Shortly after iOS 7.1 beta 4 was released, we learned that the update patched a key kernel exploit used in the evasi0n7 jailbreak. And today we’ve received word that beta 5, which was seeded to developers earlier this afternoon, patches 2 other exploits.
Developer and hacker iH8sn0w tweeted out a few moments ago that Apple has fixed the ‘chown’ vulnerability and ‘afc sandbox escape’ used by the evad3r’s popular jailbreak utility in beta 5. So it looks like iOS 7.1 will indeed be the death of the iOS 7 JB…
Here are the tweets:
“Apple fixed the chown vuln that appeared in iOS 7 and used by evasi0n7 by checking to see if its a symlink again :P”
“evasi0n7’s afc sandbox escape is patched in 7.1b5 too.”
While we haven’t received official word from the evad3rs that evasion7 will be completely killed by iOS 7.1, we do advise jailbreakers to assume it does and take the proper precautions such as updating your device to iOS 7.0.4/5 and staying away from 7.1 betas.
The good news, though, is that the future looks bright for jailbreaking beyond iOS 7.1. The evad3rs claim to still have some unused exploits up their sleeves, and earlier this week iH8sn0w found an iBoot exploit for A5 devices that may work for A6 and 7 as well.
iOS jailbreakers woke up to an early Christmas present this morning as the hacking group evad3rs released the first version of evasi0n7, the first jailbreak for iOS 7. This is not a present, however, for the faint of heart, as it has not been thoroughly tested. Jay Freeman’s (aka saurik), the developer of Cydia, the leading app store for jailbreak apps, writes on Hacker News that he “got no lead time on evasi0n7, nor was I asked for an official iOS 7 Cydia; I was not given builds, nor was I asked for things to test.”
The Healthcare.gov-like haste with which this has been released may be in response to reports last week (since denied) that someone close to the evad3rs group “had stolen the jailbreak and sold it to a private buyer.” Whether or not this is true, it is odd that the group also did not give Freeman the opportunity to test the new jailbreak with his Mobile Substrate framework, which allows 3rd-party developers to provide extensions to system functions on jailbroken devices, and is an important component in the jailbreak ecosystem. “In fact,” Freeman writes, “@evad3rs didn’t even try my testing build of Substrate I gave core developers, so they didn’t notice a fundamental incompatibility.” Whoops.
And in fact the first intrepid early adopters are reporting problems, but when you are on the bleeding edge you expect there to be problems. But, as Petteri Pyyny writes on the AfterDawn blog, “the process itself should be done only by a person who knows what they’re doing: jailbreaking, if gone bad, can “brick” your device and you’ll most likely lose your warranty as well (depends on jurisdiction you live in).”
What are people going to do with their jailbroken iOS 7 devices (once the jailbreak actually works)? Other commentors on Hacker News discussed simple things like being able to choose default apps, using apps unavailable for iOS, like f.lux, and tether their phones to their computers free of charge all the way to being able to use Bitcoin related apps on their phones.
Jailbreak fans can contribute to evad3rs PayPal account to support Public Knowledge, Electronic Frontier Foundation and Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure that work to maintain the legality of jailbreaking. They might want to contribute to saurik as well since it is clear that a lot of the code that makes jailbroken phones work well is maintained by Freeman.
Apple should be watching what people choose to do with their iOS 7 jailbreaks. In the past, the jailbreak community has provided valuable clues to functions users want that Apple has not supported yet. This Christmas, it is fair to say, the jailbreak elves will be busy!
Check this link to jailbreak: (Be Careful while jailbreaking, read the steps on the website!) http://evasi0n.com/
Evasi0n7 is likely the most controversial jailbreak to date. It comes with its fair share of mysteries, and maybe even betrayals, if you believe some of the drama-infused reports about it. We tried to our best to explain why evasi0n7 was released today and what the deal is with Taiji, hoping people would make up their mind about whether or not it’s worth jailbreaking today.
Because there is still a bit of confusion about the usefulness of evasi0n7 at this time, we thought it’d be helpful to put up a list of reasons why you should or shouldn’t jailbreak your iOS device…
You should jailbreak today because:
You can
iOS 7.1 is right around the corner and you might not be able to jailbreak again after that
On the flip side, you shouldn’t jailbreak your iOS device today because:
This jailbreak is kind of buggy to begin with
Cydia hasn’t been properly updated for iOS 7
Most tweaks aren’t updated for iOS 7 yet
You’ll probably have to run the jailbreak again at some point soon
We don’t know enough about this deal with Taig
iOS 7.1 is right around the corner and you might miss on all its goodies
See, the drawbacks overwhelmingly outweigh the benefits. Yet I still clicked “Jailbreak” in evasi0n7. If you like to live “semi dangerously”, do it. If you have any doubt, stay away from it until the smoke clears out.
