iPhone 4 wasn’t much of a surprise to anyone paying attention. I think this FaceTime mobile videochat is the biggest news (of course his “one more thing”) — it has vast implications for mobile communications of all sorts (and the notion of telepresence, in general). Will consumers fall for FaceTime? That’s the big if. If so, then we are probably officially “in the future.” If anyone could deliver ubiquitous videochat, it would have to be Apple.

The Bad News

Apple still doesn’t have a cloud service (eg., Google Docs) — that’s really holding them back. I was disappointed that rumors of a new cloud product didn’t emerge. This would allow all your files and media files to be synced over wireless and we can ditch that USB cable leash. The iPad really stinks without this capability. To add insult to injury, AT&T’s data-plan repricing will keep us tethered to WiFi and our PCs for some time to come. Let your iPhone share its 3G connection to your iPad? Fuhgettaboutit.

The Good News

I would agree that Apple’s competition simply cannot keep up with this rapid pace of development. Apple has managed to compress the development cycle down to a year and still manage to release consistently significant products that push the whole industry to innovate, and hopefully we all benefit. The cost of the software continues to go down, the revenues for developers go up, and the quality of the experience gets better and better.

The Prediction

No Verizon (and/or Sprint) iPhone until mid-2011, earliest.

Since writing this post, it appears that AT&T has disabled the USSD service reminder messages for Medianet prepaid data packages. Icing on the cake: they also opened the 3G faucet. Considering these significant improvements to the value proposition of GoPhone, we’re down to 3 reasons.

One can only surmise that executives schemed these crippling aspects to AT&T’s GoPhone prepaid offerings to exploit every inducement towards a “postpaid” (ie. 2 year contract) plan.

I’ve been trying to equip unlocked Nokia devices with prepaid data accounts for benevolent design research purposes integral to my work at Parsons on mobile media design work for grant funded projects.

1. Relentless balance reminders. Even with a $20 100MB package for a month’s worth of data access, you are barraged with irritating and intrusive balance reminder service messages, after every single use. You’ll need to click to dismiss the message after every text message and every data connection, and certainly when data intensive apps are running in the background, such as Google Maps with Latitude. These USSD messages, apparently, cannot be disabled by a customer service representative. Clearly, they are an intentional annoyance disguised as a customer service to coerce you into a 2 year contract, or flee to a competitor.
   Update ISSUE RESOLVED

   

2. No 3G data support. Online chatter can be found espousing the merits of enjoying pre-paid 3G data, but the phone company was listening. These comments remain mythical and historical musings, as GoPhone data only supports 2G (EDGE GPRS only), as of this writing, no matter how much you’d be willing to pay. Again, they’ll be happy to convert your account to a “postpaid” commitment in order to subscribe to 3G data.
   Update ISSUE RESOLVED
3. No unlimited data offering. The same online whispers that spoiled the party on 3G prepaid data probably cued AT&T to cap its data offering to 1MB and 100MB denominations. Of course, this never implied tethering, although many forumistas falsely claim that prepay is the ultimate loophole.
4. No visual voicemail on iPhone. At least without doing naughty things like jailbreaking, it is reported that visual voicemail is not supported on a pre-pay GoPhone plan and SIM in an iPhone. To not have visual voicemail on an iPhone is like having a PBJ without the first ingredient. Apparently, the executives responsible for upholding the 2 year contract conspiracy agree.
5. No international roaming (beyond Mexico). Although the prepaid target market is clearly revealed by this sales policy, it dissolves the possibility of being able to keep a prepaid globetrotter number and bounce around the Earth’s sublime GSM network based on the à la carte reality of travel — it’s occasional and ad-hoc, not a feature to add to a monthly plan.

Research suggests that T-Mobile is the better choice for prepaid services in the United States. At the minimum, they do not employ the dealbreaker balance reminders, which is enough reason for me to expend my remaining balance and get a new number from the local German provider of mobile telephony. Those Europeans sure know a thing or two about running a mobile phone infrastructure. But there are so many reasons why telecom (and law enforcement, for that matter) will always keep prepaid mobile telephony a stinky deal.

Any iPhone user (2.5G and 3G), who needs to activate their phone with iTunes is out of luck right now. Apparently slammed by activations or launch glitches, now is not the time to perform an update or restore function on ANY iPhone, as you won’t able to reactivate it on AT&T until the glitch is solved. (via Gizmodo) Standby for updates on the situation. We realized an unlikely hero could save the day.

Hold off on Restore or Updates

Hopefully, you’re not in our position: our iPhone 2.0 firmware leak early adoption led to an App Store download binge and the eventual major crash by overloading with third-party explorations that left it sort of bricked, stuck on the Apple logo boot screen. We put iPhone into recovery mode and restored, but now iTunes Music Store returns splendid errors (-9838) and now (-4).

