jailbroken

Jailbroken iPhone? SSH installed? Beware of worms!

Along with Apple's growing popularity, the various platforms Apple produces (iPhone, iPod, and Mac OS) are becoming more and more of a target for hackers and malware developers. The latest discovered threat affects jailbroken iPhones which have SSH installed and active, and installs a wallpaper of Rick Astley that has the phrase "ikee is never going to give you up" in red letters.… Read more

Hacker breaks into jailbroken iPhones, asks for $7

A hacker in the Netherlands broke into some jailbroken iPhones and sent text messages to the owners asking them to pay to find out how to secure their phones, according to postings in a Dutch forum called Tweakers.net.

One of the victims posted a screenshot from his iPhone of the SMS received. It said: "Your iPhone's been hacked because it's really insecure! Please visit doiop.com/iHacked and secure your iPhone right now! Right now, I can access all your files."

The URL provided now displays a message indicating that it was reported for spam or phishing abuse and has been deactivated.

Ars Technica reports that before the page was removed, it asked that victims send 5 euros ($7.36) to a PayPal account and then await an e-mail with instructions on how to secure the phone. The fix probably would involve restoring the factory settings, according to the Ars Technica post.

"If you don't pay, it's fine by me," the hacker's page said. "But remember, the way I got access to your iPhone can be used by thousands of others--they can send text messages from your number (like I did), use it to call or record your calls, and actually whatever they want, even use it for their hacking activities! I can assure you, I have no intention of harming you or whatever, but, some hackers do! It's just my advice to secure your phone."… Read more

Auto-sorting apps on your jailbroken iPhone

Do you consider the iPhone's app-sorting option tedious? Tired of fussing with app sorting in iTunes 9 because the number of apps you have exceeds the display capacity of your iPhone? If you answer yes to either of these questions and you are using a jailbroken iPhone, keep reading.

According to a iClarified, you might want to take a look at SpringSorter, an app currently available in the Cydia store for $1.99.

SpringSorter takes a different approach to app arranging by automatically sorting your Springboard icon layout, placing the apps you use most first. It also offers lets … Read more

Apple cautions iPhone users about jailbreaking

Apple published Thursday a support article cautioning users about jailbreaking the iPhone (as well as other Apple handheld audio devices).

Unlike the company's recent filing to U.S. Copyright Office that suggested that jailbreaking the iPhone might pose a national threat and be the cause of AT&T's unreliable service, the article states that "customers who have installed software that makes these modifications have encountered numerous problems in the operation of their hacked iPhone."

This means that if you get your iPhone jailbroken, for example, you will cause yourself, not others, problems. This is such a relief for me.

The problems that Apple mentioned include:

Device and application instability: Frequent and unexpected crashes of the device, crashes and freezes of built-in apps and third-party apps, and loss of data Unreliable voice and data: Dropped calls, slow or unreliable data connections, and delayed or inaccurate location data Disruption of services: Services such as Visual Voice mail, YouTube, Weather, Stocks as well as push-based third party applications have been disrupted or no longer work on the device Compromised security: Security compromises have been introduced by the modifications that could allow hackers to steal personal information, damage the device, attack the wireless network, or introduce malicious software or viruses Shortened battery life: The hacked software has caused an accelerated battery drain that shortens the operation of an iPhone or iPod Touch on a single battery charge Inability to apply future software updates: Some unauthorized modifications have caused damage to the iPhone OS that is not repairable… Read more

Jailbreaking iPhone could pose threat to national security, Apple claims

I just got my new iPhone 3GS the other day and the first thing I did with it was get it jailbroken, just how I handled my iPhone 3G.

This time around, it was not really because I was in dire need of any extra functionality (the 3GS now can do video recording out of the box, which my 3G could only do when jailbroken). Most importantly, I wanted to feel like I could do anything with a device I paid almost $600 for (I couldn't wait until December to be qualified for the discount upgrade).

Little did I … Read more

qTweeter adds Twitter, Facebook into every iPhone app

Users with jailbroken iPhones who are also Twitter and Facebook users should check out a new app called qTweeter. It's a pervasive app that runs in the background, and lets you fire off a quick Twitter and/or Facebook status message without exiting whatever application you're using.

To use it, you simply drag down your finger from the top of the screen which pulls down an area for composition, along with a keyboard that slides up from the bottom. From there you type out your message, and if you've set up your Twitter and Facebook accounts you … Read more

Begone Virtual Keyboard: iPhone Meets Apple Wireless Keyboard

Ingenious hackers have linked an Apple Bluetooth wireless keyboard with a jailbroken iPhone via the creation of a new Bluetooth stack developed by researchers at ETH Zurich according to a blog post.

The software, which was created to interface the two devices, is intended to be used within any applications that would use the onscreen keyboard, but with much better results using a keyboard that is both efficient and comfortable to use.

Jailbroken iPhone Users Get Turn-By-Turn Voice Navigation

Every so often there is an app in the jailbroken market that reminds us about the limitations of the App Store. xGPS is one of those apps. It brings turn-by-turn navigation to jailbroken iPhones. This type of navigation is something that non-jailbroken iPhone users have been demanding for a long time.

We covered this topic several times in the past and even noted changes to the iPhone OS that could readily support turn-by-direction directions and outside vendor development of apps providing these kinds of directions here, here and here.

xGPS takes advantage of the iPhone access to Google's map … Read more

Unlocking iPhone 3Gs--the Vietnamese way

Editor's note: CNET editor and Crave contributor Dong Ngo is spending the next month in his homeland of Vietnam, and plans to file occasional dispatches chronicling his impressions of how technology has permeated the culture there. Click here for more of Dong's stories from abroad.

HANOI, Vietnam--Every obstacle presents an opportunity. I saw this firsthand in Hanoi.

The obstacle in question: the iPhone 3G. Since its launch, it has proven a much tougher nut to crack than the original iPhone. Without a viable software-based unlock solution, the only way to make the phone work with any GSM carrier has been the use of a proxy SIM. Put this piece of very thin circuitboard in the iPhone 3G atop the carrier's SIM, and you can make calls and text on a new network.

(I did experience some problems using the proxy SIM, including short battery life, instability, and, most seriously, incompatibility with iTunes.)

Unfortunately, the recently released 2.2 software update, for now, has made the iPhone 3G impossible to unlock--unless you happen to be in Hanoi. Here, I met a man who takes the job quite seriously and gets it done the hard way, literally.

His name is Tuan Anh Do, and he's a 29-year-old businessman who owns five cell phone repair shops. A big part of his business is servicing the iPhone and iPhone 3G, and that often involves getting those devices unlocked at the hardware level.

One of his shops is on Nguyen Du street, a relatively small, quiet block in Hanoi. It's located in a typically narrow four-story house, with one floor serving as a reception area, and another holding the accounting department. The top floor is the workshop, where the magic happens.

Here I witnessed a brand new iPhone 3G getting its hardware unlocked and was really impressed. This is how it happened. … Read more