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iOS 5 beta 5 finally gets its jailbreak, rides home in a gangster limo
Numero cinque took a lot longer to crack than the previous betas. Are the Dev-Team guys beginning to struggle, or are they just out enjoying the sunshine? Either way, it's still tethered-only and it won't work on an iPad 2, but it's a heck of a lot better than the exercise yard. Jailbreak app developers can get busy with redsn0w 0.9.8b5 via the source link. [Thanks, Jeff and Kyle]
Jailbroken Apple TV plays HTML5 Blackjack, iOS gambling rings can't be far behind
It was all the way back in October of 2010 that a few ingenious devs jailbroke the second gen Apple TV. Since then, we've seen a weather app, web browser, and finally a port of XBMC, but there hasn't been much progress getting apps up and running. Well, today's news doesn't bring us any closer to playing Cut the Rope on Apple's "hobby" but it does show that HTML5 is a viable option for getting games on the tiny media streamer. The fairly bare-bones Blackjack game isn't going to wow anyone with its graphical prowess or stun with a deep level of interactivity, but it's certainly a worthwhile proof of concept. While you wait for internet poker and online gambling to come to the little black box, check out the video after the break.
HTML5 game running on Apple TV
The Apple TV 2 could become a new platform for playing HTML5-based games and applications. A hacker installed the Couch Surfer browser on a jailbroken Apple TV and used it to play an HTML5 version of BlackJack. The game is rudimentary, but it's a sign that the Apple TV is capable of more than just TV shows and movies. Circulating rumors suggest Apple may open up the Apple TV and add support for the App Store in a future firmware update or possibly a future model. Until that happens, these HTML5 apps could be an easy way for users to get their application fix. [Via TechCrunch]
First PS3 jailbreak raid in South Africa arrests one man, confiscates his kits
Officials in Johannesburg, South Africa conducted the world's first "PS3 circumvention raid" at a residential property in Parktown, confiscating $14,000 (R100,000) worth of computers, PS3s, hard drives, jailbreak software and USB kits, along with "fake" PS2 games and original PS3 games. One man was taken into custody at the Specialized Commercial Crimes Court but made bail, and is expected in court September 29. ... Just to be sure, has anyone seen our own South African friend Luddy in the past few days?
AT&T: no more unlimited data for illegal tetherers
There's a war on unlimited data being fought as we speak, and Ma Bell is leading the main charge. Just days after AT&T announced it would begin throttling data speeds for the heaviest bandwidth hogs grandfathered into the carrier's no-limit internet service, it's also confirmed it's ready to crack the whip on illegal tethering as well. In attempt to achieve "fairness for all of [its] customers," the carrier has added a bit of force behind its March announcement, sending out notices to anyone using their jailbroken iPhones as a mobile hotspot. The gist? Cut it out or be scaled back to a tiered data plan. In a statement originally given to 9to5mac, an AT&T spokesperson said: Earlier this year, we began sending letters, emails, and text messages to a small number of smartphone customers who use their devices for tethering but aren't on our required tethering plan. Our goal here is fairness for all of our customers. (This impacts a only small percentage of our smartphone customer base.) The letters outline three choices: 1. Stop tethering and keep their current plan (including grandfathered unlimited plan) 2. Proactively call AT&T or visit our stores and move to the required tethering plan 3. Do nothing and we'll go ahead and add the tethering plan on their behalf - after the dated noted in their customer notification We reached out to AT&T and confirmed that this statement is indeed true. Consider this the company's last warning -- your time to enjoy all-you-can-eat tethering is almost at an end. How soon the day of reckoning will come, however, likely depends on when you received the notification originally. And you thought you were being so sneaky...
Getting to know you: Comex, the boy behind iOS' JailbreakMe
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.
