where the hell is my Comic Book Reader...

clyparkr

Yes, I want my MXTube (fat chance you'll see that on AppStore - YouTube Download?) and my uXM (sure, there'll probably be an official one, but can it work over 3G/EDGE?).

Dammit, where is installer.app for 2.0?

Worf

@Evangelion: A dedicated app isn't necessary. An iPhone optimized version of Gizmodo would be cool. And, it would only take an effort on the order of hours to produce.

soggy_cheerio

yea, i just had 2.0 crash on me again, srsly, i'm new to iPhone, this isn't cool. article hit it right on the head. However Pandora is pretty sweet, when it works.

westonalan

@pdditty: Thanks -- I appreciate the clarification. So both work together to achieve a common purpose. How magnanimous.

generalassembly

Before they fix all of these things, they need to make a decent PHONE. The phone part (the word that comes after "i") sucks. No voice dialing, no MMS, no reminder tones, no vibrate-then-ring, no decent non-silly included ringtones, in summary: none of the standard phone features that would actually make this a good phone. If they really want the iPhone to become the phone of choice, they have to do something about these glaring omissions. I will not upgrade to 3G or to any new model until they fix the phone stuff.

bandit

just got 3g, must kill marker felt!!! notes is ugly

min2d2

Thanks Giz this really is a good article. I hope Apple reads it and do something about it. The iPhone can be so much more that it already is. I have the 2.0 installed in my iPod Touch, it is wonderful, but still need more.

Free the iPhone

Silvio_73h-1337

It has been 12 days since Apple released the iPhone 3G and iPhone 2.0 software that supports third-party apps. TWELVE DAYS!

I realize everyone deals in internet time, but let me repeat that: TWELVE DAYS. Less than two weeks.

Are there rough edges? Absolutely! Is it time to grab the pitchforks? Hardly.

This hit piece looks at the iPhone from an individual hacker point of view. But Apple has to consider the millions of "normal" folk that want their phone to not crash when a call comes in.

As a result of wanting stability, Apple has remained conservative in what it allows access to and how it deals with apps. They HAVE to be conservative. Their core audience is not hackers, it's regular folks.

Background apps and Memory: Unlike the desktop, memory is a precious commodity. It is reckless to allow apps to hog this precious resource to sit in the background. There is no disk-based VM to fall back on (like on desktops), so every byte counts.

Copy and Paste: Apple has already said that it is on their list, but a lower priority. Anyone in the developer world recognizes how this works. Apple had to give a ship date and features and functionality got pushed off. Hack solutions work great for hackers who don't care if sometimes it doesn't work right. But Apple has to act more conservatively because their solution will be with them for years and years.

Apple's #1 priority is Apple: Yes, just like every other corporation in America. But Apple's reputation is built on things just working, and the user experience being above and beyond the crap you see on other machines.

But in keeping that reputation, the consumer is the beneficiary.

Apple is certainly not a perfect company. I think there was tremendous pressure to get iPhone 2.0 out and it's still a little green. But I'm not ready to demand alternatives to their entire system when it's only been out for a couple weeks. This might be a valid point to bring up in September or October. But right now, it seems ridiculous.

mmeister

Lolz, shooting themselves in the foot again.

What did you expect, it's Apple!

KLanD

Outstanding article! Well done!! WELL DONE! Great details and supporting evidence... gives a nice black eye to Apple's program for sure. I have been waiting for an iPhone update for a week now and it hasn't appeared. In fact, I've never seen any App Store updates on my iPhone and I have 40 apps installed. I know there are updates.

So... SDK is restrictive, testing process is impossible, updating apps in the store is non-existent, and there are restrictions galore. I'm no longer convinced this is the next big thing.

After all the cutesy accelerometer games and apps wear out their welcome, users will be clamoring for much more and they won't get it.

That's a bad deal.

MrYuk

While Apple should certainly make the SDK process easier and allow backgrounding (september?), I think there is a truth here about the web data throughput of apps and circumventing AT&T's minutes that needs to be addressed. Data is expensive for carriers (AT&T et al). If apps have free reign (e.g. tethering), that data rate will go through the roof. The effect this will have is to increase the amount the carriers will ask for iPhone data plans. iPhones were already prodigious consumers of data before 3G, so after you can imagine the cost to the carriers will only increase. VOIP is even worse for them - you can circumvent paying them for minutes while increasing their data load.

If the hacked iPhone 3Gs become the standard, and carriers realize that they are getting the short end of the stick, after a while all plans will merge into some kind of 100+ $/month unlimited everything plan. Cell phone infrastructure is not what one calls cheap. I for one am not such a big fan of that. I like having a phone that costs less than $75 a month but is nicely integrated with my Mac and has nice web access. But maybe y'all have deeper pockets.

