Hasta La Gadget!

When not puffing on his pipe, petting his sociopathic parakeet or growing a rather creepy-looking mustache, gadget blogger and ex-Wired.com writer John Brownlee likes to tinker. This morning he sent over some pictures of his latest, a $1 keychain for the iPod Shuffle.

Brownlee chose the previous (and many say superior) generation Shuffle with the clip and buttons, but it would work with any tiny MP3 player that has a jack socket. All you do is take an old pair of headphones (Brownlee bought a pair of junky earbuds from his local Berlin dime – or Euro cent – store), chop off the jack, leaving a big enough length of cable to tie a secure knot and affix it to a keyring. In the picture above, you see the keychain jack disconnected and set behind the iPod. Of course, you’ll need to keep a working pair of headphones for actual listening, and you won’t be able to leave the player on the keychain while you’re doing it (but then, that’s what the Shuffle’s clip is for).

Brownlee went one step further, and after trimming the excess cable he took a break from his pipe-smoking and used the lighter to melt the knot, sealing the connection permanently in plastic. It’s certainly not the prettiest hack, but it is undeniably ingenious, and a great way to keep the Shuffle and your keychain together in your pocket. We’re a little worried about scratches to the anodized aluminum body of the iPod, but as there is no screen, this would be purely a cosmetic problem.

UPDATE: Brownlee informs me that the Apple ‘buds wrapped around the iPod provide ample protection against scratches, and that the Shuffle’s jack socket is a very snug fit: “After a week, it hasn’t popped off once” he tells us.

We’re also happy that the picture includes Brownlee’s rather excellent Snowy-in-a-spacesuit figurine, the companion of which (Tin Tin in detective overcoat) apparently resides on his better-half’s keyring.

Apple has won an important round of its legal battle against Psystar, a Florida-based startup that has been selling Mac clones for over a year.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup ruled late last Friday that by selling PCs hacked to run Mac OS X, Psystar has violated Apple’s copyrights. Alsup also ruled that Psystar violated anti-circumvention provisions in the Digital Millenium Copyright act.

Psystar in April 2008 opened its business selling non-Apple PCs hacked to run Mac OS X. Its first offering was a desktop system called the “OpenMac,” which cost $400 — about $2,400 cheaper than Apple’s Mac Pro. Apple filed suit in July 2008, alleging that Psystar was committing copyright, trademark and shrink-wrap license infringement.

“Psystar’s use of Mac OS X has been in excess and has violated Apple’s copyrights,” the judge wrote in his 16-page order.

Apple’s end-user agreement for Mac OS X reads, “You agree not to install, use or run the Apple Software on any non-Apple-labeled computer, or to enable others to do so.” In his Friday, Alsup noted that Psystar did not modify Mac OS X, but instead installed the software used to circumvent settings on non-Apple PCs to install Mac OS X. Alsup said this action constituted “facilitation of circumvention” and was a violation of Section 1201(a)(2) of the DMCA, which states the following:

(2) No person shall manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide, or otherwise traffic in any technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof, that –

(A) is primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title;
(B) has only limited commercially significant purpose or use other than to circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title; or
(C) is marketed by that person or another acting in concert with that person with that person’s knowledge for use in circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title.

Though Apple has won this portion of the case so far, the Cupertino, California company still has a long road ahead if it wishes to destroy the entire “Hackintosh” industry. In an article summarizing Apple’s battle with Psystar, ArsTechnica’s Jacqui Cheng cites Fred von Lohmann of Electronic Frontier Foundation, who said there are plenty of workarounds still available to hack OS X, which are not repeating Psystar’s offenses.

“While the ruling is a serious setback for Psystar, I don’t see it having much impact beyond the facts of that case,” von Lohmann told Ars. “On a number of important points, the outcome was driven by Psystar-specific factors, such as Psystar forfeiting one of their strongest defenses by failing to plead it in time. Moreover, my understanding is that the commercial ‘hackintosh’ industry has moved on to selling software that enables the user to bring their own PC and OS X DVD, rather than selling a pre-installed solution like the one at issue in the ruling.”

