“…it’ll turn your phone into a very expensive (and very sexy) paperweight.”
So in an older post I made I was telling all of you about hacking your new iPhones, and how to do it. I hacked mine, or technically “jailbroke” it as it’s called, allowing the uploading of a lot of homebrew software, games, ringtones, and utilities for it. Shortly after that, Apple released a firmware upgrade for the iPhone, with a disclaimer saying something to the effect of “we take no responsibility if you modified the software on your phone and our update causes something bad to happen.” After hearing this and reading articles about people permanently bricking their phone, I was kind of freaked out and didn’t upgrade my iPhone’s firmware. Until tonight…
After doing some “research” online (and by research I mean reading everybody else’s horror stories) about upgrading to the new firmware with modified phones, I decided I wouldn’t do it, just in case. Not that Apple released anything of value in their updates – the big thing was the ability to download songs and ringtones straight from iTunes on the phone – something that, because of the hacks and getting free music on the web, I had no use for. But I recently heard about Apple set to release a Software Development Kit (SDK) for the iPhone which means a lot of very useful, very safe, and very covered-on-warranty software for the iPhone set to roll out, relatively soon.
Luckily, I’m with ATT, so I didn’t need to unlock my iPhone to use it with another provider, because if that’s the case, there’s no upgrading for you – it’ll turn your phone into a very expensive (and very sexy) paperweight. All I had done was modified the firmware, installed some software, and put a few of my own ringtones on it, and from what I read it now is actually relatively safe to upgrade, so I thought I’d roll the dice and give it a try. However, first I was going to make sure that there was still a way to cheat the whole $2 per ringtone thing that Apple is doing, because that is ridiculous.
Since that was the main feature and reason why I jailbroke my phone, and the most important feature that I wanted to retain, I did find a way. I upgraded the firmware, everything is fine, and made a few ringtones, which all work perfectly.
I think Chris Pirillo said it best in his blog about hacking the iPhone – he doesn’t want to do it because it’s not supported by Apple, and Apple has shown they’re not afraid to release what borders on malware to teach all the hackers a lesson on wasting $600. But when I originally decided to hack mine, there was no talk of an SDK from Apple, but now that there is, I expect a slew of awesome software, perhaps even many I’m already familiar with, to get released almost immediately. So for now I guess I’m stuck to all the boring-ass stock software that isn’t as cool, but hopefully it won’t be too long until this SDK gets released. And really, I am kind of relieved to have an iPhone that is once again supported by Apple, and if anything went wrong (like my last one) I could take in and get repaired as it is now back under warranty.
Update (12:27pm): I just ran across this article from PC World talking about unlocked (that is, can be used on any network) iPhones in Germany. The German courts ruled that it is fair for the primary carrier with the contract with Apple (in Germany it’s T-Mobile) to have the phones locked so they can’t be used on other networks. During the court’s decision, they ruled that T-Mobile must sell unlocked iPhones, which they did at about 400% normal retail value in Germany (which came out to 999 Euro, or almost $2000 American). T-Mobile is now selling locked iPhones at normal price again, but says after they 2-year contract they will unlock it for free, so users can take it elsewhere. Think about that, and what phones were like 2 years ago… cameras were relatively new, as were color screens, etc. The iPhone will be old hat by then. But hey, for slightly more money, Germans can go into France and buy the iPhone for a little more, and pay an extra $100 on the spot to get it unlocked. But have they heard about all of Apple’s Malware that will brick unlocked iPhones? Hmm… wonder what that’s goona do to them, and if it’s nothing, why not find the European version of the Apple firmware for iPhone if you’re an American who unlocked your phone?
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