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An Interview With i0n1c

Tue, 15 May 2012 15:23:10 +0000

iSpazio, the Italian iPhone site, has recently finished an interview with i0n1c and released it on their blog. Read the full interview below:

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Greetings and welcome on iSpazio.net! Let's start by talking a little about yourself: we know that you're a professional figure in the hacking. How did you “gain” this passion for technology, and when did you start to hack something?

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I got my first computer when I was about 8 and broke it one week later because I was tweaking some settings I was not supposed to tweak. My parents did not want me to waste time playing video games so I learned programming instead and was very interested in doing the low level stuff. But I guess I was at least 16 until I started so realize the wonderful things you can achieve by changing the code of other people. I guess I could have gotten earlier into the game, but I never had any kind of internet or mailbox access on my own before I was 17/18.

For most of our users, you're famous because of the iOS 4.3.X's jailbreaks and recently for the unreleased jailbreak technique for iOS 5.1 and 5.1.1: how's dealing with iOS security?

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Dealing with iOS security is like dealing with any other security topic, with the difference that it is more challenging than PHP security or web application security which was my previous research topic. The other difference is that hacking iPhones and researching jailbreaking topics brings you in contact with the actual enduser that directly benefits from your work. This is something very different from other fields in security. Most of the time you only deal with application developers that do not really like that you find problems in their code, or with admins that have to upgrade to the newest version of a piece of software. I guess there are not many fields in IT security where the actual enduser has ever heard the name or nick of a person involved in finding a vulnerability or writing the actual exploit. Having experiences both I think I prefer an angry developer over an angry jailbreaker.

We've heard that you're not releasing the iOS 5.1 and 5.1.1 jailbreak because, for many users, jailbreak means piracy: is there actually a way to block it?

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Whatever you have heard about why I am not releasing a jailbreak is most probably wrong. The jailbreak community tends to just pick random tweets and spin rumours or consipracy theories around them. As an example I get a number of request by email or twitter every day from people who want to pay money to get the jailbreak, because they heard I sell it. In fact I never said that I would sell my jailbreak, I merely discussed the fact that while the developers do all the work for free there are plenty of people who make a huge sum of money with every new jailbreak. There are the people that sell Cydia apps, the people that make iOS newsites and tutorials about JBing (including ads), the people who get paid for installing the free JB on someone's device, the people that weaponize the public exploit for malicious purposes, the people that just take eg the bootrom exploit and create expensive tools for law enforcement agencies from it, the security researchers that can only do research on jailbroken devices and sell consulting afterwards. I might have forgotten some other players that make money out of a free jailbreak, but I think you get the picture. People in the JB community seem to not understand that from my point of view spending months of work to perfect a JB and then releasing this for free is a waste. And of course they are angry when I tell pod2g about it because they fear I convince him to do something more valuable with his time.

Speaking of piracy. I am pretty sure that it would be possible to do a JB that will block the most common ways to install pirated applications on a device. But there is no way to stop pirates from reversing the JB and tweaking it. It might take them a while, because after all iOS JBs involve low level kernel code that can do all kinds of dirty tricks, but in the end they would figure it out. Maybe not fast enough until Apple closes the vulnerability and effectively kills the jailbreak. After all it would not be worth the hassle. Why would someone like Musclenerd or Pod2g spend days or weeks coding something like that, knowing that it would only last a few days.

If nowadays users do jailbreak only for piracy purpopes, do you think that there is still someone that actually do it for have full control of their own iPhone?

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Of course there are people that jailbreak because they want to have full control of their own iPhone, of course there are people that need a jailbreak to install the latest Cydia tweaks and of course there are people that jailbreak to do security research or whatever. But each of these groups highly overestimates their own size and importance. The vast majority of people have always jailbroken for pirating stuff or unlocking their phone. Whoever denies this is delusional. When you look at average people and their jailbroken iPhones you will see they have hundreds of Applications installed and Apple is lucky if they paid for a single one of it.
And yes there is also a group of people that say they only pirate apps and buy them later because there is no way to try an app before you buy it. I personally think that Apple could solve that legitimate request by offering such feature.
For me it doesn't matter what reason people jailbreak for, it has no influence on my decision to not waste months of my work just to enable other people to do what they want.