Update @ 3pm: Persistence and patience pays off, as we get into the great Activation queue cloud in the sky and get activated and ignore resulting errors, as advised by rampant iRumoring. Currently restoring and allowing hysteria to subside.

New firmware sports crucial “sleeper features” – Screenshots and Safari YouTube plugin

The web is alive with chatter about the iPocalypse, as many other owners are experiencing the outage. Apple appears to have temporarily closed (UPDATE: they’re back) its support discussion forums to block outage outrage on its own threads.

We had iPhone 2.0 installed, and enjoyed one it’s two best “sleeper features” – screengrab (hold home button with top lock button) and the new Safari YouTube plugin that we predicted. The latter feature has huge implications for the question of Adobe Flash Player for iPhone, as it effectively mitigates the problem of the “blue question-mark” missing-plugin indicating on millions-and-millions of embedded YouTube players scattered around the web.

Is this any way to celebrate Abraham Lincoln’s Birthday?

We are appalled with Congress. In a huge victory for the Bush Administration, the Senate passed the revised FISA bill to grant sweeping government spying powers and shield the telecoms, especially AT&T and Verizon, from the legal action they deserve for breaking laws to build a universal Internet and telephone “wiretap” for government agencies with impunity.

These Democratic Representatives are still on the fence with the House version. If you’re also outraged, check the list and see if you know anyone from these states, and ideally, these districts and have them make their voices heard.

There are several moments in very recent history that we will later reflect upon in total disgust. These laws of fear will come to emblematize our national degradation towards fascism. This will be one of them. In the meantime, we can elect as many change-agent presidents as we want. Until we dump all the Senators and Representatives who voted for this criminal bill, having a brave new president is just the start of any effort to prevent us from moving towards the fear-driven desecration of our national values.

We warned about the dangers of the AT&T secret server rooms earlier. Today, we take a step closer towards the police state of China with its Great Firewall that censors and monitors telecommunications traffic. A big win for corporate power, a big loss for the 1st Amendment and the principle of privacy.

Just imagine how this post has been cataloged, indexed and red-flagged for being critical of the government its favorite corporations. Is this really what we want?

It was a fun ride, and we certainly garnered a small portion of the incredible Google search term traffic related to iPhone hype in 2006. I’m afraid we’ll be waiting out the dark period until February 2008, when the official SDK is released and a new generation of extensibility emerges for Touch applications. We also anticipate a significant iPhone firmware update at MacWorld 2008 in January to tide us over. Not to mention all the brouhaha that will sound out when the 3G version hits the streets.

In short, the jailbreak process became too arduous and the reliability of some common applications became dubious. Naturally, this is no surprise, given the fact that Apple had no reasons to support these endeavors. Indeed, the post-SDK era will involve mediation through digital signatures, and the indy iPhone developer market will writhe in pain. But, if it means that applications will be sturdy, well designed, and accountable to performance and efficiency standards, we have to admit that it’s probably worth it, having learned the hard way. When it comes to a mobile phone, the basic functions are more crucial than on a desktop or laptop computer. Things like basic communications capabilities really do, just have to work.

With an 1.1.3 update rumored to be hitting the servers this week sporting voice recording and disk mode storage, the jailbreak process promises only to get more arcane.

Patience Required, Running 3rd Party Apps on iPhone OS X 1.1.2 possible.

Is Apple is winning the cat and mouse game against pre-SDK application development, despite best efforts on behalf of the dev community?

Our testing reveals that incremental downgrades towards 1.0.2 and then back up to 1.1.2 indicate success. Employ the TIFF exploit in 1.1.1 via Jailbreakme.com in Mobile Safari; Use AppTapp [in Tweaks (1.1.1)] to install the “OktoPrep” package prior to upgrading to 1.1.2; and finally run the Conceited 1.1.2 Jailbreak kit (Java .jar on Mac, Batch .bat on Windows).

That means that if you’ve upgraded or buy a new iPhone during the 1.1.2 release phase, you’ll need to follow an absurd downgrade-upgrade sequence:

1. Downgrade to 1.1.1
2. Downgrade to 1.0.2
3. Upgrade to 1.1.1
4. Jailbreakme
5. AppTapp
6. OktoPrep
7. Upgrade to 1.1.2

Disclaimer & Warnings

Some users may have luck skipping the 1.0.2 downgrade, mileage will vary. This information carries the usual caveats: These modifications may void your warranty, implied support by Apple and who knows what else. An iTunes-based Restore does not fully erase your iPhone and return it to its 100% pristine state from the factory. Indeed, preference files remain between restore and updates, from third-party apps. Use at your risk.

