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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Eric said 9:11PM on 10-31-2007
I was going to ask how we know someone didn't just put their own iPhone in the dock... but you can see the security cable connected to it in the reflection.
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Ian said 9:13PM on 10-31-2007
Seems likely enough to me. All you need to do is visit jailbreakme, and the deed is done.
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HazKid said 9:16PM on 10-31-2007
I did that a LONG time ago, but I actually had a (slightly) valid reason for doing so. I would NEVER buy an iPhone that is unjailbreakable, so I wanted to confirm iFuntastic. This was back when it was free. I would have taken a picture if I had known that it would get on TUAW. But yeah, I rearranged the icons on the home screen and stuff. But no 3rd party apps, there were none at the time.
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Frank Furter said 9:24PM on 10-31-2007
Uh, yeah, that's a side-splitter.
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AppleTwo said 9:27PM on 10-31-2007
No surprise to me at all. I personally tested the new jailbreakme.com on several iphones and ipod touches at an apple store in Madison, WI today. I imagine this has been going on at apple stores all over the world, since the dev team unleashed jailbreakme.com yesterday. What an unbelievable achievement that tool is. Simply (one click) and lightening fast (took only 2 or 3 seconds, literally). I imagine there were a few perplexed customers in my wake. And it's about time the apple store employees learn a thing or two about jailbreaking phones. I've quizzed them many times, and hardly a one can tell me the difference between an unlocked phone and a phone that's merely jailbroken. Most will tell you, incorrectly of course, that jailbreaking damages your phone irreparably. Shame on them. Thankfully they will now learn that restoring the phones and ipod touches using itunes is all that needs to be done to fix them.
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JGO said 9:51PM on 10-31-2007
HAHAHAHAHA!!!!????..... seriously.... it was just a matter time before someone was bound to do this at an apple store. is there nothing better to report on??
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Todd Bernhard said 9:52PM on 10-31-2007
If all demo iPhones connect through the Apple WiFi store's network, they need to setup a DNS alias or edit /etc/hosts file to reroute *.jailbreakme.com to www.apple.com (or something more sinister, like an alarm at the Genius Bar, or Steve Jobs' desk!)
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Eggnog said 9:54PM on 10-31-2007
I did the same thing at the Palm Beach Gardens Mall Apple store in PBG, FL last Monday, just to make sure it worked, then did it to my friends phone today!
These guys are geniuses. It's SO EASY!
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(01) said 10:30PM on 10-31-2007
I feel like that employee is pretty lucky they didn't get fired...right? I mean, Apple can't be condoning it.
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iSkysoft Studio said 10:35PM on 10-31-2007
HAHA
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buya said 10:45PM on 10-31-2007
"iSkysoft Studio"?I search "iSkysoft "in google.C an your software DVD to iPhone Converter for Mac convert DVD to iPhone on the New Mac OS Leopard
http://www.iskysoft.com/dvd-to-iphone-mac.html
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WiseDrunkenSage said 11:35PM on 10-31-2007
Please don't do this at your local Apple Store.
The Genius staff doesn't get stuck fixing the phones, it's up to the Mac Specialists (aka the sales staff).
It's bad enough that restoring **each** iPhone from the demo restore takes half an hour when some jackass thinks it's funny to set a PIN code. Restoring 10 or more demo phones, plus 5-6 iPod Touch's will mean many a Mac Specialist will get stuck in their store, after hours, for 5-6 hours a night.
Glad you think it's funny -- bear in mind that actions have consequences.
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AG said 11:43PM on 10-31-2007
um... isn't it possible that someone just took their iphone and put it in the dock they have there then took the picture?
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Chrs V said 12:05AM on 11-01-2007
hahahahahahaha
i sent this in to TUAW and Gizmodo a couple days ago!
I hacked that damn phone..
Downtown SF
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrsobscura/1811885375/
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icruise said 12:51AM on 11-01-2007
The iPhone in the picture has waiting SMS messages, according to the icon. I didn't think iPhones on display were activated to be able to send or receive messages or calls.
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Zews said 12:59AM on 11-01-2007
@12 "pleae don't do this at the Apple store.
FYI, you don't know what you are talking about. As a matter of policy, all computers, iPhones and iPods are reset to their "fresh" state every night after store closing time. They have to do this, because thousands of people hack away at all this hardware and change settings all day long. All those computers and phones are a mess at the end of the day.
And no "Mac Specialist gets stuck in the store for 5-6 hours a night". It's an automatic process.
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ScotteusMaximus said 1:13AM on 11-01-2007
@15: i learned the hard way that the iPhones in the store have service when my sister text messaged me from one of the demo phones. i was getting messages from random people trying out the phone for the next 3 days. i had to call the store and ask them to delete my number from the phone.
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AppleTwo said 1:17AM on 11-01-2007
WiseDrunkenSage: Boo hoo. A paid employee has to do his/her job. If he/she doesn't like it he/she can get a different one. The phones/touches are for demo so potential buyers can handle them and decide after using them whether they want to buy one.
Potential buyer: if you are interested in buying a phone/touch and considering jailbreaking it and installing third party software after you buy it, then go unabashedly into your local apple store and jailbreak a phone/touch, install third party software, and decide if you like it. If you like your experience, buy one. If not, don't.
This is precisely what the demo models are for. If Apple doesn't want you to test that aspect of a phone/touch, then they can post another absurd statement telling you that, now, as a potential customer you may not violate the user agreement, just as you are not permitted to do once you become an actual customer. Or, as someone else pointed out, they can block jailbreakme.com, and all of its mirrors.
Restoring phones/touches after a customer plays with one is a cost of doing business that Apple has specifically chosen to accept. If they hadn't, then the phones/touches would be behind glass, and Apple would probably have sold roughly 1M of them as of today rather than 2M. So tell your sob story to someone else, WiseDrunkenSage.
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Scott said 1:17AM on 11-01-2007
@16: the store near me must've missed a phone or something because i definitely got a text from the store the next day.
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Nachos said 1:38AM on 11-01-2007
dude, wisedrunkensage is right. it is a pain in the ass when people think they are being awesome and doing something we have never seen before (this includes switching screensavers or whatever). howev, most things DO reset themselves at night, so we mostly spend time laughing at you while you are doing it and then showing the other specialists.
the iPhones are INCAPABLE of resetting themselves at night, though (for obvious reasons), so we *do* have to restore them from a computer in the event that you screw one up. it doesn't take 5-6 hours, but it *is* a pain in the ass.
that said, if you're the kind of kid who comes in and unlocks them because it's so edgy and cool (or whatever you kids are up to these days), you won't care how much annoyance it causes us anyway, so i suppose this is pointless.
and if you think you are "informing the masses" on the unlock, you are so far from on target. most people who see the unlocked phones are going to freak out and think they have a virus or something. people are retarded.
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