Well-known jailbreaker “winocm” announced today that he will be taking a job at Apple later this year.
When reached for comment, the 17-year-old hacker declined to elaborate on what his new role at Apple will entail. He also declined to provide his real name, which is a common theme amongst high-profile jailbreak hackers who prefer to hide behind their online pseudonyms.
While winocm did not work on the recent iOS 7 jailbreak, his expertise in reverse engineering iOS will undoubtedly make him a valuable asset at Apple.
Winocm recently helped put out a jailbreak for iOS 6.1.3-6.1.5 on older iPhones. He started contributing to the jailbreak scene in late 2011 with the launch of the iPhone 4S. Since then, he says he has “been doing insane things with iOS.”
In November of 2013, he singlehandedly%20ported%20the%20core%20of%20both%20OS%20X%20and%20iOS%20to%20non-Apple%20hardware.%20The%20port%20allowed%20him%20to%20run%20the%20core%20operating%20system%20beneath%20OS%20X%20and%20the%20iPhone%20OS%20on%20a Nokia%20N900.%20By%20rewriting%20the%20iPhone%20OS%20from%20the%20ground%20up,%20he%20was%20essentially%20able%20to%20create%20an%20open%20source%20version%20of%20the%20operating%20system.” data-lasso-id=”116681″>joined Apple as an intern in 2011 and has not been publicly involved in the world of jailbreaking since.
Alex Heath is a journalist who works for Tech Insider. He’s the former co-host of The CultCast. He has been quoted by the likes of the BBC, KRON 4 News, and books like “ICONIC: A Photographic Tribute to Apple Innovation.” He lives in Lexington, Kentucky. If you want to pitch a story, share a tip, or just get in touch, additional contact information is available on his personal site. Follow him on Twitter.
7 responses to “After Doing “Insane Things With iOS,” Jailbreak Hacker Winocm Joins Apple”
Congrats! we will miss you as you WILL NOT be returning to the public jailbreak scene… lets get in touch before you disappear! good luck in the big game!
Kids…so cocky. I wonder what will happen when he gets a taste of the real world.
Well, I think he has some space to be cocky if he is able to do “Insane Things with iOS” :-)
He said that. Like I said, cocky. To set the record straight, he did not do what Apple did originally when they developed iOS. He COPIED iOS, Apple built it from scratch. It’s a lot easier to do when you already have the final product. It’s like saying someone who paints a replica of the Mona Lisa today did it from scratch…they copied it.
Stop hating man. Give him some credit. Even though that may be the case, it is still extremely difficult to accomplish. You try doing it.
Apple didn’t hire him for no reason.
well hopefully he won’t make the same mistake as the kid from a couple of years ago and not check his email regularly.
Good for him. Obviously Apple saw something about his skills that they liked. I think it’s a good opportunity. He just has to play within the rules now.