Apple has reportedly begun shipping iPhone 3GS units with a new bootrom, which might help combat hacks enabling installation of unauthorized software. However, iPhone hackers say Apple’s new firmware only causes a temporary inconvenience for jailbroken devices, and the handset is still hackable.

“It’s not going to be impossible to jailbreak even if the exploit we used is gone,” said Eric McDonald, a member of the iPhone Dev-Team, which publishes tools to jailbreak the iPhone, in a phone interview with Wired.com.

McDonald explained that current tools will still work with the latest batch of iPhone 3GS units. The “24kpwn” exploit used to help jailbreak previous iPhones and iPod Touch devices only made it easier to boot up the hacked devices.

The newly shipping iPhone 3GS’s bootrom interferes with 24kpwn, but that will only make the handset difficult to start up after it shuts down. Booting up will require being “tethered” to a computer. That means if you shut down a jailbroken iPhone 3GS, or if it runs out of power, you can only turn it back on by plugging it into a computer.

In short, changing the bootrom makes owning a jailbroken iPhone even more of a hassle than it already is. However, McDonald said the Dev-Team will just have to find a new exploit to enable untethered booting once again.

Several publications on Wednesday reported Apple’s latest iPhone 3GS units came with presumably jailbreak-proof firmware. The reports were half correct: The phones do indeed ship with different firmware with a new bootrom, but they are still hackable.

McDonald compared this situation with the newest iPhone 3GS devices to the second-generation iPod Touch. Apple shipped this iPod Touch with a different bootrom from the previous version, and for a while, owners who jailbroke the device needed to tether their devices in order to boot up. Later, the iPhone Dev-Team released another exploit to enable untethered booting.

The iPhone jailbreak community emerged soon after the original iPhone launched in June 2007. Hackers discovered methods to install unauthorized third-party software on the device, as well as unlock the iPhone to work with carriers that otherwise did not serve the iPhone.

Apple wasn’t pleased. At the launch of the British iPhone in September 2007, Steve Jobs said Apple would work to suppress unlock hacks.

Apple has even suggested to the U.S. Copyright Office that jailbreaking is illegal — to no avail, as the Dev-Team has been careful to only provide patches hacking the iPhone, as opposed to copying the software, according to McDonald.

“It’s a cat-and-mouse game,” Jobs said in September 2007. “We try to stay ahead. People will try to break in, and it’s our job to stop them breaking in.”

With the latest upgrade, it appears Apple has not stopped the Dev-Team from breaking in. But for the time being, the company has made hacking new iPhones very inconvenient and perhaps impractical.

via wired.com

Orbit, otherwise known as Expose for iPhone, has been submitted to the Cydia Store and should be available soon.

The application created by Steven Troughton-Smith was inspired by an Ocean Observations concept video. Using the app you can quickly jump to Springboard pages in an Expose type fashion.

Orbit will cost $1.99 to purchase (just enough to make sure he can afford to make a version 2.0) and will be available soon.

Via iclarified.com

Ένας οδηγός MMS για όσους έχουν ΑΤ&Τ carrier.

I have noticed a lot of people having trouble with mms working. I have written fool proof instructions to get your mms 100% working if you are using an iPhone 3G or a 3GS. If the following does not get your mms working I suggest you call AT&T and make sure they didn’t forget about unblocking mms on your account. Of course you can tell them a little white lie when they ask you if your on firmware 3.1.

Note: If you do the following be sure to uninstall any tethering hack you have installed on your jailbroken iphone. Whether it be the mms/tethering hack from cydia or just the downloaded mobile config files from websites. Uninstall all of them and the reset your network settings before doing the following.

The download below is the 5.5 ipcc carrier settings update AT&T pushed out today to enable mms. The file has been edited by stealthbravo over at modmyi for us users who are wanting to stay on firmware 3.0. The edited file adds the internet tethering option and cellular data network settings along with the correct mms settings. The official unedited file adds mms but you don’t get the tethering option or the ability to edit your cellular data that is why if your like me, you will use this very helpful file that adds the extra features.

• Download Edited IPCC File HERE

After downloading the ipcc wait… You still have to do a few extra steps before using it because itunes doesn’t allow you to update your carrier settings using the ipcc file. Do the following exactly as stated:

• Exit itunes completely

Windows

• Click on start > run > type in cmd and press enter, you should end up with something like this if you did it right:

• After press enter you will see a command prompt window pop up similar to this:

• Now don’t type anything in copy and paste the following line into the command prompt:

“C:\Program Files\iTunes\iTunes.exe” /setPrefInt carrier-testing 1

• Press enter after copying the above and nothing will happen, leave it as is
• Connect your iphone to the computer
• Open itunes from the start menu
• Select your iphone under the list of devices
• Hold SHIFT and CLICK CHECK FOR UPDATES. Navigate to the downloaded ipcc file you got and update your carrier settings

OSX

• Close Itunes Completely
• Open terminal
• Copy and past the following line into terminal

defaults write com.apple.iTunes carrier-testing -bool TRUE

• After copying the line to terminal press enter and nothing will happen just leave it as it is.
• Connect your iphone to your mac
• Open itunes
• Select your iphone from the device list on the left
• Hold OPTION and CLICK CHECK FOR UPDATES
• Choose the downloaded ipcc file and reboot your iPhone

Note: Before you say this doesn’t work go to settings > general > network > cellular data network and make sure you have these settings. Click the images to enlarge

via iPhoneSpot