iPhone Can Now Run Apache, Python, Vim 312
An anonymous reader writes "After the first Hello World application, hacker NerveGas and the people at #iphone-shell have built Apache, Python and other Open Source apps for the iPhone using NightWatch's toolchain. Yes, your iPhone can now be a Web Server and do all sort of 1337 things. This also means that third-party applications for iPhone will happen no matter what. People, iPhone Doom could be just around the corner." It's fairly thin on information but if true, this will lead to good things. Like hopefully permission from apple.
Disappointing (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Disappointing (Score:4, Funny)
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Apache beat IIS
Python beat Ruby
VI(m) beat Emacs
I am finally going to get a good nights sleep...
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I personally am waiting for the OpenMoko Neo1973, comes with Python and these other things by default or a just few taps away through its package manager.
Re:Disappointing (Score:5, Funny)
I put it down to the kids these days, they're just not as adventurous as when I was a lad (i.e., 1999) and used to walk to work in the snow, uphill, both ways, with only a roasting Slashdotted PIC-based webserver for warmth.
Re:Disappointing (Score:5, Insightful)
Given that the iPhone is running some variety of MacOS X, it's highly likely that we see the full potential of this thing unlocked pretty soon. Having a fairly standardized environment, a fairly powerful CPU and a sleek form factor is good.
Being turing-complete isn't good enough for the real world of computing. Any PCL printer is, but do you see anyone here breaking out the champagne over that?
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Ideally, bittorrent would be a much bigger nuisance though.
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Thus, you win the Worst Pirating Idea EVER award.
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How about Applescript or Fscript? (Score:4, Interesting)
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Might be time to bite the $600 bullet.
What about SSH? (Score:4, Funny)
my thoughts (Score:4, Insightful)
I do however believe that apple will now release a SDK for the iPhone (apple pretty much do anything the consumers want these days, even managed some drm music, something i thought would never come while the RIAA existed.)
I also believe apple stated ajax/web apps as the SDK because they didn't want to give people any reason to think the iPhone was incomplete (and hence to put off the purchase.)
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Re:my thoughts (Score:5, Informative)
There is plenty of demand for an iPod SDK, and has been since day 1:
p od/index.php [macworld.com]
a me=Forum&file=viewtopic&forum=2&topic=1806 [ipodhacks.com]
c t/msg00437.html [apple.com]
http://www.alteringtime.com/log/archives/96 [alteringtime.com]
http://www.macworld.com/news/2006/09/21/macgamesi
http://www.ipodhacks.com/modules.php?op=modload&n
http://lists.apple.com/archives/studentdev/2001/O
...and so on.
Apple has their reasons for not releasing an iPhone SDK, same as they have their reasons for not releasing an iPod SDK. I assure you that not knowing the demand has nothing to do with it.
Re:my thoughts (Score:5, Informative)
The iPhone is much different, because
- It has full input capabilities -- pointer, selection, keyboard input and more.
- It's a much more powerful device (cpu/ram) than the iPods
- Apple positioned it as a "smart phone", directly comparing it to the competitive smartphones, which do offer SDKs.
- Apple represented it as running "True OS X". They even mentioned it supporting Cocoa. Why the hell would you talk about the programming interface if you don't intend to give your developers access?
After watching the initial iPhone introduction, I just assumed developers would have access (based on the OS X / Cocoa stuff). Just after that annoyance of finding they were NOT making an SDK wore off, Apple came back with the "you don't need an SDK, just write web pages" bullshit, which re-opened the wound. That episode was the farthest off I have seen Apple in understanding their developers/customers. Hopefully they remedy it soon.
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Re:my thoughts (Score:4, Informative)
While we still don't know how many phones they sold in the first weekend, this is the first hard number we have to estimate it. It obviously doesn't take into account any people who had trouble activating their phones at first, nor anybody who bought the phone on Sunday July 1st, but it gives us an idea. Adding in those people, it's entirely possible that your estimate 700,000 is more than twice as many as were actually sold. At best, I doubt they sold even 400,000.
Re:Inaccessible but prominent API (Score:3, Interesting)
For some strange reason the Sega Dreamcast popped into my mind with its Windows CE sticker right on the front. Since only licensed developers were allowed to make software for the system, it really didn't matter what the API was. Basically it was about as much useful marketing speak as "blast processing".
As I un
Re:my thoughts (Score:4, Insightful)
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As you say I doubt very much they were caught off guard. Other phone do have SDKs and such, but some of them also suffer from reduced stability because of them. I can't say whether Apple will ever release an SDK, but
Re:my thoughts (Score:5, Insightful)
This is because foreign code may not only affect stability and "user experience" but the monopoly you have on that hardware. And reducing the monopoly means commodization of some sort and that's what Apple hates more than anything: fixed, exclusive, expensive 2-year contracts, secrecy around new products, higher-than-expected prices, strict limits on the user (changing the battery? a memory card?) - it's all oriented around their central marketing aim of being in THE special position among all hard- and software manufacturers.
