Leaked: Apple Stealing All FaceTime Information, AT&T Locks Users via OTA Updates
An Apple employee (call him “Alpha”) who works in the iPhone Development Department has leaked some information to us recently, most of which will come as a surprise to many. The amount of shocking information leaked is beyond the grasp of an individual and shows how far Apple and AT&T will go to lock their users and steal their information while they have no clue about it.
Just to clarify, I will not disclose his name because he personally asked me not to since he didn’t wanted to end up like Gray Powell. The proofs are given down in this article to verify the credibility of this leak.
Editor’s Note [July 1st]: For the record, we were wrong about AT&T locking all US iPhone owners. Their OTA updates actually check the settings and make sure they are up-to-date. If the settings are not updated, the internet will be disabled. You can only regain access when you upgrade to the latest carrier update. Read more about it here.
We apologize for the error in our part, our source has apologized for it as well. We will be covering more leaks as they come out and will double check them before posting.
First off, we will divide the leaks into different topics in order of the communication that took place.
- With iOS 4, AT&T locks all US iPhone owners to their network via regular OTA updates.
- AT&T shipped some iPhone 4 early to verify their OTA update system.
- Apple stealing user information via FaceTime, which lacks encryption.
- Some Apple employees who are aware of this situation are not updating to iOS 4.
At&T Locking iOS 4 Users via regular ota updates
According to “Alpha”, in iOS 4 there is a line of code which they wrote that sends OTA (Over The Air) updates to the user every 7-14 days which detects and locks the system if it is not using AT&T network. Also AT&T and Apple have 6 months worth of OTA updates in their server which “Alpha” himself checked.
Another important tidbit is that when users call Apple Care Support, all information is displayed, including the jailbreak and baseband version. Also the Apple staff have been instructed to not help such users because they broke the contract rule. The full message, including how OTA will work, is below.
As far as Base Bands go it does not matter what baseband you TRY to get on the iPhone cause in the iOS4 there is a line of code we wrote that stands for OAU also known as “Over Air Updates”. How it works is every 7 to 14 days We (Apple) and AT&T send a message to your iPhone that gathers some data from your iPhone without you knowing and we see what is running, baseband and firmware. We then send a following message. “There are optional updates for your iPhone, Would you like to install them now?” two options “Yes” or “Later”. Those are what would would call “OPTIONAL UPDATES” Now there are things called “MANDATORY UPDATES”. They tend to work the same way, grab data from the iPhones sends it to AT&T and us then back to your iPhone with the message, “Your iPhone (name of iphone) must be updated to the current AT&T standards to run”, your only option is to “Accept” Now you can try to work your way around it until you get the second mandatory message again “You must plug iPhone into iTunes and update” If you don’t do this you will then receive no Signal from the network anymore and your iPhone will potentially lock up with no signs of use until you update your iPhone via iTunes. You all agreed to this terms and condition when you installed iTunes 9.2 and then again once you updated to iOS4.
With that being Said go ahead Try to unlock the iPhone it will only last 14 days max then you will have to break that update for that one week then again and again we currently have 6 months worth of updates for this iOS4. Apple and AT&T now have complete control over their iPhones and what their customers are putting on them without them knowing anything about it. Many of the people I work with don’t agree with this but even in our computers when people call in to Apple Care Support we can see if your iPhone is running a jailbreak and what baseband is currently on the iPhone. We have been instructed to not support any one with these things and possible void your warranty of the iPhone for Breaking a contract Rule.
Furthermore, he writes;
The reason why I am leaking some of this info is cause I don’t think its right that we are essentially controlling peoples iPhones.
Its their property once it leaves our retail stores and people need to know what they are getting into.
Later he shares a screenshot saying that this is only an optional update, the mandatory ones are nasty. This screenshot, according to him, was just pulled but is similar to the one in Apple’s database. On further research I found that Canadian users on Rogers network are already getting optional OTA updates.
Finally, I asked him what if users challenge my credibility, along with another important question regarding users who are living outside US. As for the first question, he replied that people just have to wait since it is a matter of time before they start getting AT&T OTA updates. While he had no clue about users living outside US since his department does not support them.
Update: Many users are confused how this works. Just to clarify, those who receive the updates will be safe while those who don’t get it, their phones will be locked.
What its doing (supposedly) is sending an update without which the phone would lock down, only affecting those on a different network that won’t get the signal.
The lack of the “update” is what does the damage. Not on the network, no update. Thus, your phone gets locked down.
Thanks to a Gizmodo commenter for clearing this up.
AT&T shipped some iPhone 4 early to verify their OTA update system
Most users who preordered iPhone 4 were happy to see their devices reaching early, little did they know that AT&T did it deliberately so that they can test their network update system. He also talks about why Apple held off the Canada release.
The chat took place at night when “Alpha” was pretty tired so you will see lots of typos in the above screenshot (which is normal when you are trying to type fast).
Apple stealing user information via FaceTime
FaceTime is the most celebrated feature of iPhone 4 but most users are clueless about what goes behind it. According to Alpha, “FaceTime is going be the biggest privacy break ever. It was the first thing that kinda set me on a rampage to leak info.”
So what is wrong with FaceTime? Alpha explains it while losing his patience.
I will let you off with one last bit of information if your gonna write a story on this and that is Facetime, the iPhone 4 to iPhone 4 Wifi video connecting. The issue is with Wifi is that anyone can get on a Wifi Signal and potentially see what the viewers and broadcasters are looking at without them know, now Apple will deny this and say its not our problem you where not on a secure connection, in my mind I think that its all bullshit.
People should be able to have some type of security during those calls. Worst yet is once a person connects to another person on FaceTime it for some reason non of us in the office can figure out, sends us APPLE a message and says those two people are connecting via Facetime and gives out their location to us. So for whatever reason we need that information just blows my mind. As a consumer why would you need to let Apple know that you are connecting with a person via FaceTime, its non of Apple’s business.
When I asked further about FaceTime, he replied that nobody in the office has any clue as to why Apple wants this information and for what purpose but it was confirmed that their servers were receiving messages (with location of users) when any two people connected via FaceTime.
I have to agree with Alpha’s statement about the lack of encryption in FaceTime. After all, since Apple wanted to send themselves user data, encryption could have prevented that. This could be one big reason why they didn’t bother adding security to FaceTime.
Apple Employees Not Updating Their iPhone to iOS 4
According to Alpha, some people who work in the iPhone department are reluctant to update to the latest iOS 4 since it breaches their privacy. One of his co-worker mistakenly updated to iOS 4.0, so “Alpha” downgraded the OS back to version 3.1.2 and listed the step-by-step guide so others can follow it as well.
It was not surprising to find him say that most people in their department are using jailbroken iPhone devices. Some excerpts of the conversation are in the screenshot below.
Conclusion
We believe Alpha because he is a trusted Apple insider and has answered pretty much everything I asked. We discussed a lot of other topics related to Apple which aren’t mentioned in this post, he knows some information that only few Apple employees are knowledgeable about.
