Editorial

Editorial - Hacking the iPhone: Risky Business

Monday, August 13th, 2007 at 4:35 PM - by

Despite the fact that Apple wants to insure that the iPhone remains a closed, stable and reliable system some users just insist on hacking the phone for their entertainment. Most users won't want to get into that risky business and may want to re-read the iPhone license agreement. Even so, the fun continues at Hack the iPhone.

There is an old saying in science. "Under the most strictly controlled conditions of temperature, pressure and humidity, the organism will do as it damn well pleases."

That's what some enterprising users are doing with their iPhones. They've figured out how to, almost, bypass the restriction on using a SIM card from another carrier, bypass activation, upload custom ringtones, access the command line, alter the default root password (for safety), and have all kinds of other fun.

Even if most users just want to have a solidly functional iPhone and wish to honor their licensing agreement, it's still fun to read about what some people are doing with creative hacking of their iPhone. (Even if, in some cases, the iPhone becomes a $600 door stop.)

Eventually, some of these techniques may find their way into a more open iPhone in the future. Conversely, there could soon be a flury of lawsuits by Apple.

In any case, it all makes for fun reading at Hack The iPhone.

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Tiger said:

member since 17 Jun 2003 with 1011 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Aug 13, 2007 4:56 pm

What will be funny is when each and every one finds out that their "hacks" have invalidated their warranty and they now own a stylish plastic and glass brick.

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Biff said:

member since 08 Apr 2004 with 1479 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Aug 13, 2007 5:53 pm

These hacks may or may not cause problems. Its also possible that these hacks might have an impact on something. However, one must consider that they may not. Either way, these hacks are hacks. Except when they are not hacks.

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macslut said:

member since 03 Sep 2004 with 61 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Aug 14, 2007 12:42 am

I've gone through most of the hacks, from custom ringtones, graphic changes, and installation of additional apps (including things like VRecord, NES, Terminal and an FTP server).

I'm not worried at all about bricking the iPhone. I'm no expert, but I've hacked numerous other things such as routers, TiVo, Replay, PS2, etc...

What's very different about the iPhone is that if you screw up, or if Apple does an incompatible update, you can reset the the iPhone to an original factory default state. This can be done at any time. Apple can't change this (it would be impossible now since the software prior to any future update already does this function).

Even better than resetting to the default state, you can also restore the phone. So even you contacts and media are safe. At worst, you could lose unsynched bookmarks and such on the phone.

If you read the forums, you'll see nobody has reported bricking an iPhone beyond what could be reset/restored.

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