Amazon released its Instant Video iPad app yesterday. The app allows Amazon Prime members to stream and download movies and TV shows on the iPad over a WiFi connection.
If your iPad is jailbroken, you won’t be able to watch anything in the Amazon Instant Video app. This isn’t the first time a content provider has blocked access to jailbreakers, but it’s certainly still disappointing.
Originally noticed by The Verge, it looks like Amazon is blocking all playback access to users on iPads running Cydia, the jailbreak version of the App Store. I’ve also been able to confirm that the app does not work on my jailbroken third-gen iPad. You can browse Amazon’s catalog, but it’s impossible to actually watch anything.
This is what Amazon had to tell The Verge reader who noticed this behavior:
I’m sorry that the Amazon Instant Video service isn’t yet working on your iPad.
The service is absolutely available to you. What we’re finding is that this specific error is popping up for folks whose iPads have any kind of jailbreak installed. A jailbreak is a program installed on your device that lets you do stuff not necessarily supported by the manufacturer. For example, if Apple blocks access to fictional service provider Orange you can add a thing that gets around that block.
If you do not believe their device to be jailbroken, please see if you have any of the following apps installed on your iPad:
- “APT”
- “Cydia”
- “Installer” (“Installer App” is okay, but just “Installer” is another version of the first, “APT”.)
The presence of any of these indicates a jailbreak, and our service won’t work. From the error message that you provided, it appears your device has been jail-broken. We are unable to provide any troubleshooting for your device.
You will need to contact the site or person where you received the jail-break for your device.
It’s unclear if this is just a technical error that will be fixed with a future update, or if blocking jailbreakers was a deliberate decision on Amazon’s part. The DRM that companies like HBO put in their apps can tend to freeze up on a jailbroken version of iOS. Hopefully this issue with Instant Video will be resolved shortly.
Source: The Verge