He promises to provide me with further information, including screenshots when he gets hold of them. At the moment, he says it is near impossible to do so because, “if you plug in a flash drive to any MAC in our building within 30 seconds people will show up there and stop you. Also you will be terminated on the spot.”
At one point he requested to keep him anonymous because he was afraid that he might get crucified for leaking this information. Being our insider source, we had to comply. At another point during the conversation he said, “I will tell you this right now the things I am saying if you where to go to Jobs himself he would deny.”
He has promised to answer every question, so if you have anything to ask, feel free to leave a comment below. I will personally ask him and reply to your comment with the answer. He is making a risky decision but also one that is worth it, he tells me.
Update: I cannot lose the credibility of this blog, so I am going to update this post with any proof that he shares, which is promises to do so. Also I will ask him to verify that he is indeed an Apple employee, which I already did but will ask him for more proof in this regard. For all haters down in the comments, calm down. It could be just another rumor or it could come out to be true, perhaps Apple might include it in the next update of iOS 4, we cannot be sure. We wrote above what we believe our source knows. We did not make up any of the story, he asked me not to associate any nickames with him but in order to make it easier for understanding, I named this leaker “Alpha”. I will update this article soon within a few hours with any further information I can get my hands on.
Update 2: The person is legit, double confirmed it. Also I now have the screenshot. Expect a whole new post with more details soon.
Update 3: The proof of FaceTime is out. About the OTA update you guys will have to wait a few days since I need to confirm and gather more evidence. You can check out the FaceTime screenshot here.
Update 4: Some important clarification, when asked “If users have unlocked iPhones and are using it on another carrier, will AT&T still able to send OTA updates?”, He says “No” but adds “Apple can see if you give us that serial number or call us from that iPhone, what’s on it. They can also see if it is unlocked or jailbroken”.
When I asked, “if Apple can deactivate it when it is on another carrier?”, He says, “No, but they will void all warranty, not give you any support, and black flag the iPhone so you cannot even sell it on eBay”. Later he says, “if a buyer gets a jailbroken iPhone and calls Apple, they will not help him and notify him that the phone is flagged and he just got screwed.”
Final Update: A lot of people seem to be confused if this person is from “iPhone development” team or “iPhone Support” team, the answer is latter and the proofs are here. Sorry for mentioning “development” team earlier because I misread his conversation. He has access to all Apple internals which are made available to the Apple iPhone Support team across the US.
Among other things he has unveiled is thatiOS 4.1 will be out later this week and the issue is with software rather than Hardware.
AppleInsider seems to have busted this myth. They have an article showing how FaceTime works.
Editor’s Notes: Just to clarify, AddictiveTips have nothing against Apple. The reason we choose to write this article and the reason “Alpha” choose to leak the information was simply because the users who own an Apple product have the right to know.
can you give me a info of anybody
I think it is utterly INSANE that people DO NOT believe this.
The same delusional people probably voted for obama…(and still think he’s fulfilling his promises)
Welcome to the 21st century folks!
Let me guess, google is a trustworthy an ethical company too.
WOW, I am so pleased to know there is nothing to worry about with these huge corporate machines, and that they protect us down to the iota.
get real.
Anyone who thinks that has a strong case of denial…
…or works for them.
Anyway, one who seeks the REAL truth can do a few simple searches to uncover the lies.
For now anyway…
i think this story is legit. who cares if he called it an ‘itouch’? FYI, even steve jobs uses a jailbroken iphone. iPhone5 cases blog
I have a factory unlocked 4g, which was jailbroken but the facetime feature was not working so i upgraded to 4.1 and its still not working can anyone please help me.
Facetime is visible in settings>phone, it is on and says your number will be shared etc… but when i call another 4g it keeps ringing even if the other person answers, and if anyone calls me i dont get a call. PLZ PLZ HELP WILL REALLY APPRECIATE IT.. cuz im freaking out its a brand new phone. Im in India (FaceTime is working on other 4gs here)
they already removed my facetime option after i updated my ios, uncivilized, i cant even own my device, have they learn anything, THIS WILL JUST FUEL ME TOP JAILBREAK TOMORROW
Middle east iPhones have Face-time Removed completely after 4.1 update, its
really not civilized from Apple. models sold in Saudi Arabia, UAE
have these numbers:
MC605AE/A and MC603AE
iPhone 4 units
sold by the following carriers:
*Saudi Arabia: Mobily
*UAE:Etisalat
iOS 4.1 kills facetime on specific iPhone 4 units. you
will have FaceTime deactivated once you upgrade to iOS 4.1 (from iOS
4.0.2)
Hey can you tell me where model number MC603B or MC603ZP from?
A – FaceTime Community
Where You Not Only Can Meet New People, but CONTACT Them…FACE 2 FACE! ™
http://face2facecontacts.com/
I have never seen so many ignorant people before. One comment that makes me laugh is the one about him wanting his identity hidden and that its a fairy tale. This is a huge corporation and these people that work there are making some good money not including benefits and cheaper prices for their products and they do make good stuff. If this does go into the privacy of the people this would upset someone. A lot of things are happening today with our rights being trampled on and with all the invasion of privacy its getting ridiculous and we need people to speak up. If this is true I would hope that these insiders who are witnessing this will find evidence and share it to the appropriate authorities. You would be surprised how many companies do this and will go through a lot to get any information they can for many reasons. Marketing is huge and any information to help a company be the top dog is treasured. I wouldnt doubt anything because apple is a big lier and greedy as they come. One example is the 3.1.3 firmware update. The reason for it was to mess with jailbreaks. They use the excuse it was for the battery but they did not share everything that was in it. We bought our devices and they still own it. Ya!!! You see they want to say what you should do with our devices. Now that jailbreaking has been said to be completely legal and fairgame they want to know everything. I wouldnt put it past them to try to put something in your device to mess up your jailbreaking. There are a lot of conspiracies about tons of things out there today but did you know that behind every legit conspiracy there is some truth to it or even all true. People today have become so lost because of media, television that they think anything that might stir their little world must be bull and that the word conspiracy has become a word that everyone sees as not being a possibility. Once you attach that word to a sentence everyone cries hollywood, movies,fairytales. Theres a lot going on today but everyone is blind because they need to unplug.lol. Thats a fact. Technology has made people lazy in many ways, which has allowed certain people to become the powers to be and this is one of those instances where our rights are slowly, being taken away. You cant even have a discussion because of fear. Those who are quick to curse, call people names, and discredit or make fun of anyone who discusses a conspiracy theory or what I like to call the basic truth the majority of the time, are a people with fear all over there face but will not admit the possiblility because they are to scared to even discuss its reality. Unplug and educate yourselves and always keep an open mind. Just look to the past, history will show you all that took place and all that is possible. You might be saying this is just apple. No!!! This is our freedom, our rights, and our privacy. Last thing I will say. Research before you yap and also look at how much privacy has been discussed and how much we have lost since 9/11. Dont be fools because these corporations and governments are all one way connected
I have worked for Apple. I call bullshit. This person didn’t just have a few typos, those are outright spelling mistakes. This is some 16 year old kid fucking with you.