More on Jailbreak OS X 1.1.2

The downgrading process involves:

1. Obtain the Apple firmware files (no longer as easy to get directly from Apple)
2. Ensure firmware files have .ipsw extension (not .zip)
3. Enter Recovery mode (DFU)
4. Use iTunes to Option (Shift) – Update and choose appropriate firmware package
5. Endure with patience
6. Trick out of Recovery mode (with iNdepenence)

The tricks of doing this efficiently involve:

• Learning some nuances to getting into the proper recovery mode
• Then, how to get out of it; let iNdependence sit for a minute connected!
• Disable sync of your iTunes media and then re-syncing when you’re done, to save time during the restore.
• Kill the iTunes Helper process (Activity Monitor on Mac, Task Manager on Windows), preventing the auto-connect between iPhone and iTunes.
• Let iTunes re-activate your phone (if you’re on AT&T), at the right moment
• Or use iNdependence or the Conceited tools to activate,
• Or use the secret keypad code sequence (see Conceited Tools README) to sneak into Safari to use Jailbreakme, (without AT&T)
• Re-install your custom app selections with AppTapp
• Re-apply your SummerBoard mod,
• Re-order the icons through Customize,
• Re-install your NES ROMs with SFTP/SSH or the new Bonjour/AppleTalk file-system mount method

See the Instant One-Touch Jailbreak Method as a simple alternative to what’s described in detail below. It takes advantage of the TIFF Exploit in Mobile Safari to jailbreak simply by visiting a site. It then patches this scary loophole after installing the Nullriver AppTapp into your Springboard.

Original Post

We threatened to write this tutorial, and our own experimentation with AppTapp 3 beta on the latest firmware and the ensuing customizations like SummerBoard and Customize on iPhone 1.1.1 forced us to become very familiar with all the nuances of compatibility and the absurd downgrade-to-upgrade process. We’ve published our meticulous notes as a PDF guide where you too can install native third-party apps and customizations without using the command-line, as long as you comply with the following requirements:

• AT&T customer. No SIM unlocks.
• Mac. Intel or PowerPC. No Windows, but the iNdependence tool can be substituted for the PC equivalent.
• OS X 10.4.10 — Leopard support untested.
• iTunes 7.4.2
• iPhone 1.1.1 and 1.0.2 firmwares
• Novices, beginners, newbies welcome — patience required
• Experience modders may adapt this guide for other platforms, scenarios

Download the PDF guide which includes download links to the required tools, including iNdependence 1.2.4 (.dmg), the iPhone 1.0.2 firmware files (.ipsw) and the Nullriver AppTapp installer (.zip). Folks may groan about the PDF document as opposed to universal HTML formatting, but be assured that the PDF contains screen shots of crucial dialogs and is as detail-oriented as they come. It’s probably the best step-by-step tutorial out there at the moment. In the spirit of full disclosure though, it’s fifty steps long, but does not require any command-line. We’re not sure if this is step forward or backward, but it’s a reliable, well-tested method, either way.

Important notes that deserve republishing outside of the PDF guide:

1. Do not install both Trip1PogoStick and SummerBoard on 1.1.1 — you’ll get startup freeze (stuck on Apple logo), especially if you’ve used previous 1.1.1. upgrade methods, including iNdepenence 1.2.2. and/or Trip1Prepz. We made this mistake and that’s what inspired us to start fresh and document every step for you. Use iTunes to restore to a fresh 1.1.1 state if this occurs.
2. Do not install the 1.1.1 tweaks with SummerBoard. They are not compatible SummerBoard and Customize and will screw up your Springboard forcing to to restore to 1.1.1 and then start the 50 step process all over again. We attempted this and ended up with a blank Springboard, no icons, and no phone functionality. This is the closest we’ve come to a brick, yet, in all our of hacking tests.
3. Do not follow any of these steps and discard this document immediately if you are not prepared to void your warranty and any obligation of Apple or AT&T to support you in these endeavors. They have clearly stated that these modifications are in violation of their use agreements. In fact, it is not yet easy to even truly make a factory fresh iPhone, without any trace of third-party modifications, in the event that you might want to return your device. Although using third-party applications is far less risky than unlocking your firmware to run on other networks beyond AT&T, it’s still considered an unauthorized activity. No warranties are implied by these instructions. You follow these steps at your own risk as assume all liabilities herein. If you have any reservations about these activities, delete this document and forget about iPhone modding. We have no responsibility for your actions and provide this information for academic research purposes only.