For what it’s worth, I believe the China thing has been blown out of proportion and can’t see the evad3rs adding a backdoor to evasi0n7 to send your data to China. This is just nonsense. On the other hand, there aren’t many benefits to being jailbroken today since most of the tweaks don’t work. This is just a matter of time though.
Apple has just released iOS 7.0.4 for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Along with the usual bug fixes and stability improvements, iOS 7.0.4 fixes a bug which would sometimes prevent users from making a FaceTime call.
The update is available over the air, directly from Settings > General > Software Update, or by plugging your device in iTunes…
Apple also pushed out an iOS 6.1.5 update for owners of fourth generation iPod touch, also to bring a fix to the aforementioned FaceTime bug, and and update to the Apple TV firmware, bringing it to version 6.0.2.
Hacker iH8sn0w has confirmed that the update is safe for jailbreakers as iOS 7.0.4 doesn’t bring any security changes.
A Vodafone retail store in Canberra, Australia was forced to evacuate earlier this week after an iPad demo unit burst into flames, according to News.com.au. While no one was injured, the news outlet says that the “explosion” was large enough that the city’s firebrigade was called to the scene….
Here’s News.com.au with the report:
” A burst of flames” appeared from the charging port of an iPad demo model, a Vodafone spokesperson confirmed to news.com.au.
The firebrigade was called in after the store filled with smoke and sparks continued to appear from the charging port.
No staff members or customers were injured during the incident, Vodafone confirmed.”
The site goes on to say that an Apple representative visited the Vodafone store on Wednesday to collect the device to try and determine what exactly caused the incident, but not much else is known. And as you can imagine, the company has thus far refused any requests for comments.
Keep in mind that this isn’t the first time that an Apple device has caused safety concerns this year. Back in July, a Chinese woman died after reportedly receiving an electric shockfrom her iPhone. And just a few weeks later, a Chinese man was left in a coma after a similar incident.
Apple went on to blame “unauthorized third-party adapters” for the incident, and launched its‘Takeback’ initiative, which discounted official power adapters to $10 with trade-in. But with this device being in a retailer store, it’ll be interesting to see what, if anything, it has to say this time.
Note that the original News.com.au story said the tablet that caught fire was a new iPad Air demo model, but it has since changed it to simply “an iPad demo model.”
Apple thus far has shared some interesting business stats (such as 1 million apps on the App Store, 60 billion app downloads and 64 percent of iOS devices on iOS 7, to mention just a few), announced that OS X Mavericks will be launching later today as a free download, confirmed that the new Mac Pro pro desktop is due in December starting at $2,999, shown off the new 64-bit versions of iWork and iLife apps for the Mac and iOS with full file compatibility across these platforms and refreshed the new 13 and 15-inch Retina MacBook Pros with faster PCIe storage, Thunderbolt 2 I/O, fourth-generation Intel chips, both also available today at more affordable prices than ever.
And now onto the main thing – the new iPads. Say hello to iPad Air.
What’s an iPad Air?
It’s your fifth-generation full-size iPad, rebranded for the new age to reflect its dramatically improved design. The device still has a 9.7-inch Retina display, but also includes the 43 percent skinnier side bezel, iPad mini style.
At just 7.5mm, the iPad Air is 20 percent thinner.
It’s also substantially lighter (28 percent lighter, to be precise) compared to its predecessor. at just 1.0 pound versus 1.4 pounds for the previous-generation product, the iPad Air is it’s the lightest iPad in the world, period.
It’s powered by the Apple-designed 64-bit A7 chip that just launched with the iPhone 5s and also contains the M7 motion coprocessor to track your movement in a battery-friendly manner. In addition to CPU/GPU speeds gains, the A7 chip also allows for improved still image and video capture with faster auto-focus, up to three times video zoom, five times still zoom, better dynamic range and automatic image and video stabilization.
Graphics performance is 72 times faster compared to the original iPad and 3D rendering is two times faster over the iPad 4. As for CPU performance, the new iPad opens apps twice as fast though I should mention that customers will start seeing some substantial speed increased after developers optimize their apps for 64-bit computing.
The three times faster 802.11ac Wi-Fi networking is also inside this new iPad Air – it’s the first iOS device with MIMO (Multiple-In-Multiple-Out) wireless technology. On the cellular front, the new iPad Air benefits from the expanded LTE support we’ve seen on the iPhone 5s.
On the downside, there’s a five-megapixel iSight camera on the back that captures 1080p video versus the eight-megapixel shooter the rumor-mill has been hoping for. Out the front is the improved FaceTime HD camera with improved backside illumination sensors featuring larger pixels for better low-light performance.