On may the 8th, your new book about the hacking of iOS finally came out: why did you feel the necessity to write it?

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Well whenever a field develops over the years and more and more content for a specific topic is collected at some point the logical consequence is to write a book about it. Of course nowadays you can find a lot of information on the internet but this information is usually spread over hundreds of websites and sometimes important facts are not yet public at all. So the idea to create a book and collect all this information in one place allows someone new to the field to dig through it in a easier way. So in the long run this book will allow more people to get into iOS hacking in a faster way. However iDevices are not an easy target to attack and therefore it requires years of training or expericence to actually own them.
The problem with the JB community at this point is that they don't understand that in the long run this book might bring new people into the scene of jailbreaking iDevices. Most of the people in the JB community do not understand that. They believe it will help Apple to stop jailbreaking or they consider it an attempt to make big money out of the JB community. This kind of reaction shows how little they understand of what is going on, first everybody who wrote a book about a tech topic will tell you that there is no big bucks made by writing tech books. Especially not if there are six authors for one book. And the other misbelief is that Apple employs a bunch of stupid elephants that do iOS security. In reality the people working at Apple on iOS security topics are actually quite skilled and they have way better debugging tools than the JB community will ever have. The reason why they don't kill a JB one day after a release is most probably only of political nature. Apple only seems to close JBs fast if they could be used maliciously by drive by attackers. Aside from that they keep those vulnerabilities open for a while, because every sold device is a sold device.
Also by looking at the JB community they can gather intelligence about features their customers might want, which in the long run will increase their revenue even more. I don't think Apple is really too concerned about piracy due to jailbroken devices, because they know there is only a limited amount of money you can squeeze out of a person anyway.

What do you think about the iCommunity? Do you think it is all “populated” by pirate users or people that send yo often bad messagges?

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Pirates are everywhere and they do not concern me. If you loose any sleep because of them, then good luck surviving in this world. I think the JB community suffers from something worse. It is “contaminated” by leeches that do not value other people's work at all and do not understand the amount of work required to create things. They believe they are entitled to get whatever they see and just need to cry out loud enough if they don't get it. They believe they own the iPhone JB developers and that they have to produce jailbreaks for them for all eternity or shut up. You can see how delusional these people are when you get messages like: “Without us you are nothing, we follow you on Twitter and we made you famous” and then there are messages like “unfollow him to teach him a lesson”. Everytime I see these messages I hope for mankind that these people do not really believe that. People are not getting famous because they have hundreds of thousands of followers on twitter, it is the other way around: they did (create) something people liked and this attracted followers. And if you consider yourself famous, because a few people on the internet know your name is up to you. I don't think one can consider himself famous until people on the street recognize your face and you have to hide from paparazzi. Anyway the amount of followers on twitter is only of concern to me because it is directly related to the number of people I have to ban manually.

How's dealing with those guys everyday? I mean, not everyone can hold such a situation for so long: for example, I remember that because of this, geohot hold the iOS 4.X jailbreak. Do you see from your twitter at least some supporters for your hard work?

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I don't think it has anything todo with “hold such a situation”. In the beginning you are annoyed and cannot believe the amount of angry and demanding people, but once you get over that initial shock you just continue to do whatever you want. I can understand if Geohot hold the iOS 4.x jailbreak because of these people. Because getting this kind of response is a wake up call that tells you that these people are not worth that you donate your work to them for free. However Geohot and the Chronic Dev Team are/were also collecting donations – so they obviously got enough to keep them going.
I also think that a part of this whole situation is caused by certain jailbreak developers who write blog postings where they claim that they will work day and night to get the new jailbreak to them. This blatant lie is the kind of statement that will be loved by the crowd, while in reality work is only done when there is free time and the mood to do it. However telling the truth will make people dislike you and most probably donate less.

We've done with our interview! Thanks for your time: would you mind say something to our users?

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Oh I think I said everything I wanted to say for now and now I sit back with popcorn to await the criticisms' wave.

via iSpazio

Pod2G's News Spree

Tue, 15 May 2012 04:51:23 +0000

Today has been a big day for pod2g, providing us with news like no tomorrow about his jailbreaks. Here is where you can find all the info released from him today.

