Monthly Archives: August 2008

[e-Biz] Google’s Android Market feels like Apple’s AppStore

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It looks like Google learned from Apple in the question how to distribute content and useful applications to the customer. Google will introduce a marketplace, that is quite similiar to what Apple already introduces as AppStore. As Google puts it: “We chose the term “market” rather than “store” because we feel that developers should have an open and unobstructed environment to make their content available. Similar to YouTube, content can debut in the marketplace after only three simple steps: register as a merchant, upload and describe your content and publish it.”

Google also plans to integrate a wide range of statistics and analytic tools to the developers. More infos and more photos to be found here. We feel like Android’s GUI looks like Google learned a lot more from Apple than other companies in this short time. Isn’t it sarcastic, that Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt is member of Apple’s Board of Directors?

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[iPhone] QuickPwn 1.0 for MacOS X released

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Our fellow iPhone Dev Team yesterday finally released QuickPwn for MacOS X. Sadly the Dev Team in the first place only provided a .torrent link (get torrent here) for distribution. We will come up with further details soon. For now: there are no reports about bugs about this version for Mac ,yet. Use “Archive Utility” to unpack, otherwise permission may be screwed up. Thumbs up for the Dev Team.

SHA1 sum: QuickPwn_1.0.0.tbz (via torrent) = 22ee0d6814a6bac9b1b9a8c7715dd714bd6bb449

[Update] Download QuickPwn 1.0 for Mac from these mirror locations now: RapidShare and iPhone-Hacks.com.

[DVB] Rumors about Nagra 3 Hack

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In german speaking forums rumors circulate saying the new crypto system for some european Pay TV providers (D+ / TVCabo, Premiere) Nagra 3 has been commercially hacked.

An emulator smart card called “Centaurus” is said to be available on the european grey markets within the next two weeks. This has not been confirmed, as said: this is rumors only.

More details about the Nagra encryption and Kudelski the company behind.

Update November 14th, 2008: The whole Centaurus shabang is fake.

[iPhone] PwnageTool Release Candidate 3 and QuickPwn Beta updated

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Our beloved iPhone Dev Team yesterday released updated versions of QuickPwn for Microsoft Windows (now with improved Windows 64bit handling) and PwnageTool for MacOS X (fixes the permission issue, mentioned here). If you have PwnageTool installed yet, it should bravely auto-update.

We had no time yet to test neither the Windows version nor the Mac version. Firmware 2.0.2 is reported to be only a series of bugfixes. People report, their devices run a little smoother. If you don’t encounter problems running your current iPhone / iPod Touch firmware, we would not recommend to update right now. It is rumored Apple will the release stable firmware 2.1 in september.

» Windows QuickPwn RC3 Download here…
» MacOS X PwnageTool 2.0.3.1 Download here (mirror here)…

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[e-Biz] Apple to replace MagSafe Power Adapters

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Many MacBook and MacBook Pro users already experiences problems with their MagSafe power adapters. Apple now reacts to this issue and replaces all MagSafe adapters no matter if your device is out of warranty or not. Go here to demand a replacement. Apple usually ships within 48hrs to your door.

In contrast to Apple’s shown picture our problem with the rubber molding appears on the other end of the cable.

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[internal] Server under Maintenance until Thursday, 28th of August

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Our provider informed us that their upgrading the server. They hope to get this fixed until wednesday evening (european time)! We apologize for any inconveniences in advance.In the meantime our news-services will not be (fully) available.

Our services will be fully accessible at latest on Thursday 28/08/2008. Take care and enjoy your iPhones, Hackintoshs or your family :-)

Metapapa

[iPhone] 3G Cases get Cracks

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More and more people are reporting that their iPhone 3G cases are cracking sooner or later. It is well visible on white devices, but we exect the black ones to be as fragile as the white ones. The only difference is: a crack can be seen much better on a white case. Anyway ehPhone.ca from Canada show how those cracked cases look like.

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[iPhone] Firmware 2.1 breaks OpenClip API

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OpenClip.org announced that iPhone firmware 2.1 will break the concept of copy and paste. As reported earlier (read here) this concept was the only to obtain a clipboard on the iPhone. iPhones still lack support for data exchange between applications, that are yet normal to Windows Mobile users.

[iPhone] Status Report for iPhone 3G Unlock Solutions

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Abstract

There have been rumors about circumventing that annoying SIM lock. As Geohot stated (read here), modifying the 3G baseband will not be an easy task. Because this task still needs to be solved, some guys thought bypassing simlock by using Proxy SIMs might be a good idea for 3G iPhones as well.

Differences between 2G and 3G iPhones

For 2G iPhones Proxy SIMs worked very good, because only the iPhone checked once at startup, if the SIM is from a supported country and carrier. SIM Proxys faked this first answer only and gave control back to the real SIM card, which has been asked for all details (IMSI, Country Code etc.) again. The then gotten details have been used to transfer to the network and to try to log in.

After investigating in the Proxy SIM possibilities for the 3G iPhone the iPhone Dev Team (namely: _ZF) stated that in contrast to the behaviour with 2G Proxy SIM solutions, the behaviour of 3G basebands is like transferring the first gotten IMSI code to the network. This means: for 3G iPhones the Proxy SIM will fake a test IMSI card and the iPhone will send this test IMSI code to the carrier to log in.

Legal and technical issues with 3G Proxy SIMs

Although applying methods like this in order to unlock the iPhone 3G is most likely illegal in many countries (because it violates contract), members of the Hackint0sh forum have played with Proxy SIMs on different networks in the world.

As expected the results are disappointing. Besides the questionable legal status of those operations there have been heavy technical problems.

  1. First being support for 3G. Currently no Proxy SIM supports it. You can only surf the net and check emails and so on using 2G/EDGE/GPRS technology – means same functions like with a 2G iPhone.
  2. Second being the problem of the IMSI fake ID. At least european carriers seem to have applied security precautions to their networks. After some time you will be logged out of the network. This may take some minutes to some hours.
  3. Third being the problem that people reported the Proxy SIMs are still too thick. Several people broke their trays when trying to release the tray from the iPhone.

Types and Brands of Proxy SIMs

Tested cards include:

Currently none of these Proxy SIMs work reliable (cf. iPhone Wiki). Our recommendation is simple: keep on waiting, the iPhone Dev Team will make it sooner or later. In case you cannot wait, get yourself a factory unlocked iPhone 3G from one of the countries supplying them (see country list here) and save precious life time.