back to article iPhone 5 'jailbroken' ... before most fanbois even have it

Hardware enthusiasts claim they have already figured out a way to jailbreak the iPhone 5. Grant Paul, AKA chpwn, a veteran of the scene, posted a photo and screenshot of a jailbroken iPhone on Twitter which show it running Cydia, an unsanctioned app allowing access to the indie software shop of the same name – where you can …

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  1. g e
    Holmes

    Maybe they can get Google Maps back on it now

    That is all.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Jail break?

      Just buy a top of the range android, problems solved.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Jail break?

        Spoken like a smug, clueless git.

        To get root access on a Nexus class Android device, you must still unlock the bootloader (which wipes all user data), and then use a custom boot to root it, it isn't rooted out of the box.

        (All of my Android and iOS devices are rooted, except for my iPad, which is running iOS 6 to see the craptastic new maps app)

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Jail break?

        All this effort, to effectivly get to where an Android is out of the box.

        Well done.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Jail break?

          Speaking from experience:

          I like Android as a concept. but i hate the implementation and the fragmentation

          I would choose a closed stable system over an open fiddly one

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Jail break?

            "Speaking from experience:

            I like Android as a concept. but i hate the implementation and the fragmentation

            I would choose a closed stable system over an open fiddly one"

            So you are the person being hand held to the shops by mum?

            And you are proud to proclaim your shame?

  2. davemcwish
    Thumb Down

    FFS El Reg

    All these Apple articles seems as if you're desperate to be nice to Tim Cook/Cupertino Marketing/iFanbois; either that or you have some ad-click revenue stream setup.

    Can we have a rest from all these Apple articles please ?

    Thx

    1. pPPPP

      Re: FFS El Reg

      I don't even bother reading the articles any more. I go straight to the comments section which is where the real entertainment is. And to upvote anyone who says fanbois are dicks.

      1. Dan 55 Silver badge
        Gimp

        Scientific experiment

        Fanbois are dicks.

        1. pPPPP
          Thumb Up

          Re: Scientific experiment

          Seems I'm not alone.

          And yes, you did get a click :-)

      2. Mike Scollan

        Re: FFS El Reg

        Are they Fanbois, or iBois? (or has that "i" word been patented too?)

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: FFS El Reg

        You need to get out more m8 if that's what you do for kicks.

    2. Tom 35

      I don't think Tim Cook would be that happy...

      with "Ha ha, jailbroken in less then a day"

      Now they are going to have to come up with a patch to lock it down again, for a few hours.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: I don't think Tim Cook would be that happy...

        No, nor would your English teacher. *cringe, pet hate*

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: I don't think Tim Cook would be that happy...

        I doubt Apple really care if you jailbreak it - you still bought it - end of.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Re: FFS El Reg

    I am sure newspaper readers said the same thing about Titanic, before the berg hit.

    Egg is about to meet face in Cupertino and we are waiting for it eagerly.

  4. Sandtitz Silver badge
    WTF?

    Just one question

    If Apple really wanted to lock down their devices, why are the devices not shipped with a firmware that would enforce loading only OS kernels that have a digital signature by Apple?

    After all, the same techniques that allow jailbreaking allow also rootkits to be installed.

    Microsoft's Secure Boot UEFI system is supposedly hack-proof - or have I understood the Linux user rants wrong?

    1. Tom 35

      Re: Just one question

      http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/09/19/win8_rootkit/

      But just like the iThings, you don't have to make it impossible, just a bit difficult to stop most people from doing what you don't want them to. Most people don't jailbreak their iThings.

      It is yet to be seen what real world Windows 8 computers will be like to install other OSs or dual boot... or how hard it will be to jailbreak RT.

      1. Sandtitz Silver badge

        Re: Just one question

        In that "win 8 rootkit" story, the rootkit worked only if Secure Boot was turned off.

        AFAIK, the Windows RT will be shipped with Secure Boot permanently on.

        Why won't Apple implement equivalent technology? JailbreakMe used a security exploit in the handling of PDF's. The same exploit could have been used to install rootkit malware as well.

        1. Gerhard Mack

          Re: Just one question

          The real problem was that the PDF reader had the rights to install a rootkit to begin with. The best case result with a fully authenticated boot and system files is that the malware would then be sitting in memory until the next phone reboot and that could be months away in some cases.

  5. toadwarrior

    I'm pretty sure they don't care. Every jail broken phone is still a phone sold but one they don't have to support and if they were that upset I suspect they'd make more of an effort than one attempt to get the DMCA exemption removed.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    what’s the point?

    forget all the usual fanboi / fandroid nonsense for 30 seconds. forget the fact you have paid a premium price for slightly behind the latest tech. ... and here goes...

