“Since Monday, Apple officials have been warning iPhone owners that using unlocking software could cause the phone to become “permanently inoperable when a future Apple-supplied iPhone software update is installed.” But in many cases those warnings went unheeded,” Katie Hafner reports for The New York Times.
“People who had unlocked their phones to use them with another carrier ran the greatest risk of, in techie terms, having them ‘bricked’ — rendered about as useful as a brick. Most of those who committed the lesser transgression of installing programs not authorized by Apple simply had those programs wiped out,” Hafner reports.
“The update has [also] made the iPhone ‘almost impervious to any third-party hacks,’ said Erica Sadun, a technical writer in Denver who has created more than a dozen programs for the iPhone, including the screen-shot program and a popular voice recorder,” Hafner reports.
Hafner reports, “Jennifer Bowcock, an Apple spokeswoman, said that when people went to update their software with their computer through iTunes, a warning appeared on the computer screen, making it clear that any unauthorized modifications to the iPhone software violated the agreement that people entered into when they bought the phone. ‘The inability to use your phone after making unauthorized modifications isn’t covered under the iPhone warranty,’ Ms. Bowcock said.”
Hafner reports, “There were reports online that employees at Apple stores were reviving or replacing some dead iPhones. But Ms. Bowcock did not offer much hope to iPhone owners with problems: ‘If the damage was due to use of an unauthorized software application, voiding their warranty, they should purchase a new iPhone.'”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: When companies start to support unsupported hacks, we’ll be sure to let Webster’s et al. know, so they can change the definition of “unsupported.”
That said, Apple, if you plan an iPhone SDK or a “Made for iPhone” plan to distribute authorized third-party apps via iTunes Store for the iPhone, right about now would be a good time to announce it:
What a suck ass video. I mean come on a scrolling list, thats the BEST they could do? Was that video made on Windows XP or something?
We seem to have a lot of Apple partisans here. I like my Mac and OSX. I wouldn’t go near the Mac until OSX came out and I felt I had some control, and I wouldn’t touch the iPhone at this point.
If I buy hardware, it’s mine, and if the manufacturer deliberately breaks it, as Apple seems to have done, just because I’ve changed some software, they have probably broken the law. Note that the operative word there is deliberately.
Someone commented that driving a car into a lake will break it. This is true, but if the manufacturer builds in something that makes it take control of itself and dive into a lake when I go to change the oil, that would no doubt be illegal.
Apple has gone too far.
This is more like Apple saying:
If you drive drunk the car will detect the alcohol and a kill switch will prevent you from starting the car, which BTW PREVENTS you from driving into the lake.
Mw = test
as in, sobriety test
http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com
IPhone! – Hahahahahahaha $500! Fully subsidized!
IPhone! – Hahahahahahaha $500! Fully subsidized!
If that isn’t the most expensive phone in the world and it does not even appeal to business customers because it doesn’t even have a keboard, which makes it not a very good e-mail machine! It may sell well or not, I don’t know, but we have our plan and I like it very much. We have great windows mobile devices in the market today. We have the Motorola phone for just $99, it will play pong, it will do e-mail, do internet, …..
I like our strategy I like it a lot!
@awestruck
Well, it gives me great pleasure to know I’ve gotten under your skin so much…
For the record, I’ve been a Mac user since 1992 (Centris 610) and my current lineup of Apple devices are:
Two iPhones (mine and my wife’s)
MacBook Pro
MacBook (wife)
Mac Mini #1 – home desktop
Mac Mini #2 – runs home theater
Apple TV
AEBSn with 500 gig drive
At work I have:
24″ iMac C2D in the office
20″ iMac G5 in the lab
Mac Mini in the lab
Our phones will stay at 1.0.2 and they will be superior in function compared to any iPhone running 1.1.1.
Breen hits it on the nose:
http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/editors/2007/10/applecriticism/index.php
“If you drive drunk the car will detect the alcohol and a kill switch will prevent you from starting the car, which BTW PREVENTS you from driving into the lake.”
Except that the Apple kill switch is permanent, your car never works again. You can’t drive into the lake because you don’t have a car any more. As people are saying, that goes to far.
Exactly what has Apple saved you from, doing something that would stop your phone working properly?
Pure brilliance. We must kill people’s iPhones so they won’t be inconvenienced by 3rd party software that may not work reliably!
