News, apps, rumors, hacks and cracks
Apple released the 3.1 beta firmware and SDK to developers, which seems to include a few new features such as:
The biggest change is the update of the baseband to 5.08.01.
If you don’t care about jailbreaking or unlocking your iPhone, then this doesn’t matter to you. However, if you want to keep you device jailbroken/unlocked, you should not update to 3.1 beta, or even the official 3.1 firmware when it’s released to the general public.
Like the Dev Team warned us, updating to 3.1 will prevent you from running any jailbreak method, which would make it impossible to unlock.
Ultrasn0w users must stay away from any firmware updates past 3.0 (including today’s 3.1 beta) until we release the tools that let you update the firmware without updating the baseband. For most phones out there, baseband updates are irreversible and you’ll lose ultrasn0w.
This warning does not apply to the iPhone 2G, which uses BootNeuter for the unlock, not ultrasn0w.
My advice is to wait and see. The Dev Team is most likely already picking the 3.1 beta apart. Stay tuned for more updates as they become available.
As I predicted in a post I wrote earlier today about the future iPhone 3GS jailbreak, the Dev Team officially announced that it will hold on on the release of the iPhone 3GS jailbreak.
The reason is simple. Apple is most likely coming up with 3.0.1 firmware very soon. Releasing the jailbreak would basically allow Apple to figure out what exploit the Dev Team used to jailbreak the 3GS and fix it.
Once the jailbreak is out, Apple will fix the iBoot-family bug we use to accomplish it. They will simply stop signing the old iBoots and only sign the fixed ones. If you bought your phone after Apple has done this, there’s nothing you can do…the jailbreak isn’t going to work for you.
It is possible that Apple will find the bug we use without our handing it to them on a silver platter (via a public jailbreak). In that case, we will have delayed our jailbreak for “nothing”. But we’d rather be safe than sorry!
Apple is surely coming out with a 3.0.1 firmware release shortly. They need to fix ultrasn0w. They need to fix some UI issues. 3.0 is buggy and 3.0.1 is coming. We’re going to wait and see what 3.0.1 brings before figuring out the release date for our version of the jailbreak.
Hopefully, Apple will release 3.0.1 soon and won’t find the bug used to jailbreak the iPhone 3GS. Cross your fingers!
Less than a week after making the first steps towards an iPhone 3GS jailbreak, GeoHot posted more evidence of it. The jailbreak was made possible by using the 24Kpwn exploit the Dev Team talked about a few days ago.
The bad news is that we’re gonna have to wait a bit to jailbreak our iPhone 3GS. Apple is about to release firmware 3.0.1 and it would make little sense for the Dev Team to release their jailbreak now. Instead, it is going to wait a bit and update PwnageTool and RedSn0w once 3.0.1 is out.
I don’t know about you guys, but having a stock iPhone 3GS drives me nuts. I miss my jailbreak!
Less than a week after the launch of the iPhone 3GS, the Dev Team confirmed it will soon be possible to jailbreak the 24Kpwn exploit that the hybrid team used on the iPod Touch 2G. This 24Kpwn exploit applies for the bootrom of the iPhone 3GS. In other words, you will soon be able to use RedSn0w to jailbreak your iPhone 3GS.
The other news is that once jailbroken, you will be able to use the current version of UltraSn0w to unlock the iPhone 3GS.
This is great news, but how did it happen? Why didn’t Apple fix this in their normal cat&mouse fashion? Well it seems this bootrom was cut in about the August 2008 timeframe, so the unintended early reveal of 24Kpwn earlier this year didn’t affect the iPhone 3GS.
Important: Apple has not given up on the cat&mouse game, and in fact there are challenging aspects of the 3GS jailbreak that aren’t in the other devices. It’ll take some time to safely work these into our tools, but the fundamental weaknesses are there: The bootrom is exploitable via 24Kpwn, and the baseband is exploitable via ultrasn0w. (And just like with the 3G, ultrasn0w for 3GS requires that you not update your baseband when Apple comes out with new firmware.)
If you’re really into iPhone hacking, the Dev Team released the technical notes about the 24Kpwn exploit in the iPhone 3GS. These notes can be found here.
There is no information so far on the expected release date of the iPhone 3GS jailbreak but I am confident the Dev Team will have it ready within the next 2 weeks. The sooner, the better. I don’t know about you guys, but I’m going nuts with my unjailbroken iPhone.
