Herr Gruber reported a bit from WWDC and found that a) lots of people went to learn how to program for Macs and iPhones and b) none of those people are specifically interested in jailbroken iPhones. Now that there is money or market share to be made thanks to Apple’s little reversal re: web apps, the money is starting to flow.
Will the iPhone 3G be jailbroken? I’m almost certain it will be, but why? Now that the iPhone cannot leave the shop without activation (I’m in fact kind of sad right now that I gave away my old one), what’s the point of hacking? While a little money and a bottle of fine brandy might get your local AT&T stooge to cough one up at a considerable mark-up, we’re stuck, friends.
I don’t think ‘Jailbreaking’ is going to stop anytime soon, because the carrier situation still exists. People will want to still user other carriers, some will even pay AT&T but will want to stick their existing SIM in.
Also there are still some restrictions in the SDK. Which some iPhone and iPod Touch developers do not agree with e.g. no virtual machines, emulators and scripting/interpreted languages. This alone will mean that there will be a stream of developers still working on the open iPhone and iPod Touch. Also I’m sure efforts to get Linux on to the devices will continue. Likewise I think some people out there will inevitably get Google’s Android running on the iPhone.
Lets see how long it takes the hackers to crack the 2.0 firmware, apparently some had already worked out how to do it thanks to the 2.0 emulator that ships with the SDK. Obviously Apple probably looked at how it was done and have already changed 2.0X so that it won’t be as simple. Though I bet there will be a hack completed and verified within days of the launch, or at least I hope. In the UK we are getting a pay-as-you-go version, though no pricing info has surfaced yet. One thing that will take place in the next few months is that every network will reduce their data charges. Also come december 02 will lose their exclusivity as well, again I hope that is the case.
My only concern is that you won’t be able to buy them without activating them in store, thereby reducing the possibility that anyone will want to jailbreak it.
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lol wut?
Anyways, those carriers are trying to force as many people into signing the contracts initially as possible, so for those of us who do not want a contract needs to wait… for at lease a month before apple sells the iphone 3G online (i hope).
That, or wait till next June, when the first patch of iphone contracts runs out, then apple will have to provide a way to unlock the iphones.
Good point, Zeasar. Here’s hoping.
I think the jailbreaking of iPhones can still go on. People were willing to pay $499 for the first iPhone and then jailbreak it and use it on the network of their choice.
What is to stop them from paying $199 and paying the early termination fee, around $200, to cancel and then jailbreak?
Sure that’s an extras hurdle and you are paying the activation fee, but all and all, the total expense would be the same as the original. Unless there is another stipulation I am unaware of, the incentive for someone to unlock the phone would still be there.
Hogwash! Unlocking and Jailbreaking will go one and become bigger and better than before. We can all download songs from the iTunes store and pay for songs, but 90% of all music is put on iPods/iPhones directly from a source other than iTunes, legal or otherwise. Granted the iTunes app store will be a plus and a big step forward for the iPhone, it won’t fill the needs of most hard-core users who want background processes (which the sdk does not allow) plus many other user desired features that Apple restricts when writing apps for the iPhone.
Bottom line, anyone who thinks that the app store is going to go the way of the dodo is certainly out of touch with reality and the true reasons why the iPhone was hacked in the first place. To give users a truly customizable phone without restrictions. Granted it is riskier, but since when did that stop passionate tech users from getting what they really want.
I totally agree with “H Fawaz”. People aren’t mainly jailbreaking for the other carriers, but for the ability to run the apps Nazi Apple wouldn’t allow, for a nice commission, i.e. like non itunes music and viewing any movie in any format you want. Piracy opens the doors for extreme innovation and flexibility.
yeah, bodytech has it. the inability to run programs in the background on the official SDK rules out a whole bunch of nifty stuff, like the MobileScrobbler last.fm client.
i’m a bit worried that because apple is using FairPlay to encrypt the app store applications, that springboard 2.0 wont launch apps unless they are signed. that could be pretty difficult to crack.