So a strange development took place on Sunday–a Dutch hacker is currently holding what amounts to several jailbreaked Apple iPhones.
Just in case you’re wondering about the terminology here, a jailbroken phone is basically a hacked iPhone that allows you to install software from other sources besides Apple’s App Store. The need for jailbreaking has fallen off somewhat in recent days, but there are still plenty of phones out there already that have been jailbroken.
But when you jailbreak an Apple iPhone, you force the resetting of a password that controls remote access to the general password coded in at the factory level. Now, if you’re smart, you’ll quickly change that password to something you know well. But a lot of people either got lazy or busy or just plain forgot, because they left their iPhones in the ORIGINAL PASSWORD SETTING.
And that’s where the Dutch hacker swung in. He changed the passwords, effectively locking people out of their own phones until they pay him a ransom of five euros via PayPal. Meanwhile, Apple considers jailbroken phones to have voided their warranties, so it’s pretty much either pay off the hacker or lose your phone until he’s arrested and forced to confess.
So if you’ve got a jailbroken Apple, you may want to switch that password around before the Dutch hacker gets you…if he hasn’t already.
According to reports, the next batch of iPhone 3GS to hit stores will be far more difficult, if not impossible to Jailbreak. Sad news, I know, but there is always hope. And for those of you that are still considering updating the iPhone’s software but haven’t, and of course would like to Jailbreak your phone, I suggest holding off…indefinitely.
Jailbreaking has long taken advantage of a hole in the phone’s software, and since it has been widely publicized Apple has had many a months to work to plug it. Now a new ‘bootrom’ will supposedly ship with the new iPhone 3GS to combat the exploit to a degree never seen before.
If you’re anything like me you’re not willing to Jailbreak your iPhone for the opportunity to tether the device to your computer for go any where Internet surfing. Additionally, the folks at iPhone-Dev have yet to figure out how to Jailbreak the iPhone 3GS, although word on the street is that it’s coming any day now.
Well, fortunately there is a work around that requires no Jailbreaking or messy hacking to Tether it up. Just follow the below instructions and you’ll be tethering with your iPhone 3GS or 3G running iPhone 3.0 software in no time flat.
Point your iPhone’s browser to help.benm.at
Scroll down to the blue button that says “Mobileconfigs’ and click it
Next select your country
Then choose your carrier
You’ll then be prompted with a profile install which you should do
Once that is complete click the iPhone’s Home button>Settings>General>Network>Internet Tethering>On
Select USB or Bluetooth (I choose USB)
Then plug your iPhone into your computer
Those on Macs, your Network settings screen should automatically pop up under system preferences
Select the iPhone (called Ethernet Adapter (en2) ) and the system will configure the DHCP info accordingly (this will probably happen after you click apply) and click Apply
Surf the net!
Note, we still don’t know what kind of action AT&T will take against those who perform heavy Internet surfing on a tethered iPhone, or any tethered iPhone as it’s completely unsanctioned and may either break the contractual terms or cost you some serious dough.
Update: Many people seem to be having trouble getting this to work. If you’d like some help please email info [at] gadgetreview.com.
Update 2: A German iPhone user on T-Mobile just wrote in and said this is what he/she had to do to get it working: “you have to install the mobile config, restart, delete the config, install the config, restart and then you can use it!”. Interesting that you should have to install it twice, but who knows and if it works so be it!
Update 3: This hack no longer works if you’ve updated your iPhone’s OS in the last 6-8 months.
The iPhone Dev Team has released the necessary tools to unlock your iPhone running OS 3.0. But, and this is a big but, if you’re looking to jailbreak and use a carrier other than AT&T stop. Contrary to them saying they’d release Ultrasnow today, the tool necessary to unlock your phone running 3.0, they haven’t and they haven’t stated a release date, but it should be very soon. A few other things to consider when Jailbreaking your iPhone:
It won’t work with the latest iPhone, 3GS.
If you bought an unlocked iPhone 3G than you can use the latest PWNage tool since it doesn’t depend on baseband updates
If you have a gen 1 iPhone (like me) then this will work, although they allude to this and don’t outright state that Yellowsnow will continue to work with the Gen 1 iPhone running OS 3.0
Apple’s latest software update for the iPhone just hit the street, but if you’ve unlocked your iPhone you’re probably holding steady on 2.0 for fear of losing service. But…drum roll please…the iPhone Dev Team has already cracked 3.0 and will release the software, now called Ultrasnow (the last version was Yellowsnow), to unlock the iPhone 3G running the latest iPhone software, 3.0. They plan on releasing Ultrasnow this Friday. For the proof in the pudding, check MuscleNerd’s demo video below.
Note: You’ll need to Jailbreak your iPhone for this to work. We assume Quickpwn will be released in accordance.
MacRumors is reporting that the next iteration of the iPhone software, 3.0, will allow apps to operate in the background. Before you get too excited, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to run more than 2 apps at a time due to the battery implications, but this could be the God send many of us AIM users have been waiting for since you could possibly receive IMs without the app running front and center. Anyway, as with all rumors I suggest managing your expectations accordingly. After all, there’s really no indication as to when Apple will release the 3.0 iPhone software update. Of course, you could just Jailbreak your phone right now and enjoy background processes.