An example of a Hackintosh solution is a dongle with the Mac OS loaded, which ships with PCs, effectively turning them into sort-of Mac clones, which Wired.com reported in November. A lawyer told Wired.com such a device would face legality issues with regard to copyright, because the device would copy the Mac BIOS and put it in a chip. However, it would likely require another long legal battle with Apple, since the circumstances are different.

Meanwhile, plenty of open-source DIY solutions for consumers to install Mac OS X on non-Apple hardware are still available on the web. Thus, it’s unlikely Apple will put an end to the Hackintosh era anytime soon.

Apple and Psystar are scheduled for a final briefing on Dec. 14 to declare any monetary relief Apple may receive as a result of the hearing.

See Also:

• Psystar ‘Rebel EFI’ Patch Installs Snow Leopard on Any PC
• Psystar Marches Forward With Beefy Mac Clone
• Apple, Psystar File to Protect Secrets Before Battling in Court …
• Judge Dismisses Mac Cloner Psystar’s Bankruptcy
• Mac Copycat Psystar Gets Ammo to Countersue Apple
• Psystar: Blu-Ray Hackintosh for Sale; MacBook Clones on the Way …
• Psystar: Apple Is Paranoid for Alleging Conspiracy

When he was 17, George Hotz poured hundreds of hours of his summer vacation into a special project: learning the iPhone’s secrets. His unpaid labor eventually paid off. With the help of a soldering iron, he was the first to unlock the iPhone, delivering the handset to international networks before Apple had a chance to.

He got some perks, too. His unlock catapulted him to internet stardom, catching the eye of an entrepreneur who traded his Nissan 350Z car for Hotz’s restriction-free iPhone. Hotz, now 20, makes a living as a “hacker for hire” of sorts — getting paid to break into different types of gadgets. He gets to spend his free time unofficially attending a college, where he pretends to be a student just to socialize.

What’s best, Hotz didn’t think unlocking the iPhone was even hard.

“It did take 500 hours, but thinking back to some of the stuff I’ve done now, the first iPhone was incredibly easy,” Hotz said in a phone interview.

But what was an easy task for a curious teen has turned into a persistent headache for Apple, one that the company has been trying to cure for over two years, with little success. With each new version of the iPhone operating system, a small army of independent programmers and hackers get to work prying it open, removing restrictions and making their iPhones do things that Apple CEO Steve Jobs never intended.

To stay faithful to agreements with telecom partners, Jobs in September 2007 declared Apple was playing a “cat-and-mouse game” to disable unlocked iPhones. Apple regularly issues software updates to disable hacked, unlocked versions of the handset. But within a few weeks, new hacks emerge, freeing the iPhone from carrier restrictions again.

In fact, Hotz just last month released the easiest hacking solution for the iPhone to date. Named “Blackra1n,” his software can hack and unlock an iPhone in just two minutes. All the user needs to do is plug in an iPhone, launch the application and click a button.

It’s safe to say this is a game where the mouse has outrun the cat, and it’s unlikely Apple will catch up anytime soon. That’s because Apple is up against a lot more than an individual hacker. The iPhone and its App Store not only gave birth to a new digital frontier for mobile software, but created an entire underground ecosystem: the Jailbreak community. In addition to multiple iPhone hacker groups pumping out different unlocking solutions on a regular basis, there are several stores hosting unauthorized iPhone apps and programmers developing software strictly for hacked iPhones.

Humble Beginnings

Available for jailbroken iPhones, themes can change the entire look of the iPhone's menu screen with special buttons and skins. The appearance of the traditional iPhone Home screen cannot be changed. The above theme is called Pitseleh, authored by "Monty" of MacCiti.com, a site that hosts content for hacked iPhones.

