Apple to "brick" jailbroken phones?

[Masterz1337]

While reading up on the G1 on MSNBC, the article I was reading mentioned that Apple will eventually brick iPhones running hacked firmware. I find this hard to belive, as I remember Apple saying they wouldn't interfere with jailbroken apps. Plus arn't they smart enough to relize they will loose part of their usebase if they were to brick all the iPhones running unsigned code?

Here's the quote from the article.

Sometimes literally: Apple finally admitted a few months ago that people who illegally put non-Apple-developed software on their iPhone would discover that their iPhone would eventually shut down and stop working, just like that. It was termed “bricking” the phone, as in, turning the thing into a brick by disabling it. Apple just didn’t want people messing around with the operating system.

The original article can be found here.
Google's latest possibly an iPhone killer - Tech it Out! with Paul Hochman - MSNBC.com

[sziklassy]

In the US they don't have the legal right to do this. Furthermore software is not "illegal" and neither is jailbreaking. The only think illegal is cracked apps.

[Dash-2]

sziklassy got it right. If you bought the phone, it's yours and Apple isn't allowed to touch it. At best, they could block your phone from accessing the App Store.

[one1]

Not quite so. Apple is not allowed to cause hardware damage, HOWEVER your SLA terms of agreement have specific requests that modifying the software does indeed break the agreement.

I'd hope they to be smarter than to try it though.

[z3r01]

if they do this, which i very much highly doubt, they will have an angry mob after them including me

[///AJ-Vishus]

ummmm...No. But I'd really hate an iBrick

[one1]

BY the way, these threads have popped up since the inception of jailbreaking through 6+ firmware changes and two generations of phones. You'd think by now you skiddish types would learn it ain't gonna happen.

[smirkis]

im pretty sure if this time ever came up, we'd all know about it. it would be a new release of something say itunes or firmware. a few others would upgrade and they're phones would die, then the rest of the world wouldn't update. its as simple as that. they can't jus one day kill ur phone randomly.

[sziklassy]

Not quite so. Apple is not allowed to cause hardware damage, HOWEVER your SLA terms of agreement have specific requests that modifying the software does indeed break the agreement.

I'd hope they to be smarter than to try it though.

True, but Apple would be also violating YOUR rights if they changed soemthing on your phone without your consent. The most they could do is make an update which is applied by you that would cause a brick.

[one1]

True, but Apple would be also violating YOUR rights if they changed soemthing on your phone without your consent.

Not true, that's why they have a kill switch.

[vngsinha]

Btw this is MSNBC, and the mainstream media rarely gets anything right when it comes to technology. Fact is, most of their readers dont care enough to look up the facts or even pay attention