Redmond Pie brings word of an Apple Store employee, working in the Lakeside branch in England, who has indicated that Apple is intentionally holding back the release of its newest firmware to patch security holes in its software that are enabling iPhone 4 owners to jailbreak their device.
The release of iOS 4.0.1/4.1 will be rushed out to iPhone owners in an attempt to fix signal issues caused by Apple’s calculation of signal strength on the device. Currently, all iPhone devices are over-reporting the signal strength available in its surrounding area, a flaw in Apple’s implementation.
To remedy this, the firmware update will employ AT&T’s method to calculate signal strength, although analysts and customers suggest signal issues are a fundamental flaw in the iPhone 4′s design, not its software.
Traditionally Apple patches existing holes in its operating system with each firmware release, requiring the jailbreaking community to work out new ways to gain root access to their iPhones.
The news could be entirely true, it makes sense for Apple to patch existing flaws in iOS4 to restrict users from unlocking phones to operate on a rival network, after-all Apple still has an exclusive agreement with AT&T. On the other hand, Apple hasn’t once declared an official release date for the firmware update, pushing back a date that had previously been non-existent is just pure speculation.
Would a UK-based Apple Store employee be one of the only people to know this information? (I live 20 minutes from the store, I’m tempted to ask in person.) We don’t know.
Expect the firmware update to drop soon, regardless of delays, then we can assess the real damage.
This entire exercise would be a non-issue if Apple simply sold the iPhone to multiple U.S. carriers — GSM & CDMA. The international community (GSM) enjoys this “privilege.”
I doubt this is true, most junior apple employees would not have access to this info in addition the current jail break relies on 3.12 and old bootrom using a custom ispw file. This allow the use of 4. If you are on the bootrom you are still screwed on the jailbreaking front. There is currently a tethered jailbreak for newbootrom on 4 but thats going to be a pain to use and if apple are patching a hole i suspect it will be that one. The dev team and comex in particular already have a jailbreak that will work on the newboot rom but are waiting to release it until after the release of 4.1
WOW!! Make all the AT&T subscribers wait because Apple is afraid of a jailbreak, it doesn’t matter the Dev Team will Jail Break whatever firmware comes out anyany..
anyway!!!!
Good story but I’m not worried. Neither should anyone else.
You know what I think? I think that Apple are going to delay the update until after the 24th July 2010 so that when it doesn’t fix the reception issues, you can’t take it back for a refund since the 30 days has elapsed to return your phone for a refund. IMO.
GEOFF I THINK YOU ARE RIGHT