Hackers adopted the word “jailbreak” to describe the act of overriding the iPhone’s restrictions to install unauthorized software in the device. Jailbreaking is the first step an iPhone owner must take in order to later execute the hack to unlock the handset, enabling it to work with any carrier. The original iPhone was extremely insecure and thus very easy to jailbreak, according to Hotz, and hackers almost immediately broke into the gadget after it debuted in June 2007.

Jailbreaking accelerated quickly. Soon, hackers reverse-engineered major parts of the iPhone API, and they opened doors to creating and installing third-party apps for the device. Games, utilities and even custom themes and wallpapers enhanced the capabilities of the handset. To Apple enthusiasts, this was exciting: The iPhone at the time had no App Store, so jailbreaking was the only way to get more than the handful of basic apps provided by Apple.

In August 2007, Hotz announced he had unlocked the iPhone with the Dev Team, a group of hackers that posts jailbreak tools and instructions. Soon after, Hotz released software that anyone in the world could use to make their iPhone work with any carrier’s SIM card.

When Apple in July 2008 opened its official App Store, the urge to jailbreak got less exciting. The App Store grew quickly — with 100,000 apps to date — making the act of jailbreaking seemingly irrelevant to the average iPhone owner, who could download Apple-sanctioned apps without risk.

Reformation

iPhone users can only download files smaller than 10MB from the iTunes Store. Also, some third-party apps will not work on a 3G connection, limiting use to Wi-Fi only. 3G Unrestrictor, an app available through the unauthorized app store Cydia, removes 3G restrictions from any app you choose.

But the App Store didn’t stop the Jailbreak community from proliferating. Now that the App Store exists, jailbreakers have shifted their focus to creating work-arounds for the iPhone’s many restrictions. Most share an open-software philosophy, giving consumers full ownership rights over their product, or the ability to do whatever they wish with the gadget they paid for.

Jay Freeman owns Cydia, an unauthorized app store open to jailbroken iPhones, which distributes iPhone apps Apple would otherwise forbid. Before opening his store, Freeman played an instrumental role in setting up the early groundwork for the jailbreak platform. Often referred to as “Saurik” in the Jailbreak community, Freeman admitted he was initially reluctant about the iPhone due to its stifling limitations.

“Apple seems to have spent very little time looking at previous phones, and left out many features that users, such as myself, have come to expect,” said Freeman, reflecting on the original iPhone. “However, [a friend] insisted to me that jailbreaking was the future. The software it comes with doesn’t matter; I can just rewrite it all to my liking.”

The need for an underground app store became more clear after Apple rejected several iPhone apps. The company faced severe scrutiny when it rejected the official Google Voice app, which would enable consumers to use a single phone number to ring all their phones, send free text messages and make cheap international calls. The move stirred so much controversy that even the Federal Communications Commission investigated the rejection.

Unauthorized app stores served as a way of circumventing Apple’s censorship. And some programmers are even making money coding forbidden iPhone apps.

“People are so annoyed by Apple and their shit, and if you give them opportunity to go around it, then they’ll even pay for it,” said Kim Streich, a developer whose app 3G Unrestrictor earned $19,000 in sales in just two weeks through Cydia.

With more than 10 million jailbroken iPhones registered, Freeman’s Cydia store is the most popular underground app store. Icy and Installer, two previous unauthorized iPhone software distributors, have been discontinued.

Perseverance

George Hotz's self-portrait, included with his jailbreaking software, portrays him as a Caravaggio-style youth orbited by iPhones. Image credit: George Hotz

Whenever Apple releases an iPhone update, the new software usually erases unauthorized apps and disables unlocked iPhones. In response, the iPhone hacker group Dev Team continues to post regular updates on its blog with instructions and new jailbreak patches for newer iPhone software. The Dev Team’s main jailbreak weapon is called Pwnage Tool, which creates a custom (hacked) patch for Apple’s iPhone firmware and then installs it on the device.

