p2pnet - rss feed: The ‘grizzly’ side of iPhone
p2pnet news | Mobiles:- Apple boss Steve jobs has thrown down an irresistible gauntlet to hackers.
“Blackmarket versions of the new Apple iPhone could become worthless after the company revealed updated software to bar them from unauthorised networks,” says the Press Association, going on:
“Many of the phones have been bought in Britain and other European countries in advance of their official launch here. And in America websites offer computer code “cracks” to allow the phones to work with any service provider.”
Soon after the DRM-laden device hit the shelves, it was cracked and hacked.
Now, people who’d installed the latest iPhone software update had been complaining, “all the fun little programs they had been adding to their iPhones disappear - or, still worse, see their phones freeze up entirely,” says the New York Times, going on:
“Should they have known better?
“Since Monday, Apple officials have been warning iPhone owners that using unlocking software could cause the phone to become ‘permanently inoperable when a future Apple-supplied iPhone software update is installed.’ But in many cases those warnings went unheeded.
“People who had unlocked their phones to use them with another carrier ran the greatest risk of, in techie terms, having them ‘bricked’ - rendered about as useful as a brick. Most of those who committed the lesser transgression of installing programs not authorized by Apple simply had those programs wiped out.”
The ‘grizzly’ side of Apple
“As great as this update was, it showed the grizzly side of Apple,” states Tanner Godarzi on iPhone Matters.
Does he mean ‘grisly’? Anyway, first, “we know the update bricked some iPhones and there is a mass colobaration [sic] going on to unbrick them but also 3rd party Apps were disabled,” he says, going on:
Let me play Devil’s advocate here, 3rd party Apps are a very sensitive area, I know some slowed my iPhone and messed a few things up. Oh and don’t forget every process runs as root so that opens a massive security hole. Unlocked iPhones on the other hand are losing Apple monthly revenue from AT&T for every iPhone on a different GSM network.
But there is a tremendous amount of irony here, Apple states modifications made by unlocking programs seriously disrupt the phone’s functions. The only way the iPhone’s functions are disrupted is that Apple chooses to make a massive deal about this and their inability to grasp a single concept: the people who are not on AT&T are on different networks for a reason.
And ….
These are people who are not going to switch networks regardless, it’d be easier to swap out different phones than succumb to a different cellular network. I’ve been on AT&T for 3 yeariPhone Matterss already, i’ve had no problems with them so far but if the iPhone had been released on Verizon I would never switch, ever, no matter how tempting it was. My experience with Verizon has been dreadful, horrible phones coupled with a signal as stable as a wooden shack in a typhoon.
It’d be better for Apple to make money from the initial sale of an iPhone owner who will unlock it than screw over someone who afterwards will never go near another Apple product. It’s an idiotic move on Apple’s part, sadly the idea that of vigorously keeping users trapped in dominates over attracting customers to a good product.
His final word?
Even though this update brought some pretty cool things like the iTunes Wi-FI Store and some minor enhancements, it did more harm than good. The breaking of 3rd party Apps and unlocks was done intentionally, not something that was in the way.
I’m going to have to rate this update a 2/5, it wasn’t enough to excite but it does show Apple’s dedication to adding on to the iPhone platform. This doesn’t exclude the fact that after the update, the iPhone is locked down, more so than ever.
But Macolytes will come back for more because after all, “the whole hacking dilemma is kinda good for us, since Apple will try to entice users into bricking their unlocked phones with new features us ‘honest’ users will get better updates more frequently.”
Hmmmmm
Also See:
Press Association - `Pirate apple phones ‘wortheless’, September 30, 2007
cracked - iPhone unlocked: twice!, August 28, 2007
hacked - iPhone unlocked: thrice!, August 27, 2007
New York Times - Altered iPhones Freeze Up, September 29, 2007
iPhone Matters - Review: 1.1.1 Update For iPhone, October 1, 2007
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October 1st, 2007 at 6:50 am
The key line in your post is
“Should they have known better?
The answer is yes, Apple made it quite clear what could happen before the release of the update. If you had a hacked phone and you updated anyway you are a moron and should just keep your mouth shut.
The thing that ticks me off about all the whiners is that had they waited a day they would have heard from all the hacker groups that they will have fixes out asap and there would be no problems for them. Further, all these people talking about class-action suits are in or a rude awakening. Apple issued public earnings about the update rendering hacked phones unusable so there seems to be little legal recourse.
October 1st, 2007 at 9:39 am
I hope there *is* a lawsuit! Apple can not just throw their weight around and bully their customers like that. The golden rule of marketing is: “The customer may not always be right, but they are always the customer!” As a software developer for decades, I know that the update did not “just break things” on the phones. They had their programmers purposefully and specifically write code that was engineered to change the basic methods of how software executes on the phone processor, with the sole purpose of breaking existing applications. Then, the update they sent out had all new versions of their *approved* software so that they would all work with the new operating system changes. Typical. Sad. A long time ago Microsoft learned how to engineer backwards-compatibility into their O/S’s, and so can Apple. Competition is what drives the market. The music industry is finally learning this. It seems Apple still needs to learn it too.
October 1st, 2007 at 10:04 am
You should be allowed to use it on any network seeing how much this thing costs, That’s just like buying a computer that only allows you to connect to AOL.
October 1st, 2007 at 2:50 pm
“You should be allowed to use it on any network seeing how much this thing costs, That’s just like buying a computer that only allows you to connect to AOL.”
you where aware of the limitations when you agreed to the iphone terms of contract by “hacking” you broke the TOC so Apple leagly wont give a s**t.
iphone like linux phone coming out soon and some one may port linux to the iphone(if you remove all apple software they cant brick it.)
October 3rd, 2007 at 1:14 am
There may be a lawsuit. Just like with sony and their rootkit fiasco, “It’s apple’s intellectual property, not apple’s phone.” They sold the phone and the purchaser can do whatever they wish with it. Additionally, locking out third party apps is considered anti-competitive, they should have learned from Microsoft’s legal woes.
February 14th, 2008 at 8:36 am
The new 16gb IPhone released and apple says it come with the new software package, making it harder for third party companies to unlock it