A little free time, an inquisitive mind and a soldering iron were all it took a 17-year-old teen, George Hotz, to unlock the iPhone. And if Hotz, now 20, could do it, a lot more have learned the tricks of the trade.
“It did take 500 hours, but thinking back to some of the stuff I’ve done now, the first iPhone was incredibly easy,” Hotz told CNN via phone interview.
Hotz, who just launched an iPhone hacking software called Blackra1n last month, is just one among the many ”specialists” who make up the underground iPhone jailbreak community.
From individual hackers to organized groups, people are trying to open up Apple Inc.’s restricted smartphone, overriding the iPhone’s restrictions to install unauthorized software in the device.
Despite all the hype behind the iPhone, arguably the hottest smartphone in the market today, users still want to squeeze as much as they can out of the device-in this case more applications and lesser restrictions, and jailbreak gives them just that.
According to CNN, hackers reverse engineer parts of the iPhone’s application programming interface (API), allowing them to create and install third-party applications on the device. Apple counters it by regularly issuing software updates to disable hacked and unlocked phones, but to no avail.
“It’s safe to say this is a game where the mouse has outrun the cat, and it’s unlikely Apple will catch up anytime soon. That’s because Apple is up against a lot more than an individual hacker,” CNN said.
In a report earlier this year, Apple has warned iPhone users that they may experience instability, disruption of services and compromised security if they jailbreak their devices.
“Some customers have not understood the risks of installing software that makes unauthorized modifications to the iPhone OS on their iPhone or iPod touch,” Apple said.
“Customers who have installed software that makes these modifications have encountered numerous problems in the operation of their hacked iPhone or iPod touch,” it added.
Despite such warning, the jailbreak community is still growing, now having stores offering unauthorized iPhone applications and software solely for hacked versions of the iPhone.
Jay Freeman, owner of unauthorized iPhone app store Cydia, said he was convinced to use the iPhone because of jailbreaking.
“Apple seems to have spent very little time looking at previous phones, and left out many features that users, such as myself, have come to expect,” Freeman told CNN. “However, [a friend] insisted to me that jailbreaking was the future. The software it comes with doesn’t matter; I can just rewrite it all to my liking,” he added.
For her part, Kim Streich, a developer of app 3G Unrestrictor, said: “People are so annoyed by Apple and their s**t, and if you give them opportunity to go around it, then they’ll even pay for it.
Although the jailbreak community continues to come up with new hacks for iPhone updates, the Steve Jobs-led firm is still fighting, hunting for the industry’s top iPhone OS security manager to block future jailbreak solutions. (Grace R)
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