Piracy.

Well, us jailbreakers can stay on a 'low' firmware for long, forever in fact.

There will always be a way to jailbreak, but jailbreaking in itself isn't a bad thing. I have a jailbroken iPod, but that doesn't mean that I steal apps, I'm just as much against piracy as you, I love my jailbreak, and I think that everyone should try it. (especially if you have a 3GS/3rd Gen touch)

 

I definitely disagree that people jailbreak for pirated apps. I almost guarantee that you haven't jailbroken your iPhone so you're in no position to comment. A jailbroken iPhone offers so many benefits that most users are oblivious to, yet you go shouting about how it's awful and why they should ban it. Truth is, if Apple gave us the things that a jailbroken device offer, there wouldn't be a need to jailbreak. No custom ringtones by default (my music is taken from CDs, so I can't upload any ringtones )? No themes or customisation? Poor data management etc.

What if you receive a second hand iPhone from a friend? You can't use your own sim card without a jailbreak. That's just unacceptable, and coming from a country that has limited services for apple devices, it just won't do.

I can understand people being upset about piracy, but I don't think the figures are anywhere near that high. Who are the majority of iPhone users? Wasn't it found that it was middle aged women around 30-40? How many of them do you think would try to jailbreak their device for cracked apps? I think it's completely exaggerated, people with jailbroken devices get a terrible rep for it which is in most cases unjustified. Developers know what they're getting into, and they should really stop whining about it.

 

You go Camzy!

 

Unfortunately your assumption is a bit off. Actually way off. I have, possibly a bit earlier than quite a quite a few of you here. Ever since j/b became possible almost 2 years ago. Still stuck with it until I finally get myself a 3GS (this time with contract).

I know all the "supposedly" cool uses jb can offer. Still only using it just for unlocking my 2G for last 10 months. All those jb apps were cool earlier but now it`s nothing more than a PITA (atleast for me). Most of the iPhone`s basic limitations have been taken care of with the OS updates now and I dont really see any point in jb anymore. I`m not agains jb, it`s the only way I can use my current iPhone with the latest firmware available. but I think apple should be more serious about it as it`s only doing more damage to apple and appstore devs with each passing day.

What I`m actually trying to say is that if there`s anyone to blame for appstore piracy then it`s Apple and no one else. Not the pirates, not the app-hackers, neither the ones who allow jb solutions. No one but Apple is the culprit here. They dont really seem to care.

 

I completly agree with camzy.. They only eason I bought an iPhone is because I knew I would be able to customize it by jailbreaking.. But just because I jailbreak doent mean I pirate.. Heck.. There are some cydia programmers that actually charge for their apps as well..

Besides that.. There are only 10% of iPhone/iPod users that jailbreak.. And even less that pirate..

Jailbreaking gives us what apple should have.. Custumization.. On many levels.. Not just UI

 

Stupid quote system :э

 

Yup. IT IS. They have the power to stop this and they arent doing anything. They went running to stop pre from syncing to iTunes but for piracy they still dont have an answer. They take so much pride in having a closed ecosystem where they control both the hardware and the software but still doing nothing bout this problem. They seriously dont care IMHO.

 

IMO, i think half of the apple employee's have their iPhones/iTouches jailbroken. its not a bad thing at all, infact it opens up the devices to so much more than apple could ever of imagined. with just one side-effect. and yes it is a terrible side-effect unfortunately.

but the thing is, nothing is ever completely unreverse-engineerable. everything can be hacked. its not as simple as some may think to stop people from hacking/jailbreaking

 

Well, just saw this article pop up on my twitter, and it seems relevant to this discussion:

http://www.macworld.co.uk/ipod-itunes/news/index.cfm?newsid=27394

 

A simple way to cut down on app store piracy would be for Apple to start allowing refunds.

I know a lot of people that say they are fed up with wasting money on terrible apps so they now get cracked ones.

 

well cracked apps purpose was originally to let you have a try-before-you-buy kind of thing so you dont waste your money, but people ended up using that for evil. theres lots of people tho that do still respect what cracked apps were originally done for and do only use them to try-before-they-buy

 

Well, I have some questions regarding this topic:

a, if you got a jailbroken iPod or iPhone, you still have to buy apps in the App Store, don't you? How do you get 'em for free?

b, if you got a jailbroken device, do you have access to the apps preferences, that means can you change the data of games, for example?

I ask, because I haven't a clue in this case. And, to be honest, I would never jailbreak my iPhone. But I'm interested in these points above, just because I'd like to know how things work.

Probably this is comparable to the Wii environment. A lot of people hack the Wii to download games for free or alter the data of Mario Kart, so they can cheat online. I know how they do these things, but I'm glad that I'm not one of them and didn't hack my Wii.
I developed for some years for the fun of it and know how hard it can be for developers to get their income. And even if you can hide behind your device, tv or console: stealing remains stealing.
And, even if people are telling they hack their Wii just for some free games, the truth is that most of them steal games. Maybe this is different with iPhone or iPod, I don't know.

 

Firstly, Apple can't stop it. Hackers will always find another loophole.

Secondly, Apple isn't exactly forcing people to download cracked apps, it is not their that people discovered how to crack apps.

Last, but not least, even if Apple did manage to block jailbreaking, it would be extremely unfair on those who jailbreak not to crack apps, but to pimp out their iPod with funky customization (such as myself)

 

I do notice one thing on this forum , as soon as a game gets cracked the comments on the game are increasing, the ones tofft are always the same. I think 70% of people here often DL cracked games, I also think that 90% of the jailbreakers are doing for cracked games and don't care about some wallpaper they can change.

Also apple will sell more devices because of this so there will always be a loophole in the firmware

 

I havent noticed that. But I wouldnt even know as I havent checked those sites for ages

If apple, with all their resources, cant then no one else can. They HAVE to..

 

Well you're misguided too then. Remember that Apple pockets 30% of revenue from whatever the devs make. More people pirate > loss of money for devs > loss of money for Apple. I think they're trying hard to ward off piracy, but it's just too difficult. Their latest firmware isn't officially jailbroken yet though, so I think it probably is working - for now. But as you said, people will just keep their old firmware.

 

I'll be glad to answer your questions because I have a hacked wii and iPhone incidentally

A) There is a way that you can download apps for free online then sync them to your iPhone. You don't go anywhere near the app store, and it's completely illegal. However, once you jailbreak your iPhone you can still buy apps normally.

B) You can change the data of games if you know how by remote access.

Jailbreaking your iPhone really isn't difficult and there are so many options that I wouldn't know where to start if I wanted to tell you what you could do.

As for the Wii, I soft hacked it and installed the Homebrew Channel and I'm so glad I did. I did it purely for Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and the results are beyond amazing. Only legendary pokemon from pokeballs, new costumes, new map skins, more balanced characters even completely new characters and movesets. It's now so much fun playing with friends on the same Wii.

 

its jailbroken as of 2days ago. blackrain

 

LOL. Do you realize how much it must have been costing apple to keep the appstore running? Server Costs, approval staff, redownloads, app update approval and downloads... 30% of mostly 99cents app(not to forget the free ones) is going to barely cover their costs. This is not their cash cow. Its even worse off then their iTunes music store IMO. As far as difficult is concerned, Apple rarely takes up an easy job IMO. My point is they can stop it(or atleast make it a lot more difficult) if they try, but they looks like they arent even trying with just one real explanation... They dont care !

And btw, wasnt the new firmware already jailbroken yesterday??