Breaking Apple's Grip on the iPhone

The following was taken from www.wsj.com

Very interesting as it mentions to opening of "The Cydia Store"

Woo hoo!!


By YUKARI IWATANI KANE
Apple Inc. faces a growing threat to its iPhone business, as renegade stores spring up online to sell unauthorized software for the device.

The developer behind some popular iPhone software on Friday plans to open a service called Cydia Store that could potentially sell hundreds of iPhone applications that are not available through Apple's official store. Users must download special software that alters their iPhones before they can run these programs.

Another small company plans a store called Rock Your Phone for iPhone users who have not yet modified their devices to make it easier to download and buy unauthorized applications. A third start-up is building an online store that specializes in selling adult games for the iPhone.


Getty Images
Unauthorized iPhone software includes PdaNet, below, which makes the device into a laptop modem.
The new stores take aim at one of the underpinnings of the iPhone's success: Apple's App Store. Launched last July, Apple's online store sells thousands of applications developed by independent developers -- from games to news and entertainment features -- that customers can easily download to their iPhones, often for free or as little as 99 cents.

When Apple opened the App Store, it provided the building blocks so independent programmers could create software that worked on its phone. But the company said it would vet submissions to maintain quality control and to protect the user experience.

Apple, which collects a 30% commission from sellers on its store, doesn't break out the site's revenue. Brokerage firm Piper Jaffray estimates the site generated about $150 million in sales last year and projects total sales will grow to $800 million this year.

Apple did not respond to requests for comment. But it has said in the past that with the iPhone it was trying to strike a balance between a closed device like the iPod and an open device like the PC.

The upstart sites can carry software programs that Apple's official store won't, since the company tightly controls the kinds of applications it allows. Among the programs that Apple doesn't allow is a free one called Cycorder, which turns the iPhone into a camcorder. Another program, which costs $29, dubbed PdaNET lets people use their iPhones as laptop modems to connect to the Internet.

Jay Freeman, who created Cycorder and is behind the Cydia Store, says he decided to open the store so developers like himself have a way to make money from their efforts. Mr. Freeman, a 27-year-old computer science doctoral student in Santa Barbara, Calif., says he intends to charge developers no more than the commission Apple does for his site's billing services.

A big hurdle the Cydia Store and others face is that the applications they offer typically only work on iPhones that have been modified, or "jailbroken," to allow users to download unauthorized programs.

Apple maintains that jailbreaking an iPhone violates copyright laws. Mr. Freeman says software he created to modify the iPhone has been installed on about 1.7 million iPhones.

The alternative stores could cut into Apple's revenue at a time when software has become an important way for the Cupertino, Calif., company to continue profiting from iPhones, even after consumers have shelled out $199 to buy them.

The App Store is also strategically significant, since it keeps consumers tied to using their iPhones. Already, customers have downloaded more than 500 million applications from the App Store.

But the App Store rejects some submissions, for technical and content reasons. It is also so sprawling that it can be difficult for a new developer to get programs noticed, says Adam Engst, publisher of TidBITS, a site specializing in news about Apple. "It leaves open the possibility that independent stores could do a better job."

Samir Shah is one developer who supports the Cydia Store. The 25 year old, who founded Snapture Labs LLC with two college friends a year ago, created a $7.99 camera application that lets users zoom, change photo sizes and instantly preview photos.


Snapture is a $7.99 camera application that lets users zoom, change photo sizes and instantly preview photos.
"Competition is always good," says Mr. Shah. "Competition breeds innovation."

Apple appears to be gearing up for a fight. While the company hasn't taken legal action against any group or individuals for modifying iPhones or building applications on top of them, it last month filed a 27-page statement with the U.S. Copyright Office, which oversees patents. In its statement, Apple made a case that the use of software to modify iPhones is illegal, according to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Aaron Perzanowski, a professor specializing in digital copyright law at the University of California Berkeley School of Law, believes developers have "a pretty good" defense under the DMCA if Apple claims what they're doing is illegal, though it's largely uncharted legal territory.

Cydia Store's Mr. Freeman, who has been on the lookout daily for email from Apple, isn't taking any chances. He says he has lined up a lawyer in case Apple takes legal action. "The overworking goal is to provide choice," he says. "It's understandable that [Apple] wants to control things, but it has been very limiting for developers and users."