People are buying it, Apple is profitable like nothing and has a crowd of fans silencing all critics - it seems to work, I admit.
I have quite some respect for their marketing and product strategy - they are doing everything right from a shareholder's perspective. (Stock inflation for unreal expectations is not that important)
But don't make the mistake to consider Apple a corporation totally different from its arch rival Microsoft. They're following a different path, but their goal is comparable. If Apple's and MSFT's market shares were reversed, we had the same problems with Mac OS than we have with Windows right now, except their design and safety record wouldn't suck half as bad. But concerning anti-competitive maneuvers, vendor lock-in amd user restrictions, they'd be just the same.
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Why? They've never even bothered to keep them themselves, so why should they care what third-parties do?
Yup, this is certainly a fair point and one that many people are pissed about. Apparently Apple is meant to be rectifying this in 10.5, but we'll see when it comes out.
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Which is stupid. Did they REALLY think the iPhone wouldn't be hacked? Now they have no control over it.
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Also design process (Score:4, Insightful)
There negotiations with Cingular/AT&T probably focused on getting iTunes activation, and AT&T focused on controlling the feature set.. The first phone I had with an AIM client was back in 2001, it's not a rare feature, but Apple probably yielded on iChat because AT&T was yielding on WiFi and didn't want people to avoid paying SMS fees.
I think that Apple wanted to move product first, then aim for smartphone competition. If they move millions, then Apple, not AT&T, has the power in a renegotiation. Apple wanted to get the iPod-Phone out there and prove demand, then they can go after the pocket computer market.
First Application . . (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:First Application . . (Score:4, Informative)
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Question (Score:3, Funny)
s/permission/official blessing/ (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:s/permission/official blessing/ (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:s/permission/official blessing/ (Score:4, Informative)
Did it with many electronic items in the past. reload stock firmware and play stupid. works great, get replacement reload custom setup/firmware/unlock/etc and life is good again.
I though all geeks knew that simple tidbit.
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Think there was a Slashdot article about it too.
Re:s/permission/official blessing/ (Score:4, Informative)
Wow I started off with a joke and then made a decent comment. . I must need some sleep.
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since the late 70s (Score:2)
Since when do we ask permission to bend our gadgets to our will?
Since people have tried to sell you non free software. You might remember something about BSD, modems and the phone company. The phone company has not changed much.
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You don't need to.
But if you, you get your hands on all kinds of advanced, documented APIs that give you fancy graphics, direct access to functions that send data over the net, etc. In other words, you end up with a fancy iPhone that does fancier things in a pretty way. Instead of a fancy iPhone with a terminal that scares the crap out of your non-gadgety friends.
"How did you break your iPhone?"
"It runs Python now."
"What's Python? What hap
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Taco drank the Kool-Aid (Score:3, Insightful)
Because the iPhone is from Apple and Cmdr Tack drank a full jug of the Kool-Aid. Seriously, replace Apple with ANY other entity and imagine seeing "It's fairly thin on information but if true, this will lead to good things. Like hopefully permission from _____." on the front page of Slashdot... written not just by an idiot editor like Zonk but by the Taco himself. If anyone didn't understand the power of the Steve Jobs Reality Distortion
iPhone as a server (Score:2)
Anyway, it's be interesting to see how it's handle the
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Remember though, that the iPhone has 128MB of RAM, with no swap.
No swap? Do you have somewhere I can read about that specifically? Seems like it'd be harder to de-implement that, than to leave it in. But anyway - point is, there's some really smart folks digging into this thing, and it's quite enjoyable to watch what they come up with. Am I likely to actually run one of my websites off of an iPhone? Of course not. But, from a geek factor - if I can get apache running on it (which I apparently can), and then use one of the javascript-based wikis, I could have a
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Re:iPhone as a server (Score:5, Interesting)
Simple mobile myspace-type sites would be pretty huge for a mososo.
Particularly if it's integrated with file/stream sharing and a decent discovery app.
Erh what? (Score:2)
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Redundancy (Score:2, Funny)
No way Apple will go for it (Score:5, Insightful)
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sure it void's your warranty IN CERTAIN CASES, like if i hacked the firmware and suddenly i can't send sms all of a sudden.. well i would have to eat the bill to fix it. but that kind of thing goes on a case by case basis.
You cannot however, just blanket void warranty on a product, even if they do something fucked up to their iphone. the fault has to be in some way related to their messing around with it, so say they place a 3rd party app
I'm already in hiding. (Score:2, Funny)
Apologies.
your iPhone can now be a Web Server... (Score:2)
Permission from apple? (Score:2)
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no complaints (Score:4, Interesting)
B.
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I think in the case of a few people managing to unlock their phone, this is not worthy of the Jobs glare. On the other hand, if the hack is made available through a multi-platform click-through free installer, there'll be a software update quietly disabling it.
B.
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Jamie Zawinski said... (Score:5, Insightful)
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AIM instead of SMS? (Score:4, Interesting)
Is this something that can be patched in a forced software update?
