Tag Archives: apple tv

what is jailbreaking iphone

What is Jailbreaking?

What is Jailbreaking?

The process of jailbreaking takes advantage of exploits, or imperfections, in either the software or the hardware of an iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, or Apple TV. By doing this you can remove the limitations implemented by Apple and so you can then install third-party apps, tweaks or modifications, and even themes to change the appearance of your device; all of which are not available in Apple’s App Store.

Apple applies numerous safegaurds to iOS which prevents users from installing and running software which has not been approved by them. They do this to protect the devices and users from threats like bugs, crashes, and even viruses so this method can be extremely beneficial to the run of the mill user, making iOS and easy to use and more importantly, stable operating system. While this may be good for most people, many prefer to extend the potential of their devices and make them stand out from the crowd and these two reasons are why I’ve jailbroken every single mobile Apple device that I’ve owned.

Is Jailbreaking Legal?

Many people muddy up the answer to this question and don’t provide a straightforward answer. To put it simply, in the United States, under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, jailbreaking iOS devices is legal as it is in every other country with the exception of Canada. In Canada, the Copyright Act was amended in 2012 prohibiting tampering with digital locks. This is exactly what jailbreaking does and so it is illegal in Canada, however, there’s really no way for the government to  find out if you do it so you might as well take the leap and just do it. Now while it is legal pretty much everywhere, you will void your warranty with Apple so if you take your jailbroken device into an Apple store for help they’ll void your warranty. But what you can do is simply restore it iTunes and if you still have the problem you can take in to Apple and there’s no way they’ll ever know if you jailbroke your device.

How do you Jailbreak?

For the most part, jailbreaking tools are just programs that you can download for your Mac or PC. Normally they have you go through a few steps like holding down a few buttons on your device and they’ll do the rest. Other times programs will create custom IPSW files, or iPhone SoftWare, and will then require the user to restore to that custom file (which has the jailbreak bundled with it) using iTunes. But sometimes there are methods that just use Mobile Safari. So you open up Safari on your device, go to a specific website, tap a link, and it’s done. But, different methods are needed for different exploits and so some jailbreaks may be extremely easy while others may require your computer and a few minutes of your time.

Who Develops Jailbreaks?

So far jailbreaks have either been developed and released by independent developers like GeoHot and Comex, or by teams of developers and security experts like the iPhone Dev Team, Chronic Dev Team, and evad3rs.

Basically, the way jailbreaks are put together is that developers look for exploits, or holes, in the software or hardware of a device. Sometimes it could only take one exploit and sometimes it can take as many as twenty for a single jailbreak, but once they’re found it gives the developers a chance a to insert their own code into the device in order to bypass Apple’s limitations. These guys do this in their free time, which can often take months from the time Apple releases a new version of iOS or a new device, and these jailbreaks have always been completely free to download and use.

Cydia

Every jailbreak process installs another “app store” of sorts called Cydia. Originally, when jailbreaking first started, we had another app called Installer but since iOS 2 Cydia has been the big player. Like the App Store it lets you search for tweaks and themes and modifications and then install them. The difference of course is that Cydia only runs on jailbroken devices and the software that it provides you with has not been approved by Apple.

Cydia uses repos, or repositories, which host all of these tweaks, themes, and other software. They basically act as channels, allowing you to download and access the customizations. And, just like the App Store, while many packages are free there are some which cost money.

How do Jailbreaks Work?

Jailbreaks provide users with root access to iOS, allowing non-Apple approved software to be installed. This is done by exploiting flaws in the device’s software or hardware.

There are two levels of jailbreaks: tethered and untethered. A tethered jailbreak requires the device to be connected to a computer and then re-exploited with jailbreak software each time it boots in order to remain in a jailbroken state; otherwise, the device will boot as if it is not jailbroken and none of the tweaks, modifications, themes, or jailbreak apps will work. With an untethered jailbreak a user can properly reboot their device without being connected to a computer while retaining the jailbreak.

