GeoHot — Gone for Good
GeoHot has recently suspended his Twitter account, and his infamous iphonejtag blogspot website has become viewable via invite only. Hotz tweeted yesterday, saying he was fed up with the constant complaints and hate from the community. He wants to move on from the iPhone hacking scene, after all, he Tweeted that iPhone hacking was more of something he did when bored.
George Hotz (better known as geohot to the Jailbreak community), is recognized as the first person to achieve a hardware unlock on the original iPhone. He has done some work with the iPhone Dev Team, and Chronic Dev Team as well….Relations with these teams were strained however, when Hotz -going against the Dev Team’s philosophy of waiting for Apple’s next update- took it upon himself to develop Purplera1n, a jailbreak for OS 3.0 . After Apple released OS 3.1, Hotz developed arguably one of the fastest and easiest to use Jailbreaks ever: Blackra1n.
Hotz has also claimed to have hacked the PS3, allowing for custom firmware creation. He hasn’t released any tools to do so however, except a low level code execution which can only be run via linux, which has been removed by Sony in a recent software update. For more information on George’s PS3 hacking efforts, head to his blog: www.geohotps3.blogspot.com
UPDATE: Looks like Hotz has protected this blog as well.
George Hotz has done a lot for the iPhone and hacking community as a whole. Among other things, Hotz blamed constant heckling for a release, and impatience from the community as a whole is what coaxed him to leave the community.
Maybe this will open the eyes of some of the people out there who expect hackers to give them what they want, when they demand it. I’ve always said that patience is key when you want something. Hopefully jailbreakers out there re-evaluate themselves as a whole, so that an entire Jailbreaking community won’t be lost.
On the flipside, however, many feel that Geohot was just in it for popularity, and held out on jailbreaks to become that much more popular….What do you guys think? Was it right for Hotz to leave? From what I’ve seen, I would’ve made the same decision. But it pains me to see this kind of talent leave the community.
Read MoreApple: More of an Enemy, Less of a Friend?
Apple is arguably one of the most influential companies in America (Heck, probably even the world). They, without a doubt, revolutionized MP3 players, as well as smartphones as a whole. I believe, and always will believe, that MP3 Players and SmartPhones would not be what they are today without Apple.
Apple has become more than a brand. Apple has become a symbol. The term MP3 player has been replaced by iPod, regardless of the brand it carries. Apple made touchscreens popular, and made them a gamechanger in the SmartPhone market. There is no doubt in my mind that Apple is one of the leaders of innovation in modern society.
Don’t take me for an Apple fanboy — I’m not. Sure, I’ve owned my fair share of iPods. But I am a fanboy in no way.
So, how does this all relate to the iPhone 4? Well, the iPhone 4 has been touted as the latest and greatest invention since sliced bread. As Apple claims, “This changes everything”. And indeed, features such as FaceTime, and Retina Displays DO provide a better experience for end-users, and increase competition ten-fold. A month or so after its announcement, iPhone 4 was released to the public.
When an Apple product gets released, it seems that havoc always ensues. People stand in lines for hours, days even, to get their hands on the next “greatest invention”. News segments are devoted to capturing the ‘first iPhone 4 sold’, and the like.
Patience is the key. Early adopters have now learned that. Buyers of the iPhone 4 immediately noticed signal issues stemming from the “revolutionary” antennae…So, what’s Steve Jobs and Apple’s response? Hold it differently. It seems that Apple has gotten such a big head these past couple of years. No product recall? Not even a recognition that they have made a mistake, a flaw, in their beloved product. No, instead they say that it’s simply a software issue in the way that their OS calculates bars from the signal.
Really? Even Consumer Reports is calling that BS. No software fix will stop this problem. Apple is getting worse and worse as far as Customer Service goes. Apple needs to get their support worked out and become more of a friend to the end consumer. Keep them happy, and they will be coming back for more. As for me, I’m staying away from Apple products until things improve.
Read MoreHow to: Jailbreak older iDevices on iOS4 with sn0wbreeze
Are you still “behind on the times” with an older iDevice? Well, you have a Jailbreaking advantage! Jailbreaks for 4.0 are only available to older iDevices at the moment.
These devices include:
- iPhone 3G
- iPhone 3GS (NOTE: OLDER BOOTROM ONLY!)
- iPod Touch 2G (NON MC MODEL)
Older Bootrom means that the device was bought before Apple updated the bootroms that came on the device…If you are unsure whether or not you have the older or newer bootrom, Redmond Pie has a great write-up on it here.
It is very easy to tell if you have an older iPod Touch. Look at the Model number of your device. (Settings App –> About –> Model:) If the first two letters are MB, then it can be jail broken. If the first two letters are MC, then unfortunately, you are out of luck.
Now, onto the good stuff.
** Please only continue if you have one of the devices listed above. Any other device will not only not be jailbroken using this method, you also risk bricking the device. **
Windows Users
I recommend using sn0wbreeze 1.6.1, which can be downloaded from iH8sn0w’s website here.
Click on the third download button under sn0wbreeze, and download the .exe file.
Once the download completes, run the program. Click ok if you agree, and then you should be greeted with the following page:
Click the arrow in the bottom right to continue. Click “simple mode” and then click continue.