While I'd love to have the world be a cheaper place, we have to wake up to the fact that cell phone technology is expensive. Either they are going to be straightforward about it and charge us significantly more for the service or they are going to stick us with hidden fees.

Sorry to be the poop in the punch.

gStar

OMEG! RUN FIREFOX RUN!

Paradise

great article.

I guess it all comes down to the OS philisophy. the iphone vs. WinMo philosophy....each has its own strengths and weaknesses. the iPhone has (greater) stability, a more streamlined feel, and manages its resources better, while WinMo has more openness to devs, the ability for programs to use any aspect of the hardware, etc. The downside to the Apple OS philosophy is that it hampers freedom in development, and the downside to WinMo is the stability and resource management.

Essentially, this is one of the major philosophical differences between the two companies, Apple and Microsoft, and I don't really see this dichotomy going away.

The end result? People will bitch about WinMo's stability, resource management (i.e. closing an application doesn't really close it), and complexity, while people will bitch about Apple's authoritarian principles guiding 3rd party development.

With the release of the SDK, Apple tried to find a comfortable middle ground without giving up some of its core guiding principles on the computing experience

That being said, I am happy there is an outlet - the jailbreaking community - that allows people to pry deeper into their iphone hardware and software. But as we have seen before, this comes at a cost - the risk of stability

MrBlahBlah

holy crap, that copy paste link is awesome news. The link you guys posted is messed up though: [www.appleiphoneapps.com]

igneous

My God! They just created a government bureaucracy to develop software for the iPhone!

Way to go ya fruits...

TrafficGeek

"but the iPhone's two-class app economy may prove to be its greatest strength."
the fanboy still comes through. I wish I could be this die hard about something, anything, but my mind always seems to get in the way.

jkr2

In response to the comment that distributors of free video apps won't get onto the App Store--have you seen vSNAX Videos?

It's free premium video clips from CBS News, CNET News, VH1, Ford Models, Ripe TV, Accuweather.com, Fuse TV, Movie trailers, Spike, Young Hollywood, Splash Entertainment, and more

LisaF

A very good article putting in words what many people like me and my friends feel about apple.

I can understand that as a company you have to go for profit and profit only. But this problem of too much control over is the achilles heel of Iphone.I like the push feature for messenger application which is the best way to do. But completely stopping other applications from running in the background is ridiculous. I bought the 3G iphone and hope i dont need to buy a apple product again because of all the stupid restrictions. I am looking forward to android based phones coming into market before my iphone gets too old :) but with the rumours about preferntial treatment of devs. by google .....it looks bleak. Oh Boy....

Numbnutz

For most people, the simplicity and safety of the app store will far outweigh the limitations that it brings. On the other hand, the people who find themselves upset because they can't play their vast collection ROMs or SSH into their phone will be plenty motivated and capable of taking a few extra steps to circumvent the sanctioned methods.

There are only two compelling reasons for me to jailbreak currently. iFlix and tethering.

itchytooth

@digiprod: Pretty soon it's going to be OVER 9000!!!!

I know this is kinda off tobic, but wouldn't it be awesome if there was a Gizmodo app?

Evangelion

Cydia > Installer.app

people will realize this once more of the apps get ported over to 2.0 - there's a slow trickle of things coming in from BigBoss, but nothing major yet.

@rabiddachshund: You're saying Zibri isn't because he won't, but it's pretty common knowledge at this point that with 2.0 Zibri can't - it's just not possible using his previous methods.

robotleawesome

@IphtashuFitz: My personal favorite is the SimStapler. Awesome app.

kingzj

Am pretty sure all of that will change cause about 90% of the apps available are total crap, i also think that most of the free ones are the most helpful. I can understand them for not wanting apps running in the back cause they really got a good point for not allowing it, but the rest of the stuff they are going to have to be more flexible with it

snitch29

Was anything else actually expected? In all of Apples history, how much control over their products have they given the user? For starters you can only run OSX on mac hardware... Someone said you can hope, but has Apple ever given you a true reason to hope?

pirateduck

Touch Pro!

How do you like it?

bpapa9013

This can only go two ways, at some point either Apple will realize that if they want to seriously compete for high end users and business users they are going to have to open up access to stuff like the calendar and contacts and provide a clipboard that persists across multiple apps, you can't seriously do CRM or SFA without calendar integration and doing it in the backend with Exchange is a sad kludge, or they will settle on being an also ran smart phone for individual consumers who really do mostly just want what Apple is allowing them.

bytepusher

graphx, i would prefer Pwnage tool, i think it's the most up to date, just look for the Iphone dev team forum.