I call BS. Your poster is obviously semi-literate. A supposedly Apple employee who gets common Apple acronyms and abbreviations wrong. I can tell you for a fact that “most” Apple employees do not have jailbroken iPhones. You say you have proven and double checked this but you don’t say how. I think you are doing this for page views.
I see a lot of very uninformed comments here. You can opt out of location services which Apple has publicized.
Google collects dramatically more personal information. Somehow Apple is the bad guy for the jealous and uninformed.
Carriers are highly regulated because they are a public resource. All carriers have a legal responsibility to keep their connectivity secure and reliable. All of them collect extensive information for this purpose.
there has to be a way to modify a host file or something to disable this info leak when the phone is jailbreak.
I can confirm that the last time I called into iPhone support, the agent knew my firmware and baseband version as he stated them to me and asked if I had jailbroken my iPhone. I played stupid and said what is jailbreaking? He helped me anyway.
this is cop & paste from: http://thefirmwareumbrella.blogspot.com/2010_02_01_archive.html
As many of you have noticed, the new shsh files contain a new key named APTicket. I still need to do a more thorough investigation of this key but my gut tells me that it is an indication that Apple intends to try to stop us from bypassing their TSS server for local restores.
My guess is that in future versions of iTunes, Apple will probably handle the TSS request/response and later this year implement the code to process the response in the actual bootrom of the device. Here’s what I mean:
1. The newer iTunes versions will send a certificate request in the TSS request by adding a new key to the TSS request.
2. Their TSS server will create a new certificate with an effective date attached to it. (Making it invalid if used after that date)
3. Until the new bootrom rolls out, iTunes will handle the decrypting of the response blobs using the nifty new signed certificate response ala APTicket.
4. Once Apple ships new devices with the bootrom capable of validating the new APTicket (or whatever they call it in the future) they can add logic to check the bootrom of the device and conditionally process the response from the TSS server(for old bootroms) or allow the device to process it(for new bootroms).
Looking at the above, it’s a fairly bullet-proof means of stopping local restores. Since the APTicket will be signed and likely shsh’ed I wouldnt be surprised if they load APTicket or something like unto it BEFORE the LLB is loaded. This way they can not only control what VERSION of the firmware you install, they can also control WHEN you can install it by a means with far longer and sharper teeth.
If they implement the above, the only means of restoring will be via jailbroken device.
Fun times ahead for sure…
can i still jailbreak my phone and be okay? im still on AT&T but i can have cydia?
this is just part of what our goverments have in store for us,open your eyes people!
I call NOT BS. At least part of this is true. If you look at the agreement for iOS 4, quoted on Gizmodo: http://gizmodo.com/5569711/great-news-apple-now-knows-where-you-are-and-will-tell-others
Read from the software agreement from iOS4:
To provide location-based services on Apple products, Apple and our partners and licensees may collect, use, and share precise location data, including the real-time geographic location of your Apple computer or device. This location data is collected anonymously in a form that does not personally identify you and is used by Apple and our partners and licensees to provide and improve location-based products and services. For example, we may share geographic location with application providers when you opt in to their location services.
Even though it’s “anonymous”, all they have to do is match up the info to your device ID number or the habits you do on your iPhone and they know who you are. This also allows them to track the FaceTime thing. O_O
Please Help!
So I have an iPhone 3G and i am currently on firmware 3.1.3,
will I get affected too if I upgrade to iOS4? or does this only apply to the iPhone 4?
I don’t have plans to unlock my iPhone because I am with AT&T, my concern is that I won’t be able to jailbreak my iPhone in the future if I update to iOS4. What do you recomend I do if do want to jailbreak my iPhone 3G in the future? should I stay with 3.1.3 or downgrade to 3.1.2? or will I be fine jailbreaking on iOS4?
I don’t believe any of this.
AT&T can’t send a forced OTA updated to someone *not* on the network. It should be noted that they can, and *HAVE* in the past done OTA *carrier* update notifications, but again, as common sense dictates, you have to be on the network to receive that.
AT&T isn’t really too worried about unlocks. It should be noted that in the United States, you can buy the iPhone 4 locked or unlocked. When you buy it locked, it is activated on an account and you are locked into a contract that you must pay for, or pay an early termination fee (ETF). If you unlock and thus terminate early, the subsidy is taken care of by the ETF. If you buy the iPhone 4 unlocked, there is no subsidy, so AT&T isn’t losing any money.
And the only reason really to buy an iPhone in the US and have it unlocked is to take it out of the country since it’s not really going to work here where AT&T competes anyway (at least not 3G), which makes it pointless.
The key here is that there isn’t an “unlock problem” that AT&T needs to resolve by technology means…especially one that would involve bothering the end user and adding to their infrastructure and support costs.
If anything, they’d just put more pressure on Apple to block the jailbreaking methods, but really, Apple hasn’t been very assertive about blocking jailbreaks at all to date. It’s not that big of a deal.
It should also be noted that the alleged OTA disabling and blacklisting method would require cooperation with Apple. If Apple really wanted to be jerks about it, they’d simply have iTunes detect if the iPhone had been jailbroken and then disable it when connected. That’s not rocket surgery, it would be VERY easy, but Apple doesn’t want to be jerks about this.
As far as FaceTime. Two issues…one, lack of encryption and two, Apple tracking of info. For lack of encryption, that’s exactly what you should have set up on your WiFi connection if you care about security. If the network you’re connecting to isn’t using encryption, that’s a problem with the network, not with what apps you’re using on the network. It doesn’t really make sense to double-encrypt when efficiency is as critical as it is with mobile video chat.
As far as Apple knowing about the connections…of course. The SMS is needed because your phone number needs to be set up as a transparent username. That info needs to be stored in a database along with everyone you call. When you call someone that database needs to be referenced to make the connection. Knowing the location and other network information can help form the best routing for best communications. There’s really nothing to see here.
Uhhh…. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4224?viewlocale=en_US also I read the user agreement, everything matches up.
If they are able to remotely force-update your iPhone to prevent jailbreaking, I’m not worried. The jailbreak hackers can easily alter/disable/remove the code that does the OTA update and check-up system.
He wasn’t sure about international carriers but posted a screenshot of ROGERS Canada. Please be honest if you need a traffic boost. Not going to read this blog anymore when you become cheap enough to build traffic.
It occurred to me from at least one quote from “alpha”, That it sounds more like he works in an Apple Care Call Centre or something along those lines (saying when referring to Apple Care “WE can see if its jailbroken”, “WE have been instructed not to support” etc) and not in any dev role, if he was a Dev why would he be privvy to support policy or it be such a crux of his case? his “line of code” comment sounds a little iffy.. You’ve confirmed he actually worked on the makings of the iphone hardware/software and would actually have some real knowledge and isn’t some phone jockey or slightly higher up whos got spooked from all the scary half truths and rumours his other colleagues have thrown around and idiotic conclusions hes come to himself?