Once installed, you’ll enjoy SummerBoard and its themes and customizations as well as the Customize program, albeit buggy on 1.1.1, does allow icon ordering. Anal Retentive iPhone Hackers rejoice! Note that the vertical flicking of SummerBoard on 1.0.2 is replaced with the horizontal paging that you may have already experienced on early versions of 1.1.1 exploits.

For those who cannot wait for an AppTapp 1.1.1 Update

See our Install AppTapp 3.0 beta in iPhone 1.1.1 without Command Line tutorial←

Certainly, at this moment, we can only assume that Nullriver is busy updating their AppTapp installer to integrate the revised jailbreak and install procedure required with the iPhone 1.1.1 software update. Only in the past few days have the new symlink technique tools been released in beta. Ironically, you use AppTapp in the process of preparing your iPhone 1.0.2 to update to 1.1.1 and then apply another third-party hack to get around the recent lockdown of the SpringBoard, which no longer uses the DisplayOrder.plist file to determine the visibility and ordering of icons on the main menu, rendering SummerBoard obsolete in favor of another hack which allows horizontal-style scrolling to add more icons.

What you’ll lose with 1.1.1

By gaining the 1.1.1 features such as the WiFi Music Store, Home button double-click shortcuts, and space-bar double-tap for a period feature, among other minor tweaks, you will lose certain things you might have enjoyed under 1.0.2 and under, with the third-party applications and enhancements. This includes losing the ability to order the icons in the SpringBoard with rSBT, applying SummerBoard themes, and perhaps most critically for some, the ability to create custom ringtones. iPhone 1.1.1 requires a strange ring tone file format (.m4r) and tools to create these files don’t seem to be available, yet. This is especially disappointing as it effectively eliminates your ability to create sound effect ringtones, or install the brilliant Cellphone sound that’s found deep the iLife sound library. Why does Apple think we only want musical ringtones? What if customers find them dreadfully annoying, and would prefer a simple ring that sounds like a cellphone, such as the one featured on the original iPhone TV commercials!

Update requirements

Once a step-by-step procedure was published by iPhoneAlley, we decided we would take the plunge and see if it works, rather than wait it out for Nullriver to release their elegant “next-next” wizard that handles the process easily and command-line free in a single fool-proof method that minimizes opportunities for error. We can confirm with amusement that, indeed, the 1.1.1 software update does allow third-party programs to be installed. Although the process is different, it’s not really any more or less scary than the original manual method we used before AppTapp was released with its novice-ready installation. In fact, the tools and methods have actually evolved since, and someone who fits the following profile could consider doing this also:

1. Have a Macintel (no PowerPC or Windows support at this time)
2. Have an AT&T account (no unlocked SIMs; free/open source unlocking tools aren’t ready yet)
3. Have about 30 minutes of patience to follow directions very carefully
4. Have some experience with AppTapp, Terminal, SSH and SFTP
5. Don’t mind potentially voiding your Apple warranty

Disclaimer, Warning, Caution

If you don’t qualify with all of the above conditions, you should definitely either wait for Nullriver to update AppTapp for 1.1.x, or think again about your inclinations to modify your iPhone.

Otherwise, all the usual warnings and disclaimers apply: Do this at your own risk. We assume no liability. Future updates from Apple are almost certain to close whatever loopholes were discovered at this point. Third-party applications make modifications to your iPhone, such as write preference files, that an Apple support technician might be able to detect, even after performing a Restore.

Further clarification

We followed iPhoneAlley’s step-by-step instructions, which are adequate for those of us that fit somewhere between a command-line hacker and a novice. The process takes about 30 minutes and seems to be reversible with the described downgrade feature. It’s important to make the clear distinction between “unlocking” and “jailbreaking,” the former is a far more risky endeavor where you modify the deep innards of the device to allow SIM cards and service providers other than AT&T. Inoperable bricked phones have been reported with the 1.1.1 in this case. Jailbreaking is simply opening up the iPhone’s file system to allow read and write access to allow the installation of third-party software and other customizations. Unlocking and 1.1.1 upgrades is probably still too risky at this point, while jailbreaking seems to be fairly safe.

Lean Machine

It’s worth noting that there are only two third-party applications that we ended up installing on our newly upgraded 1.1.1 system: NES and Chat. All the other programs are basically proof-of-concepts, raw experimentations, non-essential and easily forgettable. However, retrogaming and a genuine IM client, two things that might never be officialized by Apple (via AT&T) are considered indispensable additions to sorely lacking features of the factory feature set: games and IM.

