Soon You’ll Be Able to Run Linux on Your iDevice

Good news for fans of Tux the penguin: soon you’ll be able to run the Linux operatingsystem on your iDevice.

A team of jailbreak developers has managed to run the open source Linux OS on Apple’s A4-powered devices.

Who needs Android when you have Linux, right?

BluerisEN tweeted the news with a picture of Linux running on an iPad.

The iPhone 4, first gen iPad, and 4th generation iPod touch will all be able to run this specific build of Linux. The iPad 2 will not be compatible, due to the fact that it runs on the A5 processor.

Hackers have been able to run doctored builds of Android on iDevices before, but the addition of Linux adds more possibilities to current Apple hardware that will become outdated in years to come. Installing Linux will require a jailbreak, however.

There hasn’t been an ETA set for the availability of this Linux build, but we’re hoping that it’s publicly available sooner than later.

Comex Answers Your Questions

After being featured in a Forbes article last month, jailbreak prodigy and all around hacker Comex

started to draw attention outside of the jailbreak scene. As a matter of fact, the folks at Apple started paying attention to the point that they offered him a job. Our loss, their gain.

Of course, questions started popping up in every jailbreaker’s mind. Will Comex give away his exploits to Apple? Will he keep working on jailbreaks and exploits? Will he keepJailbreakMe alive? Many questions that remained unanswered, until today…

Comex is not the kind of guy who likes to get media attention, which is probably why he never accepted to do an interview with us, or anyone else but Forbes for that matter. He, however, decided to answer many of the questions people have on Reddit.

Here is a selection:

Question: After your internship with Apple and after iOS 5 is officially released, will you continue to support the jailbreak community by providing exploits?

Comex: No.

Edit: But I’ll want to jailbreak my phone, so I hope someone finds them :p

Q: Why an intern position though? It seems like you could carry a regular position at apple.
How has the core jailbreak dev teams responded to you going to work forapple?

Comex: I don’t know if I’d want to do that- I’ve never had a job before and I don’t know what it’s like- and I intend to go back to college soon.
Mostly with congratulations.

Have you made any money from the jb scene?

Comex: I’ve made a good amount of money through donations, which is mostly being used to help pay for college. JailbreakMe 2.0 was like $40,000; 3.0 was $15,000 (not quite sure why it decreased).

The jailbreak community took a huge hit when you left. Do you think the active players can outsmart you now that you’re playing for the other team, or are you Apple’s final solution to their jailbreak problem?

Comex: There are a lot of smart people working for Apple already; maybe I can help, but I doubt I can stop people from finding exploits.

Can you give any insight on how apple views the Jailbreak communities mods?

Comex: I have no idea.

As a huge open book for them to steal take ideas from.

Comex: I certainly don’t mind. Jailbreak community puts an idea in front of people with a crappy implemenation; Apple polishes it to the point where it can be an OS feature. I don’t know whether Apple actually pays attention to jailbreak apps, but see App Store, copy and paste, multitasking, etc…

Do you have any regrets?

Comex: I should have worked on these jailbreaks more consistently, and released them more quickly; I’ve had several exploits fixed on me that could have been used in a jailbreak if I was quicker at packaging.

What, besides money, made you flip to the other side?

Comex: It’s not about money. A large part of my motivation to jailbreak was always the challenge; the internship will be a new sort of challenge.

Will the current jailbreaks and/or the site disappear?

Comex: No, I’ll hand them over to MuscleNerd or chpwn or whoever will take care of them.

There are a few more questions answered on Reddit, but don’t expect Comex to talk about his new position at Apple. It’s obviously classified information.

We’ll miss Comex, but we wish him the best.

iTunes Match Beta Goes Live for Developers

Apple just sent out an email to developers signifying that iTunes Match is now available to developers.

As you know, iTunes Match is the matching service that allows you to stream the tunes that you already own without uploading all of your music. The service works by “matching” the music contained on your local computer with what’s already available in the Cloud via iTunes.

For those more obscure songs that iTunes doesn’t already have, you can still upload your music for streaming. 

Keep in mind that this is beta software, so obviously some things are bound to change and bugs will have to be worked out before the final release hits the public. I think it’s a good indication of what we can expect come launch day, though.

Overall, I was fairly impressed with what I saw. It’s a painless process that works pretty much as advertised.

I think that if Apple can educate customers properly, loads of people wouldn’t think twice at shelling out $24.99 for a year’s worth of matching service; it’s going to be a very convenient thing to have.

The whole point of iTunes Match is to make it so you can access your music from anywhere, without the lengthy upload process required by competing services like Google Music and Amazon Cloud Player.

Here is the verbiage from the email that Apple just sent out to developers:

iTunes Match stores your complete music library in iCloud, allowing you to enjoy your collection anywhere, anytime, on any iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or computer.
iTunes Match beta is currently available to developers in the United States. Beta subscribers will receive iTunes Match service during the beta period plus an additional 3 months for free with their 12 month paid subscription.

To get started with iTunes Match, download the current version of iOS 5 beta and iTunes 10.5 beta 6.1 with iTunes Match. Once installed, choose Turn On iTunes Match from the Store menu, and click “Subscribe for $24.99.”