Secondly his vagueness and pretending hes somehow holds special secrets so he can wind back the mistakenly updated iphone from 4.0 to 3.x.x didnt sound all too convincing or ring true to me and if you’re able to use google or read any iphone hacking related sites, you too could do it.
None has argued about facetime that may be true.
The whole discussion was about OTA unlocking stuff which has been enforced by some prominent iPhone Hackers. So…………………………………
iPhone enthusiasts are getting the Omnicorp treatment.
Believe it, guys…. Apple’s not all cutesy computers and neat-o phones. They’re still pissed about the 80’s Macintosh debacle, and they’re assuring it never happens again by way of your security and anonymity.
What, you mean there’s ANOTHER evil corporate entity in disguise out there? Naaaaw.
Guess we will find if if you and Alpha are full of ….. in a few weeks.. If people who JB their phones lock we know its true… If not… We know its BS
It actually makes complete sense that FaceTime also sees where you are. Why? You have to connect w/ WiFi and it is done through Apple Servers. It would be logical for them to know your geographic location in order to optimize the route for the traffic. This doesn’t mean they are logging hours and hours of video chat though.
Also, having messages like “FaceTime chat started” with location printouts is a handy debugging tool, and any developer worth his salty puts in logging especially when things are initially being stress tested.
just because no ota updates come out in the next 14 days doesnt mean alpha’s wrong. apple must know that if those updates are released all of alphas information will be accepted as truth. no company would shoot themselves in the foot in that way.
Apple engineers are laughing at you.
FYI: Apple doesn’t hire people who can’t type or produce coherent sentences. This “Alpha” guy can barely string words together, let alone put them in an order that makes sense.
i smell a fanboy!
I don’t understand how this could be possible.
It’s been pointed out many times. If AT&T is the one sending these OTA’s, they won’t be able to send them to a phone not on the network.
Besides, I believe something else was pointed out: Aren’t iPhone updates for the firmware only announced through iTunes?
That person also pointed out that an earlier firmware could be used. I’m not sure if that’d be possible, but probably. It wouldn’t seem too hard to downgrade to a simpler iOS. It’d just mean you’d have to go online and download it, then hit the shift key while pressing restore. Simple, right? Maybe. :/
Besides, it’s been pointed out by a lot of others that Apple and AT&T already have a lot of other information on you, so why bother freaking out about this one as well.
The only thing that would suck if this is true is if you jailbreak your iPhone and they find out. If something bad happens… sucks for you.
Regarding Location Grab, Apple is being questioned by LawMakers http://voices.washingtonpost.com/posttech/2010/06/lawmakers_grill_apple_ceo_jobs.html
AT&T cannot push OTA updates to phones that aren’t running on their carrier. Hell, in the case of blackberry, they can’t even push OTA updates properly to people who ARE using their network.
This sounds a bit blown-up. I guess we’ll find out in 14 days.
FYI: If Apple locks your phone out, I’d suggest charging back the cost on your credit card. You paid for the phone and got it via legal means. You didn’t steal it. If they want to disable it post-sale, you aren’t obligated to pay for it.
Just an idea, the OTA killers are probabily being sent over push, so on your jailbroken device delete /system/library/launchdaemons/com.apple.apsd.plist
This would completely disable push services, Just an idea.
Im currently trying it
I guess you people did not hear yet the PWND FOR LIFE on the iPhone.Read on the article,and chill out,everybody!
I have a relative who works at Apple and since 2007 they have done several such individual updates that were not mandatory that did cause unlocked iphones to stop working. This was particularly a huge issue with the first iphone. None of this surprises me, and the only way to known for sure is to wait.
I’m really surprised by the number of people who claim to know the truth here and that Apple is pure as the driven snow. Take the information for what is worth and be cautious with what he has to say, but also what a corporation whose motive is profit has to say (Apple).
What, like it would be the first time a large company in the public eye lied big time and broke the law? Enron? Countrywide? Madoff? and so on and so on. There is no end to greed and what corps will try to get away with.
See now, even Apple is smart enough to know that by doing all this they will be destroying their own sales. After Geohot discovered the iPhone Unlock back in 2007 Apple’s sales went UP very high. Apple wouldn’t let that plummet for any reason so they’re not gonna do this. A lot of people in the world rely on unlocks and jailbreaks and as long as that is available the iPhone will be purchased and used. AT&T however I can understand why they would be pissed off but seriously what are they going to do? It’s Apples phone and AT&T PAYED for the ability and honor to have it on their network. Apple can easily move to another network without a care. This whole scam is a joke. This article is a joke. The Dev team will have a jailbreak out by next week
Well, If you could ask Alpha this,
Why is inserting a flash drive into a device at Apple treated so harshly?
Why would he risk termination to provide us with this info?
Hey guys, you can call it a fake but give the Guy a chance to prove it.
-first, it was explained many times that the lack of the “update” is the problem.
Which means that if the iPhone somehow knew there is an update and for some reason
you refuse to receive it. It would stop using the baseband. Could be explained as a key code
that gets changed every week or two, and if you don’t know the key, you can’t get in.
so, if apple has a 6 months update supply is not a surprise cause
they’ll send it every week or so and they have to be ready.
-second if this is true, I belive this was done based on a request
from AT&T because Apple wouldn’t gain anything from locking
the users to any carrier as they would be using their iPhones anyway.
-third, I think jailbroken only iPhones won’t be affected by the OTA updates
if they’re using AT&T because the update checks your baseband or your carrier.
However, you’ll lose support from Apple Care Services as they WILL know you’re
using a jailbroken iPhone and based on What “Alpha” said, They WON’T help you.
-Personally, I’ll wait and see if “Alpha” is right, and if he is then apple will have a lot to explain to the iPhone community.
Ohh, see all those butthurt applefags in the comments! So cute… not.
Aww, is Steve Ballmer Jobs feeling butthurt alluva sudden? What an Applefag. LOL
Some commenters here are plain stupid.
that joker who asks how about people traveling outside, will they get their phones turned off in 14 days question. If you read closely (your missing it has nothing to do with the writing skill of the author, it’s your own making), the author meant to say that alpha said that WHEN you have received an update, if you do not accept to update the phone THEN your phone locks up. So in your smart situation, traveling to S. Africa for 300 days, during which time you don’t get an update, that’s fine, but unless you don’t plan to come home, because as soon as you do, At&t sends you an update and it’s up to you to accept it or not. If you do, your 300 jailbroken phone reverts back to stock iphone4, if you don’t, your phone locks up . Clear?
As with the roaming comment, how can it even need explaining. Like movie theaters, they make their money largely through popped-corns and sodas, AT&T takes back the baseline cost through subscription and the takes its real $ through extra stuff like ring tones, over-usage’s, and you bet roaming. Like overdraft fees for a bank. If you wanna use a o2 card in Germany that’s jailbroken, that’s going to be fine as long as you don’t accidentally dock it on a itunes running computer. But if like you mentioned, using an AT&T sim card which shows up on your phone as o2, AT&T sure can’t get that update to you (I am actually not so sure about the future on this), but then they get back at you through roaming fees. Excuse me, how much do you pay per minutes of roaming? Go ahead, roam away, you’re welcome to any *broken phone if you are paying that premium. They might actually encourage you to.