Felix26591

Pwnage tool is the software tool to jailbrake and unlock the iphone. Installer.app is the app used in the iphone for downloading black market apps, it's like a debian like application downloader, but on the iphone, like fink for the mac or macports.

Felix26591

@hanspecans: have you used or tried the ZiPhone tool? just wondering b/c i have it downloaded but i am not sure i want to use it yet over another tool.

graphx

@generalassembly: Pwnage tool is the software on your computer that you use to jailbreak your iPhone. Installer.app is the software on your iPhone that allows you download the plethora of "black market" apps this article is talking about.

pdditty

@digiprod: Yeah, but how many unique ones? Only count one of the three "flashlight" apps, etc. and what are you left with? And out of those how many are actually something most people would use?

IphtashuFitz

Can someone explain the difference between the Pwnage tool and installer.app?

generalassembly

lol @ zibri. that dude is a useless POS.

hanspecans

Interesting article, indeed - I guess I just wonder what the outrage would be like if Apple didn't have restrictions in place in their own SDK. It is to a large extent business, no question - Apple doesn't make money off of hacked apps. But it is also plain-old CYA - Apple can't endorse grey- and black-market apps because then Apple will be seen as responsible for the mess that these apps make on a large number of iPhones.

I think of the Palm situation. The platform is relatively speaking much more open, and there are a lot of apps available. And the blame for instability goes to Palm, not to the possibly dodgy apps - at least among the general public.

I dunno. I think I see Apple's rationale. They want to see the iPhone as rock-solid and copper-clad as possible, and black-market apps put that at risk. I think that's why the SDK must be so restrictive.

ps61318

I have a 1G 8gb with 2.0 installed. I decided recently that I want to jailbreak and get more cool apps and themes for free. But never having done it before, I am hesitant. I am obviously nervous about ending up with a brick. I would like to find a place that basically holds your hand through it. I know about the apple dev blog and it has good information but I am looking for a super easy guide before I take the leap of faith.

Fluxcap

@rabiddachshund: Yeah, wtf is up with that?

mcdonnr

ok i want all of these apps now. im looking into ZiPhone 3.0 has anyone else used this unlocking feature? or should i wait for the iPwnage tool for windows?

graphx

Make with the Slingbox client ASAP!

axiomatic

I updated to 2.0 without thinking it over too much, now I'm bored with my iPhone again :( Maybe it was just the thrill of hacking it...I dunno!

lyndwode

@rabiddachshund: You actually think ZiB's refusal to make a hack for 2.0 is based on his "emotions" and not a lack of skill?

deadrobot

As a dev, I know that you can distribute your own applications to up to 100 devices via "Ad-hoc" distribution. I don't know where you get this 10 devices stuff...it clearly shows online that devs can distribute to 100 devices.

@jwardell: Not possible. Even as a dev, you can only distribute to 100 of your own registered devices. You have to go in and add the unique identifier number from the phone, and add a special certificate to the phone's profile. I doubt devs are going to be handing out one of their precious 100 spots to just anyone.

Yes, Apple's been having some problems getting all of this new stuff going. It's not fun sitting here and dealing with it, but IMHO it can only get better from here.

drbles

f'ing Apple

Der182

Excellent feature.

Honestly, I guess I'm not really that much of a gadget geek, because as it is right now I already feel a little bit like I live in the future.

While the additional functionality would be really cool...well, it's a little like telling me I can have my own hover car, but it won't teleport.

I guess that makes me exactly the species of sheep that Apple is made for.
But I iz happy sheep.

(Except for copy and paste...I mean c'mon. Give it to me!)

92BuickLeSabre

Since Apple removed the download counter how exactly does a developer know he recieved all his revenue. How does one know they got their 70% for sales.

ChristianD

I'm hoping Android becomes a success just so it makes Apple become "hungry" enough to loosen the reigns and let the iPhone live up to its full potential.

phi

sugarcoat your resentment for apple and buyers remorse much?

stupidjerk

Yea, NOW there are...

michaelwiggins

This is the one saving grace of Windows Mobile. Basically, the software on WinMo is only limited to the hardware it's running on and this is the only reason I haven't made the switch to the iPhone.

TJ

This article is right on. I have often wondered if it is worth the $99 dev fee to run whatever apps you want on your phone, assuming there is a network to distribute these non-appstore apps which you could then load up. And yes, I know there is always jailbreaking, but that always has the big question mark.

jwardell

hehehe!

