How to Get Sued Into Oblivion by Apple (or How Much Would You Pay For a Jailbreak?)

By Steven J. Campbell








If you read my last guide on how to jailbreak an iPhone (located here: http://bit.ly/5n7zCG ) then you are familiar with the name GeoHot who is the man behind the Blackra1n software that jailbreaks an iPhone.

TETHERED VS UNTETHERED JAILBREAK:

Before we continue, I must explain these terms. To the unfamiliar it can be slightly confusing.

Newer iPhone 3gs models and 3rd generation iPod Touch models use andofferent type of memory than earlier models (this has nothing to do with software but only depends on the hardware inside the device.) This means that the Blackra1n software used to jailbreak them cannot make permanent changes to the memory.
As a result, if a newer model idevice is restarted or has a complete battery drain it will not restart properly unless connected to a computer which runs the blackra1n program again. This "tethers" the phone and this is called a tethered jailbreak.

All other idevice models will reboot with no problems after a jailbreak.

THE PRICE OF FREEDOM:

Recently geohot posted this to his Twitter feed:

"ACEPOLLS.COM - Do you want a dongle to boot tethered iDevice on the road? If demand is high enough, I may build http://bit.l..."

So what is geohot implying? It seems logical that he could be able to build a small device that would simply run the blackra1n code on the device it is attached to. You could just press a button and have it run and reboot your device.
Sounds great.

Does this mean that there is no software fix for the new hardware in the retail chain?

That's strange because Geohot offered an untethered jailbreak late last year if people helped him win the red baloon challenge (which would have netted him $10,000)

A second theory is that this is a way to make money. Sell the device, collect a profit. It all seems to work perfectly, doesn't it?

ALONG CAME APPLE AND A JOB(S)

I can't imagine that apple would stand for this. They already have tried to make jailbreaking illiegal and claim that it voids warranty on the users device.
When PsyStar bypassed the apple EULA (end user license agreement) by installing the OS X operating system on non apple hardware. They were sued repeatedly, and lost in court.

If Geohot begins to profit from his work few would argue that it was unwarranted. He does after all provide an amazing service to all of the end users who want some freedom over the apple ecosystem, but directly profiting off the community will definately rub some the wrong way, and worst of all the all might Apple.

Let the battle begin.