Whited00r: iOS Community Custom Firmware

http://www.whited00r.com/

by krrrh • 12 years ago

118 78 12 years ago

laichzeit02• 12 years ago

I can't help but ask, why? I'm using an iPhone 4S and I feel like it's time to "let it go". I feel the life force ebbing from the battery each day, the camera quality is starting to feel dated, it's becoming increasingly rare to find an "old style" Apple charging cable when I'm somewhere else, etc. It's nothing more than a disposable electronic good to me and trying to fight this is, ultimately, a losing battle.

Osmium• 12 years ago

There's something to be said for trying to get as much life as possible out of older devices. For not just discarding them because they're 'old' even though they're still fully functional (battery replacements aside). I'm not saying I can do that myself--it's hard to willingly keep using an inferior device when you have the option to upgrade to something better--but I see why some people think otherwise.

themartorana• 12 years ago

Because to some, either an iPhone was a major investment, or one they couldn't make at all and were gifted/handed-down an old device. I ran out and grabbed an iPhone 6, but I'm a pretty lucky person to be able to. I know others who can't afford to - who are on pre-paid minimalist plans and can't even practically afford the monthly uptick for a new device payment plan.

Or you have a kid. I don't know...

3JPLW• 12 years ago

Exactly.

Once I moved away from the expensive plans with "free" phones, it made me value and appreciate the major investment that a pocket computer is much more than I had before. And I'm saving lots of money — I recoup the cost of the (used) devices within 12-16 months, with every month thereafter being a bonus ~60 USD (for two iPhones). The $800-1200 outlay for two replacement phones is a very nice motivator to stretch them as far as we can, too.

mathgeek• 12 years ago

I think this is actually the epitome of hacker culture, for the same reason that some folks still create games for the NES and a few people still run dial-in BBS's. The feeling of taking old tech to its limits and seeing what's truly possible... that's a strong desire for some folks. I don't personally have the time to play around with such things anymore, but I still think it's awesome.

abritishguy4• 12 years ago

I have an iPhone 5 and I'm not going to upgrade until I absolutely have to or a new phone with at least two of:

- same size screen as iphone 5 & 5s

- really good battery life (STOP MAKING IT THINNER AND MAKE IT LAST LONGER!)

- some killer feature that justifies the ludicrous amount of money I will spend on a phone.

eyko• 12 years ago

If what you want is battery life, there are phones out there that last a couple of days on one charge (I'm thinking for example the Huawei Ascend Mate 2).

rikf• 12 years ago

You can actually get an iPhone 4S replacement battery + tools to change the battery for less then $10 dollars. Certainly a-lot cheaper than replacing the whole phone.

Here is one for $9 http://www.ebay.com/itm/1430mAh-Internal-Replacement-3-7V-Li...

dzhiurgis• 12 years ago

That's what I did.

Also updated it to iOS 8 GM and boy was that a mistake. Everything is slow, lot's of bugs.

daxelrod• 12 years ago

That's an incredible price. Thanks!

ShinyCyril• 12 years ago

I'm still using my iPhone 3GS without hitch. The only problem I'm facing is that the docking connector is on its way out and needs replacing. I'll decide whether it's worth my time fixing it when I get to that hurdle.

untog• 12 years ago

It's nothing more than a disposable electronic good to me

To you, yes. I suspect you have a lot more money than others do.

antihero• 12 years ago

What I think would be interesting is we started focussing on making "LTS" phones which would receive updates and fixes for a long time, that had less frequent releases, and were for people who don't care about the latest and greatest but just want a fairly decent phone that lasts ages.

Perhaps it's not a sustainable business model, though.

laichzeit02• 12 years ago

I guess the problem with that approach is that most modern phones are useless without the app ecosystem. So you're stuck with whatever set of apps run on that particular handset/os version. You'll need an appstore that serves LTS software.

quarterto• 12 years ago

This is in fact iOS 3.x skinned to look like iOS 7. This means absolutely nothing in the App Store is compatible.