Write to Yukari Iwatani Kane at yukari.iwatani@wsj.com

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Saurik’s Letter to the US Copyright Office

As many of you already know, Apple is trying to making jailbreaking your iPhone and/or iPod Touch illegal. Well, we ran across this letter that saurik (the developer of Cydia) wrote and submitted to the copyright office. Below is letter in it’s entirety.

Commenter: Jay Freeman (saurik)
Title: Member
Organization: SaurikIT, LLC

Proposed Classes: 5A
Class Disposition: Supporting

Computer programs that enable wireless telephone handsets to execute lawfully obtained software applications, where circumvention is accomplished for the sole purpose of enabling interoperability of such applications with computer programs on the telephone handset.




Hello. I am the developer of Cydia, the first application installed onto Apple’s devices after they have been jailbroken. Cydia acts as an open competitor to the Apple App Store: anyone can put applications up. These applications are distributed from any number of “repositories”: anyone can run one, and end users can add them to their copy of Cydia. In this manner, Cydia acts as a web browser: no one has centralized control over what can and cannot be distributed.

All of this is, itself, based on an existing “industry standard” known as APT: an “open source” mechanism for distributing applications that has been in use by computer operating systems such as Linux for well over a decade. Even Cydia is open source: anyone can get access to its source code in order to either understand or modify it.

Cydia is now installed on 1.6 million devices worldwide, at least a quarter of which are within the United States. Please note that this number is not based on download counts or “unique IP addresses”, both of which drastically overestimate the number of users an application has. This number is based on a survey of unique device identifiers (a mechanism that Apple encourages developers to use to track devices) over the last month.

These users are also quite active: 300,000 unique devices check in to Cydia each day, over 650,000 each week. This takes the form of people looking for new packages, new repositories, and getting upgrades. What these users are coming back for are the hundreds of applications that are in Cydia, each one of which being of the type Apple denies from their store.

Unfortunately, there is now concern that applications that jailbreak phones, the tools that people use to install Cydia, may come under attack from Apple under the DMCA. This is /terribly/ unfortunate as there is a thriving market of applications for these “jailbroken” devices.

Apple isn’t even the only problem. An entire new class of devices is coming onto the market, a class of devices that I do not feel currently has a good name, but for which I will temporarily call “integrated computers”. These devices really are computers: they are running the same operating systems that we find on everything from laptops through desktop computers up to massive computation clusters.

In Apple’s case, this operating system is Darwin, the base of their Mac OS X desktop operating system. In the case of the new Android phones, this is Linux, an increasingly popular “free software” kernel.

There is nothing intrinsically restricted about these devices, and nothing that requires them to have restrictions: nothing except the controlling attitudes of the people who are releasing them. The T-Mobile G1 from HTC, running the touted “open source” Android, is not able to be changed by end users using the code that Google is trying to give us.

Back to Apple’s devices, they maintain tight encryption-backed control over what applications users can install onto their devices. Apple uses this control in order to explicitly act in an anticompetive manner: denying applications that provide similar functionality to those applications that Apple distributes with their device as “it may cause user confusion”. With this, they have managed to keep Opera (the most popular mobile web browser provider) from even bothering to attempt to target their system. They have publicly shut down Sun from bringing in Java (which would itself compete with their App Store due to their J2ME technology), and only after a couple years been willing to sit down and work with Macromedia to bring Flash to their platform.

They have denied competing mail applications, competing camera applications, and competing mapping systems. They also have exerted control over what they feel to be acceptable content, sometimes vacillating (first denying any application using the word “fart”, and then allowing one in which rapidly becomes the #1 most popular application in the store).

This has led many developers to “go underground”, distributing their products using Cydia, and selling it from their own websites. As an example of some of these applications, I will describe a few of the programs I have written, and why users want them:

Cycorder - This application allows users to record videos with their iPhone’s camera and transfer them to a computer. Cycorder is one of the “killer applications” of jailbroken iPhones, and is used by a very large percentage of its users. I do not know how many, but even four months ago I estimated hundreds of thousands.

