'Jailbreak' issues addressed, hack allows iPhone 4 FaceTime over 3G

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
Hackers have updated their browser-based jailbreak to address issues that prevented iPhone 4 owners from using FaceTime and MMS. In addition, a new jailbreak-only application allows FaceTime video chat over 3G, without a Wi-Fi connection.



The quick update made to the JailbreakMe.com website also allows users running iOS 3.2.1 on the iPad to jailbreak, though some have reported issues when attempting the hack on a 3G-enabled device. The Wi-Fi-only iPad does not have any known issues.



Released on Sunday, the latest iOS jailbreak allows iPhone 4 users to run unauthorized software on their handset. It is the first release for Apple's latest smartphone, and is complete entirely in the handset's Mobile Safari Web browser, without a need to tether to a PC.



The initial release did not work with iOS 3.2.1, and also managed to break FaceTime and MMS functionality on the iPhone 4 for some users. Hackers with the iPhone Dev Team released an update Sunday evening that addressed the issues.



Jailbreaking the iPhone allows users to run unauthorized software that modifies Apple's iOS mobile operating system. One application currently available is My3G, which makes the phone operating system believe it's connected to Wi-Fi when it is actually on a 3G network. As first reported by MacStories, My3G, available through jailbreak stores Rock for $3.99 or Cydia for $2.79, makes it possible for users to make FaceTime calls without a Wi-Fi connection.







On an unmodified iPhone 4, the FaceTime open standard voice chat does not use cell minutes, as it is a data-only connection. In June, when Apple announced the iPhone 4 and FaceTime functionality, Chief Executive Steve Jobs indicated that his company would like FaceTime to work over 3G networks, but said that his company needs to "work a bit" with the cellular providers.



Jailbreaking an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch voids the warranty of the device, and is a practice discouraged by Apple, as it can be used to pirate App Store software. But last week, the U.S. Library of Congress declared it legal to jailbreak an iPhone, provided the modifications are not done to illegally steal software.



Jailbreaking can also be used to unlock an iPhone for use on other carriers than those approved by Apple. The U.S. government has also declared that practice legal, and hackers with the iPhone Dev Team have said that an iPhone 4 unlock will be released this week.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 37
    FaceTime over 3G? No thanks.
  • Reply 2 of 37
    rmm221rmm221 Posts: 29member
    I'd like to jailbreak my old IPHONE 3G... ( out of warranty and just collecting dust).



    Can i use this www.jailbreakme.com to jailbreak my old 3G phone?
  • Reply 3 of 37
    If you are on the 250MB or 2GB Data plan, get ready to cough over some big bucks. This App will suck up all your data usage. AT&T is probably happy with this.



    For those of you that still have the unlimited data plans, read your contract very carefully. Any breach on your part may result in you forfeiting your unlimited plan.
  • Reply 4 of 37
    Wouldn't this just eat through your Data? Also I know facetime works flawlessly on a full WiFi signal but gets pretty choppy when the signal weakens.. would it even be usable on 3G? Especially with AT&T.. I mean isn't this exactly why facetime is only allowed over WiFi??



    Has anyone tried this jailbreak yet? If so can you give us some indication of how it performs??
  • Reply 5 of 37


    deleted

  • Reply 6 of 37
    vrkiranvrkiran Posts: 110member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by rmm221 View Post


    I'd like to jailbreak my old IPHONE 3G... ( out of warranty and just collecting dust).



    Can i use this www.jailbreakme.com to jailbreak my old 3G phone?



    You sure can! It's legal as well.
  • Reply 7 of 37
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    ... The U.S. government has also declared that practice legal, and hackers with the iPhone Dev Team have said that an iPhone 4 unlock will be released this week.



    I know it's a picky point and that everyone else is doing the same thing, but I wish you guys would stop posting this statement. It's not actually true.



    It's only legal to jailbreak your phone under certain very specific conditions. It's just not the case that jailbreaking is "100% legal" now at all.



    In this situation for instance, you are advising people to go to a website and download some code that they know nothing about or who made it or anything, and install it on the phone after jailbreaking. This is legal (although basically a crazy-stupid thing to do), only if the code you just advised people to download is a legal app that uses no code from Apple or other companies and is not encumbered by any patents etc. It *might* be that this is the case, but you don't know it to be so, and no one else does at this point either.



    So you are not only publicly advising hordes of people do very questionable things with their phones in terms of the security risk, you don't even know if it's legal.