Please note that you must maintain a local backup of your iTunes library as well as any music you add to iCloud. Apple will periodically reset your iCloud library during the beta and it is critical that you backup your music regularly. Some features and optimizations of iTunes Match will not be available during the beta.

Again, iTunes Match is only available for developers thus far. Personally, this is one of my most anticipated iOS 5 features, what about you?

Comex, Father of JailbreakMe, Has Been Hired by Apple

It was only a matter of time. 19-year-old Nicholas Allegra,

better known as infamous iOS hacker Comex, has announced that he has accepted a job with Apple in Cupertino.

Comex has been responsible for many famous jailbreaks, most notably his web based tool called JailbreakMe. He is a well respected member of the jailbreak community, and we wish him the best with his future endeavors at Apple.

Comex announced the news on his Twitter account moments ago, and he seems to be receiving mostly positive responses from his followers. Other famous jailbreak developers, like MuscleNerd, have congratulated him on his new job.

Apple has been known to hire talent from the jailbreak community, with the Cupertino company most recently hiring developer Peter Hajas — as we uncovered first — for his work on a system of notifications for iOS called MobileNotifier. Peter is assumedly now working on improving iOS notifications in Cupertino.

It’s a bittersweet thing for the jailbreak community to lose Comex. In one way, we’re happy that he’s been given such a wonderful opportunity to showcase his talents and further his career. On the other, we’re sad to see such an invaluable jailbreak hacker go.

We don’t know what Comex will be specifically working on at Apple, but we can only assume that he will be assigned to fixing security holes in iOS. It’s funny to think that he will help patch the vulnerabilities he exploited. Everything comes around, I guess.

We congratulate you on your success, Comex. Best of luck at Apple!

The Coolest Cat: Dev Team Bids Steve Fairwell

Steve Jobs only sent his resignation letter out a few hours ago,

but the tech world is already feeling the effects of his exit. Tech pundits, bloggers, and Apple fans have taken to the internet to share their thoughts on the CEO.

Even though it sounds like Steve will still be very involved in major decisions at the company, he will be missed, as evidenced by the several trending Twitter topics regarding his announcement. Even the Dev Team has turned out to pay their respects…

From the first iPhone update (firmware 1.1.1), Apple’s fearless leader and the jailbreakcommunity have been at odds. It was the first firmware update for the iPhone and iPod touch, and it disabled the first jailbreak. Since then, we’ve all watched a game of cat and mouse between basement hackers and Cupertino’s finest.

And even though the back-and-fourth game will likely continue, it just won’t be the same without Steve Jobs. Fittingly, The Dev Team posted the above image accompanied by these words:

“The coolest cat. We loved the chase! Good luck, Steve. Signed, Jailbreakers and tinkerers everywhere.”

The feeling is certainly mutual throughout the entire community. Thanks for everything Steve, and good luck.

Apple Releases iTunes 10.4.1 [Jailbreak Safe]

Minutes ago, Apple updated iTunes to version 10.4.1.

Apple initially released iTunes 10.4 to bring full screen support in Lion to its media software.

Version 10.4.1 of iTunes doesn’t bring much but the usual bug fixes. We have the full change log below…

• Fixes a problem where the media keys on some third-party keyboards work inconsistently with iTunes


• Addresses issues with adding artwork to songs and videos


• Resolves an issue which may cause iTunes to become unresponsive when purchasing an HD movie


• Fixes a problem where iTunes may take longer than expected to open after waking your Mac from sleep


• Addresses issues with VoiceOver support

I updated to the latest version and can confirm that it is safe for jailbroken devices.

You can update directly via iTunes or by downloading from Apple’s website.

Jailbreak iOS 5 Beta 6 With RedSn0w “Jetblue Edition”

Apple released iOS 5 Beta 6 to developers last Friday,

and the latest beta software has already been jailbroken with Sn0wBreeze. The Dev Team has now releasedRedSn0w 0.9.8b6 “Jetblue Edition” for a tethered jailbreak on iOS 5 Beta 6.

iOS 5 Beta 6 is one of the last beta verisons expected to be released before the final GM build of iOS 5 next month.

We’ve released redsn0w 0.9.8b6 to jailbreak iOS5 beta6 (point it directly at the beta6 IPSW).

Two important notes about this version:

1. Please let your device boot normally to IOS5b6 and do a clean shutdown (slide to power off) before jailbreaking.


2. Boot logos have intentionally been disabled for now, so you’ll see a black screen on tethered boots (you can re-enable logos or verbose boot with command-line options if you really want them back).

Due increased sensitivity to abrupt filesystem shutdowns in IOS5b6, it’s very important that you do a clean shutdown before running redsn0w.

Make sure to follow the Dev Team’s above instructions if you do plan on jailbreaking iOS 5 Beta 6. In a nutshell, no boot logo support, and you should power down your iPhone completely before proceeding to ensure a clean jailbreak.

RedSn0w 0.9.8b6 is available on both the Mac and PC .

For Windows users, Sn0wBreeze will allow you to jailbreak Beta 6 without a registered developer UDID. All beta versions of Apple software are intended for developer use only, however.

Have you taken the plunge yet, or are you waiting it out for the inevitable untethered jailbreak once iOS 5 goes public?

Download:

RedSn0w 0.9.8 beta 6: Mac - Windows