Apple Kills Jailbreaking in New iPhone 3GS

Apple's strikes again, sending jailbreakers on their heels

Apple plays what its CEO Steve Jobs once likened to a game of "cat and mouse" with iPhone unlockers and jailbreakers. Jailbreakers, like the iPhone Dev Team, try to release the iPhone from being limited to the official iTunes app store and other firmware restrictions, while unlockers, such as George Hotz, use the jailbreaks and other techniques to unlock the phone, allowing it to run on any hardware-supported network.

Usually the unlockers/jailbreakers seize the day, but occasionally Apple will win a round. Apple has tried many approaches -- everything from "bricking" unlocked iPhones to denying jailbroken iPhones access to the iTunes store -- to halt the spread of unlocking in the U.S. and force people to use AT&T, despite the hardware being capable of working on other carriers such as T-Mobile.

Now, Apple has managed to gain an upper hand over the persistent hackers according to iClarified, thanks to the release of a new bootrom, iBoot-359.3.2. The phone firmware, which shipped on new iPhone 3GSs starting this week, closes previously used doors to exploits.

[via Daily Tech]

Get a Free iPhone 3GS! Yes, that is correct! Stay away from the trouble of earning enough to pay for it for you can get it the simple way .... straight to your doorstep! Free! Interested? Then find out how to get a Free iPhone 3GS!

Get a contract-free iPhone 3GS directly from Apple.com

It seems that there may be a pretty simple way to get an iPhone 3G S sans contract by way of Apple’s online store. I am not sure I would say this is a hack, or just a neat work around, but either way I have not tested it personally.

That said, this little trick also does not allow you to get any special or lower pricing. In other words you will still be paying the full rate for an iPhone 3G or iPhone 3G S.

Anyway, according to iTalkPhone you will need to use Firefox along with the Firebug plugin in order to do this. Assuming you have that taken care of, just follow the instructions listed below.

1. Go to any non-apple product in the store.apple.com (e.x: http://store.apple.com/us/product/TV943VC/A?fnode=MTY1NDA4Mg&mco=NjM0MTMwMw)
2. Click on the little FireBug icon on the bottom of the screen, now Firebug pops up and Click “Inspect”, and choose the “Add to cart Icon”
3. In firebug, right above where it’s highlighted, you should see “”. Click on “TV943VC/A” and change it to the value of the iPhone you want:
Code:

iPhone 3G 8GB ($499): MB046LL/A
iPhone 3GS 16GB Black ($599): MB715LL/A
iPhone 3GS 16GB White ($599): MB716LL/A
iPhone 3GS 32GB Black ($699): MB717LL/A
iPhone 3GS 32GB White ($699): MB718LL/A
4. Now click on the Add to Cart button, and the iPhone should be in your cart. Proceed to buy it if you want.

Of course, I am pretty sure that if you are willing to pay full price to not have a contract then you can also make the purchase in-person at Apple or AT&T. However if you are set on not having to go out in order to make a purchase, then this may be the best way.

[via iPhone Freak]

Get a Free iPhone! Yes, that is correct! Stay away from the trouble of earning enough to pay for it for you can get it the simple way .... straight to your doorstep! Free! Interested? Then find out how to get a Free iPhone!

What Would a Free iPhone Do for Sales?

How much difference will dropping the price of an iPhone from $199 to $99 make in Apple’s sales?

If you are being rational, it shouldn’t make that much of a difference, given that the $30 per month data plan costs $720 over two years. In other words the $100 price cut only reflects an 11 percent reduction in the total cost.

But since when were people rational? A year ago, Apple dropped the upfront cost of an iPhone from $399 to $199, but AT&T increased the monthly data plan’s cost by $10 a month (leading to a net increase in cost of $40 over two years.) The result: sales in the United States doubled, according to an analysis by Gene Munster, the analyst at Piper Jaffray. (There’s more to the increase of sales of course. The second generation iPhone was much faster and the App Store has been creating lots of new reasons for people to buy an iPhone.)