I used to read engadget earlier and the comments used to be filled with nokia v\s iphone arguements. 3rd party apps being the biggest win for nokia. To this the apple-fanbouys used to say that we should just wait for the app store. It was kind of obvious that this was gonna happen, cos its apple. But i wish i had the patience to go back to engadget n rub it in their faces. Guess i ll just make peace with snickering in solitude.

hehehe!

mister_s

@tlon: You can hope.

atuck

I'm sticking with 1.1.4 until about a month after Zibri gets off his emo kick. As painful as it is to have to wait, I <3 my 41 apps more.

rabiddachshund

I'm patiently waiting for Cydia(Installer.app 2.0 replacement) to get all my old stuff, just the important ones, like any video recorder, Snapture, and Categories.

Dj75728

Hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, but technically the solution to these "problems" is to not buy the iPhone. When Apple refused to release an SDK for developers to use, I could sort of understand the desire to break the phone. Now, the only 'broken iPhones' should be ones that are exactly that -- physically broken. We might not like the rules Apple has put in place, but the bad news is that they have every right to do so.

Monty

Does anyone really expect anything different from Apple? Seriously? Anyone?

tlon

There are 929 iPhone apps in the App Store!

digiprod

For being smart people, all these commenters in the article sure don't see the big picture.

Apple succeeds in the marketplace because of quality control. Apple, at it's core, is a software company with higher QC standards than most. That's it. Their products work a smidge better than most, and they look good.

Letting the dev community run amok with its brand new phone is not going to gain Apple customers. People who care about that enough to spend money already buy HTC devices for this. And frankly, the "enthusiast" market is not a significant chunk of handset sales anyway.

So Apple needs to protect the integrity of it's new mobile OS by not letting half-assed homegrown apps get their hooks in and making it crash. I've spent enough time with Windows Mobile and Palm that adding shit makes it crash. Of course there's people that have good luck with that, but most folks I know have not.

In other words, this phone isn't for twiddlers. It was never designed for twiddlers.

direktor

@digiprod: How many of those apps are the same with different names though???
I mean the only reason i'd get an iphone would be to have the 3rd party apps and have it pwn'd and do things regular everyday simpletons cant do.
Its that plain and simple there's nothing more to it.

SneakerFiend

@soggy_cheerio: Thats true.

Evangelion

the thing is... I love my iPhone 3g. Except... I so far hate 2.0 software.

I have iPod touch, jailbroken with 1.1.4. Runs flawlessly, and I refuse to update until Apple releases a stable 2.0, and the fact that its been TWELVE days pisses me off. We should of gotten an update to this crap-ta-cular software 3-4 days after the release.

I mean in all honesty, there are only a couple of things that piss me off. The keyboard sucks. Apps crash, and not just 3rd party apps, but Safari does too, the PHONE APP IS SUPER SLOW. EVEN THE OS CRASHES. Calls are dropped constantly... more than what I was used to on my ATT 8525 I had a while back, and I'm in the same areas.

Don't get me started on the restrictiveness of the App Store. Implementation is broken. As per the article.

So even though I want to jailbreak my iPhone... and get all the goodness of the jailbreak community that I have on my iPod touch I prefer to get these fixes done first. I'm waiting for them to jailbreak 2.1. (Unless the jailbreak community fixes all these first on 2.0)

PS... I love jailbreak community a helluva lot more than I love Apple.

MadColombian

GET IT RIGHT PEOPLE. CYIDA IS NOT THE REPLACEMENT OF INSTALLER.APP !!! Holy hell.

Installer v4 is still being worked on, and will be available soon to work on 2.0.

Bad journalism from Gizmodo here.

iamse7en

@soggy_cheerio: and im surprised they dont have one yet considering how many iPhone fanatics write for this site.

MadColombian

@hkmp5n: thats another reason I'm waiting. LOL.

MadColombian

Pwnage 2.0 is finally out but over 80% of the apps that were available with 1.1.4 do not work with 2.0. The only thing in the Games folder is NES. No Summerboard yet. No Wallpaper. No Showtime. Nothing. I went from having 30+ apps that I used a lot to 3 that are almost worthless. Poof is nice but it aint Summerboard

hkmp5n

@iamse7en: The quote was

Installer.app (now Cydia)

Now, explain to me what's wrong about that. When you jailbreak a phone with 2.0, you now get Cydia, not Installer.app. So even if there is a replacement installer on the way (I'd love a link if you have one), this post is accurate as stands.

Benny Goldman

@Evangelion: What exactly would you want a Gizmodo app to do?

@MadColombian: Write for the site, or read it? Both, I guess.

