Thu Apr 03, 2008 4:46 pm

The iPhone Dev Team may not have any legal issues, but iPhone owners who use the Pwnage Tool just might. Apple might decide that installing applications other than through iTunes voids the iPhone's warranty. That actually makes sense, as they cannot guarantee that it will continue to function correctly.

Thu Apr 03, 2008 10:33 pm

	esegre wrote:
	I do not understand people like gslusher. 1.- If you are afraid of Apple ,what are you doing checking these posts 2.- No company in the world can sue you for installing software 3.- You can always restore so please use your iphone as is with ATT and stay away from hacker sites. Enrique Segre (I have been a hacker-in the good sense of the word- for 50 years)

1. I'm certainly not afraid of Apple, but the iPhone Dev Team was--that's why they delayed putting out the Pwnage Tool until they checked with their lawyers. As you're in Mexico, you're probably not familiar with the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, but it provides criminal, as well as civil, penalties for some forms of hacking. Anyone who wants to "crack" protected software or hardware would be advised to check with an attorney who specializes in intellectual property law.

As for why I am checking these posts, look at the "profile" beneath my user name on the left. See the number, "1964" (or higher)? That's the number of messages I've posted. I started here only a short while before Enrique did (12 Nov 2002 vs 28 Feb 2003), but I've posted 89 times as many messages. I would guess that qualifies me as an "active user" of this forum.

2. Where did I say that Apple would sue anyone over installing software? Please quote the part of my post where I said that. What I said is that Apple may well void the warranty of any iPhone with software that they don't certify, especially if there is a possibility that the software caused a problem. They surely will not cover anything related to unapproved software. (One of the advantages of getting AppleCare for a Mac is that it also covers most Apple software, including iLife and iWork.)

3. One cannot "always restore." Just ask some of the people whose unlocked iPhones were "bricked" when they installed a software update from Apple. The only way they could get the iPhone working again was to take it to an Apple store--maybe.

As for using an iPhone as is on ATT, Enrique may not realize that, in the US, there are only two national carriers that one can use an iPhone on, even if it's unlocked: ATT & T-Mobile, the two GSM networks in the US. Verizon and Sprint use CDMA, for example. (Many other "providers" really use one of the big four networks, buying and reselling minutes.) So, an unlocked iPhone in the US is not that more useful. Where they ARE useful is in other countries, especially in Asia (except for Japan) and Russia, as well as Europe. Most of the world (probably including Mexico) uses GSM--that's almost surely one reason that Apple made a GSM phone.

What have you been "hacking" for 50 years? That would go back to 1958. I wasn't using computers, then (I did use a slide rule, though), but not many other people were, either. My first experience with computers wasn't until 1966 at MIT. I didn't buy my own computer until 1984 (an Apple //c). I didn't get started online until early 1985 with a 300-baud connection to CompuServe and finally got on the Internet in 1996.