Unlock iPhone’s potential
An automated windows tool called iDemocracy for “jailbreaking” iPhones running the 1.1.1 firmware to allow the installation 3rd party apps has been released. If you’ve unlocked your iPhone, make sure you “revirginize” it first.
This will allow you to install the latest version of the free AnySIM unlocking tool.
It’s been about a week since the first methods for “jailbreaking” the iPod Touch and iPhones running the 1.1.1 firmware to allow the installation of third party apps. Now Mac users have an easy way to jailbreak their iPhones with the latest release of iFuntastic. Enjoy your 3rd party apps!
Apple froze the code for the 1.1.1 upgrade just before the first unlocks were released. That, combined with some problems in the coding of some of the unlocks resulted in a lot of unlocked iPhones breaking. Now there is a RevirginizingTool that will let you fix up your unlocked 1.0.2 iphone prior to upgrading.
This is an advance of some of the earlier methods, but there is probably still some room for improvement.
At long last, there is a free unlock for the 1.1.1 iPhone firmware. This only works with phones that haven’t previously been unlocked, though they are working on a fix for phones that were unlocked when running 1.0.2 firmware.
The process for installing software on 1.1.1 phones isn’t as polished as we are used to with earlier versions of the firmware, so right now this is for the more determined user.
Update: Tools for simplified jailbreaking of 1.1.1 iPhones to allow easy installation of 3rd party apps like AnySIM have been released for Windows and Macintosh.
Apple pushed an item to their “Hot News” page this morning that they will be releasing an official SDK for iPhone apps in Febrary. Even better, it’s also for the iPod Touch!
I figured that the first officialy 3rd party iPhone apps would basically be Dashboard widgets, but it sounds like this is much more than that, and that they plan on having good security infrastructure in place to prevent the spread of malicious applications.
The timing of the announcement suggests to me that Apple is doing everything to stay in the news in the run-up to the release of Leopard. I wonder what else they have up their sleeves.
The full text of the announcement hasn’t been published on a unique URL, so I’ll quote it here for the curious.
“Third Party Applications on the iPhone
Let me just say it: We want native third party applications on the iPhone, and we plan to have an SDK in developers’ hands in February. We are excited about creating a vibrant third party developer community around the iPhone and enabling hundreds of new applications for our users. With our revolutionary multi-touch interface, powerful hardware and advanced software architecture, we believe we have created the best mobile platform ever for developers.
It will take until February to release an SDK because we’re trying to do two diametrically opposed things at once—provide an advanced and open platform to developers while at the same time protect iPhone users from viruses, malware, privacy attacks, etc. This is no easy task. Some claim that viruses and malware are not a problem on mobile phones—this is simply not true. There have been serious viruses on other mobile phones already, including some that silently spread from phone to phone over the cell network. As our phones become more powerful, these malicious programs will become more dangerous. And since the iPhone is the most advanced phone ever, it will be a highly visible target.
Some companies are already taking action. Nokia, for example, is not allowing any applications to be loaded onto some of their newest phones unless they have a digital signature that can be traced back to a known developer. While this makes such a phone less than “totally open,” we believe it is a step in the right direction. We are working on an advanced system which will offer developers broad access to natively program the iPhone’s amazing software platform while at the same time protecting users from malicious programs.
We think a few months of patience now will be rewarded by many years of great third party applications running on safe and reliable iPhones.
Steve
P.S.: The SDK will also allow developers to create applications for iPod touch. [Oct 17, 2007]“
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