 5 is already part of the iPhone's base features.

        If you restore your phone (or even get a totally new one) you can restore it to exactly the way it was - SMS messages, contact data and other info, are all restored from backup when you sync your phone.

    • There are a few cydia apps that I have installed and they are mostly unremarkable... The one I use _all_ the time was Wififofum... Such a thing used to be on the itunes app store but it disappeared and nothing took it's place. Wififofum is a wifi scanner and connection manager that lets you connect to access points that are quieter than what Apple's wifi manager will report... Sometimes it's the quiet ones that are open access points... Since I choose not to pay for a data plan, I rely on occasionally gett

  • Imported, from the UK to Germany. When the purchase of an iPhone here would mean tying our souls to T-Mobile for two years, I adamantly refused. I really can't understand how folks put up with that bullshit: "OK, you can buy the phone cheap, but you will be locked into a contract for years, which will offset the discount on your phone." And if I buy something, I don't want to have to jailbreak it. I paid for it, it's my phone! What's up next? Buy a GM car, but only be able to tank it at GM gas (petr

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jo_ham ( 604554 )

      But you didn't "pay for it" - you got it at a discount, with Tmobile eating the cost. If you bought the phone outright from the start, then yes. And after the contract ends, then yes. Obviously you pay more overall with the contract since you get service (phone service) included in that, and interest on the initial discount since you could just walk off with the phone and never pay the contract.

      So, you paid for *part* of it, it's *partly* your phone.

      You already brought up the car analogy, but if you buy a

  • Caveat emptor; (I'd wait a while) (Score:3)

    by Bearhouse ( 1034238 ) on Tuesday February 08, 2011 @12:52PM (#35140234)

    FTA: "If you happen to own a Verizon iPhone and are willing to give it the jailbreak treatment using Greenpois0n RC5_4, we wish you best of luck for that and hope you could share your end result with us. Thanks in advance."

    Methinks worth waiting for some keen bleeding edge early adopters to iron out the wrinkles before rushing off to brick your expensive new toy, fellow /.ers

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by anethema ( 99553 )
      You cannot brick an iPhone through jailbreaking. It simply is not possible. Nothing permanent is written to the phone. A restore will fix essentially anything.

      The only way to brick an iPhone now a days is to either smash it, or yank the cord during a baseband update flash. Anything else is (easily) recovered from by a restore from DFU or recovery mode.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by anethema ( 99553 )
        Er sorry to reply to my own post, but forgot to say I agree with you though on waiting until more reports come out though. While you cannot BRICK the iPhone, a buggy jailbreak can be annoying and/or frustrating to work with.
        • Nothing buggy about this jailbreak so far. Granted, I'm on AT&T, but it's been working great.

  • The risk on verizon... (Score:3)

    by Skuld-Chan ( 302449 ) on Tuesday February 08, 2011 @01:08PM (#35140466)

    Is that your ESN will get banned and your phone is pretty much a pda unless your can get another cdma provider (sprint/us cellular/cricket etc) to activate the phone...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tomz16 ( 992375 )

      Is that your ESN will get banned and your phone is pretty much a pda unless your can get another cdma provider (sprint/us cellular/cricket etc) to activate the phone...

      Based on what?

      This isn't the first phone that can be "jailbroken" or "hacked". People have been loading custom firmware onto windows mobile and android devices for a while now. AFAIK, verizon has never blacklisted any ESN for software modifications to the phone. In fact, as far as I know, the only phones with banned ESNs are those reported as stolen, unpaid, or damaged w/ insurance payout.

      Furthermore, the exact same thing exists in GSM. A carrier can definitely blacklist an IMEI. (AFAIK no carrier in t

    • Can't you spoof an ESN when you jailbreak?

  • iPad firmware? (Score:3)

    by angrytuna ( 599871 ) on Tuesday February 08, 2011 @01:12PM (#35140516)
    So, I'm a little unclear on this. The last I heard, the latest jailbreak code relied on using some iPad firmware that was a much higher version number than current built iterations of the iPhone codebase. The downsides of installing this, as spelled on on the dev team blog [iphone-dev.org], revolved around revealing to Apple unequivocally that your phone was jailbroken (and violating TOS for warranty), as well as being unable to come back down from this jailbroken state due to newer version numbers still being lower than this iPad version. Is this no longer the case with the Greenpois0n update?

    • That was for unlocking the GSM modem (allowing carriers other than AT&T), not jailbreaking (allowing other software).

  • On a related topic, who has gotten a "Your Apple ID has been disabled." error on their iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad or iTunes application lately? Were you buying a song, an app, installing a free update to an app? What seemed to be the trigger for you?

    Note: this is not the "This Apple ID has been disabled for security reasons." error you get for mistyping your password too many times. This error cannot be fixed by updating your password. It also appears unrelated to jailbreaking: my iPod Touch 4th gen is unmodi

  • And maybe TFA mentions this, but I wouldn't know cause I won't read the mother fucker, but the greenpois0n app breaks ALL iPhones, not just for Verizon. I sat here and did it just 5 minutes ago and it worked like a charm and I'm on AT&T.

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