These videos themselves have become quite widespread, and have even been aired on CNN’s iReport (where users can contribute videos to get aired on the network) [1]. One user even shot a music video using it [2].

1: http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-103642
2: http://www.goshone.com/?p=74

Unfortunately, Cycorder (and a few applications like them, such as Qik and Video Recorder 3G) have been submitted to Apple and then ignored for months. These applications require access to the camera, which Apple does not allow as part of their official SDK: while applications can let the user take a picture, it is tightly managed by an interface that Apple has provided.

WinterBoard - An “extension” for the system that allows users to customize the graphics and sounds on their device. One feature that almost every cell phone on the market has is the ability to change the wallpaper, much as one would on a desktop computer. However, this is not functionality available on the iPhone: “any background you want, as long as it’s black” (as Henry Ford may have said).

There are now thousands of “themes” available: sets of graphics. These themes don’t just change the wallpaper: they use WinterBoard’s full features in order to theme the entire system, changing all of the icons, the buttons, and the entire feel. Users install these themes using Cydia and then activate them using WinterBoard.

Unfortunately, WinterBoard requires access to system files that Apple has protected. For the full amount of control it provides to the user, it needs to “inject” or “hook” into every running application, in order to change the loaded graphics. This level of functionality is definitely verboten.

Veency - Another extension that allows users to remote control their iPhone using a computer monitor and keyboard. Veency is very popular among developers giving presentations of their work, but also has been used by people to make writing text messages easier (using their computer keyboards). This is of incredible value to the users who use it, although it is not as popular as other applications in Cydia. It is open source.

Currently, Apple provides no mechanism for recording the screen of the device, which means that users who want to show off their applications either have to use a simulator (which does not let them interact with the screen in intuitive manners with multiple fingers), or setup a physical camera to record their screen and project it onto a wall. Neither of these are usable solutions for many presenters.

Unfortunately, getting direct access to the display buffer requires access to APIs that Apple does not allow usage of in the App Store. Also, this requires a “daemon”: a program running in the background, to accept the incoming screensharing requests. Apple also does not allow background programs on their devices.

Obviously, though, I am not the only developer who has been working on this device. There are numerous companies that have managed to make a market selling products for jailbroken iPhones. Some examples:

SpoofApp - voice changing, call recording
MCleaner - block incoming calls and sms
iBlackList - another call blocking application
Cylay - track iPhone, theft protection
MiVTones - video ringtones for incoming calls
iPhone Modem - laptop/iPhone data tethering
PDANet - another tethering application

To bring a specific example to the forefront, I will focus on Snapture, distributed by Snapture Labs, LLC. Snapture is an improved Camera application for the iPhone. Snapture is denied from the App Store for similar reasons to Cycorder. Snapture, however, does not concentrate on videos: it is about better still photos.

Unlike most point-and-click cameras, the iPhone does not support numerous “standard” features, such as timed pictures, color tinting, image rotating and zooming, and photo bracketing. Snapture provides all of these features, and is sold for $7.99 from their website [1].

What makes Snapture even more interesting is that they are also providing a hardware component to go with their product: the SnaptureFlash [2]. This is an attachment for the iPhone that provides a strong Xenon LED Flash/Light in order to make taking pictures in the dark even easier. Unfortunately, Apple does not provide access to the hardware connector to App Store developers: this is a hardware component that could only ever work with jailbroken phones.

1: http://www.snapturelabs.com/
2: http://www.snapturelabs.com/snaptureflash.html

I therefore am going to close this (partly because I am running out of time), with a plea to the copyright office to not ignore the many hundreds of thousands of earnest users: users who are legally purchasing alternative applications and wishing to use them on their iPhones and iPod Touches, users who want functionality from their mobile devices that often no one is able to provide, but which is now possible on these new classes of devices. If only the people who were distributing these devices were fully open.

Sincerely,
Jay Freeman (Saurik)




For more information on and about Jay Freeman AKA Saurik go to http://www.saurik.com/

Thank you Saurik for all your efforts. All of this would be impossible without your knowledge, dedication, persistence and sense of freedom.