Forbes profiles Comex, the hacker behind JailbreakMe
The Apple world knows him as Comex, the person who developed JailbreakMe to let iPhone users quickly and easily jailbreak their devices. Now Forbes has outed Comex in a preview of an article that will be published in the magazine later this week. Comex is really Nicholas Allegra, a 19 year old student on leave from Brown University who lives with his parents in Chappaqua, NY -- not too far away from IBM's facilities in Armonk. Allegra is looking for an internship, and hopefully now that the world knows who he is, he'll be able to get a job with Apple or another electronics or Internet firm. Forbes writer Andy Greenberg cites security expert Dino Dai Zovi as comparing jailbreaking to "writing a ransom note out of magazine clippings," then goes on to say that last year's JailbreakMe 2 was more akin to "requiring an attacker to assemble a note out of a random magazine he's never read before, in the dark." Dai Zovi, co-author of the Mac Hacker's Handbook, notes that the level of sophistication in JailbreakMe is on a par with Stuxnet, the state-sponsored worm designed to attack Iran's nuclear facilities. He says that Allegra is probably "five years ahead" of the hackers who create persistent attacks on government and industrial targets. For all of his hacking skills, Allegra refers to himself as simply an "Apple fanboy" who likes the challenges of finding -- and exploiting -- security issues in iOS. Let's hope that Apple offers him a full-time job soon.
Apple releases iOS 4.3.5, inches towards iOS 5
Less than ten days after iOS 4.3.4 parachuted in to fix that nasty PDF exploit, Apple's gone and dropped another. So what'll Cupertino's latest fix today? Build 8L1 -- or 8E600 on 4.2.10 if you're rocking CDMA -- apparently nixes a vulnerability with "certificate validation," or you know, Apple's just really fond of keeping all you hackers on your toes. Either way, time to fire up iTunes, unless of course, you're already living in the future. Update: Turns out you can still (tether) jailbreak with redSn0w. Peep the more coverage link below. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
ChevronWP7 Labs to unlock your Windows Phone 7 handset for $9, hackers not welcome
Need a little extra unlocked WP7 incentive to keep you from buying those oh-so-distracting iOS and Android devices? Well, that official homebrew love is going to cost you -- $9 to be exact. We already knew the Microsoft-sanctioned ChevronWP7 Labs would be open for business soon, but recent tweets from the jailbreaking outfit's Chris Walsh have shed a little more light on the process. In addition to the nominal fee users will have to fork over for the official unlock, Walsh also points out that software updates to Mango and Nodo will close any security holes in the platform. So, if you were planning on getting your pirate-y hands dirty hacking away at WP7, think again -- Microsoft's still got the keys to its mobile OS' house.
iUsers frees your iPad of monogamy, enables multiple user profiles
Share an iPad? A new tweak is on its way to that other app store that should make your life a little easier: user profiles for iOS. The mod, dubbed iUsers, adds a user login button to the iPad's lock screen. The tweak segregates application data and preferences between users, meaning that user A's Angry Birds score won't muddle and mix with User B's perfect three-star rating. App installations, music, and video content are currently shared between users, but the tweak's creators hope to remedy that in a future update. It's a jailbreak only mod, of course, but still a neat feature we'd love to see implemented in future versions of iOS. The iUsers tweak should be hitting Cydia soon, but folks who want an early peek can snag it now by following the instructions in the source link.
Foto Find: Geohot returns to his roots
Hacker and programmer George "Geohot" Hotz recently took a job at Facebook after causing all sorts of trouble with Sony's PlayStation, but as you can see by the tweeted picture above, this weekend the guy went back to basics, working on iPhone programming and jailbreaking at the iOSDevCamp in San Jose. We don't really know what he was working on or if it was anything of real consequence, but it's fun to see that, even if it's on a fun Sunday afternoon at a dev camp, Geohot hasn't forgotten the jailbreak that he originally came from. [via iDownloadBlog]
iOS 4.3.4 jailbroken already
And the back-and-forth continues: iOS 4.3.4 has been jailbroken on every iDevice but the iPad 2, according to reports from Redmond Pie about PwnageTool. The 4.3.4 update was released just a little while ago specifically to plug up the exploit used to jailbreak the operating system, but apparently hackers have either found a way around the fix, or simply found another way in. If you want to play with fire, you can download the custom bundle right now and jailbreak away, though be warned of course that this is not for the faint of heart. If you want to make the leap (and enable things like Cydia on a newly-patched iOS device), you can follow the directions listed here. [via Engadget]
iOS 4.3.4 jailbroken with PwnageTool on iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad 1 (redsn0w update)
We're less than 12 hours clear of iOS 4.3.4 hitting the streets, and already posters at Redmond Pie claim to have a PwnageTool 4.3.3 bundle that unlocks it. Ready to roll on every device except for the iPad 2, this tethered jailbreak brings back Cydia and anything else you might have missed after foolishly updating this afternoon. Any brave souls ready to jump in (at their own risk of course) immediately can find directions at the source link below, let us know how it's worked for you in the comments. Update: The iPhone Dev-Team has updated its redsn0w tool, also based on existing exploits, for all your tethered jailbreaking needs. Of course, they still recommend you stick with iOS 4.3.3 for untethered convenience, so stay far away from the update button or modify your version number if nefarious PDFs are a friend and not an enemy to you. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in] [Thanks, Jeff]