Jailbreak Compatibility

The iOS 5.1 untether jailbreak pod2g is working on will work with all devices on 5.1/5.1.1 EXCEPT for iPhone 3GS (New Bootrom), iPod 3G (New Bootrom), and ATV 3. Pod2g does not have any info as to if these devices will ever receive an untethered jailbreak for this firmware or when it will be available.

Jailbreak Release Date

Pod2g stated that people should expect the jailbreak release in a couple of weeks, but also mentioned that something big would be announced at the Hack in the Box conference in Amsterdam. The Chronic Dev Team, who is responsible for providing pod2g's jailbreaks in a user friendly interface, also tweeted such information as well. This means that we could be seeing the jailbreak being released to users during the conference.

Of course, this conference could be entirely unrelated to the release date of pod2g's jailbreak, but the conference runs until May 25th, which is within the two week time frame pod2g put for his jailbreak release.

Now that everyone is up to date on the iOS 5.1/5.1.1 jailbreak, what does everyone think about it?

TinyUmbrella Updated to 5.11.00, Adds iOS 5.1.1 Support

Sun, 13 May 2012 05:19:38 +0000

Apple released iOS 5.1.1 early this week, which didn't bring much except for bug fixes. However, it is always important to save the SHSH blobs of any firmware you can.

NotCom, developer of TinyUmbrella, updated his program to 5.11.00, which adds support for iOS 5.1.1, meaning you can now save SHSH blobs for iOS 5.1.1 with the updated program.

I cannot emphasize how important it is to save your SHSH blobs. If you have not done so yet, it is a good idea to start doing so, as it can be the difference between having a jailbroken device and not.

TinyUmbrella [OSX]
TinyUmbrella [Windows]

via The Firmware Umbrella

RedSn0w Updated To Support iOS 5.0.1 Build 9A406

Sun, 13 May 2012 05:12:31 +0000

Yesterday, the iPhone Dev-Team released one of the most monumental redsn0w updates in a while, bringing downgrade support to A5/A5X devices. However, the update lacked the support of iOS 5.0.1 9A406, meaning only the older build, 9A405, was all that was supported. That meant those who only had SHSH blobs for the 9A406 build could still not downgrade.

Today, the Dev-Team updated RedSn0w to 0.9.11b2, adding support for the 9A406 build of iOS 5.0.1. So to those who have been waiting for that build to be supported, you will wait no longer. Download links are below, as well as full information on RedSn0w 0.9.11.

redsn0w 0.9.11b2 for OS X
redsn0w 0.9.11b2 for Windows (be sure to run in Administrator mode)

via Dev-Team Blog

Pod2g Confirms 5.1 Jailbreak Will Work on 5.1.1 As Well

Fri, 11 May 2012 16:20:36 +0000

Pod2g has confirmed that his jailbreak for iOS 5.1 will work for iOS 5.1.1 as well:

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OK, tested on an iPad 3,1 running 5.1.1. Jailbroken untethered. :-) No issue.

This is good news to those who updated to 5.1.1 and did not save their SHSH blobs for 5.1, not allowing them to downgrade with the recently updated redsn0w. The jailbreak is expected in the next couple of weeks, released in a tool by the Chronic Dev-Team.

Stay tuned for updates!

Pod2g iPad 3 5.1 Untethered Jailbreak Demo Video

Fri, 11 May 2012 16:05:51 +0000

pod2g yesterday upon news of stating that he had a jailbreak for iPad 3 on 5.1 released a demo video showing the jailbreak. There is still no ETA on the release of the jailbreak, but he states that it will most likely be within a few weeks.

Redsn0w 0.9.11b1 Released

Fri, 11 May 2012 15:59:31 +0000

The redsn0w we have all been waiting for. Redsn0w 0.9.11b1 has finally been released, bringing us the long awaiting A5/A5X downgrade for those who have their SHSH blobs. Read below to see what should be considered before attempting a downgrade or downloading the updated redsn0w:

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What’s old is new again!