When the new iPhone 3GS was unveiled at the WWDC earlier this month, I wrote it “iPhone 3GS”, with no space between the “G” and the “S”. At the time, it seemed to make sense to me. I quickly realized that I was mispelling it, according to Apple’s website, who added a space between the “G” and the “S”. So I changed the way I spelled it.
Well, I guess I have to change that again and go back to no space again as Apple quietly changed back the name of the new iPhone to “iPhone 3GS” with no space. Any mention of “iPhone 3G S” on Apple’s website has now been replaced by “iPhone 3GS”. Why such a move? Nobody knows except probably a few people at Apple.
Meaningless change will you say. Not so meaningless for bloggers and even for iPhone 3GS consumers.
First, we bloggers are used to tag articles with specific keywords related to the article. You may see these tags at the top of the page of each article on this blog. This article for example is tagged with “Apple”, and “iPhone 3GS”. By doing this name change, Apple is forcing bloggers to update their tags, which just takes a few seconds, but most importantly to update articles written in the past that were linking to these tags. Not sure if I’m clear here. If not, don’t worry because you don’t care about that.
Where you do care though, is if you make a search on Bing.com (note I don’t use Google anymore) for the term “iPhone 3GS battery information” for example. The search engine will return information about iPhone 3Gs, not iPhone 3GS. Do you see the difference? The search engine thinks you typed the plural of iPhone 3G. While that seems like a detail, it could have its importance, especially for e-commerce sites.
Anyways, now you know how to correctly spell iPhone 3GS. I’m sure it makes you day…. Not!
UltraSn0w, the soft unlock for the iphone 3G 3.0 firmware is now available thanks to the good work of the Dev Team. Don’t wait any minute to install UltraSn0w and unlock your iPhone 3G.
Before installing UltraSn0w, your iPhone 3G has to be jailbroken and running the latest 3.0 firmware. You can either jailbreak your iPhone 3G using RedSn0w (see tutorial here) or by using PwnageTool (see tutorial here).
After jailbreaking your iPhone 3G, follow these simple steps:
Note that T-Mobile users should disable 3G before using UltraSn0w.
Unfortunately, the new iPhone 3G S still can’t be unlocked because there is no jailbreak for it yet.
After the release of PwnageTool for Mac yesterday, the Dev Team just announced the release of of RedSn0w, a jailbreak method that will work for iPod Touch, iPod Touch 2G, iPhone, and iPhone 3G. RedSn0w can also unlock the iPhone 2G.
RedSn0w, which works on both Mac and PC, provides similar functionality to QuickPwn, which makes me wonder whether or not the Dev Team will update QuickPwn, or simply replace it with RedSn0w.
- GOLDEN RULE: If you are using a 3G iPhone with yellowsn0w and rely on yellowsn0w to obtain cellular service, then you should NOT use redsn0w right now. Ultrasn0w (the 3G carrier unlock) is not included with this release and therefore your baseband will be locked and unable to use an operator other than the official one it was bought for. UltraSn0w will be released via APT (cydia and icy) soon. If you have an original iPhone (1st generation) then 3.0 carrier unlock works with this redsn0w release.
- Yellowsn0w in its current form will NOT work with the baseband version that is present in the 3.0 update, you will need Ultrasn0w, which will be released sometime soon, Ultrasn0w will work with all iPhone 3G models (but not 3GS), even ones that were previously unlockable, Ultrasn0w (when available) will be released via APT (this means you will be able to get it via Cydia or Icy).
- Please read all parts of this post before downloading and using these tools.
- Read items 1, 2 and 3 again and again.
- At the bottom of this post are the bittorrent files for the latest version of redsn0w.
- This app is suitable for the recent 3.0 release
- redsn0w will NOT work for the iPhone 3GS.
- redsn0w WILL work for Original iPhone (1st Generation), Original iPod touch, iPod touch 2G and the iPhone 3G (not the iPhone 3GS).
The Dev Team also suggests to use PwnageTool on Mac (see tutorial and guide) to build custom firmware files with more flexibility.
SHA1 SUMS
Official Bittorrent Releases -
Note that UltraSn0w, the iPhone 3G jailbreak, hasn’t been released yet. Also note that there is currently no way to jailbreak or unlock the new iPhone 3G S.
