Author archive: Sayam Aggarwal
4:12 pm, November 11th, 2009
iPhone ‘worms’ haven’t been much of a threat till now. However, things have changed with a new malware, discovered by Mac security firm Intego. Identified as iPhone/Privacy.A, it is a major threat for the privacy of many jailbroken iPhone users who have installed and activated SSH. Note: Non-jailbroken phones are not affected by it.
This malware acts through the SSH just like the others. It infects through client software installed on an attacking Mac, PC or even iPhone, which scans for jailbroken iPhones nearby. If they are vulnerable, they are then injected with the malware using the default filesystem password.
Previous exploits like iKee just changed the lockscreen background but after injection, this new malware copies private data, such as contacts, e-mail, contacts, SMSs, calendars, photos, music files, videos, which it then sends back to the source machine. It is even possible to send it as a malware to a Mac or PC which will then scan and copy the information from nearby jailbroken iPhones or iPod Touch and then send back to the source.
Even though it is not widespread yet, the amount of information it steals is a great deal. Intego currently recommends it’s own solution, Virus Barrier X5, which detects and removes this malware from a Mac but as far as other platforms are concerned, there’s currently no solution. This means that there is a high chance you can be affected as well. Therefore, we recommend you to take a simple precautionary step by changing the filesystem password on your jailbroken iPhones with SSH installed or turning SSH off when not in use with the help of SBSettings available in Cydia.
You can also have a look at our guide on how to change the filesystem password.
Posted by Sayam Aggarwal in News, iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3G S, iPod Touch, mac | No Comments »
4:17 pm, November 9th, 2009
If you jailbreak your iPhone, the first thing you ABSOLUTELY MUST DO is change the default filesystem password.
When you jailbreak, the filesystem’s password is set to the common password “alpine.” As people usually don’t bother changing this password after performing a jailbreak, it’s really easy for hackers to get access to any jailbroken iPhone/iPod Touch on a public network.
EDIT: Just confirmed with GeoHot and it seems that at least blackra1n doesn’t install SSH by default, therefore this should not be a problem if you used blackra1n to jailbreak, unless you installed the OpenSSH package from Cydia.
An Australian hacker called Ashley Towns demonstrated this by circulating the first known iPhone worm, known as Ikee, which replaces your lockscreen wallpaper with an image of Rick Astley. Luckily Town’s Rickrolling is benign. He wrote the worm to demonstrate how easy it is to break into jailbroken iPhones.
Changing the password is quick and easy — after the jump is a tutorial showing how to change the SSH password.
Note: There is no need to follow this guide if you haven’t jailbroken your iPhone/iPod Touch.
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Posted by Sayam Aggarwal in How tos, How-To, Top stories, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3G S, iPod Touch | 19 Comments »
2:28 am, November 5th, 2009
I really like Stacks on my Mac. Stacks makes it fast and easy to find files, folders and apps right from the Dock. It makes managing a Mac pretty slick with all sorts of little UI tricks. That’s why I recently gave MobileStack a go on my jailbroken iPhone.
I must say that it lives up to the challenge of making an interface that is intuitive and user friendly enough for the small iPhone screen. In fact, it’s definitely the best excuse to jailbreak.
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Posted by Sayam Aggarwal in Favorites, Top stories, iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3G S, iPhone Apps, iPod Touch | 1 Comment »
2:27 pm, November 3rd, 2009
George Hotz a.k.a GeoHot has released blackra1n RC3, which is an update to a 1-click jailbreak that adds activation options and an add-on blacksn0w, which unlocks latest iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS baseband version 05.11.07. To use blacksn0w, make sure you have this new baseband (check under Settings –> General –> About –> Modem Firmware) and if not, then update to a stock 3.1.2 firmware.
It is pretty easy to use and worked perfectly with my iPhone 3G. Besides the tool, there’s a blackra1n application that gets automatically installed on the iPhone after jailbreak, which gives you option to install Cydia and some other alternatives like RockYourPhone and the ’sn0w’ option to use blacksn0w unlock solution as well.
Please note that if you have an iPhone 2G, you can still jailbreak using blackra1n but blacksn0w will not unlock for you. You must use BootNeuter available in Cydia for that purpose. Also, if you purchased an iPhone 3GS or iPod Touch (any capacity) in October or later, there is a high probability that you have a new model. Blackra1n currently performs only a tethered jailbreak for these new devices, which means you need to use blackra1n every time you boot the device, otherwise all your jailbreak data gets wiped.
