Palm Pre 1.0.4 Update Kills Homebrew, Patches Security Holes
The 1.0.4 update for the Palm Pre just got released, but along with patching some security holes, kills the homebrew ability that made everyone so excited.
Why, Palm, when your SDK isn’t available until late summer, would you go and patch the homebrew? At the very least, developers have the leaked SDK to work off of, even if it’s not final. [Palm via Engadget]
Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)
@InfoMofo: text messages.
psychiccheese
@storm: i'm guessing you never owned a PSP, or if you did, you never tried any hacking on it.
it's a shame that palm felt such a need to patch this up so permanently without releasing the dev kit. here's to hoping that either the SDK releases soon, or a responsible, non-malicious hacker finds a new homebrew exploit.
Yeah. I mean, it was easy to actually turn the demo apps into full apps with some modifications. Now you actually have to pay for them?
Meh, it'll be jailbroken in a day.
Worf
Damn Palm and worrying about the security of their devices. Don't they care about keeping Gizmodo's respect?
dbett
Okay so I can't install from an e-mail, wouldn't this be called a security update?
Ultraorange
@grubish1: NOOOOOOOO! DO NOT BUY THE TOUCH PRO. IT SUCKS. BAD. i hate to say it but the iphone is the best
ChaDeBugre
@InfoMofo: "Oh no! How are Pre owners going to say hello to the world now??"
Dude, that laughed me out loud. Hope non-programmers get your wit.
stratboy
@Yinzers Are Celebrating the Stanley Cup:
Palm didn't kill homebrew in this update- you can still install homebrew apps through other methods. All that happened is they blocked the ability to install applications via an email link.
This article is like saying that Microsoft kills all third party application capability because they patched a security flaw in outlook.
COCOViper
Man what a misleading headline and article.
1.0.4 doesn't "kill homebrew" it kills the ability to install apps via an email (which obviously is a huge security risk).
You can easily still install Homebrew apps via USB, and now that the SDK has been leaked I'm betting we will see a homebrew app launcher within 1-2 weeks.
COCOViper
@[gizmodo.com] *cough*
victorkruger
This is sort of off-topic, but I'm beginning to have second thoughts about how "awesome" Prelude is as a typeface. I still really like it for UI elements and titles and small snippets of text, but I think they should use a more readable font for larger bodies of text.
@grubish1: Just getting the email wasn't enough, you had to click on the link. I'd really hope that by 2009, we've learned not to click on links we don't recognize.
God, I crack myself up.
pagan_god
I thought only the evil Apple would lock down with secrecy?
storm
@the_lane: Article is innacurate. Please fix it giz - unless folks read through comments, they will mistakenly assume the very misleading title is actually correct.
maethlin
@Sherwin Souzankari: What inaccuracy?
I am kinda glad they cleaned this up. How long was it going to be until someone with no morals sent us all an email that bricked our phones.
Kudos to Palm but I want more apps. I still have another five days until I return my Pre for lack of tethering. It was a fun month but oo bad for Palm. Touch pro here I come.
grubish1
Oh no! How are Pre owners going to say hello to the world now??
The homebrews weren't all that exciting, anyway. Some good functionality tweaks, but nothing Earth shattering. It's not like they kept users from doing anything of critical importance. I mean, Pre owners, myself being one, should be able to live without Mario and custom notification sounds for a month and a half, dontcha think? Or has the whole world been whine-ificated?
@the_lane: if you find a way to do that, you'll be the first.
jonycob
please get your facts straight. homebrew isn't dead. Now that the SDK is everywhere, you can use that to install homebew apps, it's quite easy. and now people have a reason to create an app installer app. expect it soon.
all this did was close the email install "feature", which is a good thing, to keep malicious code out.
jonycob
article dugg down for inaccuracy.
Sherwin Souzankari
It's only closing the email hole - which *should* be closed. (it's entirely too easy to accidentally open an email link which could crash the webos or worst..)
Homebrew can still be installed via other methods.. and as long as Palm doesn't close those methods, they're still the good guys in my world.
-mark
Mark Rahmani
Well it looks like its time to turn off the force update thingy.
the_lane