No Sweat Mobile Mail (and other iPhone Applications) Installation for the iPod Touch

Yesterday, I took and plunge and upgraded my 16Gb iPod Touch to the latest firmware (1.1.2). Jailbreaking my 1.1.2 upgraded iPod Touch was pretty painless, in fact, the process took less time than my previous jailbreaking activities. Applications that I did not immediately restore are the mobile iPhone applications (Mobile Mail, Mobile Notes, Weather and Maps) because I knew that there may be some incompatibility issues considering that the files I have of those apps were still version 1.1.1.

But this morning, I revisited the Touchdev wiki and saw that there's an easier way to install the iPhone mobile apps. This involves adding a new software repository to Installer.app and once that new repository is recognized, 1.1.1 and 1.1.2 iPhone applications will be available for automatic download and installation!

Now, my iPod Touch is back to its old usable state and I couldn't be happier!

Happy hacking!

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Apple Releases iPhone Firmware Update 1.1.2: Hackers Keeps Up

TUAW reports that the dreaded firmware 1.1.2 update for the iPhone is ready for release.  According to the report, 3rd party applications for the iPhone (and presumably the iPod Touch) has been disabled and all hacks based on the .TIFF exploit used to hack the older iPhone (and iPod Touch) firmware has been plugged.

The good news: the security flaw on the iPhone/iPod Touch has been fixed.  This means that any malware that exploits the .TIFF vulnerability of Mobile Safari is kept at bay.
The bad news: the security flaw on the iPhone/iPod Touch has been fixed.  This means all 3rd party applications that are available for both the iPhone and the iPod Touch is now rendered useless (unless owners does not update their devices).


And now for a Good-er news:  TUAW later reports that the jailbreak for the iPod Touch's 1.1.2 firmware update is already in the pipeline.  I guess it will just be a matter of time before the same happens for the iPhone.

I guess there's no stopping the iPhone/iPod Touch hacking community then

Graphics grabbed from TUAW.com

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jailbreakme.com: Jailbreak Your iPhone/iPod Touch By Visiting a website.

I have mixed feelings about this "easiest jailbreaking method ever".  By just visiting jailbbreakme.com, a previously "virgin" iPhone/iPod Touch will be jailbreak-ed opening it to 3rd party applications with minimal user intervention.  This is made possible through the TIFF exploit discovered by a PSP hacker named Niacin.

Well and good for those who does not want to muck around with using SSH (or WinSCP) -- which is a vast majority of iPhone/iPod Touch owners.

But... this also opens up the iPhone/iPod Touch to the dark side of the web.  Picture this:  a "virgin" iPhone/iPod Touch visits a seemingly "harmless website" using Mobile Safari.  But in the background, the seemingly "harmless website" is now capable of running a background process in the iPhone/iPod Touch doing something sinister (like sending out the whole contact list as an email to the hacker, or simply messing up with the system file... bricking the device).

Now, if an iPhone/iPod Touch was jailbreak-ed using jailbreakme.com, the process also patches the system, fixing the TIFF exploit.  Those that have jailbreak-ed their devices using the more arcane methods also has the option to download the TIFF exploit fix.  But what about the majority of users that kept their units untouched?  They are all vulnerable to these types of "attacks".

This is my fear at the moment.  I think Apple will address this TIFF exploit weakness on the iPhone/iPod Touch.  Once Apple releases the official fix through another software update, the firmware 1.1.1 fiasco may happen once again and will render countless devices useless, until the hacking community finds yet another way to circumvent Apple's "fixes".

I guess I'll just have to be content with what I have now -- an iPod Touch with extended capabilities thanks to the iPhone/iPod Touch hacking community (with some level of confidence that it is somewhat safe from the TIFF exploit).

The solution to this conundrum? Apple should immediately release the SDK for this platform and let the developer community enrich the iPhone/iPod Touch platform.

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Apple to Release SDK for the iPhone/iPod Touch

Let me just say it: We want native third party applications on the iPhone, and we plan to have an SDK in developers’ hands in February. We are excited about creating a vibrant third party developer community around the iPhone and enabling hundreds of new applications for our users. With our revolutionary multi-touch interface, powerful hardware and advanced software architecture, we believe we have created the best mobile platform ever for developers.

Apple

The item above came right out of the horse's mouth -- Steve Jobs'.  All I can say is "bring it on!" and I'm looking forward to restoring my iPod to its original configuration and install authorized applications to it.  But in the meantime, I'll continue enjoying the 3rd party apps I'm using right now.

For the uninitiated, SDK means "Software Development Kit" and its release would mean that programmers can use this SDK to create more applications for the iPhone and the iPod Touch and installing these new application will not require its users to hack into their devices ("jailbreak") to add functionality to them.

