Filed under: iPod Family, Hacks
State of the iTouch Jailbreak: Slow, forward progress
Late last night, iTouch hacker Martyn gained access to many of the iTouch's ramdisk files. He did this by interrupting the restore process after about 82-88 seconds. This put the iTouch into a state where iTunes still saw it in "Restore" mode but iPhuc was able to read files. Behold "martynmode". Before I headed off to sleep, effort was being made to use gdb breakpoints to stop iTunes at the right spot.
The big success last night was Martyn's recovery of the onboard asr file. However, Apple had zero'ed out the encryption key this time around. Attempts to edit then load the dmg files also failed. I believe that this morning, "Smiley" will attempt to mod iPhuc to read the XML sent back from the iTouch.
Unfortunately, the effort goes slowly without a clear line of sight to the goal.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Anton said 12:48PM on 9-18-2007
"Apple had zero'ed out the encryption key this time around. "
What does that mean?
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yacoub said 12:50PM on 9-18-2007
Keep up the good work, gang! Apple is just asking for us to succeed the more they try to prevent us from returning the device to the functionality it was meant to have.
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yacoub said 12:50PM on 9-18-2007
Keep up the good work, gang! Apple is just asking for us to succeed the more they try to prevent us from returning the device to the functionality it was meant to have.
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Jeff said 12:52PM on 9-18-2007
Seems like you use this as your personal blog, Erica. And its iPod Touch. That is like saying iNano, iShuffle, iMini. It sounds kinda uninformed when you write iPod Touch as iTouch.
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Stuart Bell said 1:00PM on 9-18-2007
What the heck does it matter if someone abbreviates to iTouch, if that frees them up to spend even more time hacking? Priorities!
I just want to encourage all those who are trying to gain access to the iTouch (oops - did I really write it?), and, eventually, please, give it a calendar add function!
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Benjamin said 12:58PM on 9-18-2007
@ Jeff: First off, it's "And it's iPod Touch", not "And its iPod Touch". Second, Erica's progress reports on Jailbreaking the iTouch (or iPod Touch - I don't want to sound uninformed!) are extremely valuable. This new product is shipping now and prospective buyers like me are looking forward to being able to see user-installed apps on it.
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mingistech said 1:02PM on 9-18-2007
Re: Jeff
iTouch is a commonly used slang for the device. (iDay = Day iPhone launched, iTouch = iPod touch, Wiimote = Wii Remote, ect) It's tech slang, get used to it.
People need to stop complaining about iPhone and iPod news on here. It's all Apple related. Keep the posts coming in Erica.
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Wesley Radcliffe said 1:15PM on 9-18-2007
jeff: erica is a tuaw blogger, writing updates on something very important to itouch users. If you dont want to read about it, navigate away from the page. no need for negative talk at people doing so much for the community.
I like my itouch, but I'd LOVE it if I could more with it. I wish you guys luck.
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Nelson said 1:05PM on 9-18-2007
It would be interesting if Apple named the iPod touch the iTouch. Then, it would be able to use a rendition of the tune "I Touch Myself", or, in this case, "iTouch myself" or "I Touch My iTouch", for the "iTouch" commercials. I can see Bob in those commercials doing his thing - maybe if Apple used an Abercombie & Fitchish style of advertising.
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Max said 1:58PM on 9-18-2007
All you heroic hackers - keep on going! I count on you ;)
(Btw.... come on iTouch isnt THAT bad -.-)
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xxdesmus said 1:13PM on 9-18-2007
Thank you for the update Erica. We all very appreciative of your hard work (and the team's hard work).
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noza said 1:18PM on 9-18-2007
If people are going to be Nomenclature Nazis, then you should keep in mind that the actual Apple-approved name of the device is "iPod touch" not "iPod Touch" (the 't' in 'touch' is NOT capitalized).
That goes for the others too, "iPod nano", "iPod shuffle", "iPod classic", etc.
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oudemia said 1:47PM on 9-18-2007
I'd like to add to the thanks being sent Erica's way. And btw, Jeff, I call mine the touchPod. Is that ok?
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Travis said 5:11PM on 9-18-2007
I love you Erica!! I'm really happy you're posting progress reports up here. It's awesome see how hard you guys are working and to know that there is progress, even a little. Do you have any unofficial estimate as to when you'll finally get the iTouch's wonderful innards cracked open for the world to see...and hack.
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Jeedee said 1:27PM on 9-18-2007
Im very happy to have my mac news and iPhone/iTouch news at the same place. Saves time since I don't need to visit two separate website. I think it is pretty safe to say that if you guys manage to hack the iTouch, the iPhone with the upcoming firmware will be hackable as well.
Keep up the good work and thanks for keeping us informed.
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Stephen Lang said 1:35PM on 9-18-2007
Hi Erica,
Please keep us updated!
It seems that despite recent statements from that Apple exec about being neutral to hackers, the Touch firmware (which may end up in the new iPhone firmware) seems to have added additional safeguards to prevent hacking. Is this a correct statement?
And if this is the case, what is your sense of how things will be be going forward? If Apple has clearly added new security to the firmware, it seems quite possible or even likely they will do it in future revisions. I think hackers will always get around it, but it will probably get tiring if this whole rigamarole must be repeated with every firmware update.
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Jeff said 1:38PM on 9-18-2007
My bad, peeps. Take a chill pill, or rather a chpill. Why not just put other words together.
So why can't I just type its instead of it's. If you can make it iTouch instead of iPod touch, I should surely be able to the a time saving, one less key stroke way of contracting it is.
iAppreciate the work being done, iDon't get how this is so noteworthy. Why not have a specific blog for the "iTouch" and when there is significant information to be shared then post it on here. How helpful is this post really?
I don't think I'm the only one holding these opinions.
And they just are opinions, just your statements.
btw I love my iPhone.
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Anton said 1:55PM on 9-18-2007
@Jeff: Buzz off. No one wants you here. Including yourself, apparently.
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byaah said 1:59PM on 9-18-2007
@Jeff.
Just don't read the posts you don't want to read. Problem solved.
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yacoub said 2:07PM on 9-18-2007
Jeff: iTouch, you GTFO.
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