UPDATE October 20, 2007

It turns out that the release of iNdepenence 1.2.2 was probably premature, as a later, greater version (1.2.4) emerged on October 18 that resolves some key issues with 1.2.2, that include how the Springboard is handled. Anyone who used 1.2.2 (us!) could have either used some patches released to resolve issues, or end up starting the whole restore, downgrade, exploit, upgrade, re-install process all over again. We’re compiling a tutorial and notes as we go through it. Stay tune for a posting on the subject.

UPDATE October 15, 2007

A new version of iNdependence was release today (v1.2.2) on Google code which supports Jailbreak on 1.1.1 firmware. It includes a special UI to perform and prepare for the 1.1.1 update which is not indicated in the iPhoneAlley step-by-step guide that we followed. Any users that have not yet updated form 1.0.2 to 1.1.1 should read the included Help documentation to learn the best method of preparing for 1.1.1 and then using their post 1.1.1 upgrade procedures available in the Firmware tab of this program. If you updated to 1.1.1 from 1.0.2 before this was released, you may need to downgrade with it, and then re-update to allow the ability to perform jailbreaks in the future. In the procedure outlined by iPhoneAlley, you really only get a one-shot-deal to jailbreak, so this new method is clearly preferred. We’ll comment on our experience preforming the downgrade and then re-upgrade using the new version of iNdependence.

UPDATE October 16, 2007

Some experiences in using iNdependence 1.2.2 to manage the migration to iPhone 1.1.1 while preserving AppTapp and jailbreak access (not SIM unlocking) follow. The built-in Help provides the step-by-step directions, however, it still needs some work, as it confusingly refers to itself in a circular fashion. We would still recommend waiting for Nullriver to release AppTapp for 1.1.1 if you’re at all weary of needing to carefully follow an arcane set of instructions or avoid using the command-line altogether. This update to iNependence achieves jailbreaking capabilities on the new firmware, but that’s about it.

Helpful Hints

Things to watch out for, not well documented in the built-in Help, when working with iNdependence 1.2.2 and the 1.0.2 to 1.1.1 upgrade process with jailbreak:

• The built-in Help documentation does not cover how to install AppTapp. However, you can use iNdependence or an SFTP client like CyberDuck to copy the Installer.app file found within the AppTapp installer package. Once copied, you can SSH into your 1.1.1 iPhone and trigger launching it via the command-line. Then you can enter the conceited software beta installer link into your MobileSafari, adding the required Trip1PogoStick hack, to allow the 1.1.1. SpringBoard to display programs, including Installer. Refer to the iPhoneAlley tutorial steps that cover these aspects, and ignore the steps that are covered by the new iNdependence method, which precludes the need to preform the installation of the Trip1Prep step. That seems to be the symlink trick that allows the 1.1.1 upgrade, but iNdependence handles that during its Pre-1.1.1 and Post-1.1.1 steps. On the iPhoneAlley tutorial, they say not to use iNdependence or use the traditional AppTapp installation. Although true in the case of the AppTapp installation, this tutorial needs to be updated to account for the reality that iNdependence has since been updated, and can be used to update to 1.1.1, in fact, offers a preferred method which retains the jailbreak. By following the iPhoneAlley method, you lose the jailbreak after completing the upgrade. It’s gotten very confusing, indeed. Apple is doing an excellent job of altering the infrastructure just enough to disrupt our efforts significantly.
• Be sure to kill the iTunes Helper process using Activity Monitor. Otherwise, iTunes will launch during many of the required reboots, and could interfere with the crucial timing of the re-activation.
• Temporarily deactivate your media syncing in iTunes, especially if you have downgrade. This will save you lots of time as the iPhone gets “erases” and re-built. Re-check the boxes for your songs, photos, videos, etc. after the process has been completed and sync up.
• We discovered the hard way, that you really want to let iTunes perform the Activation, rather than use iNdependence. It appears that if you use iNdependence to activate the phone and then deactivate it, iTunes does not appear to successfully re-activate, and thus you become dependent on iNdepedence. Yikes!
• Although the built-in Help claims that your YouTube will be fine during this process, we found that it did not work after the process. Fortunately, we easily found this reference, where you can download the appropriate security key files and upload them to the correct place on your iPhone file system (/var/root/Library/Lockdown/), and this seems to restore YouTube functionality.
• You’ll need to re-sync one additional time after the process is complete to get your Apple iTunes Music Store account properly associated with your WiFi Music Store in order to purchase music on the iPhone.
• Don’t forget to change your SSH passwords from the defaults, to help prevent getting truly hacked by a malicious user on some WiFi network. iNdependence does make it easy to change these passwords in the SSH tab.