This is a short video of my iPhone 3G S unboxing. With all the news falling this morning (especially the release of PwnageTool), I haven’t really had time to play with it yet but I shall do this shortly.
For those of you wondering about my accent… I’m French!
The Dev Team just released a new version of PwnageTool that will jailbreak the iPhone 1st gen., iPhone 3G, and the iPod Touch 1s gen. The new iPhone 3G S is not supported yet.
According to the Dev Team:
Because of some bugs and unexpected changes this will be a multipart release, starting with the release of PwnageTool for Mac OS X. QuickPwn for Mac OS X and Windows will follow sometime soon, please don’t bug us about it, we are working flat out to get everything finished to release them.
- GOLDEN RULE: If you are using a 3G iPhone with yellowsn0w and rely on yellowsn0w to obtain cellular service, then you should NOT use PwnageTool right now. UltraSn0w is not included with this release and therefore your baseband will be locked and unable to use an operator other than the official one it was bought for. UltraSn0w will be release via APT (cydia and icy) soon. If you have an original iPhone (1st generation) then 3.0 unlock works with this PwnageTool release.
- Yellowsn0w in its current form will NOT work with the baseband version that is present in the 3.0 update, you will need Ultrasn0w, which will be released sometime soon, Ultrasn0w will work with all iPhone 3G models (but not 3GS), even ones that were previously unlockable, Ultrasn0w (when available) will be released via APT (this means you can get it via Cydia or Icy).
- Please read all parts of this post before downloading and using these tools.
- Read items 1, 2 and 3 again and again.
- At the bottom of this post are the bittorrent files for the 3.0 capable version of PwnageTool.
- This app is suitable for the recent 3.0 release.
- PwnageTool will NOT work for the iPhone 3GS.
- PwnageTool WILL work for Original iPhone (1st Generation), Original iPod touch (1st Generation) and the iPhone 3G.
This will just unlock the 1st gen iPhone. It will not unlock your iPhone 3G or iPhone 3G S. The Dev Team will release UltraSn0w soon and this is the tool you will need to unlock your iPhone 3G.
Official Bittorrent Releases -
iPhone 3G S owners will have to wait for the Dev Team to come up with a jailbreak first. Stay tuned for more info and tutorials on how to do all this…
Earlier today, AT&T issued a press release aimed at calming down its angry customers (I am one of them) who pre-ordered the new iPhone 3G S and were not eligible for an upgrade.
Previously, only customers who were eligible for an upgrade could get the iPhone 3G S at the best price. So if you bought your iPhone 3G last year at launch, like most of us, you theoretically wouldn’t be eligible for a full upgrade until December of 2009.
According to AT&T’s press release:
We’re now pleased to offer our iPhone 3G customers who are upgrade eligible in July, August or September 2009 our best upgrade pricing, beginning Thursday, June 18.
That’s incredibly nice of AT&T except that most 3G customers aren’t eligible until December anyways. Still according to AT&T, those eligible for their best upgrade pricing are customers “who spend more than $99 a month per line”.
My opinion is that this is just a marketing stunt from AT&T. If you read various iPhone blogs right now, they are all excited about this piece of news basically saying that AT&T redeemed itself and did the right thing. You should not be fooled by their good words. Unless you spend over $100/month on your iPhone plan, you will not be eligible for the best price ($299 for the 32GB).
For those of you who spend more than $100/month on your iPhone plan, you might be eligible. In this case, read the following information from AT&T:
If you’re one of the customers who benefits from this change, and you’ve already preordered from an AT&T store, we’ll adjust the price of the device when you pick it up. If you benefit from the change and you pre-ordered from AT&T online, we’ll send you an e-mail and issue you a credit.
If you pre-ordered an iPhone 3G S through Apple’s online store, your upgrade eligibility will be reassessed based on AT&T’s new upgrade policy for iPhone 3G owners. If you are eligible for the lower price, Apple will issue you a credit for the difference as applicable.
I called AT&T this morning and they confirmed I was not eligible. I was very polite and friendly with the customer service rep and explained her my situation. I switched from T-Mobile to get the iPhone back in 2007. I’ve been a loyal customer since then and I pay my bills as soon as they show up in the mail. I told her that I feel left out and that it would be a nice commercial gesture to credit the price difference (roughly $200) to my account. In the end, she credited my account of $50, which is better than nothing.
Still, I feel that AT&T is not doing the right thing here.