To further combat jailbreaks, Apple has attempted to claim to the U.S. Copyright Office that jailbreaking is illegal. However, the Dev Team skirts around copyright issues by not copying and providing Apple’s software, according to Eric McDonald, a member of the Dev Team. Instead, the Pwnage Tool requires iPhone users to download Apple’s legitimate firmware, and the Pwnage Tool patches it with jailbreak code.

Hotz, who was kicked out of the Dev Team after prematurely publishing information on iPhone hacks, still hacks away the iPhone on his own. Hotz doesn’t demand money for his work, though he does accept donations. He isn’t shy about showing his face to Apple or the world, either: When running Blackra1n, the iPhone temporarily displays a photo of Hotz styled as an angel from a Caravaggio painting (above).

“Blackra1n is only 600K, and 200k of it is my picture,” Hotz said, laughing.

Though the Jailbreak community persistently issues new hacks for iPhone updates, Apple is continuing to fight. A recent Apple job listing reveals the company is seeking an iPhone OS security manager to help prevent exploits, which could block future jailbreak solutions.

Hotz doubted a security expert could block his efforts. In fact, he said he’s already discovered a brand new exploit that will jailbreak and unlock Apple’s fourth-generation iPhone — presumably due in stores summer of 2010 – even though he hasn’t touched it.

“Personally I love that Apple keeps the iPhone closed,” Hotz said. “This is a personal hobby; it’d be no fun if Apple didn’t have it closed anymore. Get a Jailbreak cop and then I’ll show them what I can really do.”

See Also:

• 6 Reasons to Jailbreak Your iPhone
• iPhone Jailbreaking Could Crash Cellphone Towers, Apple Claims …
• False Alarm: New iPhone 3GS Not Jailbreak-Proof
• Geohot Sneaks Out iPhone 3GS Jailbreak Early
• Hackers Release iPhone OS 3.1 Jailbreak Tool for Third-Gen iPhone …
• Rejected By Apple, iPhone Developers Go Underground

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

For a busted video game accessory, the trash can is not the only place. In the hands of a creative DIY-er, a broken Dance Dance Revolution game pad got a makeover that is likely to have many women gamers drooling.

When Liz McLean Knight’s DDR dance pad stopped being good enough to jump on, she cut it up to see what was inside. And the first layer turned out to be a piece of fabric so pretty, she decided to turn it into a purse.

With a standard purse pattern, some lining, foam and zipper, McLean Knight created a colorful tote that could be a fun DIY project for anyone to try. It’s simple, easy and there’s documentation with photos for those who may want to replicate it.  Too bad, though, McLean Knight didn’t use the internal circuitry of the dance pad in her purse. That would have made this the ultimate go-to bag for DDR fans.

Photo: DDR Purse (Liz McLean Knight)

Just as we feared, the latest update to Snow Leopard, version 10.6.2, drops support for the Intel Atom processor. This means that anyone with a “hackintosh” who tries to update to the latest operating system version will see their computer die, going no further than the gray Apple logo on startup.

The reports are lighting up various hackintosh forums, and OSx86-co-author wizard Stellarolla sums it up thusly:

Well, looks like I was right, again. The netbook forums are now blowing up with problems of 10.6.2 instant rebooting their Atom-based netbooks. My sources tell me that every time a netbook user installs 10.6.2 an Apple employee gets their wings.

It shouldn’t be long before some clever hacker figures out a workaround and releases a patched kernel to the world, re-enabling the OS on Atom-based computers. But that’s not the story. The bigger message is that Apple has finally stopped ignoring the incessant buzz of the hobby-hacking, Mac netbook scene and instead pulled out a fly-swatter and dealt it a whack. The war is officially on.

And ironically, this will only hit the hobbyists and tinkerers. Psystar, that other flea in Apple’s ear, is unaffected, as the fake Macs it sells do not use the Atom chip.

Official: Atom not supported in 10.6.2 [Stell’s Blog]

See Also:

• Snow Leopard Update Blocks Intel Atom, Kills Hackintoshes
• Snow Leopard Update Fixes Deletion Bug