And a few of the commentters say that this is fake info, why should others believe what you say is true then? You ask for proof of info, then I ask for proof, too, of your comment. And afterall, if the post turns out to be based on fake info, oh my god, are you okay? did you get hurt? You look okay. If it turns out to be based on true info, though, well, something else happen, something else that hopefully will turn things into a more beneficial position for the CONSUMERS, those people who pay. So these are the two outcomes for at the mercy of validity of this article, I much rather favor the latter, for people’s sake.
That’s completely incorrect, they can’t lock your phone down if it’s not visible on their network. Unless it’s got two cellular modems and two basebands, I highly doubt that the phone can or would receive messages from Apple or AT&T. This goes for any unlocked smartphone. Your original carrier cannot re-lock it automatically.
Why am I not surprised..
No mater what Apple does, loyalist WILL find ways to defend it..
They are all love closed source, because it’s Apple.. joke!
http:// yfrog.com / miautomotivatorj
Fake-o-rama.
Let’s see what happens if a real tech blog, you know, with actual journalists and fact-checking and ethics, actually pick up this story. Which they won’t, because the whole thing is made up for traffic.
How do you know?
Bullshit…
What if you are out of the US and use your phone to roam legally ? with your AT&T simcard in Germany you will be on O2… and NOT be able to get AT&T network messages.. will your phone be locked then>>?? you really think that other carriers will use their network to keep Iphones working that belong to AT&T ?? BULLSHIT ..
Fake as. My guess is “Alpha” works for android and they are now crapping bricks over iOs 4.
Nuff said
My Ericksson T39 has been getting OTA updates for 10 years! Good thing I wear a tin hat.
Let’s hear it for linkbait! Needed a traffic boost, did ya?
Fake. Fake. Fake.
A part of this sounds correct…did you ever notice that when one of your apps needs an update a (1) shows up on the AppStore app? How does apple know you need an update? I’m sure AT&T has a part on that as well. They probbably collect info on your phone and it’s apps and sends something to Apple. Then apple let’s AT&T know that one of your apps has an update…then low and behold you get the (1) on the AppStore. So I think that apple and your phone have been talking for a while. If this is true then the thing I’m going to hate is being forced to update.
Plus if the code is in the iOS 4 firmware have Alpha get us the code so MuscleNerd and the rest of the team can confirm the code is correct. I think that would be a good idea.
The bottom line is don’t buy an AT&T-locked iPhone if you are not comfortable using AT&T and sharing your current location and who you talk to for the next two years with Apple Inc. Don’t use FaceTime (or any similar VoIP product without SRTP support) for anything confidential (use Skype). Just don’t kid yourself into thinking you’re any better off with a device running Google software.
By the way, this Alpha guy is a criminal and since he’s working against the best interests of the US, he’s gotten himself into much bigger trouble than Steve Jobs firing him. As far as using Skype, you’re an idiot if you don’t think Skype can record your chats/calls/logs and share them with authorities who are tasked with investigating corporate espionage. If you were going to report on this, it would have been better to be more general and speak about this in terms of all carriers and modern manufacturers that run Google and Apple (and comparable) operating systems.
This is bullshit.
The “Facts” in the article that is.
I just checked out the activity monitor on my iPhone 4, I started up a FaceTime call and what do you know, securityd suddenly turned on!
For anyone who cares to inspect the iPhone4 baseband, it’s right there unencrypted (but zipped) in the iPhone4 ipsw (From Musclenerd’s twitter)
You can see for yourself exactly what goes on with a bit of time
Please verify your sources before posting such an article…and btw…i’m from Eastern Europe…then only in USA will brick the phones, in other countries not ?
I have a 2G jailbreaked, unlocked and hacktivated long before iPhone was sold in my country…and never heard of such a thing…
Bullshit.
Correct me if I’m wrong but you’re telling me Apple is going to send updates directly to my phone when I’m pretty sure the only way to update is by hooking up my phone to the computer in the first place?
And your comment about typos makes me feel like this isn’t real, if the facts itself weren’t enough Any representative wouldn’t be typing in that way when being interviewed
It isn’t that hard to downgrade. If people are paranoid they can go online, download 3.1.2 and be done.
so, if i jailbreak my iphone 4, they can brick my phone? even if i am on ATT?
Hmm little known blogger and a character named Alpha say this is real yet people who’ve contributed to the iPhone scene since before there was one say it isn’t.
Why are we wondering who’s telling the truth? When someone like Musclenerd comes out and says this is FUD it’s FUD….and this is FUD.
Can we find out more about what Apple’s employee’s have to say about this? How did they even find out about this?
Philo- from what I understand, no, that’s not the situation because those phones are on AT&T
So I have an iPhone 3G and i am currently on firmware 3.1.3,
will I get affected too if I upgrade to iOS4? or does this only apply to the iPhone 4?
I don’t have plans to unlock my iPhone because I am with AT&T, my concern is that I won’t be able to jailbreak my iPhone in the future if I update to iOS4. What do you recomend I do if do want to jailbreak my iPhone 3G in the future? should I stay with 3.1.3 or downgrade to 3.1.2? or will I be fine jailbreaking on iOS4?
So I have an iPhone 3G and i am currently on firmware 3.1.3,
will I get affected too if I upgrade to iOS4? or does this only apply to the iPhone 4?
I don’t have plans to unlock my iPhone because I am with AT&T, my concern is that I won’t be able to jailbreak my iPhone in the future if I update to iOS4. What do you recomend I do if do want to jailbreak my iPhone 3G in the future? should I stay with 3.1.3 or downgrade to 3.1.2? or will I be fine jailbreaking on iOS4?
thanks
So when you say, “The proofs are given down in this article to verify the credibility of this leak.” are you referring to the one screenshot that doesn’t even pertain to your argument or did I miss some more bullshit?
HELLO? HOW WILL AT$T SEND AN OTA UPDATE TO A PHONE THAT IS UNLOCKED AND ON TMOBILE’S NETWORK. silly twat. THEY CAN’T. some people are just tooooooo stoopid.
Hmm … to believe GeoHot and MuscleNerd or an unknown blogger? This is not a tough call.
The description provided by ‘Alpha’ demonstrates ignorance of basic CS.
They have ‘6 months’ of OTA updates saved up? Why? Why is this week’s ‘update’ different from next week’s and why is it a limited quantity? If the lock happens on the phone side only when the update is NOT received, the sent message would be the same: “Hello .. are you there and please check to see if you’re on the correct carrier.” Any time-based difference or encryption difference can (would, must) be automated .. thus refuting the idea of a ‘6 month supply’ of these updates. Pure ignorance.