@soggy_cheerio: I actually like several of the "iPhone optimized" site out there, BUT, wasn't the whole point of the iPhone's big screen and MobileSafari supposed to be the "real" internet on your phone, not some watered down "optimized" version of the sites you visit? I guess I'm just being snide and rhetorical... ;-)

distortedloop

Looks like Steve Jobs and apple aren't god when comes to playing nice with other developers. System instability sounds like Microsoft, but at least they let you install whatever you want

Zomb

Most your links are borked ...just so you know. Great list/article though otherwise.

xxdesmus

Another good example is the flashlight programs when it comes to the lack of sdk functions. App store flashlights are dim and really crappy. the flashlight tool now in cydia is at least 2x as bright.

aeroworks

@xxdesmus: Thanks, somehow the code got all screwy.

matt buchanan

'tis the reason why I'm holding off buying the new iPhone 3G. I love my iPhone 1.0 too much. I'm even holding off pwning it since I like my 1.1.4 compatible 3rd party apps way too much. Heck, there isn't even a Summerboard or Summerboard like app via Cydia yet for 2.0.

I pwned my wife's 8gb iPhone v1.0 using v2.0.1 to test it out. It worked okay and now I have Cydia instead of Installer.app. There aren't that many GUI programs there and only a few modmyiphone stuff that could be installed, like the AT&T globe/signal bar do-hicky and different slider bar and battery graphic replacements. But, no Summerboard yet, no games yet (except for the Nintendo emulator).

I'll hold off pwning my 16gb iPhone v1.0 until either Cydia list Summerboard or something like it, and at least a couple of half-way decent games. Patience my friends. And thank God for the dev team and the developers out there that haven't joined the dark side yet. Send these guys a couple of bucks if you like their 3rd party apps. Give them a reason to remain with us rebels or we'll lose them to the dark side (AT&T/Apple). (Godamn I love Star Wars!).

apeguero

I'm kind of happy I got my iphone 3g to jailbreak, but c'mon, there are BARELY ANY apps compared to the apps on 1.1.4 and previous firmwares. C'mon devs, port the awesome apps from the old firmware! (and please make some sort of netflix streaming app and a simple tethering program, not the crappy tethering you must do with the current apps.)

Sam_Zebian

@matt buchanan: The links are still borked my friend ;)

xxdesmus

Yeah the iPhone 2.0 is a total disappointment for me, it takes god damn ages to install apps compared to the couple of second flash that jailbreak did. Not to mention I can't seem to do anything without it being crash happy while installing.

Worst of all the App Store is already cluttered as hell, the installer made it much easier to check up on new apps.

Plus the lack of background applications is a joke. Things like Pandora, AIM, Podcast downloaders, etc are all made for background processing.

Apple has a nasty habit. It looks at the competitive landscape, see's the flaws in the major ones like say Win Mo. It see's that apps and overall performance takes a hit when you have multiple running, it doesn't actually close apps, and the task manager sucks.

How does Apple respond to this? Let's take out background apps, no problems then!!

KurtangleTN

@Benny Goldman: That quote is saying that Cydia is NOW INSTALLER.APP. They're two completely different applications. One was ready in time for the first pwnage tool, one was not.

Yes it's true, when you pwn your phone, Cydia is installed. But that is completely independent of Installer. On the old pwnage, you could choose to have Cydia, Installer, or both installed. On pwnage 2.0, only Cydia is installed.

To day that Cydia IS NOW INSTALLER.APP is completely ridiculous. It then led to idiotic comments from, say, DJ75728 (4th comment): "I'm patiently waiting for Cydia(Installer.app 2.0 replacement) to get all my old stuff"

Then you say, "if there is a replacement installer on the way (I'd love a link if you have one)" - What?! Nothing is replacing anything. ALL APPS need to be ported over to fit the 2.0 framworks. Cydia has been ported over. NES and BossPrefs have, and many are soon to follow. Replacement installer? What does that even mean? The post is NOT accurate as it stands. Cydia has not replaced Installer. It's a different app and still serves to different needs, independent of Installer.

Installer is being UPDATED (version 4.0) to run on 2.0: [russianiphone.ru]

iamse7en

@xxdesmus: Check your browser, we just tested every link twice and they all work.

Benny Goldman

oh and by the way, this quote is perfect!!!

"It has been 12 days since Apple released the iPhone 3G and iPhone 2.0 software that supports third-party apps. TWELVE DAYS!

I realize everyone deals in internet time, but let me repeat that: TWELVE DAYS. Less than two weeks.

Are there rough edges? Absolutely! Is it time to grab the pitchforks? Hardly.

This hit piece looks at the iPhone from an individual hacker point of view. But Apple has to consider the millions of "normal" folk that want their phone to not crash when a call comes in.