Developer frustrated over Game Center use by pirates
The developer of an iOS game that offers Game Center support is frustrated with Apple over their apparent inability to block pirated games from the Game Center leaderboards. GAMEized developer Luís Fonseca said in a blog posting that he had high hopes for his FingerKicks soccer game when it was released earlier this month. Over the first weekend of sales the game sold a modest 380 copies according to the sales stats in GAMEized's iTunesConnect account. When logging into Game Center that Monday Fonseca saw that there were over 200 FingerKicks players listed on the leaderboards -- meaning a high percentage of users were playing and sharing awareness of the game. Anxious to track his sales, Fonseca started checking the number of player of FingerKicks on Game Center throughout the day. He did so because Apple only allows developers to see new sales at the end of the day. In the meantime the Game Center numbers could act as a barometer of how his sales were increasing. The morning of the day after he last checked his sales, Game Center showed a whopping 1,000 players for FingerKicks. By that same evening the number of players jumped to 5,000. Fonseca was astonished at the high rate of sales and checked the official number in his developer account later that night. That's when he discovered that, despite over 5,000 Game Center players, FingerKicks had only sold an additional 160 copies over its opening weekend sales of 380 copies. A majority of the 5,000 FingerKicks Game Center players were pirating his app. FingerKicks had fallen prey to massive pirating on jailbroken iPhones. That in itself incensed Fonseca, but more so, he was angry that Apple didn't have a way to block pirated games from GameCenter's leaderboards. "Most bewildering of all is that even with all their rhetoric chastising piracy and intellectual property theft, Apple apparently has no functional counter-piracy safeguards in place on their Game Center – essentially permitting users to play pirated software on their Game Center without any fear of reprisals or consequence," Fonseca wrote. While Apple isn't responsible for app piracy, it is reasonable to expect that they should support their developers by implementing a way to stop games running on jailbroken devices from accessing GameCenter's leaderboards. Here's hoping that Apple can find a way to make this happen -- soon. And for those people who might have pirated the game: Grow up. It's US$0.99 and fun as hell. Piracy doesn't lead to development of future cool games, sales do. [via Razorianfly]
Apple releases iOS 4.3.4, sends you back to jail, does not offer $200
Apple has just pushed a new version of iOS, 4.3.4 (4.2.9 for the Verizon iPhone), and it looks to have "fixed" the PDF exploit that has been so notoriously exploited of late. In a summary of what's changed, Apple indicates that a fix has been applied that will prevent "arbitrary code execution" when viewing a "maliciously crafted PDF" -- business speak for "we broke your jailbreak, son." And, sure enough, you can see what happens after the break when trying to apply the latest. At this point we're not seeing any other updates or improvements but, really, now that you can view those malicious PDFs without fear on your iPhone or iPad 2, what more do you need? [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
JailbreakMe fix available for stuck Verizon iPhones
A fix has been released for Verizon iPhones stuck after jailbreaking with JailbreakMe 3.0. Some users found their Verizon iPhones stuck at the white Apple logo after applying the jailbreak. Not to worry, as Comex has provided the following instructions to get you back on track: "A bug in JailbreakMe 3.0 could cause iPhone 4 (CDMA, i.e. Verizon) to get stuck at the Apple logo and be unable to boot. If you are in this situation, there are two options: 1. Hold down the home and power buttons until you see "Connect to iTunes", then use iTunes to restore to the latest firmware. This will lose data stored on the phone. 2. Apply a quasi-experimental fix using redsn0w. Download: redsn0w 0.9.6rc19: Windows / Mac (do not use an earlier version) Fix bundle, depending on firmware version: 4.2.6 / 4.2.7 / 4.2.8 IPSW for your firmware version, if you don't have it: 4.2.6 / 4.2.7 / 4.2.8 Open redsn0w, select your IPSW, choose 'Install custom bundle', and select the fix bundle. Then follow the directions. If it works correctly, after installation your phone will boot normally." That should do it. Also note that the JailbreakMe 3.0 tool has been updated and is now ready for Verizon iPhone owners to use as-is. [Via Gizmodo]
iOS 5 beta 3 tethered jailbreak is out, requires Windows PC
That didn't take long. Apple sent out iOS 5 beta 3 yesterday, and now a sn0wbreeze update has already jailbroken the beta. It's a tethered jailbreak (requires a Windows machine, in fact) and if you happen to be the type of person who just doesn't feel right without a jailbroken iOS device, you can download sn0wbreeze 2.8b4 and go to town. Engadget mentioned that there are features like custom alerts for text messages in iOS 5 beta 3, and also posted the following video from AppleNApps which purported to show that you could put app icons anywhere on the home screen of an iOS 5 device. The commenters on Engadget were quick to point out that this "feature" is actually a bug in beta 3 and not a new feature. Whoops!
