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March 29th, 2009

Apple likes jailbroken iPhones too

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 7:39 pm

Categories: Jailbreak, Legal, iPhone

Tags: Apple iPhone, Patent Application, Apple Inc., Gaff, Jason D. O'Grady

Somebody in Cupertino’s in a lot of hot water Monday morning. In fact, they might as well not even show up to work tomorrow.

Apparently some genius at Apple submitted a patent application for iPhone biometric security to the USPTO with evidence of jailbreaking all over it. Exhibit 500C (at right) clearly shows icons for Installer.app and SMBPrefs (which are only available on JB’d iPhones) and the iWood Realize theme from the iSpazio repository reports Engadget.

The gaff is particularly embarrassing because just last month Apple said that jailbreaking was illegal claiming that it’s a DMCA violation and involves copyright infringement.

Is Apple’s use of a jailbroken iPhone in a patent application an endorsement of jailbreaking, or a tacit agreement that its own OS is insufficient? Don’t bet your life on it, but it’s pretty funny nonetheless.

Jason D. O'GradyJason D. O'Grady is the editor of PowerPage.org, which has been publishing daily mobile technology news since December 1995. For disclosures on Jason's industry affiliations, click here or to view Jason's full profile click here.

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  • Talkback
  • Most Recent of 14 Talkback(s)
ignorance...
..is costly. Just what exactly do they teach in Journalism school? Just because we're techies doesn't mean we shouldn't be able to write correctly.

So 'loose' is used instead of 'lose', (I ten... (Read the rest)
Posted by: ElCondor11 Posted on: 04/21/09 You are currently: a Guest | | Terms of Use
Funny but no Big Deal  ChrisOPeterson | 03/29/09
Which is exactly why it is a big deal  T1Oracle | 03/29/09
No, it's not.  Dealing | 03/29/09
Apple won't be sued, but they won't be able to sue either  T1Oracle | 03/30/09
How and why would Apple sue itself...  JohnMcGrew@... | 03/30/09
Don't you guys have editors??  Geedavey | 03/30/09
no editors any more  Aesculapian | 03/30/09
ignorance...  ElCondor11 | 04/21/09
Appple Can Do What it Wants with iPhones  cgarrett | 03/30/09
Do as I say, not as I do. Or I will BREAK YOU!  invmgr@... | 03/30/09
Lowly consumers  tikigawd | 03/30/09
You may own the phone hardware  redking44 | 03/30/09
Did anyone read the patent application? Embedded Biometric Authentication.  invmgr@... | 03/30/09
Did *you* read the patent application?  grail@... | 03/30/09

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