At this point, the program asks you for the iOS4 IPSW file. Links to download these IPSWs, if you don’t already have yours, are available here.
Let the file verify, and follow the next few steps. If you need any help, look up in the top left hand corner of the program for the Help button. Everything you could ever need answered is available there.
Happy pwning!
Any questions? Leave a comment below!
Be sure to follow us on Twitter! @JailbreakNews
After you’ve done all this, remember to save your SHSH files so that you can restore back to 4.0 in the future if needed!!
Read MoreWWDC 2010 Overview: iPhone 4, iOS4, iADs And More!
Today, Apple kicked off its annual WorldWideDevelopersConference at 1PM EST (10AM Pacific) with some great news!
Steve Jobs took the keynote, and started off with numbers…Huge ones. The iPad is selling like 10 cent donuts! One iPad is sold every 3 seconds! Jobs also notes that the iPad will be available in 19 countries by the end of July! Want more statistics? Jobs was full of them! 8,500 unique applications have been downloaded more than 35 million iPad users globally! That’s roughly 17 apps per iPad. He goes on to explain new updates to iBooks (which will be covered in more detail in another article).
Next, Jobs moves onto the App store. He makes it very clear that Apple supports two types of applications: HTML 5 apps, and those submitted to its AppStore. Some more numbers here: 15,000 applications are submitted weekly to be reviewed. 95% of those apps are approved within 7 days.
Jobs then goes on, detailing success stories of apps such as Ebay, which has been responsible for more than $600 million in sales after only one year! Ebay’s CEO claims it will increase this number to 1.5 – 2.0 billion dollars by the end of 2010.
Netflix takes the stage, announcing that Netflix for iPhone will be available this Summer…for free! Netflix movies will be able to be viewed via WiFi, as well as 3G!
Farmville users REJOICE! Farmville for iPhone will be making its way to an iPhone near you (UPDATE: End of June!). Now you will be able to plow, plant, harvest, kill monkies, whatever it is that you do in Farmville, on your iPhone…The best part? It syncs with Facebook, so you’ll be able to use your Facebook farm!
Next, Activision’s Senior Vice President Karthik Bala took the stage to talk about…Guitar Hero! The developers over at Activision took their time developing this amazing app. Four fret buttons, but other than that, all looks the same…This could overtake Tap Tap Revenge. You can get it today: it’s available in the app store for $2.99.
Steve Jobs comes back with…you guessed it, more numbers. He explains that just last week App downloads surpassed 5 billion! That’s an astonishing amount. He continues for a while about the history of the iPhone…We’ll spare you the boredom..
Steve wraps that up, and moves on to another subject. He says that there are over 100 new features starting today, but he’s only going to cover 8 of them…The first? A new design… (insert fake surprise here)
Jobs tosses out a half-assed joke: “I don’t know if you’ve ever seen this.”
For more info on iPhone 4, Click Here
Next, Jobs demonstrates iOS 4.0…He explains that it will be a free update for the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, and all iPod Touches. The first-gen iPhone and iPod Touch will not however be receiving this update.
Jobs demonstrates video conferencing as well called FaceTime! It is available for free for all iPhone 4 users, with no setup required! (You can only video chat via WiFi at the moment).
Jobs also demonstrated iAds, which will be deployed with the rollout of iOS4 as well. These advertisements are much more interactive, and don’t require the user to exit the app when clicking them.
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There will be two colors for iPhone 4: Black and White. Each is available with 16GB of memory for $199 (2 year contract), and 32GB for $299 (2 year contract). Steve also explains that AT&T is offering anyone who’s contract expires in 2010 upgrade eligibility for up to 6 months in advance, so users can get the iPhone 4 as soon as it is released!
Jobs goes on to announce that the iPhone 4 will be available for pre-order June 15th, and the phone will be released June 24th.
Steve Jobs ends the Keynote with a quick summary, and thanks everyone for attending…
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Wow! What an amazing keynote…What do you guys think about iPhone 4? Did it live up to its hype? What about iOS4? Tell us your opinions and comments below!
Don’t forget to follow us on twitter! @JailbreakNews
Read More4.0 Beta Jailbreaks and what they mean for you
Earlier today, a well-known Jailbreak Dev known as iH8sn0w accidentally leaked the above picture via Twitter. Take this article as an opinion, it’s meant to be nothing more. However, it seems that iH8sn0w has been furthering a jailbreak for beta 4 of the iPhone 4.0 OS…It’s definitely meant to be for developers to update their applications to the new 4.0 operating system.
So what does this mean for end-users like you and me?
It means that a hole(s) has been found in the 4.0 OS, and could possibly still be there when the public version of the OS is released soon. This means that a jailbreak for the awesomeness of 4.0 could be released instantaneously with the release of the 4.0 OS! No waiting weeks and or months for an exploit.
This is all pure speculation of course. If Apple were to get their hands on this the exploit would surely be patched. Or who knows? They could still be using the exploit found in the 3.1.3 OS. But let’s stay positive, and hope that this Jailbreak will work on the official 4.0 iPhone OS, which is expected to be released at the WWDC (June 7 to June 11, 2010).
For up to date jailbreak news, be sure to follow us on Twitter! @JailbreakNews
