Apple voiding warranties, blacklisting hacked iPhones?

From Engadget -


According to a recent report, an iPhone running third-party apps and operating on T-Mobile was flat out rejected when it entered an Apple store for service. The employee reportedly said that "the warranty was voided," and added that the mobile was "blacklisted" against future service or return. The owner did manage to coerce the Apple store manager to allow a return (albeit with a 10-percent restocking fee added on), but it's highly recommended reverting your iPhone to AT&T mode before returning it for service.

Forget iPhone, the Gphone is here

From Rediff August 24, 2007 01:53 IST

Google is believed to be a fortnight away from the worldwide launch of its much-awaited Google Phone (Gphone) and has started talks with service providers in India for an exclusive launch on one of their networks.

Talks are believed to be taking place with Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar, respectively India's first and third largest mobile telephony operators, and state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam.

Sources close to the development said a simultaneous launch across the US and Europe is expected, and announcements would be sent to media firms in India and other parts of the world. US regulatory approval, which is expected soon, is the only hurdle that Google is waiting to cross, they added. Google plans to invest USD7-8 billion for its global telephony foray.

In India, it is also believed to be in talks with Indian providers to offer data and content and platforms including Instant Messaging (IM) and Search functions. However, these could not be confirmed.

Reports of Google getting into handset manufacturing as an answer to Apple's iPhone has been doing rounds in cyberspace and international media for some time. These reports suggest that Google has developed a prototype that will hit the markets in a year's time. The US-based company has neither confirmed nor denied these reports. The Wall Street Journal too had reported that Google had invested "hundreds of millions of dollars" in the project and was involved in discussions with US-based T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless.

Globally, Google is likely to participate in the upcoming auction for 700 MHz spectrum for which it is prepared to spend up to $4.6 billion. The firm is also introducing ads to YouTube videos which could be replicated on mobile phones. Ironically, Google recently partnered Apple to produce services such as e-mail and maps for its iPhone handset. And Eric Schmidt, Google's chief executive, said recently that more Google services for the iPhone would be rolled out.

More at Rediff.

Breaking: iPhone 100% Unlocked Using Turbo SIM Card

From Gizmodo - Now you can 100%-unlock the iPhone using a Turbo SIM card, without depending on the version of your current carrier card. The SIM card will give you full calling, SMS and GPRS data capabilities with any network. You won't need extra hardware, since it only requires you to modify the $80 blank SIM using your own iPhone.

The hackers are claiming that this method doesn't use card readers and it doesn't depend on your previous card version either, so it doesn't matter if it is a V1, V2 or V3. All of them will work fine. While the Turbo SIM-based method is not software-only, it seems simple and cheap enough for anyone to follow.

Nine Hacks That Will Make You the Master of Your IPhone

07.25.07 | 2:00 AM -

Only a few days after the iPhone went on sale, hackers were already kicking the wheels and checking under the hood to see if they could pimp out Apple's locked-down smartphone. After a month, they've made surprising progress. Wired has detailed some of the milestone hacks for what has been called "the most significant consumer electronics product ever."

Most of the hacks that have been publicized so far are aimed at controlling or enhancing your own iPhone, but a darker side has emerged too. A security firm announced a possible Wi-Fi-based browser exploit, which could give hackers access to an iPhone's microphone, surfing history and contact information -- and possibly website and e-mail passwords stored on the phone, too. Make no mistake: The iPhone is a magnet for hackers, both good and bad.

The hacks run the gamut from easy hacks almost anyone can do to advanced mods that require serious hardware and software skills.

Details at Wired.

iPhone Firmware Hints at New Apps, Widgets

July 30th, 2007 - The guys at iPhoneology has discovered several applications listed in the iPhone's firmware but are missing from the phone itself.



The ones found were:

* com.apple.unitconverter
* com.apple.widget.phonebook
* com.apple.widget.translation
* com.apple.widget.worldclock (potentially different from the Clock application)
* com.apple.mobile.radio

While all of these have lots of potential, most seem like they could just be direct ports from the Tiger Dashboard equivalents. The most exciting of these seems to be the mobile.radio, as it suggests the possibility that Apple may be looking forward to supporting streaming radio or hopefully, an FM tuner on the device.

Full details at iPhoneology.

Exploiting the iPhone

A group of security researchers at Security Evaluators have developed a toolchain for working with the iPhone's architecture (which also includes some tools from the #iphone-dev community), and created a proof-of-concept exploit capable of delivering files from the user's iPhone to a remote attacker. They have notified Apple of the vulnerability and proposed a patch.

A member of the team, Dr. Charlie Miller, will be presenting the full details of discovering the vulnerability and creating the exploit at BlackHat on August 2nd. Their site will be updated to reflect those details. In the meantime they have decided only to release general information about exploiting the iPhone.

Details at their Security Evaluators site.

How I put my old Cingular SIM in my iPhone and made it work.

For those who don't want to use AT&T to make voice calls on their phones, the HacktheiPhone site has step-by-step instructions on how to use an old Cingular SIM on the iPhone.