“Apple’s 2.0.1 firmware update accomplishes what hackers had claimed Apple couldn’t do: It relocks an iPhone to AT&T. The original boast was predicated on the fact that through all of its prior updates, Apple had never updated the baseband (cellular radio) firmware. Well, 2.0.1 breaks this tradition, and it breaks unlocking,” Tom Yager bogs for InfoWorld.
“Apple’s iPhone 2.0.1 firmware also breaks iPhone open source development. My iPod Touch [sic], which never made any trouble for AT&T or Apple, and never cost any App Store vendor a dime in lost sales, won’t run Unix apps any more. I’m back to hauling a notebook around when just my iPod Touch would do,” Yager writes.
“Maybe the iPhone open source community will hack the iPhone open again. In the meantime, it’s still possible to operate an iPhone or iPod Touch with open source jailbreak by avoiding the 2.0.1 firmware update, but as it does with iTunes, Apple is adept at turning voluntary updates into a practical necessity by making related products dependent on the latest update,” Yager writes.
“There is an amicable way out of this. The best thing for all concerned would be for Apple to enable iPhone 2.0 open source development and the running of unsigned applications (such as shell or Python scripts), but only for device owners who explicitly consent to it. I’m all for protecting users from unwittingly welcoming nonpedigreed software into their iPhones. I’ll be big about it and set aside the fact that an Apple-issued pedigree doesn’t make software run any better,” Yager writes.
“An open source iPhone community benefits Apple by turning the iPhone into a platform in the Mac sense of the term, and this isn’t at odds with Apple’s App Store venture. Yes, iPhone unlockers spoiled the party for everybody. But Apple can lock out the unlockers while letting the iPhone open source party go on,” Yager writes.
Full article here.