Geohot says “no unlock” for iPhone 3G, only for iPhone 2G on OS 2.0

by Alex Zaharov-Reutt

Monday, 14 July 2008

Page 3 of 5 You can see the new iPhone Dev Team videos here while the iPhone Dev Team response is here although I’m reprinting it below. Still it’s worth reading at the iPhone Dev Team site because of the many comments, most of which praise the Dev Team, suggest that Geohot is doing some of his own code stealing/borrowing and/or ask the Dev Team hurry up and release anyway. You'll also find my thoughts on the issue on pages 4 and 5. The iPhone Dev Team won’t be rushed, however, as they explain in a post entitled “Rush, Rush, Rush”. The post says: “Over the last year we’ve discovered some interesting things about the software used in the iPhone. These “hacks”, “exploits”  and “techniques”, or whatever you want to call them, are valuable - not only from a financial perspective (so scummy people can sell unlocking software) but also from a strategic point of view. Think of it like a game of poker, showing your hand too early would certainly make you lose “the game”. “The majority of iPhone users are not technical - they want an easy, one-stop, simple application that will allow them to quickly and painlessly unlock their phone. If we were to release a crummy command-line based tool that does the immediate job that everyone is screaming for, we’d only end up in the following situation: “1) The technique is released to the world and people use this technique to quickly create GUI apps that they charge cash-money for, or re-release something hacky and horrible that bricks lots of devices, or for example disables the WiFi that then causes more stress that ultimately comes back to us “2) The technique is exposed to the vendor, allowing them to locate and repair the security hole. Sometimes these security holes span product versions, for example: between the first generation and second generation iPhone. In such a case releasing the knowledge in the middle of the product development cycle is pointless and risks the “usefulness” of the technique - especially if there are existing hacks/techniques that work just fine. “The iPhone DevTeam is comprised of a group of people who work together over IRC from various parts of the world. This distributed method of working happens 24 hours a day with people performing tasks in the time that best suits their time-zones. It is a completely self-managing, self-regulating and member-funded organization. "Most of us have never met face-to-face and we rarely know real names - in fact, we would more than likely not recognize each other if we walk past one another on the street. Despite this we follow a strict “hacker code”: ground rules by which we all abide. “Perhaps the foremost of these rules is management of knowledge. We keep certain information private, restricted to members of the team only (to help with points 1 and 2 above), and members are entrusted to make sure this secrecy is consistently enforced. This makes the team. Only when there is a majority vote from the team do we make any announcement or release. “So now we come onto Geohot, the self appointed media frontman for last year’s iPhone hacks. Geohot actually worked with us a month or so before the media-circus that he led. Geohot is certainly a bright guy, but he couldn’t abide by rules that I described in the last paragraph and because of this he was asked to leave the team. Of course like any hacker Geohot continued on for his goal.” Please read on for the rest of the iPhone Dev Team’s announcement, with a nice dollop of my own musings thereafter on pages 4 and 5. << First page <   1 2 3 4 5 Next page > Last page - Post your comment >>

 

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