As a result of wanting stability, Apple has remained conservative in what it allows access to and how it deals with apps. They HAVE to be conservative. Their core audience is not hackers, it's regular folks.

Background apps and Memory: Unlike the desktop, memory is a precious commodity. It is reckless to allow apps to hog this precious resource to sit in the background. There is no disk-based VM to fall back on (like on desktops), so every byte counts.

Copy and Paste: Apple has already said that it is on their list, but a lower priority. Anyone in the developer world recognizes how this works. Apple had to give a ship date and features and functionality got pushed off. Hack solutions work great for hackers who don't care if sometimes it doesn't work right. But Apple has to act more conservatively because their solution will be with them for years and years.

Apple's #1 priority is Apple: Yes, just like every other corporation in America. But Apple's reputation is built on things just working, and the user experience being above and beyond the crap you see on other machines.

But in keeping that reputation, the consumer is the beneficiary.

Apple is certainly not a perfect company. I think there was tremendous pressure to get iPhone 2.0 out and it's still a little green. But I'm not ready to demand alternatives to their entire system when it's only been out for a couple weeks. This might be a valid point to bring up in September or October. But right now, it seems ridiculous. "

By meister, genius

vicsells

I really don't understand where your coming from. Your arguing that the iphone needs to be jailbroken because you want to put illegal things on it. Why in the world do you make it sound like this is apple's fault?? If you don't like it, don't buy it. Not everybody's a pirate you know

vicsells

@92BuickLeSabre:

well, its more like "you can have a hover car, but it wont teleport, even though everthing you need to teleport is already built in."

kellygeorge

Hey everyone. Believe or not, it's been 13 days since the iPhone has launched and today was the first time I saw one for reals. I've been avoiding the Apple Store so I wouldn't have to deal with the crowds. Well, it actually looks and feels pretty nice. Both the black and the white are nice enough to own, when they come out with 32Gb models that is. Until then, I think I'll hang on to my 16Gb older model.

apeguero

"... the iPhone an ultra-powerful open platform we really want..."

There are a WHOLE slew of assumptions in that statement, not the least of which who the heck is this WE that REALLY WANTS these applications.

As a developer, I understand the limitations in the SDK, but I also understand why most of them are there. They protect the user experience and the platform, and help to ensure that the user has a working PHONE when he needs one, and not a dead lump of glass and plastic.

Further, the iPhone is NOT an "open platform", nor am I convinced that it should be one. If there are major obstacles in the SDK, then preasure Apple to change them, as they're doing with the forthcoming notification SDK.

The "jailbreak" community is violating Apple's and AT&T's agreements and terms of service, just because it suits them to do so. And if they're willing to break the law in that regard, then as far as I'm concerned they could just as easily be willing to break the law in other ways as well.

Who knows just what that third-party unlocking program you downloaded off that ever-so-helpful web site is actually doing to your phone?

ghmlco

@mmeister: Amen.

henri1kk

This is why we need android phones, like, 2 weeks ago.

Paradox460

@Monty: Unfortunately, that is not a solution. That will merely result in Apple further candy-izing the device for the ignorant consumer market.

@ghmico: "The "jailbreak" community is violating Apple's and AT&T's agreements and terms of service, just because it suits them to do so. And if they're willing to break the law in that regard, then as far as I'm concerned they could just as easily be willing to break the law in other ways as well."

You clearly have no clue what you're talking about.
1) Why should we care about Apple or AT&T's agreements or Terms of Service? Breaking them IS NOT A VIOLATION OF THE LAW. Please try to understand the difference between civil and criminal law. It is a contract violation, not a violation of the law. The worst that could happen is that Apple or AT&T could TRY to sue you for damages as a result of contract violation -- and lose, because they would be unable to prove said damages.
2) I do EXACTLY NOTHING illegal with my jailbroken iPhone, and it has tons of applications on it. The most significant application I use on it is MobileTerminal. What now, you silly, pointlessly accusatory ass?

starkruzr

@starkruzr: First, for your convenience, Giz has provided a cross-reference tool so that your reference to commenters and comments are linked. Just click on the down arrow at the end of the commenter name and you'll get a ready made link back to the comment.

Second - Violating contract law is still violating the law. Why should we care about Apple or AT&T's agreements and Terms of Service? Because you agreed to them. That's exactly the point of a contract. If I agree to sell you a car, and the elements of a contract are in place, and then I break that contract, that is a violation of contract law and you have certain rights. You are correct as to remedy in the case of civil breach. However, I wonder if jailbreaking a phone and/or loading additional apps on it violates any intellectual property law as well. That's a much stickier wicket. The remedy is different there too, I think, and would likely involve punitive damages as well.

