Halt! 1.1.1 jailbreak in progress

The 1.1.1 update to the iPhone’s software has plenty of vociferous detractors (myself and my colleague Rob Griffiths, for example). Neither of us were particularly concerned with the update bricking unlocked phones—more upsetting was the loss of third-party applications upon which we’d become increasingly reliant. It seemed as though the tunnel to freedom had been blocked off by an immense Apple-caused detonation.

But soft! What light through yonder tunnel breaks? Hope is still alive. According to noted iPhone hacker Erica Sadun over at TUAW, the iPhone Dev team has been hard at work trying to jailbreak a phone running the 1.1.1 firmware, and they’ve succeeded at a preliminary level. While the hack isn’t yet ready for the public, they have managed to get the MobileTerminal application and several of the BSD subsystems running. Third-party applications have proved more troublesome, as many need to be recompiled to use new frameworks.

Apple’s also added some other “security” measures, such as a whitelist of approved apps that can be launched by Springboard (the home screen interface), and the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store isn’t compatible with the older 1.0.2 firmware, without “major” hacking.

Third-party apps aren’t back yet, but this at least gives us a chance. As much as I love my iPhone even without the third-party apps, I would be psyched to not have to repeatedly tell people “Oh, no, the phone can’t do that.” Keep up the good work, iPhone Dev team.

[Hat tip: Cyrus Farivar]

Category: News

Posted by Dan Moren on Oct 8 2007, 1:28 PM ET

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