Category Archives: News

[Linux] Open-Xchange Server 6 for Debian

The free version of Open-Xchange has eventually been released for different Linux distributions. Binary versions are built using the OpenSuSE Build Service and are currently provided for

  • Debian 4.0
  • Fedora 8
  • OpenSuSE 10.2, 10.3 and 11.0
  • Ubuntu 7.04, 7.10, 8.04

Open-Xchange contains groupware functions like eMail, calendar and administration of contacts. It is based on Java and uses an Ajax webinterface. It is provided under the GPL.

A quick install guide for our Debian users can be found here.

[e-Biz] Mac Clone Supplier Psystar sued by Apple

Eventually Apple sues Psystar for having broken license terms and having committed copyright infringement of MacOS X 10.5 Leopard and Leopard Server. Psystar offers PCs pre-installed with MacOS X Leopard. As reported in german media heise.de Apple claims these points:

  • Psystar may have broken Apple’s license terms that allow installing MacOS X Leopard only on “Apple-labeled computers”. Apple says this means “Apple manufactured hardware”.The debate about what an “Apple-labeled computer” exactly is, is as old as tutorials that deal with installing MacOS X Tiger and Leopard on white box PCs. People in forums were joking about putting an original Apple sticker on your PC case may fit the necessity of the notion “Apple-labeled computer”. Obviously this is not enuff and Apple’s guerilla strategy comes to an end when other companies begin to develop business model out of their work. This will be a major topic and we are quite curious how Apple will explain the notion “Apple-labeled computer”.
  • Psystar may have violated Apple’s copyrights by providing modified MacOS X updates for their “Open Computer” customers.
  • Psystar may have damaged Apple’s brand, because of Psystar’s support for MacOS X being poor.

Apple’s lawsuit comprises of 35 pages and was issued shortly after Psystar began distributing a modified version of the Mac OS X 10.5.4 update. An online version of it can be viewed here.

We yet reported about Psystar’s business here:

» The never ending Psystar Story
» Psystar offers OpenPro
» Psystar offers Mac Clone

[e-Biz] MobileMe: The Rest of Exchange for Us

Apple’s MobileMe – the successor of .Mac, silently changed description of their offered services. You remember the advertisement “Exchange for the Rest of us”? Now Apple decided to remove the notion “Push-Service” of MobileMe and replaced it with the notion “Synchronization”.

Instead of being pushed instantly, data will now be synchronized every 15 minutes. That simply is not a push-service. Update: an instant sync will still be possible when using an iPhone or an iPod Touch. The price will remain the same (at least) in Europe: 80€/year.

[iPhone] XPwn Command Line Utility released

As member of the iPhone Dev Team, planetbeing today released “XPwn”. He describes “XPwn” as an experimental pwnage tool for Linux. Although XPwn was proposedly developed for Linux users, it actually is a cross-platform tool for command line users. Update: It does not support firmware 2.0 yet.

Warning

The XPwn tool is not intended to be used by newbies. That’s why it’s called experimental pwnage tool. It provides a command line interface only, what means you can dreadfully screw up your iPhones using it. The first version of XPwn seemed to have issues when writing the NOR firmware. Although planetbeing has obviously fixed this problem, we really recommend to wait for Pwnage 2.0.

XPwn’s versions

Experimental Pwnage comes in different flavours:

XPwn’s features

Experimental Pwnage implements many of Apple’s proprietary container formats: img2, 8900, complzss, iBootIm, dmg, HFS+/HFSX.

Nice work. Congrats to planetbeing. See XPwn hackint0sh thread here.

[iPhone] Is German T-Mobile about to bar Sipgate’s VoIP client?

It is rumored in german media, that T-Mobile is about to bar Sipgate’s application, that allows the iPhone to use Sipgate’s Voice-Over-IP (VoIP) services. T-Mobile argues Sipgate’s makes use of unfair business practices (like requiring to jailbreak in order to install Sipgate’s client) to pull customers from T-Mobile to Sipgate.

