Apple opens Macbook front in iPhone jailbreak war
OK, we're baffled
Apple appears to have taken its campaign against iPhone modders to a baffling new level, tweaking its new MacBooks and MacBook Pros to disable a popular software tool used to jailbreak the handset.
According to discussion groups here and here, iPhone and iPod Touch users who have unlocked their devices using the Pwnage Tool are unable get their new MacBooks to recognize the devices. Instead their all-aluminum machines display an error message saying "An iPod has been detected, but it could not be identified properly."
A video of the error is available here.
Oddly, other types of Macs and Windows machines recognize the modded devices just fine.
The quirk comes as hackers with the iPhone Dev Team cracked the device's latest firmware version.
In so doing, they have kept alive the cat-and-mouse game that started just hours after the iPhone's debut in June 2007. The game looks a little like this: hackers break the device free of Apple's iron-fisted grip, and Apple retorts with a firmware update that restores its control. Repeat ad infinitum.
It's hard to know what to make of the strange behavior being reported with new MacBooks. It would come as no surprise if Steve Jobs had decided to thwart once and for all the jailbreaking of his beloved iPhone. But if so, why not on all platforms - or at least on all Macs? (Then again, it's possible the error messages are the result of a bug.)
We've heard unconfirmed reports of new iTouches with hardware changes that prevent them from working with another widely used unlocking program called WinPwn. It's still too early to say, but these may be the opening volleys in Cupertino's final assault on those who dare to unlock their devices and use them as they see fit. ®
COMMENTS
@Martin Fowler
"When the Wii, Xbox 360, PS3, PSP, DS came out, was there uproar because you couldnt play other consoles games on your particular choice of console, no there wasn't. When you bought your particular choice of console were miffed when you got it home and realised that you couldnt play a wii game on a 360 - No."
That's because it's a hardware limitation. If the hardware made it capable to play several console games on a single console, why the f*** would anyone pay $200+ for a 360, $350+ for a PS3, AND $250+ for a Wii? EVERYONE and their Momma would be unlocking their system...and there isn't a damn thing Sony, MS, or Nintendo could say about it because the USER OWNS THE DEVICE. As a matter of fact, that's why we are called owners.
What were you smoking when you came up with this gem?
"So what if Apple dont want you to unlock your phone, i believe i'm right in saying (feel free to correct me as i know you will) it is illegal to unlock a phone during the life of a contract."
WRONG.
Sorry to dash your attempt at a logical argument here, but...well, sorry.
@Matt Vann
"FWIW, my unlocked, pwnd iPhone 2G works perfectly well on my spanking new MacBook Pro 15", so I expect this is just a load of old tosh (and this is the same MacBook Pro that has performed flawlessly since the day I bought it, has no touchpad problems, not other problems, and is, FW400 or not, quite possibly the best laptop I have owned to date)."
Spanking new huh? And it has performed flawlessly since you bought it? So that means you've only given it a few days, maybe a week? The post just sounds contradictory and misleading.
Wow
It's stupefying the amount of inaccurate and misguided information contained in this comments thread (not the original story). I ask each of you who have posted to re-read your comment and then check your facts (and conjectures and conclusions).
Paris bcause I'm going to ask her for tech-related information before I believe most of the above...
This isn't accurate anyway
FWIW, my unlocked, pwnd iPhone 2G works perfectly well on my spanking new MacBook Pro 15", so I expect this is just a load of old tosh (and this is the same MacBook Pro that has performed flawlessly since the day I bought it, has no touchpad problems, not other problems, and is, FW400 or not, quite possibly the best laptop I have owned to date). So far I haven't found the lack of FW400 to be a problem but maybe that's just me.