I understand your umbrage at the last comment - and while your response is a bit more vehement (as though you doth protest too much) than mine would have been, I agree that it's an unfounded accusation. Not totally out of the question, but unfounded.

ps61318

LOL! The irony! Apple is a monopolist. Can't wait for their ass to be sued in the EU, just like Microsoft. And a big big fine for them as well! Morons. The truth is, in my opinion, that the dev kit is so incomplete because Apple are afraid that someone might do a better job in the software department for iPhone then Apple themselves! And it is very likely to be truth. Apple are just sour losers. Thanks god for the black market.

DaSmith

@starkruzr: By the "jailbreak community" I meant the hackers that spend their time cracking the phone and creating and distributing the code that you, a mere user, blindly downloaded and installed on your phone.

As I said earlier, all of that software and all of those "tons" of applications are "probably" safe, but neither you nor I know that for sure.

ghmlco

"the SDK has more restrictions than Guantanamo"
I usually detest your snarky liberal comments, Giz, but this one is downright hilarious. :-D

The_Gas_Man

Stability concerns are shared by all iPhone users - regular or hacker.
2.0 demonstrates how universal they are.
The same goes for a (degree of) freedom over the iPhone.

To address that, one would expect the most advanced mobile platform to have
- a settings switch to choose from "stable", "background" and "advanced" modes
- more advanced system level functionality on board: install, deinstall, monitor, control, firewall, backup, restore to previous state.

With Apple controlling the distribution envelope for developers, they could easily tie them into such a framework.
Since 1.0, they could have come a lot further than taking out precious advanced Unix, OSX technology - a wasted effort.
Why do we have Time Machine in OSX?
Why does MSFT Vista offer restore points?

A rat race around a Chinese Wall that starts in Cupertino (and will never last) is the last that Apple should invest in.

We deserve something more intelligent.

Bacillus

Sorry - stability concerns are shared amongst all iPhone users and hackers equally: anytime, anywhere, anyway.
2.0 demonstrates how universal they are !
The same goes for a (certain degree of) free choice.

One would expect the most advanced mob. platform to address all this with:
- A settings switch that chooses from "Stable", "Background" and "Advanced" modes.
- More advanced system level tools to support that, and to install, deinstall, backup, return to previous stable state, verify, secure 3rd party apps. Yes, MSFT Vista has it !!!

With Apple controlling the distribution envelopes for developers, they could easily tie them into such framework.
Given the thechnology behind Unix/OSX, a lot of this (since version 1.0) could have been accomplished - instead of wasted effort to take out precious OSX functionality.
It is a better way - if not the only way - to escape a rat race around a Chinese wall now starting at Infinite Loop, 1, that will never hold.

We deserve something more intelligent than that.

Bacillus

Sorry, but dividing the iPhone customer base into regular users and hackers, with each their own separate needs and perspectives, serves no argument.
Stability concerns count for anyone, anytime, anywhere, anyway (2.0 demonstrates how universal they are !)
Similarly, anybody will share (a certain degree of) free choice.

Which could be addressed on the iPhone by a simple switch to choose from "stable", "background" and "advanced" modes - allowing to operate and install more advanced apps. Apple controls the distribution envelope for developers, so it can easily create frameworks tie them into those operation modes.

What else would I expect from the most advanced mob. platform:
An open and intelligent environment to address stability (3rd party apps or not) by backup systems, intelligent deinstallers etc. etc.

There is a lot of proven Unix/OSX technology out there.
Why do we have Time Machine at all ?
Since 1.0, there is no (Apple) way to monitor system - I can't even make an iPhone backup or repair permissions. Even MSFT understands the need to return to a previous stable state in Vista.
Things can all be controlled by far more intelligently than by the Chinese blocking wall that starts and ends at Infinite Loop 1.

OSX technology comes with a megaload of functionality, and ages of experience.
So all the effort that tookl that good stuff out is outwardly ridiculous.
It will take more than "JUST TWELVE DAYS" to repair it, if ever...

Bacillus

@ps61318: actually, thanks to our worthless congress, maybe you are breaking the law. the Digital Copyright Protection act of the Fourth Millenial Reich, or whatever it's called, makes it a crime to circumvent digital content protection schemes. I'm quite sure an argument could be made that you're doing just that with jailbreaking software, since part of the reason for it is to prevent loading of applications that violate copyright (even if that's not what you're doing) kind of like how it's illegal to rip a DVD (by the same law) even if you just plan to do so for personal use under Fair Use.