Great supporting argument.
Solution:
Provide a way to revert to the previous software.
Continue releasing updates ONLY for valid iPhones.
That way, everyone wins.
That is clearly the obvious solution and why it takes three full pages and 108 posts to get there is because for some jerks Apple can do no wrong and for other jerks Apple can’t do anything right. They should enable owners of bricked iPhones to restore them to factory (and charge for that or not, I don’t care) and then not allow hacked iPhones to be updated, period. They can easily have the install routine check whether the phone is in its proper state or has been tampered with, and it seems to me that denying updates is sufficient punishment to the hackers. The idea that because you hacked the phone that you can’t get it fixed even if you pay for the fix is simply vindictiveness which Apple should be above.
The Apple representative’s argument is ridiculous. Who except a mindless fanboy is going to buy ANOTHER iPhone after Apple wrecks your first one?
What is NOkia’s customer satisfaction rating for hardware and software reliability and general quality??
It is in the TOILET.
Nokia open??
Sure thing. Like a prostitute’s legs.
The iPhone is unusable as a phone. Apple should get out while they can. They are not ready for prime time with a phone that hardly works as a phone. If I switch internet providers could hey kill my mac? They don’t subsidize they price. Apple wil spend more time making these mistakes, lose people. LG’s Voyager looks like it might “kill” this useless “phone”
Apple’s becoming way too touchy, paranoid and big brother-y for my tastes. they should SUPPORT these hacks. When the original Mac came out, when you went to MacWorld, everyone was doing crazy new things with the computer. It was a hacker’s paradise, the early Mac scene, and very much one of the reasons so many old school Mac-heads love the platform.
Apple could have the same type of community with the iPhone–the hackers are going to do cooler stuff with the iPhone than Apple is, that’s just the truth. Apple should not punish these innovates…those who dare to “think different”
MDN should come up for air out of Apple’s crotch, take a cold shower and learn how to be a little objective.
LISTEN, you as++oles who are trying to legitimate Apple attitude: IT’S ALL ABOUT GREED , YOU CAN UNDERSTAND THAT ?! JUST AND ONLY ABOUT GREED , STEVE JOBS EGO , AND POWER MADNESS !!
There is not ONE good reason to don’t let iphone owners install free software or even use it with the carrier of their choice ! It’s an absolute shame from Apple.
And “Luke Skywalker” is right : the rebel alliance become the empire.
What would you think the young 20 years old Steve Jobs would have think in the same situation ( having his iphone bricked ) , He probably would have say ” fu++ing bas++rds!” . And he would have been right. Jobs lost the ideal of his youth and is falling on the dark side of the force and Apple is on its way to become a dark empire .
You know why people are in such anger? Let me tell you why! When the Iphone was revealed in january, one of the reason we all instantly found in love with it was because Apple bring the FUTURE in the present. Suddenly, a device which seems to only belong to the Star Trek series was going to be available. A dream come true.
And then, Apple decided to transform the dream in nightmare , to bring the future in the present, but a future with chains, a device that make each customer a slave – “no, you can’t choose your carrier ! no, you can’t download free software !” etc…Do you understand you stupid as++oles who don’t have any vision?
What Aplpe did is unforgivable: Steve Jobs has destroyed the idea that future will bring more freedom , in two words ( or more ) he has destroyed all what he was fighting for 30 years ego. He is doomed.
Why does everyone keep saying that Apple bricked their hacked iPhone. No.. You bricked your own phone by trying to update it with the new software against the advice of Apple. If you did not try to upgrade it, it would still be working right now. I could understand if Apple made you upgrade it against your will and it broke. But you had a choice. You should have known that once you tamper with anyone’s product you would not be covered by the manufacturer anymore.
You hack it. Your on your own. So don’t use Apples updates, make your own.
Ha Ha Ha Ha….suckers.
to Mac4lfe : What you seem to don’t understand ( along with others ) is that downloading third-party software do NOT brick the IPhone.
And Apple could very well have released a software update that didn’t brick the IPhone – they did it intentionaly, this is where is the problem. But i agree with you, the best, when an iphone is hacked is to don’t take the risk to download any Apple software update.
HOWEVER , hackers are working hard to break the new update 1.1.1 , and a solution will come probably soon.