iOS 5 beta 3 already jailbroken, new features come to light
Who needs sleep, right? Rather than putting in the tried-and-true "eight hours" that your mum still insists that you get, you're going to be doing something a bit more adventurous this evening. Something involving a "jailbreak" of your recently updated iPod touch, iPhone or iPad. Just hours after Apple pushed out iOS 5 beta 3 to its developers, a Sn0wbreeze update has been confirmed to support jailbreaking on that very build. Sadly, it's still tethered for the time being, and the iPad 2 remains unsupported, but those with nerves of steel (and gobs of vacation days) can hit the source links to get started. Furthermore, we're just starting to see what kind of wacky tricks beta 3 has up its sleeve -- things like custom alerts for text messages and what appears to be a shattering of the app grid on the iPad. For more on that, hop on past the break; for more on the jailbreak, we'd encourage you to talk amongst yourselves in comments below. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Unofficial Swype port makes its way to iOS, slides in via Jailbreak radar
Did you finally use JailbreakMe to free your iPhone? Well, if you're also sick of pecking at its virtual keyboard, then Andrew Liu's new Swype iOS port may pique your interest. Although the app's still in the earliest of stages -- version 0.1.0, to be exact -- we can confirm it works, but it did take us two downloads via a repo with Cydia and functionality proved limited. We were able to swipe words in pre-loaded apps like Messaging, Mail and Search, but had no luck with Safari or others we've downloaded. Furthermore, Swype's all-important blue trace-line is absent, and our words didn't always come out as expected. Liu stated on Twitter that the current release is still a beta and that he'll be sprucing it up soon; in the meantime, let us know how your swipe-typing goes in the comments if you choose to install it. Update: Looks like the newest beta includes the aforesaid blue line, and accuracy is said to be improved by some degree. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Swype being ported to jailbroken iPhones
Swype, the gesture-based alternative keyboard setup popular with Android users, is reportedly being ported to jailbroken iPhones via Cydia, according to MobileCrunch. When Swype was first demoed almost three years ago, we theorized it could be used to make typing easier on the iPhone, but Apple never approved the app for inclusion on the App Store. Android users have sworn by the app's ease-of-use compared to tapping out each letter individually, and it seems some features of the app will finally be making their way to the iPhone, at least if you're willing to jailbreak it first. It's worth noting that this appears to be an unofficial project by Andrew Liu and not something created by the Swype team. With that in mind, it's perhaps understandable that some of Swype's features are missing from this initial build, such as the little blue line that follows your finger as you swipe across letters. The app also has limited functionality outside of Apple's pre-installed apps, and it's reportedly a bit buggy. There are, in fact, some alternate keyboard apps for iPhone. ShapeWriter was an early entrant on the store and is similar to Swype, but is no longer available. An alternate keyboard within all your apps is something only jailbreak can make possible. I tried Swype on a friend's Android phone once, and honestly I couldn't wrap my head around it. But people who've grown accustomed to its somewhat quirky UI claim they type much faster with Swype and have missed having it on iOS, and now those users have a chance to try it out on the iPhone.