Luckily, the iPad Air still delivers the ten-hour battery life the previous models are famous for.
The tablet also has dual microphones for better reception and improved Siri performance. The iPad Air comes in Silver and Space Grey finishes – no, there’s no gold colorway – and starts at the same $499 for the 16GB Wi-Fi configuration ($130 extra for the cellular variant).
The 32/64/128GB Wi-Fi variants are $599/$699/$799 (a $130 extra if you need cellular).
The 16GB iPad 2 Wi-Fi remains on sale for $399.
Apple said the iPad Air will start shipping on November 1 in a few dozen countries, including China.
Reiterating the original pitch – “our most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price” – Tim Cook said the iPad has gone on to become one of the most successful products in Apple’s history.
Cumulative iPad sales have topped 170 million units this past month, he said while jokingly remarking that even some of the doubters are now building tablets.
The iPad is great because people use it and love it – it’s rated #1 in customer satisfaction and is used four times more than all of the other tablets put together, said Cook The Numbers Guy.
Finally, there are 475,000 high-quality apps created specifically for the iPad, of the one million applications on the App Store.
It’s hard to compete with that and it’s no wonder that Apple has sold 170 million iPads in three years time.
Apple unveils new iPad mini with Retina display, A7 processor
Now that he’s finished up his staggering ‘iPad Air’ announcement, Apple’s Phil Schiller has turned his focus to the smaller iPad mini. It too is getting a big refresh today, with the long-awaited display bump.
As expected, Apple has managed to squeeze its Retina screen in the tiny tablet, giving it the same 2048 x 1536 resolution as its larger sibling. And it’s also added its 64-bit A7 processor, and other goodies…
With the new hardware, Apple says the second generation mini is up to 4x faster on CPU and 8x faster on the graphics. It also features 2x faster Wi-Fi, expanded LTE support, and the same 10-hour battery life.
The new iPad mini will come in 16GB, 32GB, 64GB and 128GB flavors, starting at the [more expensive] price of $399 for the Wi-Fi only model. Interestingly enough, Apple just says ‘November’ for availability.
Apple will be keeping the first gen iPad mini around, though, and has slashed its price to $299.
iOS 7.0.3 is out with iCloud Keychain, iMessage fixes and more
Though there was no mention of it during the iPad event this morning, Apple has just released a new version of iOS. The update, which brings the firmware to 7.0.3, brings about a number of improvements.
On the new feature front, Apple has re-added in support for iCloud Keychain. And as for bug fixes, there are several of them, including ones for iMessage, iPhone 5s sensor calibration issues, and much more…
Here’s the monster change log for iOS 7.0.3:
– Adds iCloud Keychain to keep track of your account names, passwords, and credit card numbers across all your approved devices
– Adds Password Generator so Safari can suggest unique, hard-to-guess passwords for your online accounts
– Updates lock screen to delay display of “slide to unlock” when Touch ID is in use
– Adds back the ability to search the web and Wikipedia from Spotlight search
– Fixes an issue where iMessage failed to send for some users
– Fixes a bug that could prevent iMessage from activating
– Improves system stability when using iWork apps
– Fixes an accelerometer calibration issue
– Addresses an issue that could cause Siri and VoiceOver to use a lower quality voice
– Fixes a bug that could allow someone to bypass the Lock screen passcode
– Enhances the Reduce Motion setting to minimize both motion and animation
– Fixes an issue that could cause VoiceOver input to be too sensitive
– Updates the Bold Text setting to also change dial pad text
– Fixes an issue that could cause supervised devices to become un-supervised when updating software
You can find the update by either syncing your iOS device with iTunes, or opening up the Settings app on your device and navigating to General > Software Update for the OTA (over the air) download.
As usual, folks hoping to jailbreak iOS 7 at a later time should probably hold off on the 7.0.3 update until it has been cleared by the evad3rs, who are currently working on a hack for this fall’s firmware.
UPDATE:
Yes, it’s safe for jailbreak hopefuls to update to iOS 7.0.3
Apple thus far has shared some interesting business stats (such as 1 million apps on the App Store, 60 billion app downloads and 64 percent of iOS devices on iOS 7, to mention just a few), announced that OS X Mavericks will be launching later today as a free download, confirmed that the new Mac Pro pro desktop is due in December starting at $2,999, shown off the new 64-bit versions of iWork and iLife apps for the Mac and iOS with full file compatibility across these platforms and refreshed the new 13 and 15-inch Retina MacBook Pros with faster PCIe storage, Thunderbolt 2 I/O, fourth-generation Intel chips, both also available today at more affordable prices than ever.
Elie Chahine 