Jailbreakers with devices that pre-date the iPad2 will always be able to downgrade (with SHSH blobs) to previous firmware versions due to geohot’s limera1n exploit, which allows us to bypass the restrictions that Apple places on restores. But until now, that ability has been limited to those older devices (if you have an older device and don’t know how to do that, check the popular tutorial sites or ask in the comments below).

Starting with redsn0w version 0.9.11b1, those with newer devices (iPad2, iPad3, and iPhone4S) can join the downgrade fun too! In a radical departure from previous versions of redsn0w, it now directly supports restoring IPSWs to your device. The first use of this new feature implements a hack that allows A5 downgrades without a bootrom-level exploit.

Some important points:

The new feature is at Extras->Even More->Restore
You cannot downgrade without the personalized SHSH blobs for your device at that lower firmware. You need to have fetched those blobs while the signing window was open, using either Cydia’s built-in TSS@Home feature, or with TinyUmbrella. The new Restore screen of redsn0w lets you choose either the remote blobs or local ones (for the earlier firmware). If you don’t know where TinyUmbrella put your blobs, TinyUmbrella has a button that will show you (copy them out of that folder and feed them to redsn0w).
The A5 downgrade method actually updates to the latest firmware before downgrading to the earlier one. This process updates your baseband to whatever is newest. DO NOT USE THIS METHOD IF YOU RELY ON UNOFFICIAL UNLOCKS of your iPhone4S. Those who used the temporary SAM technique to unlock their iPhones to specific SIMs shouldn’t be affected by this baseband update.
This method can be fixed by Apple with a firmware update. It’s a (pleasant) mystery why they haven’t fixed it yet, because reverse-engineering of the restore ramdisk indicates they do know about it. It’s possibly too niche to bother to fix right now.
The least-tested devices with this method are the iPad2,3 and iPad3,2 (because we don’t have those models). If you do and you feel like experimenting, please let us know how it turns out in the comment section below!
This update involves a bunch of new redsn0w code. We recommend sticking to the previous version 0.9.10b8b unless you’re specifically using this new feature, until all the bugs are worked out! (Note: If redsn0w gets stuck at the “Waiting for device” stage for more than 30 seconds, you’ve hit a pesky GUI bug…that will be fixed in an upcoming version!)

Of course all eyes are on @pod2g for his upcoming 5.1 untethered jailbreak. Watch his blog or twitter feed for the latest updates about that, but in the meantime if you accidentally updated your jailbroken A5 device to something later than 5.0.1, feel free to try this new A5 firmware downgrade feature of redsn0w!

Update #1: We accidentally left out one of the two flavors (“9A406”) of 5.0.1 for iPhone4S. It’ll be in the next update, but in the meantime check if Cydia or TU saved your blobs for the other 5.0.1 for iPhone4S (“9A405”).

So, those who are really waiting on a jailbreak, what are you waiting for? Download redsn0w and downgrade your device!

redsn0w 0.9.11b1 for OSX
redsn0w 0.9.11b1 for Windows (Run in Administrator Mode)

Pod2g: iPad 3 Running Untethered Jailbreak on 5.1

Thu, 10 May 2012 18:49:32 +0000

Pod2g has stated today on Twitter that he got his iPad 3 running an iOS 5.1 jailbreak untethered:

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Hey. iPad 3,1 running iOS 5.1 untethered. Next on the list: stabilizing the payload, then trying 5.1.1.

Looks like the next steps is to stabilize the jailbreak and work out bug fixes, according to pod2g. He also plans to test his jailbreak on iOS 5.1.1 to see if it still works. However, according to multiple developers, the exploits for iOS 5.1 still work on iOS 5.1.1. However, it is good to hear from pod2g a confirmation on the matter.

If iOS 5.1.1 breaks pod2g's jailbreak, it does not mean it is the end of the world. Those who have their SHSH blobs saved for 5.1 are in luck, as a redsn0w update is planned to be released that brings downgrading capabilities for all devices, including A5/A5X devices such as the iPhone 4 and iPad 3.

For those of you who are asking about jailbreak compatibility, this should answer your question:

Stay tuned for updates!