Here’s see how it works.
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Posted by Sayam Aggarwal in How tos, How-To, OS X, Top stories, iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3G S, iPhone Apps, iPod Touch | 34 Comments »
12:01 pm, November 3rd, 2009
GeoHot, creator of the famous blackra1n jailbreak tool has now released blacksn0w. Blacksn0w is a full fledged software unlock solution for iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS, having baseband version 05.11.07 found in firmware version 3.1.2. Unlocking the phone enables you to use it with any carrier in the world.
This means if you have older firmware, you can now upgrade to a stock 3.1.2 and still have the ability to remain unlocked. Blacksn0w also enables the tethering option on these iPhones for you to share the data connection with a laptop or desktop computer.
The blackra1n application for iPhone installed as a result of the blackra1n jailbreak process then allows you to run blacksn0w and finally unlock the phone. However, those who already have the old version of blackra1n application installed on the iPhone can upgrade to the latest version by selecting the new ‘ra1n’ option inside the application. After installing the updated version, tap ’sn0w’ in the application to unlock. For those who used the DevTeam’s PwnageTool to jailbreak, blacksn0w will soon be available on Cydia.
To accompany blacksn0w, there is a new hacktivation feature added to blackra1n, which activates the iPhone to be used without the iPhone specific plans from carriers like AT&T, O2 etc. But, if you have an officially activated phone already, this won’t interfere. The update to blackra1n tool also makes it a lot faster, enabling it to jailbreak the iPhone / iPod Touch in just 15 seconds. It also adds support for Mac OS X Tiger and PPC Macs along with the existing Windows and Intel Mac support.
Please note that if you have an iPhone 2G, you can still jailbreak using blackra1n but blacksn0w will not unlock for you. You must use BootNeuter available in Cydia for that purpose. Also, if you purchased an iPhone 3GS or iPod Touch (any capacity) in October or later, there is a high probability that you have a new model. Blackra1n currently performs only a tethered jailbreak for these new devices, which means you need to use blackra1n every time you boot the device, otherwise all your jailbreak data gets wiped.
The new version of blackra1n is available to download at blackra1n.com
Check out our guide on how to jailbreak and unlock using blackra1n and blacksn0w here.
Posted by Sayam Aggarwal in News, Top stories, iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3G S, iPhone Apps, iPod Touch | 6 Comments »
12:01 am, October 28th, 2009
ReelDirector is a mobile movie-making app that brings iMovie-like video editing to the iPhone.
With ReelDirector, you can trim clips, add text and transitions, and even edit different clips together. Currently, the iPhone’s built-in video editing capabilities are limited to just trimming clips. With this app, you can forget those limits.
ReelDirector is pretty easy to use. It has a huge feature list, which makes it possible to do most of the stuff that you do on iMovie, natively on the iPhone.
- ‘Stitch together’ different pieces of clip using the ‘drag and drop timeline’ interface similar to Apple’s built-in clip editing UI.
- Make simple edits and preview these edits easily.
- Choose from a variety of transitions to add or change for each separate clip.
- Add Text watermarks with different styles and several different positions.
Briefly, it’s a great utility to create short family clips or beautify some worthy moments. ReelDirector is currently available for $7.99 on the AppStore and is currently at the 60th position amongst the Top Grossing Applications.
ReelDirector is developed by a group of developers at nexvio, which specializes in producing such innovative Video and Image editing solutions for the iPhone platform.
Posted by Sayam Aggarwal in Cameras, News, iPhone 3G S, iPhone Apps | No Comments »
12:30 pm, October 27th, 2009
I recently came across orbit, which is one of the best navigation options available for the iPhone and iPod Touch. I have an iPhone that has over 100 applications and it’s definitely a pain to get to the applications on the last page. I can always put the useful applications on the first page but at this point, I have just stopped arranging them. This is when Orbit enters the scene. Instead of swiping across all these pages, it lets me jump to a particular page quickly using simple tile view, saving me a lot of time. That’s the reason it’s one of my favorites.
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Posted by Sayam Aggarwal in Favorites, Reviews, iPhone, iPhone Apps, iPod Touch | No Comments »
2:02 am, October 26th, 2009
Release Candidate 2 (RC2) for Blackra1n, iPhone hacker George Hotz’s software for 1-click jailbreaking, has been released for all existing iPhone and iPod Touch devices. It adds support for new iPhone 3GS and iPod Touch 8GB and fixes almost every bug present in the previous version. However, it will NOT unlock the device, enabling it to be used with different GSM carriers worldwide.