At this time I would like to sincerely acknowledge Jay Freeman. From "The Great iPhone Jailbreak"

Thank you



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TapSB **Coming Soon**

TapSB is a new mod soon to be released in Cydia. It will feature a quick way to switch your springboard pages. According to the screenshot released it will work quite the same way as Safari and the image app. How does it work?

When you double-tap on a empty place of the springboard a new window will pop open with 6 miniature versions of your springboard, this will be shown with a zoom function like we already know by Mobile Safari, then tap on one of the 6 miniature versions to go to the full page with a zoom effect.

Once there’s more information available off TapSB we will update you asap.

Stay iTuned!!!!!





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iPhone Jailbreaking, EFF, and DMCA

This post was taken from thebigboss.org written by BigBoss himself. It sheds some light on the recent submission of documents from Apple to identify "Jailbreaking" as copyright infringement.

19
Feb

iPhone Jailbreaking, EFF, and DMCA

Author:
BigBoss  //  Category: Development, Jailbreak

As you read this, keep in mind that I am not a lawyer and do not give legal advice.

There has been a lot of news surrounding the legality of iPhone jailbreaking. It started when the EFF announced that it plans to add iPhone jailbreaking as a DMCA exception. (http://www.eff.org/action/free-your-phone). After this, Apple made an announcement that they consider jailbreaking to be a copyright infringement (http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/02/apple-says-jailbreaking-illegal). So what’s really going on?

The DMCA has a set of exemptions that are reviewed every three years. This year is the year where these exemptions are reviewed and also when new exemptions are added. The EFF is pushing to have jailbreaking added to the exemption list. By adding this, it basically says “jailbreaking your iPhone is legal”. Remember, not having it in there does not say that jailbreaking is illegal. It simply doesn’t say. For example, there is no US Law that says “clothes shopping is legal”. But there is no reason to think it is not legal either. The EFF is pushing to add an exemption so that jailbreaking is actually called out as legal.

The original exemption requests can be found here:

http://www.copyright.gov/1201/2008/comments/lohmann-fred.pdf

http://www.copyright.gov/1201/2008/comments/lohmann-fred-summary.pdf

A month after the exemption requests were made, the responses were due. These can be found here:

http://www.copyright.gov/1201/2008/responses/

There are responses from a number of people for 5A from a number of end users and small businesses the obvious players: EFF and Apple. A few people who are definitely interested in this problem for other reasons (VOIP): Virgin Mobile and Skype. Mozilla also chimed in with a rather short document.

Skylar wrote an interesting article on this here: http://www.ipodtouchfans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=147164

And the NYTimes has an interesting article on it here: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/0…our-iphone/?em

Continue Reading ..>>

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Jailbreaking illegal? Get outta here!!!!

It looks like Apple is taking a stance to get the PR machine rolling to denounce jailbreaking your iPhone. News broke yesterday (February 13th, 2009) that Apple has submitted documents to the US Copyright Office stating that jailbreaking our iPhones is DMCA violation and copyright infringement, which essentially makes it illegal. This was posted on the website of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Apple is saying that 3rd party apps, such as those available through Cydia and Installer require modified versions of Apple’s software which in turn constitutes infringement on copyrights. Here’s a blurb from the EFF website on this matter:

As part of the 2009 DMCA rule making, EFF has asked the Copyright Office to recognize an exemption to the DMCA to permit jailbreaking in order to allow iPhone owners to use their phones with applications that are not available from Apple’s store (e.g., turn-by-turn directions, using the iPhone camera for video, laptop tethering).

Apple’s copyright infringement claim starts with the observation that jailbroken iPhones depend on modified versions of Apple’s bootloader and operating system software. True enough — we said as much in our technical white paper describing the jailbreak process. But the courts have long recognized that copying software while reverse engineering is a fair use when done for purposes of fostering interoperability with independently created software, a body of law that Apple conveniently fails to mention.

So does this mean the moment you jailbreak your iPhone, a representative of Apple will show up at your doorsteps with the newest iTaser? Sure, Apple claims it’s illegal to jailbreak but there is no way they can control what you do in your own home. Unless they somehow can detect jailbroken software and somehow lock your iPhone using the internet, but of course that is highly unlikely.