    The only point I see to buying a apple iphone (or any apple product) is that it is locked down and safe for you to play in the rose tinted walled garden. In this locked down state, you have a reliable smartphone platform which for the majority of the time stays working with little fuss with all the functions you are likely to need.

    now you jail break it to add software that apple dont approve, to add features that have not been tested to work properly with the rest of the system, its unstable, kills the battery life, makes your phone vulnerable to virus/malware/general shite... for what?

    the only thing I can see you get in return is a crappy phone that you can put pirate software on because your too cheap to pay the pennies they charge for smartphone software....way to go....

    It appears to me that people that want a jailbroken iphone just want the perceived social acceptance that a iphone gives, but want or need the functions of an android handset !

    if you want a iphone, stick to what you get when you subscribe to the apple way of thinking, if you want more, get a cheap android... if you want a real smartphone get a galaxy SIII

    **by the accounts of people I know who have done so)

    1. Tom 35

      Re: what’s the point?

      I jailbroke my iPod touch 2g. There was some other good hardware available at the time, but they did not have much software. So the best thing available for me at the time was a jailbroken iPod.

      Now I have a Nexus 7 and I can do the things I did on the iPod (and more) without even rooting it. The only problem was I lost all the apps I bought for the iPod and I could see some people sticking with a jailbroken iPhone even though they would buy Android if starting out now.

      1. Jonathan 29

        Re: what’s the point?

        I am not a big tweaker, but i did want a 5 row keyboard on my ipad (numbers at the top) and the ability to put some large video and text files on an external sd card. I haven't had any issues and it was easier than rooting the phone.

    2. Manny Bianco
      Meh

      Re: what’s the point?

      "forget the fact you have paid a premium price for slightly behind the latest tech"

      Dual core CPU that beats the quad-core in the SIII, 3-core GPU, manually laid out ARM processors (see below), camera that's better than the SIII.

      From http://appleinsider.com/articles/12/09/25/teardown_of_apples_a6_processor_finds_1gb_ram_2_cpu_3_gpu_cores

      Inside the A6, the most prominent features are the dual ARM cores and the three PowerVR graphics chips. Chipworks found that the ARM processors are laid out manually, which can result in faster processing speeds but is also more expensive and time consuming to develop.

      "The manual layout of the ARM processor lends much credence to the rumor that Apple designed a custom processor of the same caliber as the all-new Cortex-A15, and it just might be the only manual layout in a chip to hit the market in several years," iFixit said.

      -----

      iPhone 5 display vs. Samsung SIII display. From http://www.displaymate.com/Smartphone_ShootOut_2.htm

      iPhone 5: It is the Brightest Smartphone we have tested in the Shoot-Out series, it has one of the lowest screen Reflectance values we have ever measured, it has the highest Contrast Rating for High Ambient Light for any Mobile device we have ever tested, and it’s Color Gamut and Factory Calibration are second only to the new iPad.

      SIII: The Brightness is about half of the iPhone 5 due to power limits from the lower power efficiency of OLEDs and concerns regarding premature OLED aging. The Color Gamut is not only much larger than the Standard Color Gamut, which leads to distorted and exaggerated colors, but the Color Gamut is quite lopsided, with Green being a lot more saturated than Red or Blue, which adds a Green color caste to many images. Samsung has not bothered to correct or calibrate their display colors to bring them into closer agreement with the Standard sRGB / Rec.709 Color Gamut, so many images appear over saturated and gaudy. Running Time on battery is less than the iPhone 5 due to the lower power efficiency of OLEDs, even given that the Galaxy S III has a much larger battery capacity and much lower Brightness.

      -----

      Price... iPhone 5 16GB £529. Samsung SIII 16GB £499 at launch, now £422.90 (Amazon).

      I really don't think I've paid a premium to get a phone that contains "the latest tech" than the Samsung SIII.

      1. badmonkey
        Gimp

        Re: what’s the point?

        >>> Dual core CPU that beats the quad-core in the SIII

        Only just. Once benchmark I found in 2 mins on Google says the iPhone 5 beats the S3 with a score of 1601 vs 1588. WOW!

        >>> SIII: The Brightness is about half of the iPhone 5 due to power limits from the lower power efficiency of OLEDs and concerns regarding premature OLED aging. The Color Gamut is not only much larger than the Standard Color Gamut, which leads to distorted and exaggerated colors

        Well fuck me, the S3 has a wide color gamut, but that's a negative thing now? Only an Apple fanboi could achieve such reality distortion.

