Apple’s iPhone has been hacked just days since the product and the software that runs it shipped. The iPhone Dev team this morning published software – Pwnage 2.0 – any iPhone user can use to unlock the device, a process which enables installation of non-Apple-approved third party applications. Oh – and it’s not just iPhone users – Pwnage 2.0 can also unlock the iPod touch.
“Just to clear up some confusion over what this actually does: yes, it jailbreaks and unlocks older iPhones, and jailbreaks iPhone 3Gs and iPod touches. We only support the 2.0 firmwares,” the team explain on the development website.
The free software featuring both ‘simple’ and ‘expert’ modes, patches the original Apple firmware/software download to allow users to install software and requires that users restore their iPhone using the patched IPSW file.
One thing that’s enabled by the tool is the installation of music software and support for online music services and solutions that aren’t approved by Apple. However, perhaps the main meaning to the move is that existence of jailbreaking code should propel grey market sales of the device into markets in which the iPhone isn’t yet available, Russia and China, for example.
The scale of international demand for the iPhone is illustrated by the fact that by February 2008, estimates of the number of unlocked iPhones in circulation around the world ranged from 800,000 to 1.5 million.
Installing the software isn’t for the faint of heart. Installing unauthorized firmware on an iPhone voids the warranty and can render the device useless.