Seriously folks, what’s up with these prototype iPhones falling out of nondescript white vans and ending up on eBay in the shadiest of manners? Just months after we saw an original iPhone prototype (ancient OS included) pop up on The ‘Bay, now we’ve got one of the world’s first iPhone 3GSs on there as well. According to the highly ranked eBay seller, the “guy” he “got it from” actually stumbled upon it at an airport, and rather than doing the nonsensical thing of hitting up lost and found, he decided to make the most of the sudden opportunity. According to the new owner, an Apple Genius has confirmed that it is an iPhone 3GS, but due to its prototype nature, they can’t help him get past the “Connect to iTunes” screen. In other words, it’s an incredibly rare brick. If that sounds like just the thing to complete your collection, you can visit the road to overpaying through the read link below.
[Via ElectricPig]
Filed under: Cellphones
iPhone 3GS prototype scooped up at airport, now on eBay originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Be warned, this is beta stuff and we haven’t been able to test it ourselves. However, a number of breathless tipsers and commenters are reporting a successful jailbreak and unlock of their iPhone 3GS. The magic begins with a 3GS jailbreak released by GeoHot. See, George is fed up with the Dev-Team’s insistence on waiting until Apple releases iPhone OS version 3.1. As he puts it:
Normally I don’t make tools for the general public, and rather wait for the dev team to do it. But guys, whats up with waiting until 3.1? That isn’t how the game is played. We release, Apple fixes, we find new holes. It isn’t worth waiting because you might have the “last” hole in the iPhone. What last hole…this isn’t golf. I’ll find a new one next week.
Meeeeow. After performing the jailbreak, ultras0w should then take care of the unlock although we haven’t seen official comment on this by GeoHot or the Dev-Team yet. Good luck, backup, and kiss the children goodbye — it could be a long weekend if you brick your new iPhone. Now hit the read link if you must.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
iPhone 3GS jailbreak released by GeoHot ahead of Dev Team originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Jul 2009 05:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Apple’s
on-again,
off-again deal with China Unicom to officially bring the iPhone to China may still be up in the air, but it looks like it could now also be facing some trademark issues that could potentially further hold up its release. Apparently, China’s Hanwang Technology owns the trademark for “i-phone” in the country, which could force Apple to make a deal with ‘em before it enters the market (
sound familiar?). Interestingly, Apple does actually own an “iPhone” trademark in China, but it apparently only covers computer hardware and software, while Hanwang’s trademark covers mobile phones. According to Hanwang, however, the two aren’t actually in talks just yet, and it’s not saying what it plans to do if Apple decides to go crazy and announce a move into China without its blessing.
[Via mocoNews.net]
Filed under: Cellphones
iPhone facing potential trademark issues in China? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Given the hype surrounding Apple’s iPhone, we’re actually surprised that we haven’t seen more holes to plug over the years. In fact, the last major iPhone exploit to take the world by storm happened right around this time two years ago, and now — thanks to OS X security expert Charlie Miller — we’re seeing yet another come to light. Over at the SyScan conference in Singapore, Mr. Miller disclosed a hole that would let attackers “run software code on the phone that is sent by SMS over a mobile operator’s network in order to monitor the location of the phone using GPS, turn on the phone’s microphone to eavesdrop on conversations, or make the phone join a distributed denial of service attack or a botnet.” Charlie’s planning to detail the vulnerability in full at the upcoming Black Hat conference, but Apple’s hoping to have it all patched up by the end of this month.
[Via HotHardware]
Filed under: Cellphones
Apple patching nasty iPhone SMS vulnerability originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Look Apple, your copy and paste feature is pretty intuitive and all but let’s face it, you’re late to the party. About two full software revisions late we’d say. And listing it as one of the “pretty incredible things” in your latest ad about the iPhone 3G S iPhone 3GS is kind of silly since it’s available on your previous models too. Maybe you’re just being ironic?
Filed under: Cellphones
Video: iPhone copy and paste is a ‘pretty incredible thing’… for 1999 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Jul 2009 08:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Your fancy new iPhone OS 3.0 starting to look a bit long in the tooth? Heads up, Apple’s now sending out the beta OS 3.1 and its SDK to the developer community to finagle with. We’re still looking to see what’s been changed here, so for now, if you’re someone who needs the Latest and Greatest and happens to have the right access, download away!
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]
Filed under: Cellphones
iPhone OS 3.1 beta now available for developer community originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Way back in the heady days of 2007, there was an iPhone without 3G data (hard to believe, we know, but trust us — we were there). This iPhone, though revolutionary in some ways, was marred by the love-hate relationship its users suffered for missing out on some very basic features that they’d grown used to on mobiles of yore. One of those missing features, of course, was MMS — and now, some two years later, here we are with a truly integrated MMS experience courtesy of the all-powerful hacking community. Granted, there have been MMS apps available for ages, but there’s a difference: this is the same action 3G and 3GS owners are getting in conjunction with OS 3.0, which Apple curiously decided to hold back from original iPhone owners. As you might imagine, getting this going on your own phone is marginally more complicated than downloading from the App Store, so here’s the question, you non-upgraders: just how badly do you want it?
[Thanks, Paul]
Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds
Stock-looking MMS support hacked onto 2G iPhone originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Jun 2009 12:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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If you’re one of the hapless folks out there still having trouble tracking down a new iPhone 3GS, Apple is making things a little bit easier on you with an online tool to check up on stock at Apple retail stores. There’s a full breakdown of color and capacity, which might seem like overkill to some, but given the fact that stores with stock in all four current models are a bit of an exception (outside of NYC, anyways), we’d have to say that this is just the sort of overkill we need.
[Via iLounge]
Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds
Apple’s new online tool lets you check iPhone 3GS availability from the comfort of your own home originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Jun 2009 10:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Apple’s guided tour videos have featured an endless variety of creepy-android perfect “Apple Store employees” in the recent past, but we’d just like to take a moment and pour one out for OG Bob Borchers, who kicked off the entire series in 2007 with the original iPhone tours and followed ‘em up with the iPhone 3G tour. Bob’s leaving his post as Apple’s senior director of worldwide iPhone product marketing to join VC group Opus Capital — yeah, it’s not hard gadget news, but we’re getting a little misty on Sunday evening remembering how closely we all watched those initial demos looking for any tiny nuggets of information about the then-mysterious platform. Peace out, Bob — it’s been a ride. Video after the break.
Continue reading Bob the Apple guided tour guy leaves for greener pastures
Filed under: Cellphones
Bob the Apple guided tour guy leaves for greener pastures originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Jun 2009 20:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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BT Broadband customers and O2 iPhone owners, rejoice — some 2,500 ATM machines near you will soon be converted to serve as free WiFi hotspots, courtesy of BT Openzone and Cashbox, perhaps the most mismatched pair of commercial metaphors ever put together. The initial rollout starts with 10 machines this week and numbers are expected to steadily increase. Non-BT users and iPhone heretics wanting to join in the fun will have to shell out £5.88 ($10) for 90 minutes or a more reasonable £9.79 ($16) for 24 hours.
[Via Tech Digest]
Filed under: Wireless
UK ATMs set to offer WiFi access, free for BT and iPhone users originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 27 Jun 2009 16:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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