Palo Alto Teens Banned from Apple Store for Hacking iPhones

[chris]

Sounds true and appears to be a reputable media outlet. Here's the full story (http://www.insidebayarea.com/sanmateocountytimes/ci_9421361). I wouldn't be surprised.

[dturner]

It probably is true, but just the thought of banning them for life is down right stupid. If Apple doesn't want the phones tampered with, they should be locked and only employees can demonstrate them.
I always thought it is stupid to leave them fully functional anyway. A friend of my daughters sent her an email from a store out of town. Well guess what? For a couple weeks she was getting text from people she didn't know. No big deal, but what if it was her phone number instead or they put here address in contacts? Apple says they restore the phones every night, but that is not the case.

[Youngbinks]

Wow that's pretty intense. If this true then Apple is just continuing to allow people to view them in a negative light. Does it actually say anywhere in the store that if you attempt to download something to the iPhone then you're participating in an illegal act? If not then that makes this even more ridiculous if it's true. Also, it doesn't exactly stop the kids from ordering from Apple's website.

[Napoleon_PhoneApart]

Maybe, but shouldn't it be common sense that the store demo is a "demo" for all customers, not just for a few nerds who want to download unapproved third party apps?

It reminds me of when the Apple stores had to block MySpace on their demo computers. If you want to access MySpace for an hour each day, then buy a god damned Mac. Don't hover over a machine sending friend requests and posting bulletins while I wait behind you to look at the machine with intent to possibly purchase...

Okay -- grumpy old man rant completed. :smile:

[Napoleon_PhoneApart]

Does it actually say anywhere in the store that if you attempt to download something to the iPhone then you're participating in an illegal act?

Now I admit that this is an extreme example, but is there a sign in the store that says "The Taking of Another's Life on These Premises is Murder?"

[Youngbinks]

Haha that's a good point. I was actually wondering how the kids got the app onto the iPhone to begin with. I would imagine they would need to connect it to a computer to get ZiPhone but the iPhones are usually apart from the Macs so I don't even know how they would do that.

[acosmichippo]

something's not right here... the article says this kid has an iphone of his own, so why would he bother showing his friend the "capabilities" of the iphone on a demo? you'd think he would have already done that on HIS phone.

also, it's been at least 8 months since jailbreaking has become easy for laymen to do, so i seriously doubt these are the first "hackers" this apple store has dealt with.

just seems like we're missing part of the story...

[projectdarkside]

It probably is true, but just the thought of banning them for life is down right stupid. If Apple doesn't want the phones tampered with, they should be locked and only employees can demonstrate them.
I always thought it is stupid to leave them fully functional anyway. A friend of my daughters sent her an email from a store out of town. Well guess what? For a couple weeks she was getting text from people she didn't know. No big deal, but what if it was her phone number instead or they put here address in contacts? Apple says they restore the phones every night, but that is not the case.That would be weird especially if you didnt have unlimited text, that would be an outrageous bill!

Btw, we live in the same city!

[We Beat U]

I don't buy it. Ok, maybe some Apple supervisor looking to make a name for himself threatened to ban the kid's for like from the store, but it's not like anyone's going the remember these kids after a day or two.

If someone told me that I was going to be banned from the store, I'd laugh at them. What a joke.

One thing I am curious about though, is how did the kids jailbreak a phone in an Apple store in order to install a 3rd party app? I thought you needed a computer to install ziphone and all that.

[psylichon]

Are there still jailbreakmyiphone.com-type sites (I made that up, I think) to jailbreak over the web?

[acosmichippo]

not for 1.1.4... i guess they could ave brought a cable, and used the macs there to jailbreak.

still, there are many holes in this story.

[Lincoln]

If I was banned from all Apple Stores... wow. Unthinkable, right there.

- John

[dturner]

If I was banned from all Apple Stores... wow. Unthinkable, right there.

- John
Breaks out in cold sweats and starts seeing pink elephants.

[theevilone]

Oh sure every employee in every store will be on the lookout for them.

[projectdarkside]

It would be funny if they had mugshot pictures of them at the apple stores

Saying: "Look out for these fugitives, they will Jailbreak and load gay porn onto your iPhones in less than 10 minutes!"

[Runamuck]

If anyone listens into the quarterly analyst calls with Apple, the CFO has been questioned several times now about whether or not they (Apple) have any concerns about the large numbers of hacked iPhones out there, as evidenced by the gap between iPhone purchases and known activations. His reply has almost always been a shrug. They have even stated that they believe a large number of these non-activated iPhones are going overseas to markets not yet penetrated by Apple. So in essence, jailbreaking is A-OK with Apple.

Check out the newest issue of MacWorld for a blurb that backs this up....page 28 I think.