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JailbreakMe hacker Comex let go by Apple after failing to respond to offer letter

Steve Dent — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 08:44:00 -0400

After developing JailBreakMe, cracking such devices as the iPad 2 or iPhone 4 and finally scoring a paying intern gig with his nemesis, hacker Comex tweeted that he's no longer working at Apple. Also known as Nicholas Allegra, the talented coder's Cupertino situation apparently came asunder when he failed to respond to an email offer to re-up with the company, though he also told Forbes that the situation was more complicated than that. He added that "it wasn't a bad ending," and that he has fond memories of his Apple experience, but if you're hoping the Brown University student will have an iOS 6 jailbreak soon, don't hold your breath -- he's concentrating strictly on his studies, for now.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Software, Apple

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Via: 9 to 5 Mac

Source: Forbes, Twitter

JailbreakMe creator Comex joins Apple as an intern

Brad Molen — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 02:01:00 -0400

Allow us to extend our congratulations to Nicholas Allegra. He's more popularly known as Comex, the party responsible for crafting the infamous JailbreakMe and Spirit tools that's given Apple so many headaches recently. Starting the week after next, he'll be officially wandering around 1 Infinite Loop as a bona fide intern. We're not terribly surprised, since the skill level needed to give iOS engineers a run for their money can be a highly valuable asset to the company; hiring someone with the know-how to spot vulnerabilities in Apple's OS would only serve to make the platform more secure. It wasn't mentioned how Allegra's talents will be utilized by Apple, but -- given the programmer's extensive history -- we can make a few educated guesses.

Filed under: Mobile

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Getting to know you: Comex, the boy behind iOS' JailbreakMe

Joseph Volpe — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 20:23:00 -0400

See that kid above? That's Nicholas Allegra. He's the hackdom Harry Potter to Apple's Ye-Who-Shall-Not-Jailbreak -Our-Wares, and Forbes managed to sniff him out for a little bold-faced exposé. The 19-year old hero of the iOS community, better known as Comex, got his self-taught start with Visual Basic when he was still in single digits. After graduating through a venerable online forum education, the precocious coding lad set his smarts to homebrew Wii development, and the rest is JailbreakMe history. The self-described Apple fanboy admits his background is atyipcal of the cybersecurity industry, but with a former National Security Agency analyst praising his work as years ahead of his time, we don't think he should worry. For all the trouble his code has caused Cupertino, Allegra's not trying to be the embedded thorn in Jobs' side. Rather, the iPhone hacker claims "it's just about the challenge" and plans to keep on keeping ol' Steve on his billion dollar toes.

Filed under: Mobile, Alt

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JailbreakMe for the iPad 2 is finally live / not live, just keep refreshing (update: video)

Sharif Sakr — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 03:38:00 -0400

We just mashed our refresh button about a million times to get the screenshot you see above, but it was worth it. JailbreakMe 3.0 with support for the iPad 2 is finally live, and we're already getting word from tipsters who claim to have successfully jailbroken their iPad 2s running iOS 4.3.3, as evidenced by the pseudo-blurry jailbroken Verizon model below. Thankfully, all of this suggests we're not dealing with the dodgy release that was leaked previously, but let us know in the comments how it's working for you this time around and hit the break for another screenshot.

Update: Austin wrote in to tell us about a new jailbreaking tutorial from YouTube user Duncan33303 -- head past the break to watch it for yourself.

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iPad 2 jailbroken, no ETA on public release

Sean Hollister — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 20:45:00 -0400

You knew this was coming -- it was only a matter of time -- and here it is, Apple's latest creation sans the iOS 4.3 chains. The development community credits @comex with installing Cydia on this white iPad 2, and he's apparently already hard at work on a public jailbreak. According to his Twitter feed, the hack required a brand new exploit, as previous bugs were squashed in iOS 4.3. We'll keep you posted on when the hack's ready for you to use, too.

[Thanks, Henrique and Vassilis]

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Flash ported to iPhone 4, available for download (video)

Sean Hollister — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 16:33:00 -0400

Cydia is a great place to hang out, and we're sure unlocking is pretty swell, but it's quite possible you and your freshly-rooted iPhone 4 have already run out of fun things to do. In that case, might we suggest giving Frash a try? That's right, Comex's Strong Bad-inspired port of Adobe Flash 10.1 has been compiled once again, and though it's still an alpha build there's nothing keeping you from experiencing the joys of animated advertising on your iOS 4 device. Instructions are exactly the same as in our Flash how-to for iPad -- jailbreak, download the .deb, upload it to a folder deep inside your phone via SSH, restart and you're done -- but if that sounds like too much work or you're worried about your phone asploding prematurely, you can watch from a safe distance as Homestar Runner struts his stuff. You'll find that and more in a video after the break, and a pre-compiled alpha build is available at our source link.

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Official: iPhone 4 jailbreak hits from iPhone Dev Team (updated with video)

Sean Hollister — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 17:43:00 -0400

The Library of Congress made it legal, MuscleNerd showed us it was a go, and now Comex and company have delivered the long-awaited jailbreak to the fourth rendition of iPhone. According to their new page JailbreakMe, the hack works right on the iPhone 4 (or 3GS, or 3G, or iPad, or...) itself, using via the handset's Safari browser to reportedly break into most any iOS device. The servers are getting slammed pretty badly, and only a few Engadget editors have so much as seen the page pictured above so far, but rest assured we're testing this as we speak and will have more details up soon.

Update: Sorry folks, we've tried repeatedly, but apparently the servers just can't handle the load -- Comex tweets that the purple screens we're seeing are evidence of server fail. Here's hoping for a Cydia celebration when the stampede is over.