So if you want to jailbreak your iPhone, just find a dark corner in your room, turn off the lights and don’t tell anybody what you’re doing. Are you scared yet?

Click here to get a pdf copy of submitted document.

http://www.copyright.gov/1201/2008/responses/apple-inc-31.pdf



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Dual-Screen Concept Cell Phone

This post is not iPhone related but I found it too interesting not to share. Take a look at this concept cell phone you may see in the near future:

Alloy Total Product Design has come up with The Polygon, a cool new concept phone.

This one seems to resemble the Nintendo DS in terms of design, and while at times a bit too similar, the whole dual screen nature of the casing seems to go very well with the cellphone. A portable phone is supposed to provide the user with a quick, convenient and efficient way to make calls on the go, and this concept works quite well on The Polygon. While obviously not going to be released in the very near future, The Polygon provides hope for constant innovation in the cellphone industry.



The Polygon consists of two screens, one a touchscreen and one a regular display. The regular display is supposed to be very high resolution, and quite large. This is because most of the data that you will be viewing will be shown here. If you wish to watch television, or browse the net, this is the screen that'll display all of the video and pictures. The second screen is sensitive to the touch, and is thus a lot more durable. This is the screen used for navigation of the various features and media available on The Polygon.

The traditional physical keypad won't appear here, and will be replaced by a virtual one that's displayed on the touchscreen. Both portrait and landscape modes should be available on the phone.












This concept phone is proof that every cellphone design hasn't been tried out just yet. With sliders, smartphones and super slim phones, it seems like there's no room for any new designs, and yet Alloy Total Product Design has thought of just this. The Polygon surely looks and functions like a futuristic phone, and should especially get some love from fans of Nintendo's handheld. Let's hope that a company realizes the potential of such a slick looking device, and actually builds a retail model.



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How to get .ipa files on your iPhone 3G 2.2.1

This is an update to the post "How to get .ipa files on your iPhone 3G 2.2" posted on Tuesday, January 27, 2009. You can find the post in the Blog Archive.

Launch Cydia, select Manage at the bottom of the screen, select Sources, select edit (top right hand corner), select add (top left hand corner) and add this source http://iphone.org.hk/apt/. Once added, select the new source and do a search for mobileinstallation. You will find a patch that looks like this:



Follow the remaining instructions found under "How to get .ipa files on your iPhone 3G 2.2" posted on Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Stay iTuned!!!!!



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Unlock vs. Jailbreak

I've come upon a lot of posts on a lot of different sites asking about "unlocking" and "jailbreaking" and a lot of people are confusing the two terms. So here is a brief explanation that should clear things up.

Unlocking your iPhone is done so that you may use any SIM Card from any service provider on a GSM network, truly making it a world phone. iPhones typically are "locked" to a specific network by the service provider you buy your iPhone from. To unlock your iPhone, the iPhone Dev-Team have a program called "Yellowsn0w" To find info on this and instructions on how to unlock go here: http://yellowsn0w.com/

Jailbreaking your iPhone frees it so that 3rd party apps, games, themes etc... can be used on your iPhone. This will allow personal customization and use outside of the restrictions Apple has put in place. Thus, an iPhone "Jailbreak". Instructions on how to Jailbreak are posted in the Blog Archive under "How to Jailbreak your iPhone 3G 2.2" posted on Tuesday, January 27, 2009. If you have Firmware 2.2.1 then go to the post in the Blog Archive under "**UPDATE** 2.2.1 Firmware Jailbreak" posted on Friday, January 30, 2009.

Hope that clears up the confusion!

Stay iTuned for more to come!

***Important*** Update to January 30th Post re: 2.2.1 Firmware Jailbreak

We have a new update on the 2.2.1 Firmware Jailbreak info and tools from the iPhone Dev-Team. I have revised and updated the January 30th post concerning this. You can click **UPDATE** 2.2.1 Firmware Jailbreak found on the right hand side in the Blog Archive. Even if you have read the post before, I highly recommend you read it again, again and yet again before downloading and using anything. A big THANK YOU goes out to the iPhone Dev-Team for there much appreciated work!

How To Jailbreak an iPod Touch/iPhone in Firmware 2.2.1 (MAC ONLY)

For our MAC users!



Stay iTuned!!!