        I agree that calibration should be available, but a bit of mucking about might give positive results.

        http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1521195

        As to brightness, who the hell cares. If the iPhone is really "twice" as bright as the S3, then I suggest it's far too fucking bright and maybe they'd like to rethink their battery conservation strategy.

        >>> Price... iPhone 5 16GB £529. Samsung SIII 16GB £499 at launch, now £422.90 (Amazon).

        >>> I really don't think I've paid a premium

        Well your own figures suggest you paid a 25% premium, what did *your* calculator tell *you*?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: what’s the point?

          >>> Well fuck me, the S3 has a wide color gamut, but that's a negative thing now? Only an Apple fanboi could achieve such reality distortion.

          If you had bothered to actually read the article:

          "A display with a larger Color Gamut cannot show colors that are not in the original content - it just exaggerates and distorts the colors."

          The really sad part is that, with proper calibration, Samsung could have a display that perfectly reproduces the colours in any image created using the standard colour gamut. But showing a lack of attention to the details is hardly surprising for any non-Apple company....

          1. Gio Ciampa

            Re: what’s the point?

            "But showing a lack of attention to the details is hardly surprising for any non-Apple company...."

            So Apple's foulups with Daylight Saving Time are the result of perfect QA? Nobody (not even Apple) are perfect

            1. Gio Ciampa
              FAIL

              Re: what’s the point?

              Just to prove the point ... grammar fail on my part

          2. badmonkey

            Re: what’s the point?

            >>> If you had bothered to actually read the article:

            >>> "A display with a larger Color Gamut cannot show colors that are not in the original content - it just exaggerates and distorts the colors."

            This is such a stupid comment it hardly deserved responding to. The author needs to learn something about color management. "A display with a larger color gamut cannot show colors that are not in the original content." Is this supposed to be a surprise? Displays with an sRGB gamut can, can they? What the hell is supposed to be the point of this statement?

            Wider color allows calibrated displays to more accurately reproduce color-profiled images created on calibrated machines like cameras or scanners. And they are Good. The UI of the operating system will display with higher saturation than normal, but this is hardly important.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: what’s the point?

          Here are a bunch more benchmarks where the iPhone 5 outperforms the SIII: http://www.anandtech.com/show/6324/the-iphone-5-performance-preview

        3. Manny Bianco
          Mushroom

          Re: what’s the point?

          >>> Only just. Once benchmark I found in 2 mins on Google says the iPhone 5 beats the S3 with a score of 1601 vs 1588. WOW!

          But as I pointed out, "DUAL-core CPU that beats the QUAD-core in the SIII", so the quad-core CPU in the SIII isn't all that it's cracked up to be. The SIII's chip is better because it's quad-core, right? No.

          >>> Well fuck me, the S3 has a wide color gamut, but that's a negative thing now? Only an Apple fanboi could achieve such reality distortion.

          Conveniently, you skipped over "which leads to distorted and exaggerated colors", and "lower power efficiency of OLEDs and concerns regarding premature OLED aging". Your 'latest tech' isn't so good after all.

          >>> I agree that calibration should be available, but a bit of mucking about might give positive results.

          You shouldn't *have* to muck about.

          >>> As to brightness, who the hell cares. If the iPhone is really "twice" as bright as the S3, then I suggest it's far too fucking bright and maybe they'd like to rethink their battery conservation strategy.

          I care, as does anyone else who wants a bright screen that uses less power than the SIII screen at lower brightness. Don't you get it? A brighter screen using less power? Apple have *already* re-thought their battery conservation strategy.

          >>> Well your own figures suggest you paid a 25% premium, what did *your* calculator tell *you*?

          Launch price £529 vs. £499. That's £30. It's not 25%. If you're going to compare prices at the current time, then yes there is a premium but the tech in the iPhone 5 is NEWER than that of the SIII (released in May), and clearly better.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: what’s the point?

            The decision about S3 vs iPhone 5 is not going to come down to cost for most people - in reality it's minimal - perhaps a few pounds a month over an 18-24 month contract.

            Add in support cost - well you can get a 2-3 year Applecare for about £60 - do Samsung offer that (direct - not some 3rd party warranty)?

            Where are all the Samsung shops - so it needs fixing. Apple - just book an appointment - take it in - almost certainly walk out 20 minutes later - problem solved. My last Samsung (and one of the reasons I now use an iPhone) is that it went faulty and had to be sent back and was away for just shy of a MONTH - yes a MONTH. A colleagues iPhone developed a fault - he was without his for 20 minutes - barely had time to queue at Starbucks for a take-out coffee.