The most important concept to understand about jailbreaking is that a jailbreak does not exist for every version of iOS nor for every iOS device. For the most part there will be one major untethered jailbreak released per year with each new major update to iOS like iOS 6 or iOS 7. Apple will then release smaller updates which will fix bugs and patch the exploits which were necessary for the jailbreak. Often times the developers will release updated jailbreaks so that anyone who updates or purchases a device with the new version of iOS can jailbreak their device. But, just as often, they don’t release an updated jailbreak in hopes of preserving the exploits that they’ve found for future major jailbreaks.

ios 4

BREAKING: Apple Seeds iOS 4.3 to Developers

Apple just seeded iOS 4.3 Beta 1 to developers! I’m going to see what is in the new firmware and update this post A.S.A.P.
UPDATE #1: The firmware works for iPad, iPhone, iPod, and Apple TV

UPDATE #2: It’s still unknown at this time what is

in iOS 4.3 since all developers are currently downloading the firmware and haven’t had a chance to install it but this is what is rumored to be in the new OS: Support for personal hotspot functionality as seen on th

e Verizon iPhone. Possible support for recurring billing for App Store content subscriptions such as News Corp.’s forthcoming tablet-focused news publication, The Daily.

UPDATE #3: It’s official, the new iOS Beta allows devs to send video from apps or websites to an Apple TV. There’s also a new beta of the Apple TV software for testing it out . The Apple TV doesn’t have any version notes, so I don’t know if it offers any additional features. One thing I’ve noted is the I’m not seeing any mention of mobile hotspot functionality, and considering the Verizon iPhones we saw were running iOS 4.2.5, we’ve got a feeling everything still hasn’t been merged up. I’ll let you know if I find anything else out.

UPDATE #4: Apple posted this note on the firmware discription.

Quote (via Apple Developer):

“Test Multi-Touch Gestures for iPad
This beta release contains a preview of new Multi-Touch gestures for iPad. You can use four or five fingers to pinch to the Home Screen; swipe up to reveal the multitasking bar; and swipe left or right between apps. We are providing this preview before releasing them to the public to understand how these gestures work with your apps. Test them and give us your feedback on the Apple Developer Forums.”

UPDATE #5: I’ve also noticed that Apple totally revoked the firmware beta for the iPod Touch 2G and iPhone 3G, does this mean that those devices have become another member of the Apple Graveyard? Or does it mean that since this update is focused on AirPlay and those devices don’t have AirPlay support? I’ll let you now soon!

UPDATE #6: Looks like there is one more update, it seems that Apple has included the new mobile hotspot feature that we saw yesterday in the Verizon iPhone announcement in the new iOS 4.3 Beta 1 update.

UPDATE #7: Looks like there are a few more features. The biggest one, the iPad mute switch can now be toggled back to the rotation lock switch. Another feature is Apple adopted a new FaceTime icon for iPod Touch, and iPhone 4. One more is that Apple now allows users to have Full Screen iAd banners.

UPDATE #8: Gizmodo posted a video here: (iPad Multitouch Gesters) showing off the iPad multitouch gesters. Hope you enjoy.

Apple TV Jailbreak Released

Quote (via iPhone Dev-Team):

We’re pleased to release PwnageTool 4.1 for Mac OS X (free of charge, blog ads, and donation requests — as always!).  Today’s big new addition to the jailbreak family is AppleTV 2G, which was first shown jailbroken in its release week!

Through a combination of the recently released geohot limera1n exploit , @comex’s recently released pf kernel exploit, and our original pwnage2 exploit, PwnageTool 4.1 works untethered on these devices at firmware 4.1:

  • AppleTV 2G
  • iPad (firmware 3.2.2)
  • iPod touch 4G
  • iPod touch 3G
  • iPhone4
  • iPhone 3GS
  • iPhone 3G

PwnageTool allows you to restore to a custom IPSW file.  For instance, you can restore to a pre-jailbroken firmware while simultaneously maintaining your current baseband (and thus your ultrasn0w carrier unlock).  You can also add whatever packages you want in the “Expert” mode of PwnageTool, if you wish to pre-install Cydia packages.   iPhone 3G users get the additional benefit of selecting their own boot and recovery logos, and features like multitasking and battery charge percentage.