Oh and one more thing:

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GUI Jailbreak for the iPod Touch

iJailBreak is out!
October 14th, 2007 | Posted by Ben Feldman, co-13-year-old developer

And it's on our Google Code for download. It has been tested to work on OS X Tiger on Intel chips. No guarantees that it will work on PPC chips - we're working on it. Enjoy!

iJailBreak - Home

If you're not too keen about using Terminal.app to jailbreak your iPod Touch, this *may* be the solution for you.  It is currently at version 0.2.1 which means that it is still in its early stages of development, therefore USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Update: Oh, and did I mention that iJailbreak only runs for Intel-based Macs?  The developer, however, promises compatibility with PPC Macs in the future.  Sorry Windows users, no love for you here... yet. :)

Update 2: iJailBreak works!  I botched my previous hacking attempt by manually installing an alpha version of an app (don't ask) so I decided to restore iNewton and run iJailbreak and it indeed worked!  Now iJailbreak has the Talkin' Tech seal of approval! :D

Update 3: Windows users need not fret!  There's a Windows-based all-in-one solution for you too and its called touchFree. Since I can't test this version, let me just quote my friend at Mac-a-Doodle, "CAVEAT hax0r".

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State of Talkin' Tech's iPod Touch Jailbreak

Yesterday, I said that I had successfully Jailbreak-ed my iPod Touch. I was enjoying my Touch with its 3rd party applications. I had fun installing and uninstalling 3rd party apps but there was one thing missing, Mobile Mail. I want to be able to access my emails on-the-go but something seems to be wrong with the steps I followed so I decided to re-do the Jailbreak and attempt to install Mobile Mail properly this time.

Here's what I did to achieve this. I'm not sure if I'll be successful but I just want to document the steps that I'm taking for posterity's sake.

1. Connected my iPod Touch to my MacBook and did a "Restore" via iTunes. This will bring my iPod back to factory default settings.
2. With that done, I ran the .TIFF exploit to enable me to browse the contents of my Touch.
3. Proceeded to perform the JailBreak procedure as outlined here.
4. Setup SSH as outlined here.
5. Fixed iTunes as outlined here.
6. Installed Installer.app as outlined here.
7. Installed Springboard hack as outlined here.
8. Setup native iPhone apps as outlined here.

Just like yesterday, everything worked flawlessly *but* I still can't make Mobile Mail work although I did make Mobile Maps, Mobile Notes and Mobile Weather work flawlessly. I also installed the BSD Subsystem and Term Vt-100 to do some *nix stuff using Installer.app.

In th coming days, I hopefully will find a way to make Mobile Mail to work but in the meantime, I'll enjoy using my iPod Touch (which I now dub "iNewton"), especially my "killer applicaton" Books.app.


Update: It turned out that the Mobile Mail program that I was installing was corrupted. I tried a package from a different source and now I can access my Gmail account using iPhone's Mobile Mail on my iPod Touch! Now it is worthy of its nickname of "iNewton"

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Ladies and Gentlemen, Talkin' Tech's iPod Touch is JailBreak-ed

After a harrowing 45 minutes, I was able to follow touchdev's jailbreak procedures and my iPod Touch is now capable of running 3rd party apps (until Apple decides to do another software update. Meh!).

Notice the "Books", "Launcher", and "Installer" icons? Those are the results of the Jailbreak! We are indeed living in interesting times!

Update: I'm experimenting on an application called iPhone Remote a.k.a. "Telekinesis". It is basically a web server installed on a Mac (sorry Windows users) that allows an iPhone or an iPod Touch some level of control over the computer. I'll do a separate blog post on this later (hope I remember to do so)

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iPod Touch **Officially** JailBroken

This guide was originally written by Michael Douchebag at www.iphonealley.com, I only modified it a tiny bit to meet the iPod Touch's small differences.

This guide is really only for (Intel only) Mac users, unless you can get a mac user to do most of this guide for you. PPC Mac users will just have to wait for the newer iPhuc to be released

This guide assumes you have already updated to version 1.1.1.

Jailbreak Guide - Touchdev

As for me, I'm still gathering enough testicular fortitude to do this myself. :)

But seriously, I think I'll wait for news from more courageous Touch users to do to this and await their feedback.

Edit: Great minds think alike! My good friend, Mac-a-doodle's doodler has posted something similar in his blog.

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Ladies and Gentlemen, the iPhone is Jailbroken (again!)

iPhone v1.1.1 Jailbreak & AppTapp Installation Guide | iPhone Alley

iPhone Alley (link shown above) has already published a rather comprehensive steps to "JailBreak" an iPhone Touch that has been upgraded to firmware version 1.1.1.  I sure hope a GUI comes out soon and that whatever it is, that it is also compatible with the iPod Touch.

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Let the Hacking Continue: iPhone Jailbreak for Firmware 1.1.1 is Imminent!

One of the members of the iPhone "Rebel Alliance", Erica Sadun reports in TUAW that her fellow rebels at iPhone Dev has found a way to JailBreak the new iPhone firmware (version 1.1.1). She further reports that the procedure is not yet ready to be released to the general populace but I am personally confident that it will be by the next few days.

With this development, I am personally anxious to see if it will also work with the iPod Touch considering that the iPhone and the iPod Touch shares the same firmware version (1.1.1).

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