FreakyT• 12 years ago

Exactly! I installed this on my original iPhone at one point, and it was a complete waste of time. Apple's goal is to ensure that old iDevices are 100% useless by refusing to update them, and this project does absolutely nothing to rectify that.

dtech• 12 years ago

I'm no fan of Apple, but this is baseless Apple bashing. "Refusing" to update old devices is certainly reasonable. You cannot continue to support 7 year old phones when there is so much (hardware) development, it would either make them unsuitably slow or deprive newer models of features.

iPhone 4 (06-2010) received it's last (?) update in 06-2014, 4 years of support, other devices have had similar durations of support.

Compare that to Google: Nexus One (01-2010) never received 4.0 (10-2011): less than 2 years, Nexus S 11-2010 to 10-2012: 2 years, Nexus S 10-2011 to 07-2013: less than 2 years.

bushido• 12 years ago

I may get some flack and down votes for saying this.

But, I have experienced something quite the opposite. Apple keeps pushing updates that cripple older devices.

In the last few years I have had a number of my devices and those of my friends rendered useless because of updates pushed by Apple.

I have seen a variety of issues the most common and annoying of those include: 1. Battery Failure - Immediately after an update (happened to my iPhone 4, my cousins and two friends in the same week, immediately after the update) 2. Extreme lag/slowdown when receiving calls/typing 3. Front camera stops working or more accurately hangs the application making use of it.

I am not a conspiracy theorists. But in all cases I have seen people including myself upgrade soon after, at times to android devices, but most often to iDevices.

Don't know if it is a deliberate goal. But it truly sucks.

zapshu• 12 years ago

Although it's pretty cool by itself, they modify and distribute copyrighted IPSWs (iOS firmware), which is basically illegal.

abritishguy4• 12 years ago

Do you see Apple doing something about it? Because I don't.

hahainternet2• 12 years ago

This is reckless.

Yizahi2• 12 years ago

I'd prefer if somebody would make an iOS7/8 reskin as in iOS6, while retaining all new functionality. I don't mind flat and clear interfaces, and I like Windows Phone UI for example, but iOS7 design is not so good. New folders, dock, newsstand, app icons, some button icons. Some people said that I'll get used to it, but no - I didn't. Still looks bad for me.

gergles• 12 years ago

"Push Fixer is a premium service. The generation of unique sets for push notification is power and time consuming. The price for a set is really cheap and it allow us to continue offering this service."

what. This firmware breaks your existing push support then demands a fee ($1, but still.) to restore it because, literally, "generating certs is hard". Really?

goatforce5• 12 years ago

Imagine that instead of the code being free and the Push Fixer service costing a dollar that the code costs $1 and the Push Fixer service is included in the cost.

Feel better?

sp332• 12 years ago

Right, it breaks push "for free".

tacotime• 12 years ago

I think it's less about generating a certificate and more about managing and serving push notifications which assumedly takes resources to serve and manage. Not to mention the cost of setting up the servers in the first place. They have to make money somewhere, right? I mean you can't expect this much work for a pure passion project can you?

Honestly I'm more concerned that it's so damn cheap. It's hard for me to believe that a $1 fee on software that only works with devices >6 years old is much of an economic incentive for a project of this scope. It becomes a lot easier to believe when you look at their sourceforge download stats and realize that they've been at this for years now and they have some pretty amazing numbers on their side: http://sourceforge.net/projects/whited00r/files/stats/timeli...

We all know that Apple is obviously under-serving older generations of devices in the interest of getting people to buy the new one. This project appears to be proof that there is a sizable segment of the market that still cares about their 6+ year old Apple devices.

yalogin• 12 years ago

So they spent so much time and effort on making older iOS devices to look like iOS7? Why? What is the return on investment there? And it only works on jailbroken devices (I am assuming). So how are they getting their money on this? I am being really cynical here but the first thing that came to mind is, are they peddling malware or syphoning off user information under the hood?

wingerlang• 12 years ago

This is a modified iOS you install, so it doesn't "require" a jailbroken device.

5414h• 12 years ago

Great work guys , it would be cool if it was for the 3gs too :D

josteink• 12 years ago

While I admire the hacker spirit behind this, and can definitely respect that people want working firmwares on perfectly good hardware...

What these people will eventually discover is that, unlike Android, which was based on open-source from the get-go, they will meet the wall where they will find issues they simply cannot solve.

They should look into porting Android to iPhones instead.

Whited00r: iOS Community Custom Firmware

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