Redn0w 0.9.11b1 To Support Restores and Downgrades for 4S and iPad 2/3

Wed, 09 May 2012 00:52:15 +0000

Musclenerd has recently tweeted that a redsn0w update is coming up, providing users with the ability to perform restores without iTunes and the capability of downgrading the 4S and iPad 2/3:

This is excellent news for those who have an iPhone 4S or iPad 2 and are stuck on iOS 5.1, as they can downgrade to 5.0.1 with their blobs and jailbreak their devices. It is also great to have the restore feature in redsn0w, breaking the required use of iTunes to perform jailbreaks.

Update: Musclenerd in another tweet has stated that this method used to downgrade devices is NOT the same as iH8sn0w's. iH8sn0w's downgrade method had legal problems whereas this one does not.

No ETA on when the updated redsn0w will be release, but expect it soon!

Musclenerd: Apple Know's About ih8sn0w's Downgrade Technique

Mon, 07 May 2012 22:27:00 +0000

According to a tweet by Musclenerd, the recently released iOS 5.1.1 has indicated that Apple knows about ih8sn0w's unreleased downgrade technique:

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5.1.1 shows Apple knows about an unreleased technique to downgrade A5 devices to 5.0.1 with saved blobs (but left it alone..hmm)

ih8sn0w, developer of sn0wbreeze, tweeted a couple months back about how he had found a loophole that would allow him to downgrade devices, and that he was able to do so on his devices successfully, including the iPhone 4S and iPad 2. However, his downgrade method has not been released yet, probably due to further testing and stability measures needed.

However, this is not looking good as we might see in a further iOS update a patch that would break the unreleased downgrade method. It is surprising to see that that Apple now knows what the downgrade method is but has yet to patch it in iOS 5.1.1. This makes it the only for iH8sn0w to get this out, before it is patched in the future.

iOS 5.1.1 Released

Mon, 07 May 2012 17:42:30 +0000

Apple pushed out iOS update 5.1.1 today, bringing bug fixes and performance updates:

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This update contains improvements and bug fixes, including:

Improves reliability of using HDR option for photos taken using the Lock Screen shortcut
Addresses bugs that could prevent the new iPad from switching between 2G and 3G networks
Fixes bugs that affected AirPlay video playback in some circumstances
Improved reliability for syncing Safari bookmarks and Reading List
Fixes an issue where ‘Unable to purchase’ alert could be displayed after successful purchase

For information on the security content of this update, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222

So far there is no word as to whether it is safe for jailbreakers who are waiting for an iOS 5.1 jailbreak to update or not, but to play it safe, do NOT update until you have the OK to do so.

UPDATE: There is now word from MuscleNerd:

Though this can change in the near future based on findings, there is now official confirmation that jailbreakers should not update, especially those on the iPhone 4S or iPad 2/3.

'New' iPad 2 with 32nm A5 Adds Some Battery Life

Fri, 04 May 2012 16:22:07 +0000

Anand Tech has been busy this evening, not only showing Apple’s iPhone 4S vs. the Galaxy S3 benchmarks, but also with a small detail in the new iPad 2 that many have overlooked.

“The new iPad 2,” you might ask? Yes. When Apple released the new iPad with A5X processor and Retina display, it also released the “iPad 2,4.” It is mostly the same as the iPad 2, which Apple has sold for over a year. However, Apple traded a 45nm A5 processor for a new 32nm A5 in the iPad 2,4. It is the most efficient processor Apple makes, and it is likely to be the same 32nm die size as the upcoming iPhone’s processor. (The 1080P Apple TV also employs a 32nm A5 processor, but it is limited to single core.)

Anand got the iPad 2,4 from a Best Buy and noted most Apple Stores still sold the older 45nm version. For battery life, the new iPad 2,4 saw anywhere from 1.6 hours of additional time in Web browsing to almost three extra hours in some graphics and 3D video intensive tests. Those are significant gains.

As you can see below, the processor is much smaller in the new iPad 2,4. It will be interesting to see if Apple updates its iPad 2 specs in the coming weeks and months to reflect the new battery life reality on its iPad 2s.

via 9to5Mac

There is hope yet.

