Mi chiedo in quanti vorrebbero un figlio così… Sveglio il ragazzo, eh?

George Hotz's self-portrait, he was the first to unlock the iPhone. Image credit: George Hotz

So is jailbreaking your iPhone everything hackers claim it to be?  Does anybody else get the feeling that these hackers have a clouded sense of reality?  That Apple somehow owes them something.

Brian X. Chen with Wired goes into the life of a hacker in his article Jailbreak Community Battles Apple for Control of iPhone. In the article, George Hotz the first to unlock the iPhone is portrayed as being a little pretentious.  At one point, Hotz doubts if a security expert could block his efforts.  What really tops it all off is the image in his Blackra1n software (used to hack the iPhone) that displays a photo of Hotz styled as an angel from a Caravaggio painting.   Really an angel!

If Apple wanted to make an iPhone that only had apps that featured cute pictures of animals, they have every right to do that.  If they want to block Google Voice they can do that.  In the end is it smart?  Hard to say, but Apple is where they are at by making some sound business decisions over the years.

What else is funny to me is that the complaint jailbreakers often use for unlocking their phones is AT&T.  So by unlocking your phone and letting apps run that might very well slow down the network is going to make things better? I would have to imagine that a lot of these relegated apps cause huge problems with AT&T and might be the real reason they don’t ever get approved.

Don’t get me wrong, hackers have their place.  They keep software companies honest and help move technology forward on occasion.  The better hackers are highly intelligent and are usually excellent programmers.  It would just make me feel better about them if they didn’t all have delusions of grandeur!

After all the excitement of the 3rd November release of “Blacksn0w“  by Geohot,  some iPhone unlockers reported that they were having problems with Wifi after using the unlock.

A workaround was found but that involved resetting the wireless settings on the device. Geohot tried to find the problem but could not replicate the fault on any of his test iPhones.

After a few days he began to suspect that it was actually Apples own 3.1.2 firmware that was causing the wifi issues and not his Blacksn0w unlock app.

Taking a swipe a Apple Geohot tweeted  “Apple, will you give me 10k if I fix your wifi bug?”  hinting that they can’t fix their own firmware.

I presume the $10k amount was chosen as that was the amount a UK based iPhone scammer called Jody Sanders had offered Geohot.  This was a sad attempt at publicity for Jody trying to get the new baseband unlocked and sell the software on his scam site.  (Geohot refused the offer of the money and released Blacksn0w for free).

Jody’s website now says the found the unlock himself (on exactly the same day as the Blacksn0w release) and awarded himself the £10k !

minotavrs

Ο Geo Ηot είναι αυτός που κατάφερε να ξεκλειδώσει ( Blacksn0w) την καινούρια baseband (05.11.7) του iPhone.

 

Στα πλαίσια ενημέρωσης των κατόχων του iPhone που θέλουν να κάνουν jailbreak ή unlock, ξεκίνησε μια εκστρατεία ενημέρωσης – αποτροπής (και από το iPhone Hellas) προς στους χρήστες που δίνουν χρήματα για να ξεκλειδώσουν της συσκευές τους[next]

Jody Sanders is up to his old tricks again. This scammer is now passing off the new FREE iPhone unlock as his own work and charging for it (again). The one a only real iPhone unlockers are George Hotz and the collective known as The iPhone Dev team.

Please spread the word that Jody and other like him are scammers and ripping people off as the iPhone unlock is FREE and available from George and The iPhone Dev team. Another trusted free iPhone info site is www.iclarified.com.

From George’s site..

