iPhone owners demand to see Apple source code

Computerworld ^ | November 20, 2009 11:17 AM ET | By Gregg Keizer

[Swordmaker]

Apple agreed to turn over iPhone source code in antitrust lawsuit, but then reneged, plaintiffs say

iPhone owners charging Apple and AT&T with breaking antitrust laws asked a federal judge this week to force Apple to hand over the iPhone source code, court documents show.

The lawsuit, which was filed in October 2007, accuses Apple and AT&T of violating antitrust laws, including the Sherman Act, by agreeing to a multi-year deal that locks U.S. iPhone owners into using the mobile carrier.

On Wednesday, the plaintiffs asked U.S. District Court Judge James Ware to compel Apple to produce the source code for the iPhone 1.1.1 software, an update that Apple issued in September 2007. The update crippled iPhones that had been unlocked, or "jailbroken," so that they could be used with mobile providers other than AT&T. The iPhone 1.1.1 "bricked" those first-generation iPhones that had been hacked, rendering them useless and wiping all personal data from the device.

Several days before iPhone 1.1.1 was released, Apple threatened to take action against users who had hacked their handsets, saying that doing so would "violate their iPhone software license agreement and void their warranty." Prior to that, Apple CEO Steve Jobs had said it was his company's job to stymie attempts to jailbreak the iPhone. "It's a cat and mouse game," Jobs said at the time. "People will try to break in, and it's our job to stop them breaking in."

[Swordmaker]

Jailbroken iPhone suer's want to see iPhone source code... PING!

iPhone iSuit iPing!

If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

I never bought an iPhone & I don't seem to have any problems arising from their arrangement with AT&T. Coincidence?

[indianrightwinger]

Now having an iPhone is a birth right too? Like Healthcare?

[Swordmaker]

I never bought an iPhone & I don't seem to have any problems arising from their arrangement with AT&T. Coincidence?

Must be... but what about all those AT&T customers without iPhones? What are they? Chopped liver?

[Swordmaker]

Now having an iPhone is a birth right too? Like Healthcare?

But, but, but, in a liberal world, a birth right ins't a birth right...

[The Truth Will Make You Free]

Hmmm... On my iPhone the above article wouldn’t even open. Coincidence?

[USMCWife6869]

I don’t get it. I know people have had bad experiences with AT&T, but I have had nothing but great service for the 5 years we have been with them. We had Verizon before, now that was a nightmare. Every company out there has its horror stories.

But, either way, no one else wanted the iPhone, from what I have read. Now they are mad. Too bad. I love my iPhone. It’s the best thing I have bought myself, ever, for the money.

[SunkenCiv]

“suers”? LOL!

[SunkenCiv]

...a multi-year deal that locks U.S. iPhone owners into using the mobile carrier.

IOW, "I didn't know what I was signing!" ??? Or perhaps, "I agreed to specific rules, and now I want them changed!" Sounds like Obama.

[meyer]

I never bought an iPhone & I don't seem to have any problems arising from their arrangement with AT&T.

I DID buy an IPhone and I still don't have any problems arising from their arrangement with AT&T.

It is normal in the cell phone industry to pay a partial price of the phone up front (or pay nothing up front), and amortize the rest of the phone's cost over the period of the contract with the carrier. These people seem to want to get away with not paying full price for the phone that they now have.

[o2bfree]

Lately Google has been using Democratic Gestapo tactics in their fight against Apple. I strongly suspect some Google employees are behind this.

[ccmay]

I love my iPhone. It’s the best thing I have bought myself, ever, for the money.

I have to agree. It is the most useful and indispensable electronic device I have ever owned. I have had no problems with bad reception except for one curve behind a hill on the road to my house.

-ccm

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

" I have to agree. It is the most useful and indispensable electronic device I have ever owned. I have had no problems with bad reception except for one curve behind a hill on the road to my house."

Indispensible, is the word that comes to mind. I've had cell phones before, of course. This is a whole 'nother kind of appliance. Just incredibly useful.

And I recently jailbroke it. Tried it a couple months ago, had issues, restored from backup. Tried again last week: no problems this time. Now I can run any app in the background (ahhhhh... Pandora!) and have a few other cool utilities installed. I can ssh into it (warning: change your "root" and "mobile" passwords if you enable this!!!) and can vnc my iPhone's screen onto my computer and operate it with my mouse. Surprisingly handy-- means you can keep your iPhone in your pocket and operate it at your desk, talking via your Bluetooth headset. Too cool. I'm still getting used to this wild notion of having a powerful Unix computer in my pocket.

What a lot of people don't say out loud is that it's very much in Apple's best interest to facilitate the jailbreak community, maybe even encourage and participate in it via back-door channels. They can test a lot of fragile stuff on jailbreakers without support obligations. If something bricks a JBer's phone, he'll just shrug and regard it as a sporting injury. And Apple can test (and test-market) stuff with JBers that AT&T would get all stompy about. Tethering is an obvious example; a less-obvious one would be Flash. If you've ever wondered why hotel WiFi networks get boggy and unusable in the evenings, it's because of all the residents watching movies and surfing for porn or whatever the hell they do. Most of that stuff is Flash based. Flash is the network's nightmare, then. That (and not footprint or battery life) is the real reason, I'm convinced, that Flash is not yet out for the iPhone. I expect you'll find a leaked version of Flash for the iPhone in some Cydia repo in a couple of months, as the horizon for AT&T's exclusivity approaches.