Fri, 04 May 2012 14:21:35 +0000

pod2g claims his iPhone 4 is running 5.1 untethered.
Seems like the pieces of the puzzle are falling together.
Let's see what he decides to do with his findings.
The poll at his blog has been closed and 106473 (64%) voted to release the jailbreak and burn the exploits found...

Liquidmetal Inventor Atakan Peker: Apple Will Not Use it in the iPhone 5

Thu, 03 May 2012 05:32:37 +0000

There recently have been a lot of rumors about a liquidmetal iPhone 5, especially with one being a liquidmetal chassis for an iPhone 5. Apple has had the rights to Liquidmetal since 2010, but so far it has only been seen in one application, the Sim Ejector Tool that is included with iPhones. Business Insider decided to take the liberty of asking one of the Liquidmetal inventors, Atakan Peker, some questions regarding to when we should see Apple use Liquidmetal in one of their devices. From the interview, the following was gathered:

Liquidmetal looks great, yet is incredibly strong and durable.
Apple has exclusive rights to use Liquidmetal in gadgets.
It could be a few more years before Apple can make a Liquidmetal MacBook.
Apple will likely wait to use Liquidmetal in a "breakthrough product."

From this, it could be determined that Apple will most likely not use Liquidmetal in an iPhone 5, even though it would seem like what would be needed for this year's most important iPhone release, as it would make the phone a "breakthrough product." However, according to Peker, Apple still does not have the capability of building devices with Liquidmetal casing, and that they are currently limited to small components and accessories, similar to the Sim Ejector Tool for iPhones.

Business Insider has the full interview on their website, with Peker explaining Liquidmetal, its applications, and going a bit more in depth on Liquidmetal and Apple. Hit the source link below for the full interview!

via Business Insider

A Believable Liquidmetal iPhone 5 Concept

Tue, 01 May 2012 16:49:09 +0000

As rumors about Apple switching to the all-new metallic glass material for a next-generation iPhone continue to persist, one designer has weighed in with own rendition of what the device might look like, both from the inside and the outside – and it’s quite noteworthy.

As you know, Apple obtained a worldwide exclusive license to use Liquidmetal alloy in consumer electronics products. With previous rumors alleging a complete redesign, a Liquidmetal-based iPhone is certainly a plausible proposition…

French designer Antoine Brieux has gone all out creating these gorgeous sixth-generation Liquidmetal iPhone shots, available on his blog.

The use of the new metallic glass alloy would let Apple create a stronger, lighter and thinner iPhone, with a body just 7.9mm thin (versus the 9.3mm profile of the current iPhone 4S).

Gone is the physical home button (though a recent leak hinted otherwise) as Brieux envisions a virtual home button sitting at the screen bottom.

The concept calls for a large 4.5-inch widescreen display that could, however, create issues with third-party apps.

Here’s a shot depicting the Angry Birds on a widescreen Liquidmetal iPhone.

And another one showing a tweaked bezel running around the sides of the device.

Here’s another angle. Notice the virtual home button occupying the extra space gained by blowing up the iPhone’s 3:2 display to a larger 16:9 widescreen appearance.

And yet another angle. Check out the 3.5mm audio jack in the middle.

As for the innards, Brieux thinks the device will be powered by a quad-core A6 chip.

Do check out the source link for more gorgeous shots. Also useful: our coverage so far on Apple’s use of Liquidmetal alloy.

Is this what a Liquidmetal iPhone could look like?

I think it looks business and certainly shows some hallmarks of Apple’s trademark industrial design.

The question is, would Apple really buck its own trend and blow up the iPhone’s display to a whopping 4.5 inches?

via iDownloadBlog

Pod2g: 1 Kernal Land & 1 Userland Exploit Found

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 23:13:15 +0000

Pod2g earlier today tweeted another update on the anticipated iOS 5.1 jailbreak he will possibly release:

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News: a productive week-end. Found 2 big vulnerabilities. 1 kernel land and 1 root land.

Now, the 1 rootland exploit is what we have seen with the iOS 5.0.1 jailbreak, meaning it would be patched in an iOS update. However, what makes this news great is the 1 kernal land exploit. Such an exploit could potentially lead to an iBoot exploit. An iBoot exploit is dependent on the hardware itself, meaning the only way it could be patched by Apple is that they did some sort of hardware upgrade, such as what they did with the iPhone 3GS.