Sunday, November 1, 2009

An Information Campaign

I have an unlock for 05.11.07. I will be releasing on 11/04/09, for $0.00

First off, Jody Sanders, I am declining your $10,000. Why? Because you, and the rest of the iPhone unlock sites out there are scum. You make money selling freeware; that’s not cool, and I am in no way going to legitimize it.
Seriously, the people who really lose here are the customers. These sites are full of blatant lies, claiming to have unlocks for 05.11.07 People buy them, and are told the unlock is in development, and the release date is unknown. Imagine you bought a cup of coffee and were told it’s in development? Recently, many of these sites sent out e-mails saying they made major breakthroughs and the unlock will be ready 11/04/09. Coincidence that that’s the release date of blacksn0w?
I’m not going to post all these scam sites here, as I don’t want to give them the pagerank boost. Rather I’ll give you a whitelist, two people make unlocks, me and the dev team. Every iPhone unlock site you see out there is selling our stuff, repackaged in some form or another. Same goes for jailbreaks, although ih8sn0w and chronicdev are legit. Notice what all the legit ones have in common? They are free.
Now despite rumors of the ferocity of my legal team, they actually are pretty poor lawyers. And the scum who run these websites are the type who get off on legal battles. So we have to fight them in another way, and I’m asking for everyones help on this. Our weapon is information. Get the truth out, that all iPhone unlocks and jailbreaks are free, and if you are buying something, you aren’t getting anything a simple google search couldn’t get you, and are probably funding someones crack habit.
This is the first time I have tried to make something simple for the end users, and it enrages me to see people selling it. Let’s shut all these assholes down, and tell the iPhone owning world all they need is at blackra1n.com, including blacksn0w instructions on it’s release date, 11/04/09(yes, will support hacktivation). You do your part, and I’ll do mine making things as simple, reliable, and straightforward as possible.

Okay, first of all, I think an apology is due… The last time I posted to NotAnotherMacBlog was months ago! I know, it’s terrible. But I’ve moved house, started a new job, blah, blah, blah…

Anyway, on to the good stuff – you may be aware that GeoHot recently released Blackra1n to jailbreak the iPhone and iPod Touch running 3.1.2 firmware. GeoHot’s website claims:

blackra1n is a 30 second ALL device 3.1.2 jailbreak.

However, after reading through the comments on the website before performing the jailbreak myself, it seems vast amounts of people are having problems jailbreaking the 3G running 3.1.2 firmware. It seems to be working seamlessly on the iPhone 2G, and there aren’t many problems reported from those with the iPhone 3GS or iPod Touches.

Well I was having the same problem – I just could not jailbreak my iPhone 3G. I opened Blackra1n, plugged in my iPhone, clicked “make it rain” and then waited until my device entered restore mode. Then waited, and waited, and waited. And nothing happened. I held down the home and power buttons until my iPhone restarted and after about 10 attempts, I gave up.

Before removing Blackra1n from my computer completely, I decided I’d give it one last go, but this time I decided to try with a clean iPhone. I plugged my iPhone in, backed up in iTunes, then clicked restore. Then, when the restore was complete and my iPhone told me to connect it to iTunes, I opened Blackra1n and clicked “make it rain.”

I’ve never seen a jailbreak happen so fast! I literally minimized Blackra1n for about 10 seconds whilst I checked my mail, then when I opened it again, I was greeted by a notice that informed me the jailbreak was complete and that I should wait for the iPhone to reboot. So I did.

After looking at a picture of GeoHot himself on my iPhone for about 30 seconds, the device rebooted and I was left with a lovely Blackra1n app installed. I’m yet to use it as I’m restoring my iPhone’s backup, however, I think those of you out there with the same problem should try from a restored device. It seems to do the trick.

If you’ve suffered this problem and given my solution a try, please leave a comment and let me know how it went.

Blackra1n is available on both Mac and Windows and will allow jailbreaking but not unlocking at present.

It’s been a long time since my last blog but from now on I plan on making more of an effort with regards to keeping my blog up to date. I’m feeling very inspired as of late and I don’t know why. By inspired I mean I have become more motivated than ever to make the most out of my interests, particularly involving myself more in my studies in Economics and Computers. I start back in college this monday the 7th of September and I’m ready to work hard. The difference I notice in myself this year is that while my motivation to work hard comes from the prospect of good results it also comes from other places. I’m beginning to realise now that while you study in college to hopefully get a good career the goal should also be to learn as much as you can, purely for the sake of learning.

I Hope that this year in college I find some modules that I feel are right for me, Topics I enjoy studying rather than those you hate and only do because you have to. In the last week or so I have become particularly inspired in the computer area. Part of this inspiration came from an article I read about some of the brightest young I.T talents emerging in the industry, these young men and women were innovators at such a young age, they were hard workers and very talented. I have included a link to that article here : http://pcworld.about.com/od/techindustrytrends/Meet-the-Whiz-Kids-10-Overach.htm

One of the kids mentioned in this article is now 19 year old George Hotz (Geohot to hackers out there). If anyone could make you go out and make the most of what you have been given this guy certainly does it for me. At 16 he was the first person to “crack” the iPhone. I want people to realise just how great an achievement this is, to put it into perspective there were teams of qualified men and women working on the crack for quite some time whereas George did it all on his own, and at 16 while having to juggle his task between highschool and everything else a teenager does. For those who don’t know George was able to unlock the iPhone so that it could be used in partnership with any cellular provider such as T-Mobile.