Indeed, we could work on a write-up that combines the best of what’s offered on iPhoneAlley and the iNdepenence built-in Help, but by the time we finish that, Nullriver might have their brilliant AppTapp Installer updated, and then, like before, it’ll be a waste of time, thankfully. It’s very likely that some other passionate modder has beat us to the punch, by now.

Hyperbole Essay Muses a Protestant Split Over Jesus Phone

Release a breakthrough product, ready the defenses. Slash prices within 60 days of its release. Pre-test an elaborate consumer store credit program. Maintain control of user experience, revenue streams, and product integrity. Expedite firmware drops to shore up security against an unpredictably vigorous, yet independent, and ingenious rogue software design movement. Monitor ensuing online chatter and surveil the field, ready to deploy assets.

Such is the life of Applists, at the brink of factioning off into a ruthless, fringe element, no longer allegiant to Pope Jobs. These followers protest, disillusioned with the rejection of their effusive prayers and deeds in the name of the product’s church. Emblems of the faith, splendid exemplars of user interface mantras led by installers as elegant as “undocumented features,” spreading customizations and innovations of every whim as if Gnostic Gospel. Each passionate shortcoming of the breakthrough product, much hyped, yet still maligned beyond nitpick, had been redeemed, by painstaking devoted minds, dedicated to unlocking the mysteries of the revolutionary creation, without manual, in disobedience to advice and guidance.

Today the mark is 1.1.1 vs. 1.0.2 — those who have crossed over towards Applist orthodoxy and those resistant, not yet yielding, making due without holy sanctions, verified creed. Perhaps it’s the attraction of a more personal relationship with the Godhead, the sacred code, Kabalah’s sublime intertextual numerology, the open principles of touch-based human interface guidelines and their applications, Gnostic texts canonized by Memex. This divine intimacy of the populace is too much for the orthodoxy to stomach, unmediated transgressors. Only deep within the Vaticanal campus of Cupertino, could the details of iPhone be realized and celebrated through masses. Or could they? The orthodoxy obediently applies edicts from axis mundi, replete with sharia, releasing newly inscribed sacraments of commerce, and trivial revisions to interface ritual, all as sacrifices to the Godhead in the name of stablity, security, and eschatology. The reformists resist the superficialities of bug fixes, feature tweaks, and new revenue streams in favor of purist pursuits of homebrewed exchange and unmediated gadgeteering.

Watch the iPhoneDev splinter group, the prophets Erica Sadun, and her followers, all Digging, the global audience, Natetrue and Nervegas and Nightwatch, all the great disciples of the tripartite theory of Jobs, Ives, and Schiller; now splintering off into a Protestant reformation, rejecting the hegemonies, the hierarchies, the corporate religiosity that puts shareholder before stakeholder, priest before parishoner, mission before congregation, partner before customer, policy before press, business before pleasure.

Other churches reap followers by addressing the misgivings of these loud voices, the difficult choice of switching allegiances, and selecting new identities could be the most drastic reaction to the Applist inquisition. Once dedicated followers, so-called fanboys, mavens, influencers, the variously labeled, occasionally ridiculed, persecuted acolytes of American design purity, objects painstakingly assembled by Chinese workers, clothed in their consumer best, they are lovingly delivered to lavishly spoiled consumers, whose lives change instantly, noticeably, invisibly, despite clear markings and insignia.

Needless to say, we aren’t the only ones jolted into a state of doubt, of second-guessing, a crisis of faith. Our iPhones remain 1.0.2, our AppTap apps continue to dance upon our SummerBoard with a flick, semi-useless, yet somehow indispensable reminders of cherishing the essentials of open, of freedom, of flexibility. We remember not to take for granted the simple joys of the original Applist congregation, enabled to seek more personal relationships with what the breakthrough product enables, beyond expansion and customization: retrogaming, instant messaging, operating systemics, electronic literature, voice recordings, recreation, media redistribution, virtualization, and location-based positioning.

The factionalization inevitably reflects the disconnect between the hierarchy and its Diocese. Cupertino must enforce and enrich its control and influence over the essential elements of its worldview, the device software. There are specific fiduciary duties towards contractual partners and shareholders that assess profound regard in refocusing the consumers attention towards revenue streams and away from endeavors that distract from ongoing tithing. Yet the followers, in their humanistic zeal for coming to know the the device software more intimately, more greatly, more intrinsically, unlocked an interconnection that may not have even been intended for mere mortals. This Pandora’s box exemplifies the detachment of the Tripartite from its congregation. Such a clearly precedented trait of Applists was forgotten, and now fracturing ensues.

Will devotees of Apple fracture into subservient and subversive sects, now prompted to select allegiances?