Face-time tracks you somehow? Again, utter BS. As has been noted in these comments already, Apple has (if they want it) complete access to all of the information you store in your phone. They can track you by your own GPS. They can record your phone calls, record who you call and when, and they can record all your txt messages. They control the entire software ecosystem of your phone. Why, then, does Facetime suddenly present the ability to ‘track’ you? It doesn’t. This is just more scaremongering.
The claim regarding Facetime is that Apple can do it because it ‘lacks’ encryption. However, the encryption used on your phone uses keys that are stored ON YOUR PHONE and are therefore completely accessible to Apple at any time. Nothing that you do on your iPhone is inaccessible to Apple (unless you JB it and use software that hasn’t passed through their hands).
The real question is this: is ‘Nakodari’ lying to us or is he actually the victim of a (not-terribly-clever) false informant?
I’m amused by how quickly some apple apologists get downright violent and offensive…You’d have thought someone was posting pictures of Mohammed up in here 😮
Perhaps the ‘OTA’ updates they’re talking about aren’t traditional push updates from the carrier? Maybe iOS is *pulling* updates directly from apple? Just a wild guess…
That is just it people don’t realize its a line of code that is already in iOS 4 that says… Have you seen an update in 14 days… if yes be happy… if no please shut down immediately.
Again lets wait and see if this guys story pans out… it wont’ be long before people start saying YES I am being harassed every 2 weeks for OTA updates, or this dudes on crack I have had this for 3 weeks now never once asked for an update.
The utter lack of any security for face time will be called out soon enough. having your App rely on on WEP, WPA, WPA2 is a retarded move. And there are enough apple haters out there that will expose this quickly.
Both Nakodri and AppleInsider (alpha) should be elefentally fucked.
http://twitter.com/MuscleNerd/status/16876551921
Enough for now
“elefentally”? I find your lack of fluency disturbing…
If your source is accurate, could he provide documents to WikiLeaks or Cryptome? I’m sure they’ll be happy to slap the Apple-censorship-regime right into the face.
If your source is actually working at Apple and his claims about Apple staff using jailbroken devices, he should have no problems to use scp to copy internal documents via SSH. Apple shouldn’t have any problems whatsoever with iPhones being connected to their workstations, even though you can tunnel SSH through USB.
Please stay on this. If it’s a hoax: Shame on you, really.
@MuscleNerd just posted the following to his Twitter page:
“Common sense (and simple code inspection) shows that “leak” by “Alpha” about iPhone4 OTA re-locking to be silly FUD.”
This seems really simple. Apple is easily against rip off’s & such :: i.e. iTunes
& not being able to “legally” share/transfer music between devices once on there.
Even in it’ 4th gen, Apple still has a lot to work out & most of its in piracy & breach
of contract. It sucks that they have to go through such extremes to protect the integrity
of their brand and their pockets. As an Apple user for over 20 years, I’ve seen where
hackers are able to take things to the next level & as Apple gains more popularity amongst
the general public, they still have to maintain the idea that Apple has minimal virus/hacker-type
issues. Someone jailbreaks a phone, calls it in … It’s going to be presebted as an “Apple issue”
not the fact that the phone was hacked. You know that these wireless networks are shared in a sense so there IS NO such thing as “privacy” off gate. Operative word SHARED. You want to use the face chat app, make sure you’re on a private network …
Most of these things are nothin to get you panties in a bunch about it’s pretty much where society’s heading. Apple IS the “evil empire” so at the end of the day you join forces or step off. Either way, they’re doing BUSINESS that has to both appease the masses & protect their brand, essentially. They’re NOT gonna win them all people.
issues.
Don’t worry. Hackers will not let Apple to play with us.
Here is ih8sn0w’s response to this story
http://imgur.com/xdKUn.jpg
Don’t worry. Hackers will not let you in Middle. Here is ih8sn0w’s response to the story
http://imgur.com/xdKUn.jpg
Did he say if we can still use cut up SIMs in iphone 4? I bought my iphone 4 off ebay and was planning on using a gophone sim (cut up) with it because this worked on the 3g and 3gs. Will this still work since the sim is on AT&T?
Will we still have the option to jailbreak iOs 4? and will these updates brick jail broken devices?
No, apparently as long as your phone is on AT&T’s network, you’ll get the updates. If this is true, they will know if you jailbreak it and will void your warranty even if you restore it. :/
I’d say that some of this is a little… off and you shouldn’t worry about it unless you get one of those “optional updates.” If you do, don’t update and instantly restore.
But that’s all counting on if this is true or not.
Maybe what he is trying to say is that these OTA updates wont impact users who are already unlocked and on Tmobile, but if someone is on AT&T, it will check to make sure you are updated to the latest baseband (which isnt yet unlockable?) so they don’t lose anyone else to unlocking??
True, are ANY optional updates going to be applied to outside US? Both my friends have a 3GS (not unlocked/JBroken), and I take your point about waiting and seeing
I’m willing to give this guy a chance, so what if it isn’t true, whats the worst that could happen?
OK, so I live in the UK with an unlocked 1st Gen iPhone (hence, I can’t update to iOS4), but I’m still intrigued to know more about this.
– Are people with 1st Gen iPhone’s safe (if possible, including the people from Outside the US)?
– No doubt Apple are going to catch wind of this, (going on if its true) what are the chances Apple/AT&T would not ‘send out’ the mandatory updates?
Best Regards,
Kyle
If I told you something which turns out to be false later, then it wouldn’t make sense and would put the credibility of this blog in jeopardy. All I can say for now is to wait for a few days. What is wrong in having some patience?
Too late.
He has a Jailbroken device… He can call the ipod an Itouch or what ever he wants.. This may be a theory, however in todays world… Its likly that Jobs has implemented this. Stay tooned and check it out all YOU JBers. once a new JB comes out if you decide to JB it.. wait your 7-14 days.. some one will surely tell you “I told you so”!
Just becasue he may work for apple doesnt mean he has to call the equipment what its built by the dev team. He’s part of the Dev team!
Kudos for the artical anyways.. makes one think about todays age and society..
I Have a picture of a OTA Update screen on a iPhone 3G. Willing to send via email.
I have also a Leaked Information. Kindly write an article on this as well
Apple and AT&T has acquired or Hacked T-Mobile which means when using T-Mobile on unlocked iPhone 4 they can send OTA updates to iPhone 4
Apple and jobs, go fuck the iPhone 4… I just sold my iPhone 4 on eBay and switching to Htc evo!!!
Don’t make up stories… only a few have just started receiving their iphone 4 today and now you claim, “I just sold mine on ebay”… bullshit… you are an apple hater and don’t even have the coin to buy an iphone or an evo… probably using a razr… so shut the f*** up.
you poor idiot
this is complete bulllshit..this guy is is making all this up just to put down the iphone 4…ppl who actually believes this are plain stupid.
Oh my !
I bought my 3GS all unlocked n I live in the Middle-East … Will anything happen to mine once I update to iOS4 ?