This is indeed big news to the jailbreaking community, because if this 1 kernal land exploit leads to an iBoot exploit, it would mean that jailbreaking has not died yet.

Stay tuned!

The Case For GeoHot

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 20:38:06 +0000

George Hotz—better known as GeoHot—might be the most famous hardware hacker in the world. He unlocked the iPhone so people could use it with any carrier and hacked the PS3 so it would play bootlegged games. Some of GeoHot's hacks are clearly illegal, but are they wrong?

You might recall, Sony didn't take Hotz's hack lying down. The company sued him for violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. GeoHot settled his case with Sony and admitted no wrongdoing so we don't know how a court would have ruled on the matter, but as Woz tells David Kushner in The New Yorker there's a fairly strong case that GeoHot should be left alone:

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Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple, who hacked telephone systems early in his career, sent Hotz a congratulatory e-mail. "It was like a story out of a movie of someone who solves an incredible mystery," Wozniak told me. "I understand the mind-set of a person who wants to do that, and I don't think of people like that as criminals. In fact, I think that misbehavior is very strongly correlated with and responsible for creative thought."

For his part GeoHot has never been too worried about the legality of his hacks. He says he knows the difference between what's right and wrong:

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"I live by morals, I don't live by laws," he went on. "Laws are something made by assholes."

But where we draw that line remains an open question. Can an arbitrary moral compass effectively direct a hacker? After Sony sued GeoHot, Anonymous took up his cause and launched attacks on the company. Seventy-seven million Playstation Network accounts were compromised in one of the largest data security breaches of all time. GeoHot publicity condemned these attacks—citing the old distinction between the hacker who seeks to cause harm and the one who just wants to take things apart to see how they work.

GeoHot says his non-professional hacking days are over. The New Yorker piece's closing anecdote seems to show that the question of what's right and what's legal seem to have very different answers. After the Sony case was settled, GeoHot accepted an invitation from Sony. He sat in front of a room of Sony engineers who were eager to learn more about how he'd beaten their system. Maybe they didn't like GeoHotz, but they had to no choice but to respect him.

Who says all jailbreakers are pirates?

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 02:36:51 +0000

“After all most jailbreak users are only in it for running unlocks and pirating apps.” This was the last line in a series of tweets by infamous iDevice hacker I0n1c, talking about the state of the jailbreak. While I’m not typically the kind of person to get riled up over such an ignorant comment, I feel like there’s a similarly negative consensus about jailbreaking that needs to be addressed.

It’s a fairly true statement to say that all iOS app pirates are jailbreakers. After all, I don’t know of any other way to pirate apps – and if there is, it can’t be easier – than by jailbreaking. But to say that all, or even “most” jailbreakers are pirates is asinine. From where I’m sitting, the jailbreak community looks pretty awesome. And it’s made up of much more than just pilferers….

Let’s start off with the talented group of hackers that make jailbreaking possible. Guys like pod2g and the Chronic and Dev teams put in countless hours of work to enable the average user to unlock their device’s true potential. And these guys don’t ask for money – outside of optional donations of course – or anything else in return for their hard work. Some might say that’s crazy.

Then there’s the developers. Jailbreak devs are constantly blowing my mind with the things they come up with. And I’m not just talking about the thousands of free and low-cost tweaks that turn tedious tasks into swipes and taps. Although, those are awesome too. I’m talking about the truly helpful tools that make life easier for iPhone users — tools that Apple would never allow in the App Store.

The best example of this I can think of is WiFiSMS, a free jailbreak tweak by developer treAson. While the utility is often overlooked by most people, it’s actually helping improve the life of some folks. JailbreakCon’s Reza Malayeri tells the story of how the app is allowing people with muscular dystrophy, a group of muscle diseases that weaken the musculoskeletal system and hamper locomotion, to text.

Admittedly, the video is kind of long, but the story is still pretty cool. Because of their disabilities, texting on an iPhone is difficult, sometimes impossible for these people. But thanks to jailbreaking, and WiFiSMS, they can use the full-size keyboards on their desktop computers to send and receive text messages.