Mr. Munster continues to believe that this year’s price cut will help drive iPhone sales even higher. Indeed, he predicts that Apple will sell more of last year’s 3G phones at $99 than it will this year’s 3GS models, which are faster and have video recording capability, at $199 and $299. (I know you, Bits readers are early adopters and would likely spend the extra $100 if you were in an iPhone-buying mood, but not everyone takes gadgets as seriously as you do.)

“Ninety nine dollars is a magic price point,” he said. That’s on the low side for top-tier smart phones. AT&T is currently selling a refurbished Blackberry Curve at that price, and Verizon has the aging Palm Centro at $49.

Apple is also throwing a sharp elbow at Palm, Google and anyone else that might be tempted to compete with Apple by undercutting the iPhone’s price.

[via NY Times]

Get a Free iPhone! Yes, that is correct! Stay away from the trouble of earning enough to pay for it for you can get it the simple way .... straight to your doorstep! Free! Interested? Then find out how to get a Free iPhone!

iPhone 3G S — What We Didn’t Get

Yeah, we’re the entitled generation. We want everything, we want it now, and free isn’t good enough — you better pay us to like it!

Well, most of us aren’t that bad, but our expectations have no doubt been set high, almost impossibly high.

So, while Apple is touting their faster, video shooting, voice controlling, compass spinning new iPhone 3G S, we just want to remind them of just what we didn’t get… after the break!

• No new casing. No colors. No matte finish. No black bezel. No aluminum unibody. Nothing. The iPhone 3G S is stuck inside the same shell as last year’s model. Doesn’t Apple know that smartphones are fashion accessories now? How will other people know that we have better, newer versions than they do if the casing doesn’t show it off?

• No HD. No OLED. No Hi-Res 480×800 display. No 16×9 display. No HD-Radio. No HD out via AV cables. Nadda. When even Windows Mobile and the Zune have better screen specs than what Apple produces, well… it’s like looking up at the end of the movie and seeing the monkey on top of the horse.

• No Mobile iChat Video. So what if AT&T’s network would come crashing down around our ankles the first time Kevin Rose jumped on it, Mobile iChat with a front-facing camera for video is something we wanted. International readers, we’re sorry AT&T is holding you back. We realize the Asian iPhone likely already materializes holograms….

• No CDMA. No Verizon. No China Mobile. No EDVO Rev whatever. The iPhone 3G S stays locked to GSM.

• No 802.11n. We got faster CPU, faster GPU, faster web rendering, faster HSPA cell data, faster everything — except Wi-Fi. Sigh.

• No FM Transmitter. Um. Okay. We don’t really care about this, but if you do, we’ll share your rage and incredulity.

• No MobileMe 2.0. We got Find my iPhone. Remote Wipe. iDisk (iDisk?!). But we didn’t get server-side email rules, server-side calendar subscriptions, no remote back ups, no photo sync. And that stinks!

• No Multitasking Background apps Except for Apple’s built-in apps, which have always multitasks, the newer, faster, stronger iPhone 3G S doesn’t even provide for limited 3rd party apps.

• No glowing Apple logo. Come on. You know you wanted it. It would have sold more units than multi-touch. What. Were. You. Thinking.

• No Steve Jobs. No cameo. No “one more thing”. No phone call. No voice mail. No video. No poppa.

Did we miss anything? Were there any other new hardware or hardware/software features you really wanted that evil Apple still haven’t given you?

[via The iPhone Blog]

Get a Free iPhone! Yes, that is correct! Stay away from the trouble of earning enough to pay for it for you can get it the simple way .... straight to your doorstep! Free! Interested? Then find out how to get a Free iPhone!

Rogers/Fido to Sell iPhone 3G S in Canada, $199/$299 on June 19

Okay, I take back 13% of all the bad things I’ve ever said about Rogers. The Social Media Rep for Rogers/Fido, Keith McArthur, has unleashed the following today via Twitter:

• Both Rogers Wireless and Fido will offer iPhone 3GS starting June 19. [link]
• Rogers/Fido pricing is $199 for 16GB iPhone 3GS; $299 for 32GB iPhone 3GS on a three-year voice and data plan. [link]
• 8GB version of the iPhone 3G will drop to $99 on June 19 at Rogers and Fido with a three-year voice and data plan. [link]
• Rogers is reintroducing the $30/6GB data plan for iPhones effective tomorrow, June 9. Offer available for a limited time. [link]
• Rogers/Fido are only national carriers to offer $25/500MB plan. 93% of iPhone users use less than 500MB so this is the right plan for most. [link]

UPDATE: Steve in the comments points out this gem from the same Twitter feed:

• There will be a no-contract price for customers who want to upgrade before they’re eligible for a subsidy [link]

[via The iPhone Blog]

Get a Free iPhone! Yes, that is correct! Stay away from the trouble of earning enough to pay for it for you can get it the simple way .... straight to your doorstep! Free! Interested? Then find out how to get a Free iPhone!

