waffle

So: the iPhone hacking effort has basically passed exactly no one unnoticed by now. In just over a month since the device’s release: from nothing, we have a way to bypass activation, install arbitrary software and write full-blown apps for the iPhone, using a compiler that was hacked together from existing compilers and public knowledge (the hacking equivalent of growing a human ear on a mouse’s back, if you will).

Apple has now released two updates. While the first one did trash some hacks, it looks like the second one didn’t. It seems to me that Apple is taking a relaxed attitude towards the hacking; something like the “I know what I’m doing, let me mess with this” hacking-mode, frown-upon-SDK some people asked for as a golden middle road between no SDK (the current situation) and a full-blown SDK (a move some deemed it unlikely for Apple to take).

Why is that?

Apple has made it clear that it’s going to continuously update the iPhone software - it even splits up the initial profit of the iPhone into 24 (easy) monthly payments in order to legitimize this. And officially, from Apple’s part, the only way to run apps in the iPhone is to run Apple’s real apps or third party web apps in Safari.

Now, as the Washington Post noted when they covered the phenomenon of hacking a device like this, “Hardware manufacturers are usually not happy about such user-created innovations because they can lead to piracy. Why buy a game or a software application if you can download one free?” This is a problem with the PSP, it is a problem with the Nintendo DS and, because of iPod games, it’s even a problem with the full-sized iPod.

It is not a problem with the iPhone. Think about it. Who makes “legitimate” software for iPhone? Apple does. No one else. And every iPhone owner gets all of Apple’s software for it, including updates, for free. There is no reason for Apple to block app development. People who install extra apps, at least as it stands today, know that they are crossing some sort of illicitness border. If Apple thinks it’s a problem in support, they can simply ask that a reasonable measure is to restore the phone and see if the problem persists - the same exact policy the company has with regards to Macs using Unsanity’s Application Enhancer (APE) or its haxies.

This has happened before, too. Rockbox and iPod Linux are two alternate firmwares for iPods that have gone unattacked. And let’s not forget the hack effort lead on the Apple TV’s firmware, AwkwardTV, to develop new modules for its user interface, extending the official, Apple-sanctioned firmware in just this way.

Critics of the iPhone often call it out as a shining example of Apple’s wish to retain perfect control of every individual product, top to bottom, from the (docking) cradle to the landfill. If Apple’s wise, they will realize that they can only reasonably control the device until it lands in the box and is shipped out of the factory. If Apple instead upholds the values its critics ascribe them, they will fight tooth and nail to prevent it, and that will be a clear misstep.