Nowadays George is still making some remarkable achievements for his age and is becoming quite well known in  ”hacker” circles. Just recently George became the first person to provide a jailbreak solution for the new iPhone 3gs. The jailbreak allows people to use third party software on their iPhone (i.e not apple approved). When you see the type of work and knowledge that goes into making  a program like George did it can be quite unbelievable and as I said before Insipring.

The way I see it is while someone like George is obviously born with a special talent we are all born with a talent, the struggle is to find it. I also believe people have many callings in life, some obvious others not so much. Be the best you can be (cheesy but it’s true). This year in college I want to wake up saying to myself “let’s achieve something today” no matter how small or how big. I want to go to bed at night saying “i’ve learnt something today that I didn’t know yesterday”.

I’m not entirely sure where this sudden motivation to succeed came from but I guess at points in everyone’s lives they take a step back and look at themselves and make decisions. For some people these decisions are some of the hardest they will ever make. Some decide to take things in a completely different direction and others say “keep going”.  I hope to be the person that says keep it up and if things don’t work out so be it but ill have fun and give it my all.

Even if nobody reads this I can look back on these thoughts at a later stage and hopefully take something from it. If someone does read it that’s pretty cool too!

Michael

I thought once the Dev Team got on board with George Hotz (better known as Geohot, the man responsible for the very first iPhone jailbreak), all differences between the two would be resolved and he would quietly rejoin the fold. Not so, apparently, as he continues to release new software using the Purple prefix, with a new iPhone 3GS unlocking program dubbed Purlesn0w…like what Prince would name his song if he grew up north of the tree line.

The new unlocker, which is out, albeit in beta form (and the source code is available now via Geohot’s blog), is meant to improve upon thee somewhat clumsy solution currently used by Ultrasn0w, which doesn’t actually truly “unlock” anything. Instead, it uses a daemon to generate a ticket that allows the baseband to support carrier sim cards other than the official one. Purplesn0w likewise can’t “fully” unlock anything, but it does use a more elegant solution that takes up fewer system resources.

As a result of his improvements, Hotz also claims that users who unlock via Purplesn0w will sidestep many of the problems plaguing many early Ultrasn0w adopters, including spotty Wi-Fi, battery and unlock failures. There are some caveats, the biggest of which being that you can’t unlock using the new software if you don’t have a legit SIM card with which to activate. Hacktivation support is supposed to be coming in a future iteration, though, so unofficial users won’t be left completely out of the loop.

While some may see the apparent split between Geohot and the rest of the Dev Team as a “breaking up the band,” negative thing, I think it’ll be good for the jailbreak community as a whole. Teamwork is lovely, but a little productive competition never hurt anyone, and usually helps push the envelope. Check out detailed instructions about how to get Purplesn0w on your phone at Hotz’s blog.

O muleke desbloqueou mais um iPhone.. agora a versão “S”, 2 semanas depois de lançada.

George Hotz, de 19 anos, acaba de desenvolver um programa chamado “purplera1n”, que permite a instalação de software de terceiros, no novo smartphone da Apple, mesmo que não aprovado pela fabricante do iPhone.

E esses não são os primeiros 15 minutos de fama de Hotz. Aos 17 anos, Hotz foi o primeiro hacker a quebrar o código de segurança do iPhone para que que ele pudesse executar aplicativos não autorizados.

Muleke ninja !

19-year-old hacker, George Hotz, also known as “GeoHot”, may have found a way to unlock the new iPhone 3GS. The Dev-Team have already cracked and unlocked the 3.0 firmware, however, their methods will only allow for a jailbreak and unlock on the iPhone 2G and 3G, not the recently released 3GS.

It’s been on the shelves less than a week, and already hackers all over have made great progress in showing Apple they’re a strong force to overcome, however there are thousands of proud 3GS owners everywhere eagerly awaiting a breakthrough with the new device.

Hotz believes he may have found it. At present, details are very much unclear, however following a screenshot Hotz has posted on a blog (seen below), a custom command entered in to the iPhone’s iBoot implies the “signature checks” had been bypassed, according to an explanation in the comments. If this is the case, hackers will be that little bit closer to cracking the device and enabling an unlock.