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AT&T doing what with the who now? (Score:3, Funny)
Just who do you think has the power in this relationship? I'll give you a hint, the name starts with "A" all right but doesn't end with "T"!
VLC ? (Score:3, Interesting)
Apple be praised! (Score:5, Funny)
Ah, the blind faith of a True Believer. I suppose the crippled nature of the device is a test, and by defeating it you are found worthy in Jobs' eyes? And the next time you plug it into iTunes, instead of silently patching these "flaws", it will release everyone's phone from bondage!
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iPhone Doom? (Score:3, Funny)
Pshaw!! *I* am waiting for iDuke iNuke'm iForever! <grin>
First cool app for apache (Score:5, Insightful)
honestly though, how long before AT&T starts deactivating phone accounts for "data plan abuse" because people are actually using their data plan with these hacks and apps? they already try their hardest to scam their customers into buying the full data plan for their smartphone instead of the cheaper smartphone plan.
I had a AT&T rep threaten me that if I dont change my plan he will have my service shut off.
cingular and now AT&T pride themselves in the absolute crappiest customer service they can give. Threaten customers, scamming them into getting service plans they do not need (All I want is email, websurfing on a phone sucks and who cares about MTV videos on a phone)
Re:First cool app for apache (Score:4, Insightful)
I think we differ in what this part means.
Your definition seems to be: "I send SMS messages frequently enough to use 100 to 150 of them a month. It doesn't bother me to pay extra money on my plan to get these."
My definition is: "SMS messages are annoying and I've never sent one, though I have recieved a few of them. I don't want to pay for crap I know I won't use, especially overpriced crap. Cut them out of the plan and save me some $$$."
See? Those of us complaining about the plan aren't unreasonable either, we just have different needs. Needs that aren't being catered to by AT&T. That's why there's so much bitching. One size does not fit all.
Vim? Phhtttt (Score:4, Funny)
Oh... Only 8Gb RAM. Never mind.
imagine (Score:2, Funny)
Actually yes! Or something like it anyway (Score:2)
I can see no reason why a network of iPhones (or Nokia or whoever's) couldn't be used as a sort of distributed, redundant computing platform, using their idle cycles (~99%) to work on small, distributed pieces of a problem.
This could be done with the 'opt-in' cooperation of the user, or unwittingly as part of the Terms of Service offered by the network operator.
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Saturate the world with enough wifi-enabled phones and who needs a phone company at all?
permission? huh? (Score:2, Insightful)
Why after spending what was likely loads of time locking down the thing because they didn't want anyone messing with it would they suddenly change their minds because someone took a crowbar to the thing?
I think from their point of view it's a bit like the roaches expecting you to lay out some cheese platters and stop spraying since they managed to get into your house anyway.
I'm thinking they're going to see a fumigation tent a lot sooner than a bucket of veggie dip.
Overlooked feature (Score:2, Funny)
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That and I'm a geek, why would I want to look in a mirror? I checked this morning, I'm more or less within tolerance.
Er, bash? (Score:2)
I missed a step in the constant stream of iPhone-hacking stories. I caught the "interactive forth-like PROM shell" and the "Hello World" stories, but I missed hearing any "interactive bash shell via wifi" announcement.
The fact that you can run vim is neat, but can you save files to the filesystem? What's the filesystem like? More like HFS or more like ext3? Can you get ssh/wifi going so you don't have to tappity through a soldered cable anymore?
Okay, but... what? (Score:2)
But.
What does this accomplish? I mean outside of it being "it's a neat thing I can do to it", it's not going to have serious practical implications for 99.9% of users. The writeup goes off onto this tangent of being able to run third-party applications on it, woohoo. I can't think of a single phone who has had a third-party application as a major selling point. And I have a Treo! The Palm stuff can be rea
Just what I needed! (Score:5, Funny)
How have I lived so long without one?
When they come out in the UK, I'll buy an iPhone for sure now!
So now an iPhone can hack another iPhone (Score:2, Funny)
Let's not forget the malfeasants (Score:2)
I'm interested to see where this all leads. Speaking of iPhone hacks, I may be completely out of it and missed them, but you would have thought
Trolling for fun (Score:2)
Sorry, I couldn't help myself! *ducks*
Not Quite There (Score:5, Informative)
Paris Hilton? (Score:3, Funny)
Pretty soon we'll be seeing the iPhone being locked up and sent to rehab to get a fully functional SDK. Or maybe it will be hanging out with OLPC (Lohan).
Unavoidable and becoming just as painful....
The toolchain means nothing... (Score:5, Informative)
For example, here are some of the problems with building a SSH client for the iPhone:
http://furbo.org/2007/07/02/beyond-sweet/ [furbo.org]
-ch
great! (Score:4, Insightful)
Folks, if you want to have iPhone-like features with a programmable device, invest your time and effort into helping with one of the actually open phone platforms, don't waste it on trying to battle with Apple's DRM. Apple doesn't want you to run apps on the iPhone, period.
Of course, recompiling Apache requires so much less smarts than actually creating a nice phone app.
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