Please tell me I’m in the clear !
Thanks !
Nothing is confirmed about what will happen to iPhones outside US. So far this is related to AT&T network only which means only US users are effected.
I am unlocked but using AT&T network. How Strange?
Your crap revolves around AT&T and the whole point is I am not using AT&T at all.
Would Apple intrude in my iPhone 4 using T-Mobile network to send OTA updates?
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahha
Will there be anyway to bypass these updates? I can’t stay on official firmware forever. And about Apple employees jailbreaking their iPhone, does Apple know about this? Does Steve?? If they do, why are the getting mad at their customers for it?! Apple is a great company and I see how Cydia can hurt them by possible installing virus and making the phone unstable, but if you guys would let us customize our phones look more and not be quite so strict on app approval, I would have much less of need to jailbreak!
This is exactly what Alpha and other members in the team are pissed about, frankly speaking. He thinks Apple has now gone into the personal life of the customers and want to dictate them what they can do and can’t do. This is one huge reason why he feels uncomfortable with this control of Apple and believes that people who own iPhones should know about this.
And now I didn’t want the iPhone 4 anymore.
Everyone agrees to allow their information, including location information, to be collected by Apple when we accept the 45 page agreement that nobody reads. It’s there in black and white. No mystery here
O2 are doing this too as I had an over the air update the other day
Thankfully you only got an Optional Update. IF AT&T can push Mandatory Updates, then I guess other carriers can do it as well. It is unconfirmed about the other carriers at the moment but 100% confirmed about AT&T’s Mandatory Update which will be pushed and forced installed on user’s devices without them having any option but to comply.
This make no sense, If your phone is unlocked and on T-Mobile how the hell is ATT going to send you a OTA and “Brick” your phone?
I asked him this question myself, instead of T-Mobile, I used another carrier name “Verizon”.
Below is his complete response,
– now because you did bring up verizon this is un-confirmed but when we have articles placed on our apple internals they dont use words “carriers” “carriers the customer “May” have
– and since the iPhone 4 was announced we also noticed this in our new internals
– things switched over from saying customer on AT&T to Customers on certain carriers
– so some of us there are putting 2 and 2 together thinking we are gonna sometime release this thing on a new network
– but that’s unconfirmed
– its just speculation
– because our wording has changed in our database and we use solid wording: “Apple iPhone on AT&T” nothing like what we see now Apple iPhone on certain carriers”
– this is very strange to us and dont know what things are switching over to that
– also if you would like more credibility All apple agents use a program called iLog and things have been updating in there oddly enough too”
I don’t think that’s what Mac C is asking. He’s asking, if the phone is already on another carrier’s network (i.e., T-Mobile), how would AT&T send it OTA updates to brick your phone, considering it would no longer be on AT&T’s network?
The answer is that it goes the other way around. With the partnership with Apple, Frequent OTA (over the air) updates will be send to check which carrier the iPhone is using. If AT&T is not detected, then it will get locked down.
Alpha found these updates in Apple’s database, not AT&T’s because he works at Apple’s iPhone department.
No way. How can AT&T send an OTA update to a phone on T-Mobile’s network? You’re nuts. That is pure bullshit.
Not bullshit–your iPhone OS communicates with many different services that are not AT&T servers. It’s not hard to imagine that OS4 has hooks into Apple servers that are accessed during normal usage–just like Facebook communicates with Facebook servers and so forth… unless I just completely misunderstood your statement.
In theory, Apple’s push notification service could deliver the update to you.
@MAC C I forgot to ask this one.
This totally makes it Fairy Tale. How?
in post title he says “AT&T Locks Users via OTA Updates”
If I am not using AT&T at all,
Then How can they push OTA updates on an unofficial carrier?
Like I mentioned above. Apple pushes the updates, in behalf of AT&T. They have a contract in place. If some other network is detected, the phone is locked down.
WTF. Do you anything about OTA updates. How can Apple push them? They are pushed by carriers.
Is Apple becoming a carrier for iPhone 4.
Your whole shit story revolves around OTA. Do you know a bit about it?
First read this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Over-the-air_programming
then consider an apology and remove this crap
Just tell me what is an OTA Update?
I think I have spoiled four years in Elect Engineering
because
You are saying AT&T will push OTA update to an iPhone 4 who is using T-Mobile Sim from the very first time
This is not understandable?
I think hes mentioned this, iOS4 tries to submit something to AT&T/Apple Internal, and if it cannot do that successfully (or if it can and it finds out its on a network its not supposed to be) then it will be locked out.
Correct me if I’m wrong
So far what I have heard is that this will be happening, but how it will happen is not confirmed yet. A Gizmodo commenter’s guess is that the update isn’t what supposedly does the damage. That doesn’t make sense.
The lack of the “update” is what does it. Not on the network, no update. Thus, your phone will get locked down.
How about those of us who buy a commitment free phone? Alpha is saying those will be locked as well?
It is hard to hear what Alpha is saying ’cause his head is so far up his own arse.
Users who are using iPhones that are unlocked in some countries will be safe.
When I asked, “if Apple can deactivate it when it is on another carrier?”, He says, “No, but they will void all warranty, not give you any support, and black flag the iPhone so you cannot even sell it on eBay”. Later he says, “if a buyer gets a jailbroken iPhone and calls Apple, they will not help him and notify him that the phone is flagged and he just got screwed.”
Oh, bullshit. You seem like you’re trying to avoid saying this clearly, but if what you said were true, it would mean that none of this OTA crap were ever true — you said that if you don’t receive these OTA updates, your phone will be bricked. It’s dishonest to simply water it down.
Find me just one person who has ever bought a phone on eBay and called AppleCare and been refused support due to some “permanent record” nonsense. One person in the past three years. That can’t be so hard, can it? How about I give you a handful of serial numbers and your friend can tell me which ones are jailbroken and/or unlocked, and “what’s on it” for each? You can post it publicly on your blog.
You might as well just admit now that everything this guy told you was a lie — at this point, the only question is whether he fooled you or if you were going along with it for the pageviews. “a line of code we wrote” my left nut.
How is that not clear enough for you. They can’t kill the phone but they will blacklist it. Is it that hard to read? Additionally, nowhere does it say Apple is going to go back in time and enforce this policy. It hasn’t happened before because the policy didn’t exist. I’m sure that Apple has screwed its fair share of customers. Every company does it. If you don’t go and complain nothing happens and no one ever knows about it.
there’s no way that the phone’s GSM radio turns off if it doesn’t receive a “cookie” from the mobile carrier every 7-14 days…people go overseas and travel around all over the place all of the time with their iPhones.
more likely, when the phone phones-home to Apple for other reasons (via Internet over WiFi or cellular), the phone is telling Apple’s servers if it is no longer even configured for its original carrier and, if so, Apple sends a command back disabling the cellular radio until they reactivate their phone on the original carrier.
Tom I have removed my other comment. Just to clarify, it works like this:
What its doing (supposedly) is sending an update without which the phone would lock down, only affecting those on a different network that won’t get the signal.
