Video: The iPhone Dev Team's Pwnage tool in action

Although the iPhone Dev Team totally punked us on April Fool's Day, they were still nice enough to give us an early hands-on (in person!) with a pre-release version of their new Pwnage tool. Pwnage lets you load in any firmware you want, including patched firmwares not signed by Apple -- which could lead to everything from custom software distributions to totally new OSs ported over (like, say, Android or Linux). We did what most people are probably going to do, however: we took a brand new 8GB iPhone, unlocked it, and upgraded to the 2.0 firmware, while keeping it active on T-Mobile. It's not exactly a one-click process, but it's not all that hard either -- although we kind of cheated and had Dev Team members talking us through it. Peep the vid after the break, and check the read links in few hours to get your hands on Windows and Mac versions of the tool.

P.S. -Apologies for the blurry video for the first couple minutes, we didn't notice that our camera had gotten knocked out of macro mode. You're not missing much, trust us. Oh, and the only cuts are during loading bars and when we accidentally flashed a phone number and the iPhone's serial number -- we figured you didn't really want 20 minutes of listening to people sniffle during progress bars.

Read - iphone-dev.org (Pwnage tool creators)
Read - The iPhone Project (hosting the Pwnage tool)

[KoSoVaR @ Apr 3rd 2008 12:07AM]

Oh, doesn't everybody feel happy? It will be available later today :)

[Steve @ Apr 3rd 2008 12:32AM]

Does anyone know if they're going to release the 2.0 firmware too?

[KoSoVaR @ Apr 3rd 2008 12:47AM]

The Dev Team doesn't have the legal rights to release the 2.0 Firmware. It's not "theirs" to distribute. The tool is meant for easy loading and reloading of the iPhone firmware, kinda. Without getting in to technical details - it's not JUST so you can flash 2.0.

[Seth Furman @ Apr 3rd 2008 12:50AM]

This is compatible with the iPod touch too?
Because I already have a copy of 2.0! :-)

[Dante @ Apr 3rd 2008 1:33AM]

i can has pwnage?

[Noah @ Apr 3rd 2008 12:07AM]

That is cute you guys are friends w T-Mob still

[JAmerican @ Apr 3rd 2008 12:35AM]

I agree. I think relying on AT&T only for US GSM news would be pretty depressing anyway. Also T-Mobile is the cheap GSM brand as Sprint is the cheap CDMA brand.

[Seth Furman @ Apr 3rd 2008 12:52AM]

Ha. What ever happened to Engadget's manly pinkness? It was a nice touch. ;-)

[paul34 @ Apr 3rd 2008 12:09AM]

Wow, so I guess the time has finally come to finally upgrade my jailbroken/unlocked iPhone...

still running on 1.0.2, baby!

[James @ Apr 3rd 2008 12:28AM]

You have heard of http://www.ziphone.org/ right?

I have my 1.1.4 unlocked.

[paul34 @ Apr 3rd 2008 12:31AM]

True. I guess that in reality I am actually just waiting for 2.0 before upgrading.

[clak @ Apr 3rd 2008 12:10AM]

But... but... nobody wants an iPhone surely.

[JJRavinsky @ Apr 3rd 2008 12:16AM]

Well done Nilay. Thanks for the vid.
I remember the dark ages of iPhone living. The time when the phone was still locked to At&T and the only hopes we had of custom firmwares and unlocking were just vapors of the man made campus lakes of Cupertino.

[Dave @ Apr 3rd 2008 12:23AM]

lawlz they just pulled that incorrect sprint samsung article...lol

[Ryan @ Apr 3rd 2008 12:32AM]

they sure did -- didn't even notice that! the link now goes to a blank page.. haha. nice.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/02/samsung-instinct-requires-unlimited-sprint-plan-of-100-or-more/

[Ahmed Karam @ Apr 3rd 2008 12:35AM]

whats the password?

[Chris @ Apr 3rd 2008 1:14AM]

it will be nice when they allow the "Pwnage" tool ;)

[Adam Hillyer @ Apr 3rd 2008 1:20AM]

What password are you talking about?

[Chris @ Apr 3rd 2008 1:25AM]

at first it made you enter in a password to see the article and the comments, but that appears to have been removed

[RFrancis @ Apr 3rd 2008 12:45AM]

Well wouldn't we all like to know; what the password is...

[Steve Jobs @ Apr 3rd 2008 12:57AM]

Me as well.

[Abuzar @ Apr 3rd 2008 12:43AM]

Touch THIS.

[Dante @ Apr 3rd 2008 12:49AM]

Does the Pwnage Tool allow you to revirginize as well as jailbreak/unlock?

[dan @ Apr 3rd 2008 1:00AM]

I didn't see the installer app on 2.0. Does anyone know if 2.0 is jailbroken and will come with installer??

[john @ Apr 3rd 2008 1:00AM]

Hmmmmmm

[Tubalcain @ Apr 3rd 2008 1:03AM]

Is the IPhone the new PSP now with being able to load all the custom firmwares??

[Adam Hillyer @ Apr 3rd 2008 1:20AM]

Wait, a password for what? Has PWNAGE Tool been released yet?