    I know everyone is excited this weekend and the nerd-spittle is flying as each blog poster tries to install this stuff faster than the next and post some lame-ass "report" to the web on what they found, but I thought this site might at least take the high road and act a little more professional about the whole thing.



    A lot of folks come here that are not technically inclined at all. Sending them to a questionable site to install questionable code on their phones without knowing what will happen or if the site is legit is a really stupid and irresponsible thing to do. The only reason you're even doing it, is because "all the other sites are doing it" and you don't want to seem uncool by not doing the same. The trouble is this makes you automatically lame to begin with.
  • Reply 8 of 37
    vrkiranvrkiran Posts: 110member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by kellya74u View Post


    It wasn't bad enough that people crashed their cars, damaging property, hurting & killing others & themselves, but they also do it now via text-messaging (well, not all the same people;some didn't survive the first experience). Oh wait, now a driver can video chat while he/she is speeding to a late appointment, running red lights, sideswiping cars, running over people walking in the streets.



    I hope that every such incident is investigated, & if this hack facilitated the "Face Time" experience while driving, the genius "hacker" will have a small taste of misery as he defends himself over & over & over again in lawsuits claiming contributory negligence. Hundreds or Thousands of people would pursue every penny he has or ever hopes to have as judgment after judgement is handed down against him. Remember, civil cases are decided by people who, based on the information & pictures of the mayhem, decide what they 'feel' is right. Good Luck Charlie Brown!



    The only way this hack might be half-way acceptable is that it Face Time is disabled if the phone is moving over 5 miles per hour, which could be done if indeed the "hacker" is truly skilled, & ties the Face Time functionality to the GPS to detect that movement.



    Of course, you will have 3 whiners & complainers in the car, who can't think of a thing to say to each other, but instead snivel, " I can't talk Face Time now?.pull over & stop!!



    If the hacker doesn't fix his little program, there are very, very hungry attorneys out there who will hunt him down for the possible pot-of-gold in his pockets, & will do so gladly, because they get half!



    You are kidding, right?
  • Reply 9 of 37
    eaieai Posts: 417member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by kellya74u View Post


    It wasn't bad enough that people crashed their cars, damaging property, hurting & killing others & themselves, but they also do it now via text-messaging (well, not all the same people;some didn't survive the first experience). Oh wait, now a driver can video chat while he/she is speeding to a late appointment, running red lights, sideswiping cars, running over people walking in the streets.



    I hope that every such incident is investigated, & if this hack facilitated the "Face Time" experience while driving, the genius "hacker" will have a small taste of misery as he defends himself over & over & over again in lawsuits claiming contributory negligence. Hundreds or Thousands of people would pursue every penny he has or ever hopes to have as judgment after judgement is handed down against him. Remember, civil cases are decided by people who, based on the information & pictures of the mayhem, decide what they 'feel' is right. Good Luck Charlie Brown!



    The only way this hack might be half-way acceptable is that it Face Time is disabled if the phone is moving over 5 miles per hour, which could be done if indeed the "hacker" is truly skilled, & ties the Face Time functionality to the GPS to detect that movement.



    Of course, you will have 3 whiners & complainers in the car, who can't think of a thing to say to each other, but instead snivel, " I can't talk Face Time now?.pull over & stop!!



    If the hacker doesn't fix his little program, there are very, very hungry attorneys out there who will hunt him down for the possible pot-of-gold in his pockets, & will do so gladly, because they get half!



    You can already play games on your iPhone while driving, or watch streamed TV, I don't see how this is any different.



    Troll?
  • Reply 10 of 37
    eightzeroeightzero Posts: 3,056member
    I had to downgrade my iPhone 3G to iOS 3.1.3. Anyone know if jailbreakMe.com can JB that version? Or alternative is there a way to upgrade only to 3.2.x w/o using the iTunes updater (that will only take me to the unusable iOS4)?
  • Reply 11 of 37
    tjstjs Posts: 31member
    "...and the nerd-spittle is flying..."



    Got a chuckle out of the mental image...



    Tim
  • Reply 12 of 37
    mdcatmdcat Posts: 79member
    ...is whether jailbreaking an iPhone 4 will let the owner use the phone with another network. Say, Verizon
  • Reply 13 of 37
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by eAi View Post


    You can already play games on your iPhone while driving, or watch streamed TV, I don't see how this is any different.



