Surprise! iPhone 3GS Jailbreak for Software 3.0 released!
Jul/090
After the long and grueling wait, iPhone 3GS users can finally rejoice: the jailbreak for the iPhone 3GS has been released first by geohot with his software, purplera1n, which only runs on Windows for now (with the Mac version coming later). He was originally in the Dev Team before he got kicked out. According to his blog post dated today,
Normally I don’t make tools for the general public, and rather wait for the dev team to do it. But guys, whats up with waiting until 3.1? That isn’t how the game is played. We release, Apple fixes, we find new holes. It isn’t worth waiting because you might have the “last” hole in the iPhone. What last hole…this isn’t golf. I’ll find a new one next week. Also your purplera1nyday files ensure that you can always get back to a jailbroken state, so if you have it it’s just a matter of tools.
The iPhone Dev Team is still keeping mum on this issue. Whatever it is, the jailbreak program is posted here. Either that, or you can get the file from the official site. Apparently, it is “it’s smaller than C++ hello world” and there will be no need for the IPSW files. Kudos to you, geohot!
[UPDATE] According to saurik (one of the iPhone Dev Team members) in his few tweets, “The PurpleRa1n 3GS jailbreak (like the unofficial 3.0 beta QuickPwn jailbreaks) is missing critical patches required for WinterBoard (etc.)” He continued: “ADDITIONALLY, WinterBoard /will/ need work on the 3GS (new instructions), but I can’t even begin looking at that until we get fixed patches.”
So hold your horses folks! It’s better if the iPhone Dev Team makes an official release and we wait until 3.1 comes out. That’s when other developers will start developing and modifying code for the 3GS for several programs that might have compatibility issues with the 3GS.
Hold that thought! iPhone 3GS Jailbreak release to be delayed?
Jul/095
Yep, you heard it all right. According to the iPhone Dev-Team website, they are holding the jailbreak back from its release until 3.1 is coming out. According to them in their blog post here, 3.0 is really buggy and bugfixes should be out real soon, so if Apple mends the hole in the exploit they found in 3GS, then the effort would be futile in the first place:
We can jailbreak the 3GS right now. But making our jailbreak public at this point in time would benefit relatively few people. It would in fact be detrimental to many more people than it would help. So we feel it’s best to keep our version of the jailbreak out of Apple’s sights for the time being.
In the meantime for eager iPhone 3GS users, geohot posted in his blog about the new security Apple has put into the iPhone 3GS:
Apple has added a new layer of security to the iPhone 3GS. I mentioned it several posts earlier; it’s the ECID field. When iTunes starts the restore process, they contact Apple servers to generate signatures just for your device. It’s important you get these signatures for your phone before a new version of the software comes out.
So to obtain these signatures, the great guys at iClarified have posted two guides as to how to obtain the ECID of your iPhone 3GS: one for the Mac and one for the Windows. Make sure you do this before you upgrade it next, or otherwise your iPhone 3GS might be permanently unjailbreakable!
Other than that, why not make yourself a cup of coffee and do some work whilst waiting for Apple’s 3.0.1 release?
[UPDATE: 2ND JULY]
The iPhone Dev Team has found another way to obtain the exact same thing you’re looking for, and more when using purplera1n with a simple restore thru iTunes, if you’re using the 3GS of course. Apparently, the team at Apple has stored those extremely valuable information into the temporary folder. If you’re using the Mac, the folder would be at /tmp/, and it will be at %TEMP% for Windows. Not really the smartest thing to do, but hey, at least we benefit from it. Better not complain!
The great folks at ModMyi.com has already come up with a nice guide to obtain these files here, though this only applies to the Mac. We’ll be updating the post again once we find another guide for the Windows!
[UPDATE 2]
Thanks to GC reader DR, some searching and sniffing around was done and apparently purplera1n provides only the iBSS when you input the ECID. The restore method can be used to obtain both the iBSS and iBEC for future use.
Firefox 3.5 released! The browser war heats up
Jul/090
Firefox 3.5 has been released! After all the problems it faced in a few Release Candidates, it is now ready for the end-user. Once you’ve installed it, you’ll notice a new tabbing design while the general look of it stays more or less the same. There’s more to it than meets the eye, though. Some of the notable features for end-users are listed in the release notes and are as follows:
- Increase in supported languages to more than 70 of them.
- Support for HTML5 <audio> and <video> elements, including native support for Ogg Theora encoded video and Vorbis encoded audio.
- Features new Private Browsing Mode (sound familiar?)
- Features Location Aware Browsing.
- Improvements of speed in Javascript performance and page rendering.
For the full list of changes, please visit the Mozilla Developer Center page here.
With Apple and Mozilla sporting their respective new versions of Safari 4 and Firefox 3.5, it’s your call, Opera.
NEWS: Did QuickPWN.com Rip Off The Dev Team’s iPhone Jailbreak?
Jun/092
Thanks to Gadget Cracker reader RagnaParadise for sharing this enlightening info:
QuickPwn.com Profits on iPhone Jailbreak With Microsoft Ads
Google Adsense Abuse for iPhone Jailbreak Software QuickPwn
UPDATE: Thanks to GC reader Will Benson for commenting below. His blog has an interesting perspective on this topic and it lead me to this forum thread that I think is worth sharing here as well. Thanks Will!
It also doesn’t sit well with me that QuickPWN’s site did not mention RedSn0w and rejected comments mentioning it as an alternative for quite some time after it was available (they do mention RedSn0w now that it’s clear QuickPWN is history).
You decide! Just reporting here, not judging. But with that said, I will be replacing all my QuickPWN bookmarks with direct links to the Dev Teams blog where you can always get the latest jailbreak/unlocking tools right from the source!
Oh, and don’t forget the Gadget Cracker article ‘No QuickPWN? No Problem! OS 3.0 Jailbreak for iPhone’ if you need help using RedSn0w!
Peace.
-GC