As companies embed full-fledged computers into consumer entertainment products, such as Sony PSP, Apple TV, and iPhone, and then proceed to lock them down to restrict their functionality in the name of stability and security, legions of enthusiasts heed the call to open them up again, to enjoy the computer hidden within.

At the time of this posting, iPhone Modding is very difficult for the inexperienced — not for the faint-of-heart or command-line averse. After a lot of trial-and-error and hours of research, we have installed some third-party standalone applications into the Spring Board (iPhone Home Screen). We can only assume that as modders enjoy more success, and more true third-party programs are written, more user-friendly applications will be released to streamline and simplify the process. That said, crude, but essential tools are starting to appear that allow a patient, persistent and somewhat fearless enthusiast to get started modding.

As you can see from the screenshot, the highlight of the modding is the installation of a Nintendo NES emulator which can put hundreds of games at your fingertips. Although, obtaining the game ROMs is of dubious legality, and the games lack sound and many have buggy graphics. The real lesson learned in this exercise is that there’s probably a very good reason why iPhone didn’t launch with any games — the multi-touch interface truly requires a comprehensive rethinking of game design and controls.

A Do-It-Yourself Work Ethic Required

Only recently, a step-by-step iPhone modification guide suitable for beginners→ emerged for getting started. Since, then, we’ve written our own guide← that consolidates and adds detail, especially for beginners. By far, most articles out there at the moment, assume you are familiar with UNIX and know about toolchains.→

At posting, the modding possibilities are nascent, including adding the following new applications and features into an iPhone:

• Custom ring tones
• Custom graphics and skins
• Screenshot tool →
• Sound recording application →
  
• Tetris →
• TicTacToe →
• Nintendo NES Emulator →

Where To Begin

The iFuntastic↓tool, while crude, is a good place to get started and become familiar with the Jailbreak process. → It’s helpful to install this first, as it does get you started with the ardous process of setting up the toolchain. Use iFuntastic to do simple, but high-impact modifications, such as alter the Spring Board (home screen), customize iPhone UI graphic files, and easily add custom ringtones. iFuntastic only supports Mac Intel machines at this time.

An essential alternative to iFuntastic is iActivator↓, which also peforms the Jailbreak process and manipulates the activation process, and works on Mac Intel and older PowerPC systems.

In addition, we figured out iphonedisk→, which mounts some parts of the iPhone file system as a network drive for easy drag-and-drop file installation.

But first, there are so many dependent programmer tools that must first be installed, including subversion and specialized iPhone modding tools like the unfortunately named iPHUC→. A decent guide for installing iPHUC→ is available.

The main key to gaining access to your iPhone is enabling SSH→, which allows secure command line access to the iPhone’s UNIX file system. However, this should be carefully considered, as enabling this feature certainly opens your iPhone up to future hackers who will now have a way into your handheld computer as you wander through open WiFi networks.

At the moment, the various executives at AT&T and Apple have nothing to worry about. This mod movement is restricted to the realm of enthusiasts. But it’s only a matter of time before refined GUI interfaces for iPhone customization and third-party application development and management emerge. Remember that modders got Windows to boot on the Mac Intel machines very quickly. Apple responded with Boot Camp offering native, official support to be offered in Mac OS X Leopard (10.5). It’s not a matter of if but when a truly open iPhone platform appears.

Doesn’t the iPhone look even better with a full set of buttons?

We look to China as a totalitarian police-state undergoing hyper-capitalism.

We know that China’s internet is filtered by the Great Firewall of China, an intricate, secretive and semi-effective internet censorship system.

As a guest-professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing, I was offered VIP overseas access on the campus network, which offered, maybe, 80% of the web — everything but Wikipedia, BBC, and who knows what else. Without this extremely special login, however, the web was a stark list of accessible domain names: google.com.cn, microsoft.com.cn, yahoo.com.cn, the university intranet, and a set of Chinese web properties that require Mandarin literacy to discuss here.

I was advised that every site, email and instant message that I exchanged while on the campus network was being logged, databased, and perhaps, even monitored by a human resource, in real-time. In China, as a visitor, you are always impressed by a society the size of ours, quadrupled. A workforce of unimaginable quantity is assigned to each and every micro-task that occupies the Middle Kingdom, Earth’s most ancient society.¹ It is not unimaginable that a team of internet surveillance specialists could have been assigned to monitor my activities, especially since I was an American professor invited to teach design for the web on state turf. Certainly, I would be in a position to discuss controversial topics in front of impressionable minds, movements of web-based democracy. In jargon, we call it Web 2.0, user-generated content, crowd-sourcing, social networks. These tendencies may reflect American group dynamics, the result of open, free expressions. In other ways, web communities resonate with China’s state-centric qualities, group over individual, country over citizen, a bastion of anonymous, de-humanized, technocratic interactions. Really, it’s the hyper-individualism of web democracy that characterizes what’s new and exciting about the net, today. Possessive pronouns and terms of individuality exclaim the brands of blazing net properties. MySpace. YouTube. Facebook.