For now, it’s very much watch this space. But for those of you with a shinny new 3GS desperate to stick in an unsupported SIM, this could be the beginning of something great.

Zunächst hatte der 18 Jahre alte Student George Hotz aus New Jersey einen Software-Hack für brandneue iPhones mit der Firmware 1.1.3 veröffentlicht. Nun tauchen nun im Netz verschiedene “One-Click”-Lösungen auf, die auf den Hack von “geohot” aufsetzen, beispielsweise ZiPhone. Mit ZiPhone ist es tatsächlich möglich, ein vor wenigen Wochen in den USA für umgerechnet 275 Euro in einem Apple-Store gekauftes iPhone in einem Rutsch zu aktivieren und für die Benutzung jeder denkbaren SIM freizuschalten.

Ich hatte zuvor sogar das Update in iTunes von Formware 1.1.2 auf 1.1.3 vorgenommen, um von den Verbesserungen in der Firmware zu profitieren. Bei dem Hack durch ZiPhone wird das iPhone auch ganz nebenbei mit einem “Jailbreak” versehen, so dass man freie Anwendungen für das iPhone aus der umtriebigen Installer-Szene auf dem Apple-Handy installieren kann. Das Ganze dauert knapp drei Minuten und sieht in Echtzeit so aus:

(Musik: “I’m Free From The Chain Gang Now” von Johnny Cash)

On the iPhone: Where we stand…

Auf dem Bildschirm des PCs (in meinem Fall des Macs), sieht das zunächst so aus:

Dann startet man ZiPhone, hier in der Version 2.3:

iTunes meldet sich zwischendurch, dass sich das iPhone im Wiederherstellungsmodus (recovery mode) befindet. Hier muss man nur mit OK bestätigen. Zwei Minuten später erkennt iTunes das aktivierte, “aufgeschlossene” (unlocked) und “befreite” (Jailbreak) iPhone ohne Probleme.

Um dann mit GPRS bzw. EDGE online gehen zu können, muss man dem iPhone noch die Einwahlparameter für das jeweilige Netz mitteilen unter Einstellungen -> Allgemein -> Netzwerk -> EDGE:

Vodafone:
APN: web.vodafone.de
user: vodafone
passwort: vodafone

T-Mobile:
APN: internet.t-mobile
user: iphone
passwort: iphone

O2:
APN: surf02
user:
passwort:

E-Plus:
APN: internet.eplus.de
user: eplus
Password: gprs

O hacker adolescente George Hotz, de 17 anos, conseguiu destravar pela segunda vez o telefone celular da Apple, iPhone.

Segundo o site The Register, Geohot, como o hacker é conhecido, fez parte da equipe que quebrou o bloqueio do aparelho pela primeira vez, façanha que rendeu a ela um carro Nissan 350Z e três aparelhos iPhone de 8 GB como recompensa, e uma tremenda dor de cabeça para a Apple que precisou encontrar uma solução para bloquear de novo o dispositivo.

A primeira solução da Apple transformou o hack inicial em prejuízo para muitos dos proprietários, que ao tentarem atualizar o firmware (software básico para comandar o hardware) tornaram seus aparelhos imprestáveis.

Entretanto, Geohot conseguiu mais uma vez: após semanas de tentativas por parte dos hackers, o jovem dedicou três horas de seu tempo para acabar com a trava que impedia que o aparelho rodasse em operadoras diferentes das oficiais, principalmente a AT&T, dos Estados Unidos.

Fonte:Mais

Apparently makes it easier to upload your photos to flickr. You tell me… Does it even matter anymore? Are people who are likely to use this kind of technology ever away from their computer screens?

RELATED: Unlocking the iPhone without a Soldering Iron? After George Hotz did it, there’s been a software hack for the iPhone… crazy. Kids these days…

So, you think you’re a hardcore techie? Step aside and give props to George Hotz (pictured above) of Glen Rock, Illinois. With the help of six collaborators, Hotz managed to “hack” his iPhone so that it will work with multiple cell phone carriers, not just AT&T, who has an exclusive deal with Apple. At least they think they do! Most us can’t even figure out how to work our celly’s speaker phone!

