Remember that cool video we showed you a while back that had an iPhone getting "pwned" by and iTunes-installed firmware? The clever iPhone hackers out there showed off how to make your iTunes application install a pre-jailbroken firmware onto your iPhone. Now, the iPhone Dev Team has released their iPhone PwnageTool Application that puts the power of pre-jailbroken firmwares in your hand.
PwnageTool basically allows an iPhone developer to put together their own, customized iPhone .ipsw firmware bundle. By exploiting a fundamental hole in the iPhone firmware loading process, PwnageTool forces iTunes to ignore firmware integrity checks. That means iPhone firmwares can be jailbroken and bundled with unsigned (unofficial) third-party applications - so you don't have to do the iPhone jailbreak ho-down to get those fun applications onto your iPhone. The PwnageTool also opens up the possibility of getting Linux OS on the iPhone. Pwnage allows any unsigned firmware to be installed to the iPhone (using iTunes, of course), and an iPhone .ipsw package loaded with a Linux OS is already in the works by the iPhone Dev Team.
The iPhone Dev Team believes the PwnageTool will resist any changes from Apple and comes with BootNeutr, iPwner, and the IPSW Builder application. BootNeutr gives iPhone hackers complete control over the baseband (baseband unlocking, custom baseband loading, etc.). iPwner allows the custom iPhone firmwares to be loaded onto the iPhone. IPSW Builder gives the user the necessary tools to create the custom firmware.
The PwnageTool is available on Mac only for now. A windows version is in the final stages of testing and should be available soon. Grab PwnageTool for Mac here.
Of course, it takes some know-how to put together your own custom iPhone firmware. For the more novice users out there, it might be best to stick with iNdependence or ZiPhone.
Remember that little outfit that sued Apple and AT&T over use of the Visual Voicemail system on the iPhone? Right, well it looks like Sprint's going after the very same look and feel for their newly announced iPhone-fighting Samsung Instinct - except Sprint opted to pay Klausner licensing fees. Sprint has licensed the technology from Klausner Technologies and is even calling their CDMA-flavor of Visual Voicemail, wait for it… "Visual Voicemail." The move should keep Klausner's legal beagles off of Sprint's back.
The Visual Voicemail technology not only required AT&T to overhaul their voicemail back-end, but it also changed the way we work with and retrieve voicemails.
The full-body touchscreen handset will not only be rocking GPS, but will apparently ship with this Visual Voicemail for the iPhone-shunning masses. I didn't see (or even know about) Visual Voicemail during my hands-on with the Samsung Instinct at CTIA Las Vegas 2008, so I don't have any pics or video to show you. Still, it's safe to say that the Visual Voicemail system on the Samsung Instinct will be similar to the iPhone's Visual Voicemail system.
Visual Voicemail should give the Samsung Instinct another way to compete with the iPhone. And, it's going to need it when the 3G iPhone launches in a couple months.
We're looking for a Q2 launch (June) of the Samsung Instinct at an approximate $200-$275 price point.
Leigh looks over at fellow consultant Pete M., “if this is true, buddy, we’re going to be RICH! RICH beyond our wildest dreams…”
Fake Steve, in a recent story, referred to an article by Dev Corvin, which was breaking news about the forthcoming Windows 7 (which has moved its ship date up to 2009 as a result of the spectacular results Vista has demonstrated in the market…). Found amid the usual Windows blah-blah-blah, which I suffer through so you don’t have to, was this tasty quote:
Windows 7 takes a different approach to the componentization and backwards compatibility issues; in short, it doesn’t think about them at all. Windows 7 will be a from-the-ground-up packaging of the Windows codebase; partially source, but not binary compatible with previous versions of Windows.
Now I didn’t just take FSJ and this Dev guy’s word for it, I employed minimalist “journalistic” research and went ahead and Googled “Windows 7″ “Not Backwards Compatible”, which yeilded some 1.8 million hits.
This has me literally giddy with anticipation, see I am a consultant, which my mom thinks is code for being unemployed, and about 55% of my firm’s business world-wide is Microsoft-related. I have half a mind to switch practices from Strategy and Transformation to MS (though those practitioners do look hostilely at my Blackberry let alone my Macbook Pro).
In short, fixing all that broken .NET code out there in corporate America will be tantamount to the Y2K effort 10 years ago; a license to print money for consultants. From the bottom of my heart, Thank you Bill.
Now why should anybody who reads Cult of Mac care about this, other than some kind of surrogate pleasure to be gained from my anticipated financial success?
Because, friends, Microsoft’s lock on corporate IT has every everything to do with backwards compatibility. Should Redmond choose to proceed with this folly, our ranks (of Mac loyalists) are destined to swell such that I might have to consider something other than my MB Pro to make me cool and hip in the eyes of our college hires (as-if… might I suggest a really expensive (and thus exclusive) accessory, like a tablet. –ed)
Apple announced on Thursday that they have surpassed Wal-Mart to become the number one music retailer in the U.S. The numbers come from the NPD Group.
"We launched iTunes less than five years ago, and it has now become the number one music retailer in the world," said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. "We are thrilled, and would like to thank all of our customers for helping us reach this incredible milestone."
Apple said that the announcement was "based on data from market research firm the NPD Group’s MusicWatch survey that captures consumer reported past week unit purchases and counts one CD representing 12 tracks, excluding wireless transactions. The iTunes Store became the largest music retailer in the U.S. based on the amount of music sold during January and February 2008."
Apple has been steadily climbing the charts in this respect. Apple's CEO, Steve Jobs, has shown the sales position of Apple's iTunes at major keynotes and the suggestion was always that Wal-Mart, in Apple's sights, would eventually be surpassed by iTunes. Thursday's announcement punctuates those keynote slides even more, and chances are, there will be a big smile on Mr. Jobs face during WWDC's keynote.
Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal just said that the 3G iPhone will come out in 60 days. I believe him. Fast forward to the 6 minute and 50 second mark.
Remember that cool video we showed you a while back that had an iPhone getting "pwned" by and iTunes-installed firmware? The clever iPhone hackers out there showed off how to make your iTunes application install a pre-jailbroken firmware onto your iPhone. Now, the iPhone Dev Team has released their iPhone PwnageTool Application that puts the power of pre-jailbroken firmwares in your hand.
Remember that little outfit that 