Not only do Tsinghua students experience a Great Firewall internet, they don’t even benefit from networked classroom computers. Viruses are blamed as the reason, but you won’t even find Ethernet cables connecting PCs in campus classrooms and laboratories. Naturally, it was a challenge to check my email, let alone teach a course in web design. I’ve already written more generally about this teaching exchange on these pages. My point here is that I can confirm from personal experience, the Great Firewall of China is omnipresent, a truth, not an an exaggeration.

We would never imagine that our own internet at home, in the US, was limited² or monitored by our central government. We readily accept that it is monitored and data-mined for profit by the corporations that run these services. But we cherish a different sort of firewall, a Great Firewall of America, a constitutional separation between commerce and government when it comes to surveillance of citizens. In the US, it’s a national ambition to profit from consumer surveillance,³ but it’s a crime for the government to perform unauthorized surveillance of citizens.⁴ Or is it?

Total Information Awareness is the supposed internal name for the Bush Administration’s NSA data-mining operation on the American open internet. We learn today of Attorneys General, past and present, and their secretive exchanges over hospital beds, ordered by the highest powers, to quash concerns of its legality and active use. Surprisingly, Congress scrambles to rewrite laws to make these crimes legal. According to the PBS Frontline “Spying on the Homefront” special reports, we are only beginning to discover how the Great Firewall of America, that sacred separation between Wall Street and Pennsylvania Avenue is secretly breached. In a confusing twist of metaphor, if you believe Mark Klein’s account of the NSA ‘splitter rooms’ at AT&T backbone facilities where the aortas of the internet in major cities are essentially tapped with NSA equipment, Big Brother channels our collective electronic thoughts.

We can only assume that data-mining endeavors of unimaginable scale are taking place on these servers and switches, all paid for by fellow citizens. We can only assume that AT&T and other telecom executives crumbled or gladly accepted the NSA’s requests to install these electronic surveillance centers and install the Great Firewall of America 2.0, the core tool of TIA. Indeed, we can only assume that since installation, every web site, visitor history, email, IM, and file transferred has been logged and data-mined by the NSA. We can only assume that algorithms beyond the scope and scale of Google’s crawlers are trawling and flagging content and IP addresses. The exact identities of each consumer/citizen is obtainable through a court-order to the appropriate ISP. Real-time dossiers are being compiled by software agents, associating net, consumer and governmental identities.

We are told that this is for fighting terrorism, it is patriotic to believe that the government could never erroneously apply justice, that data mining software connects the dots perfectly, and that it is our civic duty to forsake civil rights in the name of security.

We may be able to visit any site we want, post any language or image we desire, and communicate in any manner we see fit, as Americans. Our Chinese counterparts, however, may need to circumvent serious oppressions in order to enjoy similarly unfettered electronic freedoms. Indeed, incarceration and execution remain ever-present risks of destabilization and disruption to social order through expressions of taboo topics.⁵ But we both share in the inevitable shame in knowing that our governments employ the highest of technologies to apply Panoptic surveillance on its citizens. At least in China, you’re easily reminded that this is true. In the US, we are fooled into thinking this is false. The US was a nation designed to be great through its checks and balances. Do we need regimes like China’s to remind us of what we will become if we recklessly abandon our core national values?

So in stating all of this, why would I “feed the dragon” and offer my criticisms here, where the AT&T NSA TIA servers might spider, filter, identify, sort, tag, cross-reference, and save for later, just in case any red flags come up? Red Flags. Imagine that.⁶

Footnotes

1. A direct translation of 中国 (zhong guo), the name for China, in Chinese, is “middle kingdom.” Indeed, the language and consistent culture of China has lasted longer than any other civilization, thousands of recorded years.
2. Although, see Net Neutrality
3. See Google, ChoicePoint, the credit companies, bureaus and banks, retailers, market researchers, and so forth. Even this website uses Google agent technologies to analyze the content of this page to serve advertising and provide the owner with in-depth, but anonymous, site usage and tracking information.
4. See FISA.
5. The Three Ts: Taiwan, Tian’anmen, and Tibet are well known taboo topics. In addition, Democracy, Falun Gong and the resilient cult of Mao remain profoundly censored topics in China.
6. If you’re a federal employee reading this, I just wanted to say “Hi.” Otherwise, you’re a computer program and you’ve probably already red-flagged this data.