PwnageTool’s main advantage to ramdisk-based methods (limera1n, greenpois0n, redsn0w) is for unlockers — those that need to keep their current baseband and preserve their ultrasn0w unlock.  But in this new age of both bootrom- and userland-based exploits, it’s an excellent platform for continuing the jailbreak through all future firmwares.  More on this later!  In the meantime, please enjoy this free software and please provide any usage feedback in our comment section below.

AppleTV 2G users:  Welcome to the JB family!  Right now, about all you can do is command-line stuff via ssh.  You also have afc2 available, so you can use tools like ifunbox to move files around.  These are the *very* early days of AppleTV 2G jailbreaking, so it’ll take some time for JB app developers to come up with methods to use your AppleTV 2G from the remote, versus the command line.  PS: Your ssh password is “alpine”…please change it when you can :)

Expert mode: By popular demand, the IPSW file selection in Expert mode is now completely manual (doesn’t use Spotlight).  Just pick your IPSW file directly instead of waiting for the Spotlight search to complete.  In Expert mode, the default is to hacktivate (“Activate the iPhone”), so if you have a legit SIM card be sure to deselect that option in Expert mode.

DFU button:  That “DFU” button in PwnageTool is more than it looks like.  It guides you through the DFU process, but then also runs the appropriate exploit to convince your device and iTunes that all is legit.   The DFU button in PwnageTool is not just your average DFU.

Official Bittorrent Releases

PwnageTool 4.1 Torrent  - PwnageTool_4.1.dmg.5898597.TPB.torrent

SHA1 Sum = 4f216e5863d191f30f84b6201e8c2bbea031e691

Unofficial Mirrors

The following links are unofficial download mirrors, you download these archives at your own risk, we accept no responsibility if your computer explodes or if it becomes part of a NASA attacking botnet or even worse if your hands fall off mid-way during the use of these files. We do not check these links and we accept no responsibility with regard to the validity of the files, the other content that these links may provide or with the content that is on the third-party linked site.

Always check the files that you have downloaded against our published SHA1 hash.

We would prefer that you downloaded the official bittorrent release that is linked above, but you are welcome to try these if you really must.

Mirror owners should email direct dmg download links only (no rapidshare type sites please) to blog@iphone-dev.org — please don’t place mirrors in the comments as they will be deleted.

  • http://zaone.ro/PwnageTool_4.1.dmg
  • Interesting Information About the New Apple TV



    The people over at iFixit “demolished” the new Apple TV. They have managed to discover something interesting about Apple’s new and improved device.

    The new Apple TV comes with 8 GB of internal storage. Apple’s epic fail to promote this before the release of the device made me actually not buy it because I wanted some type of internal storage, but I am now buying it because of this. This also means that hackers will be able to do some type of Cydia hackie do. It is obvious Apple didn’t tell us this due to the fact that Apple’s main focus on the product was on wireless steaming.

    The Apple TV has 256 MB of RAM. This is the same as the iPad and iPod touch 4G, but less than the iPhone 4′s 512 MB.

    New Apple Media Event on Sept. 1, 2010

    Today, August 25, 2010, Apple announced that they will be holding a music-based media event on September 1, 2010, much like they do every year. Here are some of the products we expect them to announce:

    • New touch-screen iPod shuffle
    • New iPod touch with front-facing (and possibly back-facing) camera to allow for use with Face Time over WiFi (to be used with email addresses as opposed to phone numbers), Retina Display, 1Gz processor (with maybe 512MB RAM), and better battery life.
    • iOS4 for iPad
    • iTV (revamped Apple TV) with it’s own App Store and might be the size of the iPhone 4 – Price: $99 USD

    Sorry, no Verizon iPhone will be announced in September. If there will be one, it will be announced in January (most likely). Again, these are all just rumors so nothing is certain for sure, but these products will be very likely to be announced.

    If you’d like to receive LIVE updates on Apple’s media event, follow @TechGeec on Twitter where we’ll be tweeting all of the new Apple products that will be announced.

    How To Hack the Apple TV

    Now I do not have an Apple TV so I can not show you how to do it, but… I have found a great video from a trusted YouTuber called SoldierKnowsBest. And here it is:

    I give all rights to SoldierKnowsBest (Mark), I take no ownership to this video. I am just sharing this with our community.