[JedixJarf @ Apr 3rd 2008 2:17PM]

Sweetnes. CFW for iPhone. Next up, f/w 2.0-m33 lol.

[Random Jack @ Apr 3rd 2008 2:59AM]

Huh, I don't get the iPhone obsession - is this like woman and the colour of their car? It seems the iPhone kick is certainly based on "Gosh it looks nice" but other than surfin the web the rest is nasty? I love the RSS feed for Engadget but the iPhone is def overdone. Aye

[borahm @ Apr 3rd 2008 3:29AM]

is it going to load any kind bootloader? i downgraded with ziphone to 3.9 and there is not any possibility to reverse it - still now

[rTwelve @ Apr 3rd 2008 3:28AM]

"we figured you didn't really want 20 minutes of listening to people sniffle during progress bars."

Everyone has their fetishes

[Steve O B Have @ Apr 3rd 2008 3:48AM]

BLOW YOUR NOSE YOU FILTHY EXAMPLE OF A HUMAN!!!!

[joe @ Apr 3rd 2008 3:38AM]

Did you not have a half decent camera lying around to shoot this video Engadget? or a bloody tripod? Id expect this kind of poor quality from armatures, but not you guys!!
painful to watch.

Well done dev team

[John @ Apr 3rd 2008 8:48AM]

LOL armature != amateur.

[Gaurav @ Apr 3rd 2008 3:48AM]

Pwnage Tool for Mac released !!!
Kudos to iphone-dev team (-;

Here is the link http://ipp.iphwn.org/PwnageTool_1.0.zip

[Oystein @ Apr 3rd 2008 5:53AM]

Great hack!!!

BUT SERIOUSLY! How hard can it be to shoot the video in focus????

[Chris @ Apr 3rd 2008 8:16AM]

so they didnt want to leak 2.0 firmware with the pwnage tool because apple might fix it.... so they ended up leaking the pwnage tool but still no 2.0 firmware wtf.

[Hector @ Apr 3rd 2008 8:55AM]

Does the Pwnage Tool allow you to revirginize as well as jailbreak/unlock?

It says i need 1.1.3, or 1.1.4, i am running 1.1.1 does this mean I can use the tool to do the update? or Should i just do the itunes update to 1.1.4?

[Christ @ Apr 3rd 2008 4:54PM]

hi i add the same probleme and i dont know what to do. If someone answer u contact me please :P

[burntlungs @ Apr 3rd 2008 9:31AM]

sounds like you need to see a doctor for that cold!

[BollockChops @ Apr 3rd 2008 9:52AM]

You suck at making videos. Next time let someone else do the camera work.

[ma5t3rw1tt @ Apr 3rd 2008 10:36AM]

I like what he said about possible other operating systems. I know a few people are trying to port linux into the iPhone & iPod Touch, and that would be sweet.

[JR @ Apr 3rd 2008 11:32AM]

I have a quick question. I have an At&T plan and don't plan to switch providers because it's just too costly to get out of my plan. If I jailbreak it with this format will I still be able to use the phone feature, ipod, and wifi on the phone w/o paying the EDGE or texting plan which is an extra like $20/month? Like i dont want EDGE or GSM cuz I only use wifi and I dont want to add anything to my existing plan I just want a new phone. Cuz when I activate the phone will At&T make me add those texting/EDGE features to my plan since I'm putting in a At&T sim card and not T-Mobile? Or does the whole activating the phone happen with this program and not itunes.

[Myk @ Apr 3rd 2008 12:28PM]

Just turn edge off!

Or edit the settings to something totally different. I havent use one byte of Edge since i got my phone. I think its under settings>general>network>edge.

[JR @ Apr 3rd 2008 2:02PM]

my main question was can i use at&t and not have to upgrade my existing plan the one that most smart phones require? Cuz i text but thats already on my original plan i just dont want to pay $20/month cuz i use wifi not edge. I dont even have an iphone yet and i dont want it if im gonna have to pay to get on the internet. I just want phone usage,ipod, and wifi not edge

[Ilya @ Apr 3rd 2008 4:56PM]

At&T thinks that iPhone requires an unlimited data plan. The only way to avoid this is to activate it using all nines for SSN and thus failing the credit check. They will then offer you a set of Go-Phone (their pay-as-you-go prepaid brandname) and you can opt out of the unlimited data after the first pay period. However, if you already have an account with AT&T, this is not an option for you. I would just call them and ask if you can get a plan for iPhone without inlimited data option.

[Matt Dearman @ Apr 3rd 2008 5:24PM]

In before, Mr Blurry Cam.

[roy @ Apr 3rd 2008 12:30PM]

is he using the latest itunes 7.6.1(9) and the latest iphone firmware to do all this?

[Chris Blanton @ Apr 3rd 2008 4:19PM]

Oh crap, I updated iTunes yesterday to 7.2 does this still work with it?

[scott @ Apr 3rd 2008 4:52PM]

Help! I followed the directions from the modmyifone os x guide and when I finally get to RESTORE my backup, the restore makes my phone Untitled Playlist and doesn't connect to the network? Any help much much appreciated! Completely Stuck. Should I set it up as a new iPhone. Neither of my named backups restores correctly.