If you purchased an iPhone 3GS or iPod Touch 8GB within the last 3 weeks, there is a high probability that you have this new model. Blackra1n currently performs only a tethered jailbreak for these new devices, which means you need to use blackra1n every time you boot the device, otherwise all your jailbreak data gets wiped. Other bug fixes include an issue with 3G network and some issues with Icy, Ripdev’s installer tool. Also, there is no need to rerun the new version, if the old one worked for you.
For those who don’t already know, blackra1n jailbreaks your iPhone or iPod Touch (any generation) with a single click in merely 30 seconds, making it the easiest jailbreak solution that ever existed.
Blackra1n for Mac and Windows is available to download at blackra1n.com.
Cult of Mac ‘How To’ is available here.
Posted by Sayam Aggarwal in News, iPhone 3G S, iPod Touch, mac | 8 Comments »
4:40 pm, October 21st, 2009
Image via Yahoo! Finance
Apple’s stock reached it’s all time high today, leaping just over the $208 mark. The rally caused investors to dance in the aisles over the company’s astonishing rise to a Wall Street darling. This is the same company that most people doubted would even survive, back in the late 90s.
“I’ve made over $1,500 in two days… Thank you aapl”, said @jherrdog on Twitter.
The happiest investors were those AAPL veterans who bought the stock at its all-time low — around $12 in 1997. Several were also celebrating their good fortune on Twitter.
“Oh, look! Time for my quarterly brag about buying a bucket of AAPL in 1997. Translation: Suck it, Ballmer,” said @guywithabike (Tyson) on Twitter.
Investors like Tyson have seen their AAPL shares grow to about 70-times their inital value. In the last decade, the stock has split twice and risen almost 200x in value.
That means $1,000 invested in Apple stock in 1997 is worth around $70,000 now. And $10,000 — the kind of sum that professional investors typically put into company stock — is worth a cool $700,000 — almost enough money to buy a house in posh Palo Alto where Steve Jobs lives.
And for those wondering how much Steve Jobs made, thanks to his 5.4 mil shares of AAPL and 138 mil shares of Disney (DIS), he made more than $90 million today. On paper, of course.
Posted by Sayam Aggarwal in Apple, News, Top stories | 15 Comments »
1:31 pm, October 14th, 2009
Expert iPhone hackers confirm that the newest iPhone 3GS model updates the bootrom to iBoot 359.3.2, which completely blocks all the current jailbreak solutions, including PwnageTool and blackra1n. The new model that started shipping last week has an iBoot that ‘fixes’ 24kpwn exploit, which is currently the base of all the aforementioned jailbreak solutions.
Found at first by a hacker named Mathieu Hervais, it has now been confirmed by DevTeam members CPICH and MuscleNerd. This means that the hackers will now have to work hard on finding a completely new solution.
Those who want to jailbreak might be able to find an older/refurbished iPhone with an earlier boot ROM. Otherwise, you will have to wait till the next major jailbreak solution, which might take months.
Apple has been preventing users from jailbreaking since the first ever firmware update. The main reason behind this is prevent customers from unlocking their iPhones to use with different carriers. Most jailbroken devices end up being unlocked at some stage, which has a negative impact on carrier’s monopoly of the device. This indirectly effects Apple’s earnings.
Another reason could be piracy, which too has a similar impact in terms of reduction in revenue from the AppStore. But preventing jailbreak to stop piracy sounds pretty lame as Apple definitely has the potential to develop a better and effective anti-piracy system.
Pretty bad news but will it really prevent you from getting a new iPhone 3GS?
Posted by Sayam Aggarwal in Hardware, News, iPhone 3G S | 9 Comments »
12:35 pm, October 14th, 2009
George Hotz a.k.a GeoHot has released the Mac version of blackra1n, his 1-click jailbreak solution. Just like the Windows version, it is pretty easy to use and worked perfectly with my iPod Touch 2G and iPhone 3G. Besides the tool, there’s a blackra1n application that gets automatically installed on the iPhone after jailbreak, which gives you option to install Cydia and some other alternatives like RockYourPhone and Icy.
Here’s see how it works.