          2. badmonkey
            FAIL

            Re: what’s the point?

            >>> But as I pointed out, "DUAL-core CPU that beats the QUAD-core in the SIII", so the quad-core CPU in the SIII isn't all that it's cracked up to be. The SIII's chip is better because it's quad-core, right? No.

            wtf are you talking about? You can find dual core Intel x64 chips that will, shock horror, "out perform" quad core Intel x64 chips, you know. Who cares? What matters are the results. The iPhone 5 is supposed to be a market leader, it's been released 6 months after the S3, and it's only a squeak faster.

            And maybe splitting the cores up further has other advantages, like greater flexibility and battery management?

            >>> Conveniently, you skipped over "which leads to distorted and exaggerated colors"

            They're not "distorted", they're just not correctly calibrated. This is a fucking stupid comment. That is a software issue. If you're seriously going to say that a shitty sRGB display is better than a wide gamut, you're an idiot and I can't help you.

            If Apple is serious about color fidelity, and I am all for it (they do have some precedent with things like Safari browser), then why aren't they shipping an iPhone with a wide gamut display with calibrated color profiles?

            >>> and "lower power efficiency of OLEDs and concerns regarding premature OLED aging"

            I skipped over it because I'm not interested in challenging it. Maybe it's true. From the fanboi bias evident in everything else you quoted, I'm skeptical. I'm "concerned" that the Martians are going to invade. Do you care? Didn't think so.

            >>> It's not 25%. If you're going to compare prices at the current time, then yes there is a premium but the tech in the iPhone 5 is NEWER than that of the SIII (released in May), and clearly better.

            Ummn of course I'm going to compare prices at the same point in time, what the fuck else would I do? The iPhone is *later* than the S3, a lot (25%) more expensive, and it's not clearly better at all; it's on shaky ground to say the least.

    3. paul 97
      Mushroom

      Re: what’s the point?

      One of the early method of jailbreaking was to use the forementioned PDF exploit. The jailbreak then closed this hole making your iDevice more secure.

  7. JaitcH
    FAIL

    So much for Apple software 'superiority'

    You would have thought they figured out this by now, after seven years.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: So much for Apple software 'superiority'

      it's probably by design i.e. they don't want to make it easy but do they really care if you do jailbreak it = no.

  8. Herby
    Alert

    Tell us when...

    Windows phone 8 is broken, and we can load some decent software on the Nokia phone.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Jailbreaking - why - you may as well have bought an Android. People buy iPhones to make things easier / more secure. In my family we have iPhones / iPads as we can share the media, redirect the content to an Apple TV and have all our music everywhere (iTunes Match) etc. The whole lot works for us - I'm not saying Android is crap etc. but friends with Androids do appreciate how it 'just works'.

    I have never seen the need to root my toaster either... YMMV.

    1. badmonkey
      Devil

      Are you suggesting...

      ...that your iPhone is comparable with your toaster?

      Because I think you are.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Would be interesting to know how many people actually jailbreak - I bet for current phones it's less than 1% and for older phones probably a bit higher as they get passed on. Most people just buy an iPhone for it to work - they do not want to be playing cat-and-mouse with Apple techs or not having updates / certain software available.

    My bank provides an app for the iPhone but it will NOT run on jailbroken handsets. Unsurprisingly.

  11. Reading Your E-mail
    Coffee/keyboard

    <snicker>

    Paul is clear that the jailbroken iPhone is about as stable and reliable as Mario Balotelli's pals at a domestic fireworks demonstration.

    <Mr Coke meet Madam Screen>

  12. Toothpick
    Mushroom

    The usual upvotes and downvotes

    Every article on here connected with mobile phones degenerates into a slanging match between iPhone users and S3 users. As far as I'm concerned both will have their strengths and weaknesses and boils down to personal choice.

    Are you happy with your choice of phone?

    Yes - well fuck off and stop bashing other people for their own individual choice

    No - well fuck off and buy a new one.

    Ttfn

  13. Ken 16 Silver badge
    Trollface

    All this has happened before. All this will happen again

    So say the sacred scrolls of Pythia.

    Are the Register suggesting that a rooted iPhone may be a self aware killing machine?

  14. Nibinaear

    Android

    Why not just buy one of these Android phones. It means you can install whatever you like through these things called repositories and apk files.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    WOW, iPhone is now about as fashionable as flares and a mullet!

    The questions should be why has he chosen such an old phone? Hello yesterday.

    1. Risky

      Silly

      Flares and mullets haven't been approved in the iLook store

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    myself....

    myself, I am waiting for the Samsung Galaxy Note II...

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