Apple Announces iPhone 3G S, $99 8GB iPhone 3G, Updated MacBook Pros

Apple announces its third generation iPhone and some MacBook Pro updates

There has been tremendous buzz surrounding the follow-up to Apple’s hugely successful iPhone 3G. While the original iPhone put Apple on the map in the world of smartphones, it was the iPhone 3G’s lower price of entry and enhanced features/speed which put the smartphone over the top (and brought AT&T a wealth of new wireless subscribers). Together, there have been over 40 million iPhones and iPod touches sold around the world according to Apple.

Today at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco, Apple introduced its third generation iPhone: the iPhone 3G S (the “S” stands for Speed). The latest iPhone confirms most of the rumors that have been swirling around for the past few months.

The iPhone 3G S is available in capacities of 16GB and 32GB – both will be available in black and white. The phone also features a new 3MP webcam (now capable of recording 30 fps video) on the back of the device. The iPhone 3G S also has the ability to edit videos directly on the device.

In addition, the new iPhone 3G S promises better battery life (see image to the right) despite the increased processing power. Speaking of processing power, Apple brags about 2x to 3.6x speed performance improvements over a wide range of apps.

Another new addition to the iPhone 3G S is the increase in data transfer speeds from 3.6Mbps to 7.2Mbps HSDPA. AT&T already announced plans to beef up its data networks to handle the faster transfer speeds.

Voice dialing is also coming to the iPhone 3G S – something that most other phones have already had for years. However, the voice commands also extend to other aspects of the iPhone 3GS like “previous track”, “play album” or “play songs by The Killers” within the Music app.

Other new hardware features include a built-in digital compass, Nike+ support, and hardware encryption.

As you may have already surmised, the iPhone 3G S is sporting OS 3.0 which was announced way back in March. IPhone OS 3.0 brings a wealth of new features including long-requested support for copy and paste, MMS, turn-by-turn directions, voice memo recording, Spotlight search, landscape email/notes/messaging, 3G tethering (via Bluetooth or USB), stereo Bluetooth (A2DP), peer-to-peer Bluetooth connectivity, and more. IPhone OS 3.0 will be available to download on June 17 (free for iPhone users, $9.95 for iPod touch users).

As expected, pricing for the new 16GB and 32GB iPhone 3G S will mirror the prices of the current 8GB and 16GB iPhone 3Gs: $199 and $299 respectively. To make things even more interesting, Apple is also discounting the price of the iPhone 3G (8GB model) to $99 to further expand its user base -- the new price is effective today. The iPhone 3G S will be available June 17.

[via Daily Tech]

Get a Free iPhone! Yes, that is correct! Stay away from the trouble of earning enough to pay for it for you can get it the simple way .... straight to your doorstep! Free! Interested? Then find out how to get a Free iPhone!

iPhone 3GS announced!!!

As endlessly predicted, Apple's unveiled a new iPhone today at WWDC, the iPhone 3GS -- the "s" stands for speed. It's much, much faster than the 3G -- some tasks are almost four times faster. Data speeds are upped to 7.2Mbps HSDPA, and the camera is now a 3 megapixel unit with autofocus and auto white balance -- and just as expected, it now supports 30fps VGA video recording.

Seeing as the new iPhone OS 3.0 is set to arrive on June 17th, we're guessing that's when this model will ship as well, but Apple hasn't confirmed anything yet -- stay tuned.

Get a Free iPhone! Yes, that is correct! Stay away from the trouble of earning enough to pay for it for you can get it the simple way .... straight to your doorstep! Free! Interested? Then find out how to get a Free iPhone!