[iPhone] One Million 3G iPhones sold

Only three days ago on friday, 11th 2008 the iPhone 3G has been launched in 21 countries. Until saturday, 12th (means on first weekend) one million 3G iPhones have been sold. Last year it took 74 days to sell that amount of iPhones. Steve Jobs will be very glad about this. Since this makes about 7 million possible customers for Apple’s App-Store…

[iPhone] Geohot confirms 3G uses new Bootloader

Although we didn’t get our hands on a new iPhone 3G yet, things are as expected: the iPhone 3G uses a new bootloader for its baseband modem as confirmed by Geohot.

Bootloader versions from the “old” iPhones

As far as we are aware the there are those 3 different bootloader versions known on old iPhones:

  • 3.8 (very rare)
  • 3.9 (iPhones before november 2007) and
  • 4.6 (iPhones after november 2007).

It is widely known, that exploits for these old bootloaders have been found, that allow to SIM unlock any of these old iPhones. No matter which software revision is running.

No Unlock for iPhone 3G, but for old iPhones

For the new iPhone 3G bootloader, there is no (public) exploit known yet. Although the iPhone Dev Team states they can unlock firmware 2.0 – the unlock is most likely meant to work on “old” iPhones only. The only exploit yet known (in both old and new iPhones) is an iBoot bug. The iPhone Dev Team provided a video showing Pwnage Tool neutering the baseband for firmware 2.0:

Video: Pwnage Tool Bootneuter on firmware 2.0 (on an old iPhone)

Bootneuter 2.0 from iphonedev on Vimeo.

A new jailbreak for iPhone 3G and old iPhones

The Pwnage Tool 2.0 (and Geohot’s yiPhone) will most likely feature an iBoot bug to jailbreak old and new iPhones. iBoot is needed by iTunes to talk to when restoring firmware. About a year ago, Geohot found out that iBoot provides a full interactive shell. The only problem was, iBoot only allowed signed code to run. The iPhone Dev Team now managed to break the chain of trust from the earliest boot stage. Thus allowing to run unsigned code and in the end jailbreaking old and new iPhones (see video):

Video: Talking to iBoot unsigned

Talking to iBoot? from iphonedev on Vimeo.

Both videos are provided by iPhone Dev Team. Kudos to you guys.

[Muzaq] Reclaim the Beats at Cassiopeia’s

Whenever you visit Berlin and you like independent Techno and Electro, we got a nice hint for you. You gotta see the Cassiopeia in the Friedrichshain district. As a matter of chance our team went to the Cassiopeia place yesterday and enjoyed accidently an event named “Reclaim the Beats“.

Reclaim the Beats

To make things shorts as possible. That were by far the most intelligent sounds we’ve heard for a long time. The guys playing the records on the floor under the roof were almost half as young as we am, but we take a bow in deepest respect. You guys definitly have shown a unique taste for sounds. Reclaim the Beats is the only adequate wording for that event. We’d recommend to simply call it DIT (Demanding intelligent Techno). Information and dates of Reclaim the Beats to be found here.

Cassiopeia

The Cassiopeia is fairly unique in Berlin. It’s got three club locations, and indoor skate park, a beer garden, probably the largest climbing tower in Berlin and many more things to discover. The price of a Caipirinha is at 5€. More information to be found here

[iPhone] Pwnage Tool for Firmware 2.0

Update 15.07.2008: iPhone 3G allegedly unlocked using SIM Adapter (read here)
Update 15.07.2008: XPwn command line utility released by iPhone Dev Team (read here)

Update 14.07.2008: Geohot confirms that iPhone 3G got a new bootloader (read here)

It is rumored, the Pwnage Tool for firmware 2.0 (= firmware 1.2) will not be released this weekend. Enjoy youself and don’t play around until we tell you.

Anyway the iPhone Dev Team has released a video of Pwnage Tool 2.0. See here:

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