Pwnage 2.0 Released: Gadget Lab Jailbreaks iPod Touch
The iPhone Dev Team has released its Pwnage tool to jailbreak both iPhones and iPod Touches running the 2.0 software, and we fearlessly used a sacrificial iPod to test it out. The first version was released yesterday and was quickly…
The iPhone Dev Team has released its Pwnage tool to jailbreak both iPhones and iPod Touches running the 2.0 software, and we fearlessly used a sacrificial iPod to test it out. The first version was released yesterday and was quickly followed by a minor update. Right now, this is Mac only, but we are sure the open source project will end up ported to Windows soon enough. The tool will jailbreak your iPhone but will not unlock it from your mobile carrier.
This is likely more useful for owners of the original iPhone — 3-G buyers will have already signed up for a contract so changing carriers is a tiny pointless. A future unlock should, though, allow you to pop in a local SIM card when traveling. Read on to follow our attempt to Jailbreak an iPod Touch, already loaded with the official 2.0 software.
So, how does it work? First you download the application and fire it up. You then choose what kind of iPhone or iPod you’ve (1-G, 3-G or Touch). The Pwnage application talks to your iPhone and then builds a custom IPSW file. An IPSW file is what iTunes uses to install the operating system onto the iPhone — think of it as the Mac OS X DVD you used to install Leopard, only a lot smaller (in my case, around 250 MB). The Pwnage tool then kicks your iPhone into recovery mode, all the while giving instructions on the screen and ticking countdowns, which makes the whole thing very hectic.
The custom IPSW is then used by iTunes to restore your iPod, just like a real install. You’ll need to click the “restore” button in your iPhone’s settings whilst holding down the option (or alt) key. You then navigate to the new IPSW file, which has magically appeared on your desktop, and go make coffee.
Soon, your iPhone will restart, showing the Pwnage Pineapple logo instead of the familiar Apple, and iTunes will ask you if you want to restore from the previous backup of your legit, still-locked iPhone. I told it to restore from this backup and then panicked and yanked the cable. Everything appeared fine, and as you can see in the photograph, the App Store coexists with the new Cydia application, a replacement for the Installer App found on older jailbroken iPhones.
Cydia asked me to update it over the air, and when I clicked OK, I found the first problem. With the new, virgin custom firmware, I had lost all my settings, including WiFi passwords. After entering the password, an update was downloaded, and then I was asked if I wanted to update more packages, including SSH.
This is where things really went wrong. The display shows the toolbar, with the time frozen, and a perpetual spinning gear wheel. I plugged the iPod back in to the USB port, just to keep the power coming, and curiously it synched my applications from iTunes, even whilst apparently locked. The synch actually went as normal, but the iPod was still stuck in spinning-wheel mode.
Next, a hard reboot. I held the power and home buttons down for ten seconds and the iPod rebooted and synched once again. My App Store Apps are now happily coexisting alongside the unofficial ones.
Cydia isn’t yet as full of applications as the precious Installer.app, and it will be interesting to see whether anybody will actually bother to port older applications when they can just submit them to the App Store. But everything seems to work just fine. In fact, the whole iPod feels a tiny less sluggish than with the regular 2.0 software.
The home screen.
The scary result of launching Cydia for the first time.
Cydia updates over the air, just the the App Store will do one day.
Yes. Yes we do.
Product page [iPhone Dev Team]
Popularity: 2% [?]
Thankfully just a concept for now, the Goodie 2 Shoe is an idea in function, and definitely not in form. They’re hideous, sure, but they’ve a neat trick: the heel is adjustable with magnets and hidden hinges, so a 1.5-inch heel suitable for work gets extended to a come-hither 3.5-inch for going out. Other parts can be customized, much like the latest 
If you Google “iPhone apps,” the first thing that comes up is iPhoneApps.org, a site selling a bundle of “top 10″ iPhone applications for $25 using “safe PayPal.” Friends, there’s nothing safe about this site. It’s a scam. The iTunes App Store is the 
According to reporter Nobuyuki Hayashi, the camera of the iPhone 3G sold in Japan will make a shutter sound every time you take a photo, even if you put the telephone in silent mode. The reason: all those pervs taking photos up the skirts of unsuspected women in public places.
For DIYers with a lot more technical know-how than cash, an Instructables user has put up a really interesting tutorial on building an electric motorcycle using just $3000. The vehicle has a 70mph top speed, but can only go about 10 miles before it needs to be recharged. It’s great for a swift trip to the store, if you don’t make any unexpected stops along the way. With gas prices being what they are, you should probably try to make it so everything you would normally need to get to is less than 10 miles away anyhow. [
Put simply, the Jinsei Game of Life won’t let you play the simple game contained inside it unless you exercise. It’s part pedometer, part Tamagotchi, part 
Entries (RSS)