HaukGaust

My beef is that if I want to read ebooks on my iPod Touch, I can only read the books that the ebook reader software gives me access to. There is no way to download an ebook in a standard format, and then point my book reader at it. Guaranteed lock-in. Hate it! -- Contact me

UgoAbas

@vicsells

"I really don't understand where your coming from. Your arguing that the iphone needs to be jailbroken because you want to put illegal things on it."

As far as I've seen, nothing in the jailbreak community is illegal. Some of it ventures towards copyright infringement, but no laws have ever been broken that I've seen.

"Why in the world do you make it sound like this is apple's fault?? If you don't like it, don't buy it. Not everybody's a pirate you know"

Again, no piracy here. You really should brush up on your legalese. Piracy refers to downloading copyrighted content to which you have no legal right as you have not purchased it or otherwise met the copyright holder's terms. Downloading mostly open-source apps with the full knowledge and permission of the software author is about as far from piracy as you can get.

@ghmlco:

"The "jailbreak" community is violating Apple's and AT&T's agreements and terms of service"

Yes, they are.

"And if they're willing to break the law in that regard, then as far as I'm concerned they could just as easily be willing to break the law in other ways as well."

Violating an EULA, SLA or other agreement is a civil dispute, not a criminal one. Unless they are cracking encryption, they are not breaking any local, state or federal law in the United States. Apple can take the jailbreakers to civil court to obtain civil damages but they cannot bring criminal charges when no law has been broken.

morganvachon

agree with article, but not all. mywaves is missing not because Apple will not allow free video - it is missing because mywaves does porn and abuses copyrights, and Apple will not allow all that.

ilovegizmos

iPhones are rather problem thing for many-many people. As in a funny story: one man lost his iPhone. Ring by his phone number - there are beeps, but no answer. In a week he phone again and at last give the answer: a man which find his iphone only in 7 day could understand how to answer when the phone rings.

Navahin

Pwnage Tool - A program for Macs, created by the Iphone Dev Team, to jailbreak a 1st gen and a 3g iphone, and it can unlock the 1st gen iphone, NO unlocking for the 3g iphone yet.

Installer.app - is an application that was on the 1st gen iphone that let you install a bunch of "illegal" apps - like the AppStore now but all "black market" stuff that Apple doesn't like - such as customize, video recorder, and any tool anyone thinks of and creates it. For now, after you jailbreak a 3g iphone, which is pretty simple now even on Windows, we only get Cydia, which is similar to installer.app But you can only get the NES emulator, a flashlight program, and a few other little things. But everday now, something better comes out - a lot of the Iphone 1.0 apps are being ported to 2.0 jailbroken phones.

Hope that wasn't too confusing.

maciekl

@generalassembly: the pwnage tool is brand new, for jailbreaking and unlocking any iphone / ipodtouch with the 2.0 firmware. Installer.app (which does not work for 2.0 as of now) was placed on jailbroken earlier firmwares to install 3rd party apps. The current equivalent of installer.app that the pwnage tool puts on your device is called Cydia, which hasn't quite caught up with what installer.app once was.

skwerlstyle

Gizmodo, i love you guys. This is the article apple needs to read and reread.

@Monty: Do you think if apple could control what apps you download for your mac book, they would? What about 10 years ago? The truth is that this is brand new technology. For the first time, people are being productive on their mobile devices, which in turn causes more demand for these apps. This demand will migrate into acceptance by apple. The mobile os x will eventually be as versatile as os x for your mac... we just have to show them that these censored and dumbed down apps are toys compared to the potential power that 3rd party apps have.

skwerlstyle

@Worf:

Installer.app doesn't (and probably won't) exist for 2.0. It's been replaced by Cydia, which is based on APT (IMHO, better)

johnl1479

Either a) Apple has no clue what they're doing, or b) They have a grand master plan. Apply Occam's Razor and call me in the morning.

LangleyAlcyone

I will wait a few weeks for the Installer apps to come or i will downgrade back to 1.1.4. The apps are much more worth it.

VashtiSthenelus

@Navahin: Bullshit story! Unless the man finding the iPhone was blind, or too stupid to read the screen that says "slide to answer" with a pretty green arrow pointing in the direction to slide.

That said, a button to answer (home key perhaps) would be nice for answering without looking at the phone would be a nice user option to have.

distortedloop

If Apple did not invent the iPhone, what would hackers be doing? NOTHING!

Remember all the Apple Menu Items and Control Panel software HACKERS wrote for the Mac. Most of them, all they did was crash my Mac.

I want professional apps that I can trust

Apple gave us this in MacOS X, now the iPhone Apps Software

Software that I can trust

MiddleRoad