Those crazy dudes working around the clock to hack the iPhone open have gotten one step closer. Last night, it was posted on the iPhone dev wiki that a hacker named "Nightwatch" had compiled and launched a Hello World application, the first nonstandard application to run on the iPhone. He did this by using a project of his called the ARM/Mach-O Toolchain, which is "being refined and tested" and "should be released as soon as possible."This does not mean, however, that the iPhone is completely broken open-- from what I understand (and I'm definitely not a hardcore hacker), each iPhone has its own special code to be cracked, and even if the code is entered, there's no guarantee that the next software update won't break everything again.
But running a user application-- any user application-- on the iPhone is definitely a huge step in the process, and it's the result of a lot of these guys working around the clock since iPhone's release. Good for them.
Thanks, Mike D!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-20-2007 @ 12:29PM
jgjay said...
Any reason you haven't linked to the original source?
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7-20-2007 @ 1:13PM
Flip said...
Brilliant and wonderful news! That they are going to these lengths should tell Apple something (*cough closed platforms blow cough*). It's time to release an true SDK and not some bullshit "webpages for the iPhone" tutorial.
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7-20-2007 @ 2:24PM
jason said...
why hasn't any posted info about how fast the arm processor is? i would think that one of the first apps that someone should make is a benchmark tool to get us some actual hardware specs on this thing. cpu speed, ram...
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7-20-2007 @ 3:05PM
Nate True said...
I'm Nate True, one of the folks who helped out with the application that allows you to put on custom ringtones to the iPhone.
You've got a little inaccuracy there - each iPhone may have a secret UNLOCK code (for putting the phone on different carriers) but as far as applications go, the iPhone will run any code you upload to it. The trick is to have the code play nice with the rest of the phone's operating system. That's why it's been so painful.
A software update is likely to break one of the methods in the chain to get applications on the phone, though, even if unintentional. We have to bend over backwards getting into the iPhone's filesystem and those methods could change even between iTunes versions.
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7-20-2007 @ 4:57PM
mac said...
jason the arm cpu runs at 620 mhz if im not mistaken and has 128 MB of ram. the whole sistem is OSX stripped down to 700 MB.
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7-21-2007 @ 11:53PM
Reg Muffet said...
Nate, I salute you!
Keep up the great work!
It is hugely appreciated by many unspoken voices who want to see iPhone capabilities maximized.
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7-23-2007 @ 7:09AM
w00t said...
The specs have been revealed, it's a Samsung 667Mhz ARM9 if I remember correctly.
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