New iPhone 3G Jailbreak Comes from Teen Hacker

Your humble blogwatcher selected these bloggy morsels for your enjoyment.

Matthew Graven's image is "iPhones freed from Jobsian Tyranny":

Would-be iPhone jailbreakers and unlockers around the globe can breathe a sigh of relief today. ... The latest iPhone baseband update been unlocked. ... It didn't take long for George Hotz, a teenager ... known as Geohot, to unlock the iPhone shortly after it first debuted. Since then, there's been an ongoing competition as Apple plugged exploits ... and hackers found new ways to jailbreak and unlock iPhones. ... Geohot has remained a leading figure in that battle.

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But the real winner here may be Apple, which can now sell even more iPhones to users who otherwise wouldn't be willing to work within the restrictions imposed by Apple and its authorized iPhone carriers. MORE

Chris Foresman encourages celebration:

Jailbreakers rejoice! If you've been holding off on updating to iPhone OS 3.1.2 to keep your jailbreaks or carrier unlocks intact, blackra1n and blacksn0w are here to rescue you. ... Users with iPhone OS 3.1.2 and its updated 05.11.07 baseband—the software that runs the cell radio—can unlock the phone and use it on whatever GSM/UTMS carrier they prefer. ... blacksn0w won't unlock the baseband on EDGE-only iPhones. For that, GeoHot recommends the BootNeuter tool.

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On the iPhone, security exploits are essentially what make jailbreaking possible, and Apple is looking to beef up the security of iPhone OS. The company recently posted a job listing for an iPhone OS Platform Security Manager, which will oversee a team "focused on the platform security of iPhone OS." That team is tasked with ensuring "secure booting and installation of the OS"—which essentially would mean an end to jailbreaking. MORE

George Hotz is on the phone :

Go to blackra1n.com to download

For support, blackra1n.support at gmail...but read this first

blacksn0w is also available on Cydia, add blackra1n.com as repo. ... To fully enable tethering, go here on your iPhone and download a MobileConfig file for your carrier.

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iClarified has made some nice tutorials: Windows Mac. MORE

Greg Kumparak gave it a whirl:

We’ve just walked through the process, and it went off without a hitch. ... The entire process is drop dead simple, and should take roughly 10 minutes.

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Disclaimer: We are not your mom. We are also not the ones who made any of this stuff, nor do we recommend doing it. There have been reports of this process bricking (read: breaking) phones, though it seems to work just fine for everyone we’ve talked to. MORE

Jason Mick has a pill for that:

Apple has a big headache. That headache is iPhone unlockers and jailbreakers. ... Apple has long and unsuccessfully waged war with the unlockers. It has tried to brick their iPhones. It has tried to release new firmware versions to try to lock them out. But ultimately, time and time again, Apple's best hardware and software engineers are finding themselves outwitted and befuddled by the persistent hackers.

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One can only wonder if Apple is truly trying to defeat the unlockers. If so, how can the schemes of its seasoned engineers continually be foiled by Hotz and his legion of young iPhone hackers? On the other hand, if it doesn't truly oppose unlocking, why would it lobby the government to outlaw the practice, claiming it supports terrorism and drug dealing? MORE

Sayam Aggarwal notes an important wrinkle :

If you purchased an iPhone 3GS or iPod Touch (any capacity) in October or later, there is a high probability that you have a new model. Blackra1n currently performs only a tethered jailbreak for these new devices, which means you need to use blackra1n every time you boot the device, otherwise all your jailbreak data gets wiped. MORE