    Troll?



    I dont know if troll is really the right comment hear.. I'm not sure about all the legal mumbo jumbo he's throwing out, but he is making a pretty good point here. First off most people would never think to play a game or watch TV while driving anyways (although there are some exceptions!!) But many people do think to make a phone call.. and essentially facetime is still making a phone call, except it now consumes your eyes as well as your ears. And even with those other things still available, it doesn't justify this. I have to agree with the orginal comment.. it's just a really unsafe idea in my opinion and feels like yet another achievment buy someone so pre-occupied with weather he could do something, he never stopped to think if he should.



    I really hope no one gets hurt because of this.
  • Reply 14 of 37
    Yea, now all we need is a port of FaceTime from iPhone 4 to iPhone 3GS -- any adventurous souls?

    ;-)
  • Reply 15 of 37
    kotatsukotatsu Posts: 1,010member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by kellya74u View Post


    It wasn't bad enough that people crashed their cars, damaging property, hurting & killing others & themselves, but they also do it now via text-messaging (well, not all the same people;some didn't survive the first experience). Oh wait, now a driver can video chat while he/she is speeding to a late appointment, running red lights, sideswiping cars, running over people walking in the streets.



    I hope that every such incident is investigated, & if this hack facilitated the "Face Time" experience while driving, the genius "hacker" will have a small taste of misery as he defends himself over & over & over again in lawsuits claiming contributory negligence. Hundreds or Thousands of people would pursue every penny he has or ever hopes to have as judgment after judgement is handed down against him. Remember, civil cases are decided by people who, based on the information & pictures of the mayhem, decide what they 'feel' is right. Good Luck Charlie Brown!



    The only way this hack might be half-way acceptable is that it Face Time is disabled if the phone is moving over 5 miles per hour, which could be done if indeed the "hacker" is truly skilled, & ties the Face Time functionality to the GPS to detect that movement.



    Of course, you will have 3 whiners & complainers in the car, who can't think of a thing to say to each other, but instead snivel, " I can't talk Face Time now?.pull over & stop!!



    If the hacker doesn't fix his little program, there are very, very hungry attorneys out there who will hunt him down for the possible pot-of-gold in his pockets, & will do so gladly, because they get half!



    Quick question, are you from planet earth?
  • Reply 16 of 37
    zorinlynxzorinlynx Posts: 170member
    Once again, we have to break into our own phones to add functionality that should have been there from the start.



    Way to go Apple. I love your Macs, but I still think you are doo-doo heads when it comes to your iOS division.
  • Reply 17 of 37
    bartfatbartfat Posts: 434member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mdcat View Post


    ...is whether jailbreaking an iPhone 4 will let the owner use the phone with another network. Say, Verizon



    Sorry, that's a hardware thing, not a software limitation. You can always go to T-Mobile But I bet that wasn't the answer you were looking for
  • Reply 18 of 37
    focherfocher Posts: 687member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Prof. Peabody View Post


    It's only legal to jailbreak your phone under certain very specific conditions. It's just not the case that jailbreaking is "100% legal" now at all.



    Actually, for all intents and purposes, it is accurate. The only argument so far put forward that jail breaking is not legal was that it violated the DRM circumvention restriction in the DMCA. As that has now been decided not to be the case by the only authority under the DMCA to make such a decision, it seems accurate to describe the act of jail breaking as legal (there is no partial legal or illegal - it is like being pregnant and is a binary situation).



    Jail breaking however, does not determine whether subsequent acts are legal. For example, violating a copyright itself (eg pirating apps).
  • Reply 19 of 37
    bartfatbartfat Posts: 434member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by zorinlynx View Post


    Once again, we have to break into our own phones to add functionality that should have been there from the start.



    Way to go Apple.



    Did you ever stop to think that video chatting over 3G would be performance-wise unacceptable? Or that maybe Apple was concerned that it would rack up overage charges for data pretty easily, if you just did it for a couple hours (especially on the 250 MB plan), assuming you used that plan for nothing else for the rest of the month...
  • Reply 20 of 37
    focherfocher Posts: 687member
    Please stop making a blanket statement that jail breaking voids the device's warranty. What Apple said - and intentionally used such wording - is that it may void the warranty. They still would need to show some causal connection between something that happened by jail breaking to the damage they aren't covering under the warranty.



    It is exactly like making changes to your car. Some changes void the warranty but most do not. The determination is based on some link.
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