Update 2: Comex says you might want to reboot if you got stuck staring at that purple screen, and you could also try their backup server (click our second source link) to help the Dev Team divide the load.

Update 3: We successfully got the jailbreak to start working, but it crashed Safari. Upon reboot of our phone we've got... nothing but the Apple logo. Take note, this can brick your phone, so proceed with caution! Video of the experience after the break. After a reset, our phone is giving us nothing but the Apple logo. (Update to the update, the phone has been restored).

Update 4: Our intern Sam has successfully jailbroken his iPhone 4 according to this pic, so it can be done!

Update 5: Comex reports that iPads running iOS 3.2.1 aren't presently working properly, and that MMS problems after jailbreak are a known issue.

Update 6: Good news? Saurik (of Cydia fame) has pitched in to secure JailbreakMe some better hosting. Bad news? Reports indicate that FaceTime doesn't work after jailbreak, either.

Update 7: Seven updates? You bet, because it's looking like there's already a fix for the missing FaceTime and MMS features. Head on over to Redmond Pie (in more coverage below) for instructions to install the Cydia package that brought video chat back to two of our iPhone 4 handsets. If you're just downloading JailbreakMe for the first time though, you shouldn't need to do a thing, as Comex claims both have been fixed in a new version of the hack that just went live.

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Flash 10.1 ported to iPad, burninates the countryside (video)

Sean Hollister — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 11:20:00 -0400

Take it with a grain of salt, but it's looking like some prayers have been answered on this Fourth of July -- Flash (or is that "Frash"?) is running on this man's iPad, cleverly ported from Android. The YouTube video claims that by using a compatibility layer, the Android runtime can play Flash content natively in Safari, but only on iPad so far -- iPhone 3GS support is planned soon, as is iOS 4, and there's a call for developers to move the project forward at GitHub. We've no way of determining its legitimacy at this moment, but it sure seems like Comex (he of the iPad "Spirit" jailbreak) has outdone himself this time, and hey, where there's smoke, there's fire, right? See Strongbad answer emails on iOS, right after the break.

Update: It appears Comex has indeed been working on this project for some time; a second blurry video after the break (running on iPhone) shows us what it used to look like.

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iPhone / iPad 'Spirit' jailbreak released to the world

Nilay Patel — Sun, 02 May 2010 21:41:00 -0400

We've been seeing the iPad / iPhone Spirit jailbreak demoed here and there for a few weeks now, and here we go -- the download is now available. The untethered jailbreak works on activated iPhone OS devices running 3.1.2, 3.1.3, and 3.2, although iPad owners are warned that "all this is still sort of beta" and might require you to restore if things break. That's not the worst thing in the world, we suppose -- anyone taking the plunge?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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iPad 3G jailbroken on video: same as it ever was (on the WiFi model)

Ross Miller — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 20:58:00 -0400

You may find yourself holding onto an iPad 3G. You may find yourself not able to stream ABC player. You may tell yourself, I think I need to break some rules. You may ask yourself, will I be able to use the same Spirit software that jailbreaks my WiFi model? You may ask yourself, well, did I backup my SHSH blobs? Download still not yet available -- time is holding us, time does hold you back. (There is video, at the bottom ~~of the ocean~~ after the break.)

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iPad jailbreak: thanks Geohot, Comex (update: video!)

Thomas Ricker — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 03:04:00 -0400

See that iPad above, notice anything peculiar? Yeah, blackra1n jailbreak as predicted with the Cydia app installed. No details or downloadables yet but it won't be long. All courtesy of Geohot, natch.

Update: Though geohot broke the news, looks like @comex was a major contributor. Video of iPad as N64 console and more pics after the break.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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iPad 'Spirit' jailbreak demonstrated by MuscleNerd, now it really is magical (video)

Richard Lai — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 13:38:00 -0400

You better believe it when notorious iPhone jailbreaker MuscleNerd -- a well-respected member of the iPhone Dev-Team -- declares root access on an iPad. According to this fella's tweets, this new hack is a port of Comex's "Spirit" jailbreak that exploits a bug found on both iPhone OS 3.1.3 and the iPad's 3.2. No downloads are offered right at this moment, but it shouldn't be long before we can throw in all sorts of wild apps and widgets as we wish. Video after the break.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Creative Technology introduces Zen Vision:W

Cyrus Farivar — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 10:48:00 -0400

Speaking of Singapore, Creative Technology officially introduced the Creative Zen Vision:W this morning. Of course, last we heard from this little guy was just a week ago, when Popular Mechanics called it the "best screen we've seen on a portable media player." Creative issued a formal press release earlier today, and now we've got some of those magical numbers to throw around: 4.3-inch screen, 16:9 format, can view up to 4.5 hours of video, carry 240 hours of vids, and hold up to 15,000 songs. Also, the Zen Vision:W has a Compact Flash slot (there's an optional adapter for other types of media), for direct transfer from a digital camera -- a feature that we'd love to see on other media players as well. It'll be presented at COMEX 2006 in Singapore starting tomorrow for S$649 ($412 US). Its big brother, the 60GB version, will be priced at S$749 ($475 US), but won't be available until the end of September. Also mentioned was the rumored size-bumped Zen Vision:M (S$599, or $380 US), which is now at 60GB, available for pre-order at COMEX and for sale online and in retail stores island-wide by September 2006. For those prices, let's hope that this new widescreen format really catches on, because that original Zen Vision viewing angle was really awful. Come to think of it, maybe we won't wait on that Singapore bureau, after all.

[Thanks, Kai]

P.S. - Sorry about that cruddy photo, we're waiting for nice, shiny press pics.

Filed under: Portable Audio/Video, Portable Video

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