Hotz and Company worked a total of 500 hours to get to their “Eureka” moment. That’s the equivalent of 12 weeks’ worth of work time for most folks. Or about three weeks for computer programmers. Or about a decade for media professors (just kidding!).

I’m sure that all the highly-paid technical staffs at AT&T and Apple had some ’splaining to do to their bosses.

By the way, Hotz is off to Rochester Institute of Technology as an incoming freshman. At RIT, he’ll most assuredly be a “big man on campus” for his exploits. I also wonder if RIT’s network administrator is stocking up on aspirin. All of the other big “geek” schools like MIT, RPI, and Georgia Tech missed out on this prized recruit!

Thursday, August 30: Roadkill on the Information Superhighway

Hard work pays off…. when you are a nerd.

 When I was 17…..

Some computer hackers go to jail for a very long time, some get hired by major technology corporations and make millions, while others go to jail and then get hired by major technology corporations, and make millions.

But for 17-year-old whiz kid George Hotz (remember that name), hacking the new Apple iPhone device so it could be used on a non AT&T network connection, has seen him land a brand new, “sweet Nissan 350Z and 3 8GB iPhones,” the unlikely celebrity boasted on his blogspot page Saturday.

       Yes, that’s a 350Z

And mind the French, but f*#k me people! This kid looks like he’s going to have one hell of a future.

Not only has young George made headlines on TV news programs, radio, magazine, online news, etc across the globe the past few days (just read the comments from around the world on his blog), he now has gigs working as a consultant for major communications companies. Not forgetting to mention all the time he has spent fielding interviews from journalists calling from Prague to Port-au-Prince.

George, like all good nerds should be doing, spent ”most of the summer” indoors with some online pals working out how to crack open the exclusive iphone connection, before heading to college at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York. He posted a ‘ten easy steps guide’ on his blog, so you too can do away with the dictatorial wrath of AT&T.

  Hard Jobs…..

The job took 500 hours, or about eight hours a day since the IPhone’s June 29 launch.

When asked by a local journalist, when moving into his college dorm, why he wanted to crack the i code, Hotz explained in some uber cool 2000’s style dialect.

“It was a cool phone I saw it on the commercials I was like yo! They show the skate boarding dog. I want to make my phone show the skate boarding dog. But I have T-Mobile and my parents didn’t want to pay for it and so I cracked the iPhone.”

The deal to exchange the hacked phone was made with Terry Daidone, the co-founder of CertiCell, most likely as a publicity stunt. A fine job he has done indeed.

Much to our disappointment, the company is not planning on commercialising George’s discovery.

Party poopers.

Good luck to you George, you aren’t going to need it.

Just thow it!

Meanwhile in other mobile/cell phone news……

On the same day that our boy George was swapping his phone for a new Nissan, the World Mobile Phone Throwing World Championship were being held in the spiritual home of mobile technology, Finland, in a contest that reflects “people’s love-hate relationship with the mobile phone.”

Every August for the last 8 years contestants, athletes if you will, from around the planet have descended on the little town of Nyslott to test their skills in the categories of distance and freestyle.

It was an all local affair with engineer Tommi Huotari taking the gold medal by projecting his device 89.62 metres in the men’s, with the silver going to another local Kia Paajanen at 76.68 meters and Mikko Haikala went 3rd with a competitive 73.36meters.

Tommi had no past training in phone throwing, preferring the more civilised sporting spectacle of potato throwing.

“I have never thrown a phone before but have been participating in potato-throwing … surprisingly, a potato flies further. I am sure everyone would like to throw their phone away every once in a while.”

Finland also claimed the women’s crown, with world record holder Eija Laakso clocking up 44.49 metres.

In the freestyle category, a non Fin managed to take a medal.

Tasty Taco Cohen used acrobatics and juggling in his performance which was judged on aesthetics and artistic impression. The 19-year-old told media that years of playing with his balls had equipped him with the means to win the category honour.

“Juggling I have done for many years with balls. (But) these are irregular shapes and weights, it is difficult.”

Rumour has it that the IOC is thinking of including Phone throwing as a demonstration sport at the 2050 Summer Games.

See all the results and excitement from the Championships at the web site here.

Or……

Check out some of the fun from the 2005 Championships, those 2005 phones are bricks compared to those of 2007…

This all gets me wondering….wouldn’t it be more therapeutic to just smash the living shit out of the phones?

I guess that’s for an angrier day…..