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Posted by Sayam Aggarwal in How tos, How-To, iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3G S, iPod Touch | 103 Comments »
1:50 pm, October 13th, 2009
PwnageTool for Mac has been updated to version 3.1.4 by the DevTeam. This new update basically adds firmware 3.1.2 jailbreak support. It currently supports jailbreaking all the devices except iPod Touch 3G.
PwnageTool is currently compatible with Intel Mac only. The reason some would prefer it to blackra1n is that it allows you to ‘hacktivate’ the phone (use it without AT&T’s iPhone data plan) and the unlock is preserved even through firmware updates. However, to unlock an iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS, make sure that you have a firmware 3.0 (or 3.0.1) baseband on the phone.
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Posted by Sayam Aggarwal in News, iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3G S, iPod Touch | 2 Comments »
1:17 pm, October 11th, 2009
Blackra1n, iPhone hacker George Hotz’s software for 1-click jailbreaking, has been released for all existing iPhone and iPod Touch devices. However, it will NOT unlock the device, enabling it to be used with different GSM carriers worldwide.
Blackra1n is currently compatible with Windows only — or “all Windows that matter,” in GeoHot’s words. I am supposing that means Windows XP, Windows Vista and hopefully Windows 7 RC. Currently, there is no word on a Mac version — but it should be released soon as well.
What blackra1n does is…
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Posted by Sayam Aggarwal in News, iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3G S, iPod Touch | 7 Comments »
1:57 pm, October 9th, 2009
Famous iPhone hacker George Hotz (better known as GeoHot) claims to be working on a tool that might revolutionize the current jailbreak scenario! Called blackra1n, the tool promises to jailbreak all existing iPhone and iPod Touch devices with 3.1.2 installed in just a matter of seconds, according to GeoHot. However, it will NOT unlock the device, enabling it to be used with different GSM carriers worldwide.
Currently, jailbreaking an iPhone or iPod Touch is a complex and time-consuming process, requiring the creation of custom firmware, entering several different modes, etc. There are separate tools for different devices and different firmware versions. Not only this, each generally requries you to follow a different procedure. It’s a pain.
But with blackra1n, jailbreaking promises to be a few simple clicks for any iPhone or iPod Touch.
The last tool released by GeoHot was purplera1n, a simple solution, which allowed iPhone 3GS users to jailbreak any OOTB (out-of-the-box) phone with firmware version 3.0 with a single click. The procedure was simpler and less painful, compared to DevTeam’s offerings, which required you to choose between several different options. But purplera1n contained a few bugs that forced him to kill the project after the release of firmware update 3.0.1.
However, blackra1n will be quite different from purplera1n because it is based off a completely different exploit, GeoHot says. GeoHot expects to release the tool really soon although, after dealing with some technical obstacles. Hopefully, it will be out this weekend.
Hotz is a 21-year-old hacker who is famous for unlocking the first iPhone ever soon after its debut in 2007. After a break, he recently made a comeback to the iPhone scene with the release of his jailbreak and unlock solutions for iPhone OS 3.0 that offered tough competition to the DevTeam.
Posted by Sayam Aggarwal in News, iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3G S, iPod Touch | 8 Comments »
2:38 pm, October 8th, 2009
Apple has just released a new firmware update, version 3.1.2 for the existing iPhone and iPod Touch range, which contains no new features but fixes an important issue with cellular network reception. The new software fixes dropped cell connections until the iPhone is restarted, according to Apple.
However, it looks like the update does contain a new baseband version in order to fix the issue, therefore if you have an unlocked iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS, do not update until there is confirmation from a trusted source, like the iPhone DevTeam. If you’re planning to jailbreak, you should wait as this firmware version is currently incompatible with the latest jailbreak tools. But updates will soon be released to resolve the compatibility problem, according to the iPhone DevTeam.
The complete-ish list of changes, according to Apple’s cryptic update notes, is as documented below:
- Resolves sporadic issue that may cause iPhone to not wake from sleep.
- Resolves intermittent issue that may interrupt cellular network services until restart.
- Fixes bug that could cause occasional crash during video streaming.
Clearly, it indicates no new features, unless there are some hidden ones. 
To download the new firmware for your iPhone, select the model below to download it directly from Apple’s server or open iTunes and click iTunes –> Check for Updates in the menu bar.
Posted by Sayam Aggarwal in Apple, News, iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3G S, iPod Touch | 9 Comments »
