Apple cripples iBooks for jailbreakers
No e-books for you!
Apple has opened a new chapter in its campaign against hackers with a feature that prevents jailbroken iDevices from accessing iBooks.
According to the Social Apples blog, iPhones and iPads running the latest iOS firmware contain a “jailbreak check” that automatically detects when the devices have been unlocked using the greenpois0n jailbreak kit. Jailbroken devices that attempt to load content using the iBooks application – even legally acquired e-books – display an error message that reads: “There is a problem with the configuration of your iPhone. Please restore with iTunes and reinstall iBooks.”
“Comex,” a hacker with the iPhone Dev Team, said in a Twitter post that “iBooks drops an improperly signed binary, tries to execute it, and if it works concludes that the device is jailbroken and refuses to open the book.”
Apple finds itself in the same predicament as Sony, maker of the PlayStation 3 game console. Both companies want to control what software customers can run on their consoles to boost sales of authorized titles and prevent potential piracy. Unlike Sony, which hauled more than 100 jailbreakers into federal court, Apple is largely barred from taking legal action, thanks to a move last year by the US Copyright Office exempting jailbreaking from the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
The report comes on the heels of a recent announcement that greenpois0n is now able to apply an untethered jailbreak to second-generation AppleTVs. Untethered jailbreaks are the preferred method of unshackling iDevices since the change persists even after they are rebooted. It's still not clear exactly what can be done with a jailbroken AppleTV. One option is to run NitoTV, a user interface that loads playlists and displays weather forecasts. It's automatically installed when greenpois0n is run. ®
COMMENTS
This is what p1ss3s me off with Jobs 'n' co.....
This is aprt of the reason why I think I will probably never buy anything from Apple.
If I am going to spend £500 and over for some sort of device, whether that is a mobile 'phone or some sort of computer, either with or without a keyboard [and lets be honest, the I Pad is basically a screen without a keyboard, and without a lot of other things come to think of it...] ....then I want to use it as appropriate for me.
Especially for legal content.
What Apple is basically saying here is "you can pay top whack for a device, but don't go thinking you own it.... 'cos you don't."
If the article is correct in it's assertion that even legal e'books will be barred from running on an I pad, then to to me smacks of restrictive practice.
I legally buy some hardware, then make a change to it so that it will do what I want it to do, I buy some content and then Apple says Noooooooooo.
Bollocks to them
And if you buy one and then grumble, you only have yourself to blame.
Avoid Apple like a severe bout of trepanning......
P.
So.........
People who want to legally purchase and read eBooks are blocked from doing so, but I'm guessing those who want to download them for free outside Apples ecosystem and use a different reader are free to work away?
If the phone is already jailbroken I don't see people people feeling too bad about doing it illegally when the legal option is forcibly removed.
@so what? #
I think you're confused - the purpose of iBooks isn't to read books it's to buy them.
Once you've iPaid for something then Apple don't want you distracted by reading it - that might delay the time before you go back and iPay again.
It only breaks purchased eBooks
Just the ones with DRM, bought from the iBookstore, are affected. Free books, and those downloaded from, ahem, questionable sources, still work just fine. There doesn't seem to be any point to this other than annoying people. I can still use the Kindle app, and store (assuming it doesn't get booted), for purchasing books, and just use iBooks for the free stuff. Apple strengthen the view that all-your-iPhones-are-belong-to-them, and lose a few book sales in the process.