And finally there’s the people. While this is the part of the jailbreak community that is the most likely to pirate apps, not all of them do it. Or at least that’s my opinion. Maybe I’m just naive, but I think that a majority of jailbreakers (over 50%) hack their devices for reasons other than pirating. Don’t agree? Come out to JailbreakCon this fall and see for yourself.

The second annual jailbreak convention will play host to hundreds of hackers, developers, and jailbreakers. And you know what? I bet app pirating will be the furthest thing from everyone’s minds.

What do you think?
Are most jailbreakers pirates?

via iDownLoadBlog

New iPad jailbreak tweak ‘Quasar’ allows for true iPad window based multitasking

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 20:10:56 +0000

A new $9.99 jailbreak tweak was released for the iPad today on Cydia, and it goes by the name of Quasar.

Quasar is a tweak that’s exclusive to jailbroken iPad’s, and it allows you to have a true window based multitasking session with your iPad.

As you know we’ve been fairly adamant about a true multitasking solution for the iPad for quite some time now, so we’re excited to see what Quasar can do for iPad users.

Full story and video walkthrough:

I’ve had the opportunity to play with Quasar for a while, and I’ve come to the conclusion that this could be a significant jailbreak tweak for the future.

It still has a few bugs and glitches to work out, but I’m thoroughly impressed with its functionality thus far.

Opening up multiple windows, dragging them, and making them full screen, all performed really well on my iPad 2 from a pure performance standpoint.

Granted, there were a few bugs with the orientation (apps kept wanting to open up upside down), which required me to use the rotate button to orient them. I also encountered a few instances where the apps would be stuck in portrait mode, while the drag handle at the bottom remained landscape oriented. Lastly, if the handle at the bottom of the app somehow makes its way off screen, there’s no real way to recover that app, you have to restart the app completely.

My next gripe with Quasar isn’t really the developer’s fault at all. It’s the fact that small windows just don’t work on the iPad 2′s non-retina display. I have a feeling that once we get an iPad 3 jailbreak, this will work gloriously. In the meantime, it’s just really difficult to discern smaller text as a result of the reduced windows.

When taking everything into consideration, Quasar simply isn’t very practical in day to day use. Don’t get me wrong, it’s one of the most amazing and ambitious jailbreak tweak I’ve ever seen for the iPad, or iPhone for that matter, but I just can’t see myself gaining much practical benefit out of its current implementation.

If the developer adopted an option that was more in line with my MultiLayer concept, then I could see it being more useful. I’m not saying this just because I made that concept design, I just think that’s the best setup for multi window multitasking on such a small screen. I think two side-by-side windows are the maximum amount of windows to derive any real benefits. As it stands, the iPad just lacks the necessary screen real estate (and pixels for the iPad 2 or original iPad) to make it very useful in real world usage.

With all that being said, if you want to impress your friends, I mean really impress them, then feel free to drop $9.99 (BigBoss repo) for Quasar. In its current iteration, I believe it’s only useful as a technical demo. With some bug fixes, and a fleshing out of the idea, I could see Quasar as being a must have jailbreak tweak, and in fact, a reason alone to jailbreak — especially for the retina enabled iPad 3.

Pedro Franceschi says he’s actively working on bug fixes for the next release, and he’s also working on adding Bluetooth keyboard support, which should make things even more interesting. Stay tuned!

via iDownloadBlog

It looks as if the SAM iPhone Unlock no longer works

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 16:07:37 +0000

According to many iPhone users who have reported so, Apple has seem to fixed the issue with its activation server, resulting in the SAM unlock method no longer working.

So to those who were able to unlock, congratulations for doing so, and make sure you backup your activation ticket with either redsn0w or manually.

Even though no official confirmation from the iPhone Dev Team was given about this method of unlock being dead, the amount of users all over the web reporting they are having problems unlocking should suffice as a final confirmation.

However, just because the unlock is dead, it does not mean you cannot back it up the activation tickets. This will be useful since you can restore these backed up tickets to any jailbroken iPhone!

So, who was able to unlock via SAM in time?

via iDownloadBlog