I hope it is clear now !
There is another useful comment on Gizmodo which explains how this could work:
The update isn’t what supposedly does the damage. That doesn’t make sense.
The lack of the “update” is what does it. Not on the network, no update. Thus, your phone gets locked down.
So wait. What if an iPhone 4 owner were to be out of service for more than two weeks? I know it doesn’t sound like something that would happen normally, but it could. Would they get screwed over and be locked out, since AT&T couldn’t send them the OTA updates?
The reply of “APPLE INSIDER” has a crappy answer regarding the AT&T OTA updates which will be sent to unlocked iPhone 4 running on Verizon. Rather it is BullShit.
He answers that iPhone 4 might be coming to other networks therefor AT&T Customers Term has been changed to Carrier Customers
Tom, he in unsure about other networks because it depends if Apple has an agreement with them or not. In the term “Carrier Customers” comes those users who are using the iPhone in selected carriers.
Apple does not tell such things, he found such information himself after looking internally and told me as far as he knows. If he starts telling more information which he is himself not sure about, then it will become a stupid rumor instead of confirmed story.
You should wait 24 hours because something interesting will be coming up.
Couldn’t the usage of the word carriers instead of just saying AT&T be to include all carriers that Apple has the iPhone on? For instance, O2 in the UK. AT&T isn’t the single carrier for the whole world for iPhones. Could they just be writing it with “carriers” so they don’t have to write it for every different carrier?
Dude Nakodari, you’re getting taken for a ride here. I’ll believe that you’re doing things honestly, but I will tell you the person you’re corresponding with is not from Apple. You think all of a sudden you (you, Nakodari) are just going to be privy to one of the biggest PR gaffes in the history of Apple and also get dropped knowledge of an upcoming Verizon iPhone? Your “tipster” could have kept things believable if he stopped at one item (like the OTA updates), but he got to you and he knew it. You’re just rationalizing things at this point because you think you (you, Nakodari) have the iPhone story of the year. Sorry my man.
Making the baseband ask to carrier for OTA each 14 days, where no OTA available then lock the phone
Wow… can you say conspiracy much? An Apple employee who wished to remain hidden told you? Sounds like a fairy tale.
Why would Apple take such a huge risk?
It has nothing much to gain than loose, lawsuits would kill both Apple and AT&T … hard to believe in this story …
Apple wasn’t planning to tell the public about it, in fact nobody knew the full details. An Apple employee who is against this type of control has told me on his own free will because he is not happy at what he saw in Apple’s database.
I will post some screenshots as soon he gets hold of them, it is just that the security is very very tight in Apple’s offices which is making it impossible.
For those who think it is a conspiracy theory, please use your sane mind. He is a legit Apple employee who himself, along with many other employees are not happy at where Apple is heading.
Here is what he has to say about Apple,
“But don’t get me wrong Apple is a good company they take care of there own and they just wanna become a top dog in the technology world.
They make some pretty amazing products I love my job and working there. It is just some things that need to stop and one of them is control.”
Regarding this “Alpha” character’s legitimacy you said to give you a question to ask him to challenge his legitimacy. Why is it that up until now, coincidentally the day before iPhone 4 is officially launched and just days after iOS 4.0 went live are we hearing about this? Surely an OTA structure like this would have to have been worked on for many months and evidence of it would be in some of the developer builds.
Assuming he’s intimately familiar with the code can he tell us if this code resides in Nucleus or the iPhone’s application processor?
He revealed because I contacted him. Now I am not going to explain how I got in contact with him. He is a legit Apple employee and if you have any questions you want me to ask him. Feel free to ask and I will supply you with an answer. Is it enough to convince you?
I just can’t see what the upside would be for Apple on the mandatory carrier updates. Include a feature that’s sure to piss people off and increase your support costs — because even the time it takes to say “we won’t support you” costs money — just to appease a carrier they have a lukewarm relationship with at best? I don’t buy it.
Yes, Apple likes to lock their customers in. Into Apple. I just see no benefit to Apple in using the OS to enforce carrier lock-in.
You agreed to the terms in iTunes 9.2 when updating to iOS 4, Alpha told me. This was mentioned in the Terms but nobody noticed.
If its in the terms and nobody noticed (unusual) then quote it!
How will this affect my iTouch if I were to jailbreak on iOS 4?
Alpha says that it won’t effect you. Here is the complete response he shared with me,
“It won’t effect him at all only people with iPhones at this Point in time because it uses Wireless carrier signals. So iTouches are in the Clear!”
No way an Apple employee would refer to an iPod touch as an “iTouch.” I call fake.
I call fake also:
He mixes up MAC and Mac? He doesn’t know that you _can_ downgrade to 3.1 (no hacking at the sources needed)? Apple has OTA updates for 6 month? If they want to check for non AT&T network usage why not doing it as a cron job ever hour? You don’t need networking for that. If Hackers stop that on a jailbroken phone apple would have to find another way but they _can’t_ prepare those countermeasures. As a dev i say that smells like too much technical bullshit.
Also: if that gets public and gets confirmed it would be bad for Apple, much worse than the advantage for AT&T (and think about it: Apple doesn’t lose much money when people are using non AT&T networks, ok they lose some by piracy on jailbroken phones, but not so much. Risk is too high and plain stupid).
Apple needs Facetime to spy on its users? They controll the fucking Phone, they can do whatever they want with your date since OS 1! Why via Facetime? Even if now? Why _only_ Facetime? Bullshit!
Bullshit from top to buttom.
Actually they do sometimes refer to the iPod touch as iTouch, you can register as a developer and verify it yourself from the wwdc sessions
He called it an iTouch? Makes me a bit doubtful he actually works for apple…or was that a typo
To those confused. iTouch is casually referred to as iPod Touch. Our chat takes place on Skype not on email and he is frank to me. As far as the fake thing goes, he is actually an Apple employee because “I” got hold of him in the first place.
i have a question for him: if this is true, could this signal the end of hackers even TRYING to unlock the iphone? Maybe he could even help me and my team to jailbreak the iOS. as payback and revenge on apple for doing this. please e-mail me with a response. BTW, i think this story is legit. who cares if he called it an ‘itouch’? FYI, even steve jobs uses a jailbroken iphone. trust me!!
No, the iPod Touch is NEVER “casually referred to as iTouch.” There is no such product as the “iTouch,” and no Apple employee, much less anyone on the outside aside from someone who doesn’t know what they’re talking about – or someone who wants to make us think they’re “casual” – would refer to it as such.
Fake. Pure and simple.
Lol, you sound like a real idiot. People can name a product anything they like. Its not a written rule that it cant be called an iTouch. Just because you will never refer to it as an iTouch doesnt mean you can talk for millions of other people. This is what I hate about fanboys.
not at all, you are not subject to carrier update
Sounds very “conspiracy theory”, but I guess we won’t have to wait that long to see if this turns out to be true.
This is BS. lol You’re a fool if you believe it.