engadget.com — So we all had a big laugh when people started jailbreaking iPhones inside Apple's stores this week, but inevitably that fun's been ended by the retail spots wising up and banning jailbreakme.com from their WiFi networks. Well, not so fast...
Aug 6, 2010 View in Crawl 4
sciguyajAug 6, 2010
It's stupid to try and stop people from using a product they bought the way they want!
alexlaiAug 6, 2010
Completely agree, but this article is on people jailbreaking the demo units in Apple Stores... which is hilarious XD
rossisdeadAug 6, 2010
Well to be fair, they're jailbreaking display models.
thatsmyaiboAug 6, 2010
I agree. I jailbroke my iPhone but the store demos are different. You can't just go around putting porn on the computers or doing whatever you want.
cerebronAug 6, 2010
Of course you *can*, but you probably shouldn't.
scuba7183Aug 6, 2010
Seriously. The only thing this is going to do is make some clerk stay late to reset all the iPhones
yacksAug 7, 2010
Now I feel sorry for the Best Buy employees when I did format c:\\ to their demo computers
jshhmrAug 6, 2010
What's stupid is that people actually buy these products.
enantiodromiaAug 7, 2010
since you're stuck in bumfuq texas, you probably have zero idea that macbook pros and iphones are incredibly popular with sysadmins, coders, and network engineers, in silicon valley.
now, i know, you are so much smarter than the engineers at google and facebook and juniper and all those places, because you got yer windows running pretty good and all that, i get that, but for the rest of us stupid people with decades of unix and coding, who actually like something in between linux and windows, who are fully competent in all operating systems, we will just have to get by while we wait for 'josh from texas' to grace us with his presence while he teaches us how to be as awesome as he is.
mikepictorAug 7, 2010
oh that razor wit.
ash808Aug 7, 2010
What does a jailbroken iPad do that others can't?
anothersoldierAug 8, 2010
For the few hundred of us left in the world without iphones, i'll fill you in.
I think they let you get free wireless internet. normally you have to pay for it.
I'm not 100% sure on this, but I'm 93.33333333333333333e % sure.
ash808Aug 8, 2010
Free internet? Preposterous!
mabakerbrakerAug 7, 2010
Tell that to Google too. And HTC. It’s only fair.
colonelpanic414Aug 6, 2010
YOU CAN'T STOP THE SIGNAL
firespray1138Aug 6, 2010
Can't stop the signal Mal.
cyberstrikerAug 6, 2010
... unless you hold it the wrong way, of course.
FPSmotoAug 6, 2010
Guy killed me Mal... Killed me with a sword.
solkreAug 7, 2010
Death grip
philbertAug 6, 2010
HACK THE PLA-- Oh wait wrong movie.
coachmcguirkAug 6, 2010
We bought these things?
I thought I was just renting it...
Closed AccountAug 6, 2010
Seriously, blocking jailbreakme.com on the stores wifi? How soon until the files on jailbreakme.com start showing up on dozens/hundreds of other sites all across the internet?Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
wildsatchmoAug 6, 2010
OR... bring in my rooted droid incredible, turn on wifi hotspot and use the verizon internet connection to download the file... problem solved =)
Closed AccountAug 6, 2010
OR... bring in my not necessarily rooted Desire, turn on wifi hotspot (in the new 2.2 update) and use any networks' internet connection to download the file... problem solved =)
spire3660Aug 7, 2010
Or bring in my fully supported and non-rooted Palm Pre and turn on free wifi hotspot.
mikerevAug 7, 2010
lol @ palm gtfo newbie.
spire3660Aug 7, 2010
If you are LOLing at my Palm then you obviously have never used WebOS.
computriusAug 8, 2010
@Spire3660
I have and he is right to LOL. That thing was just pathetic.
gerrylazloAug 6, 2010
I fail to see the point to all that effort.
wildsatchmoAug 8, 2010
just because its funny. Apple takes such a hard nosed approach to controlling how their users are allowed to use their products. Why does nobody see the humor in this? I for one think it is hilarious.
gerrylazloAug 8, 2010
There is nothing preventing anyone from jailbreaking their phone. These, however, are display models that are used to represent what Apple is selling to customers. They don't sell jailbroken phones, so having jailbroken display models is possibly confusing and misrepresenting what people are buying. So the staff have to reset them. It's those people that this affects, not Apple.
jeffabsAug 6, 2010
So he connected to a different wifi network. Big f**king deal.
And I love to hate on Apple.
jeffabsAug 6, 2010
wait, that's a floor model? Never mind what I said, that's funny
skillelAug 7, 2010
This account has been closed by the user
Closed AccountAug 6, 2010
That is one long Wi-Fi password.
jeworldAug 6, 2010
He was probably using the alphanumeric key instead of a phrase.
zoltan9Aug 6, 2010
Apple store is very 'Best Buy'-ish. Maybe watch the video before submitting next time.
tonyperkisAug 6, 2010
Im probably going to get dugg down for this but oh well...
First let me say that I am all for Jailbreaking iPods and iPads, have done it to my touch and a lot of my friends touches and I absolutely love it. As an employee of a Best Buy in the computer department I absolutely hate when people do stuff like this though. You may feel cool and smart while you are doing it like you are sticking it to 'the man' but you are just being annoying. Do it all you want on your own devices, heck you purchased it so use it how you want. It makes more work for a lot of people like me while accomplishing nothing for you but the slight feeling of being a rebel.
birdvswormAug 6, 2010
hit the restore to factory default button and walk away. come back in an hour to the same ipad/iphone you had when you first put it on display.
if you're working at best buy you're probably not gonna lose out on much by leaving the thing on a status screen for an hour, or less - 75% of people coming in to try the ipad out were probably set on buying one already.Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
dvddesignAug 6, 2010
Cite your stats pal.
Stats are beside the point. This is defacing someone else's equipment. It's not yours, you're not "helping them", you're not adding anything of value in doing this. You're just screwing with someone else's stuff.
I don't condone this, this is tantamount to someone else coming onto your computer and uninstalling your Steam account because "they" don't like Valve for whatever reason. It's boorish and inconsiderate.
corpsdawgAug 6, 2010
I agree that this is kind of a dick move by those that temporarily deface these products, but look at it this way: you are an hourly employee who is now getting paid to both help customers with product information and "cleanse" the iProducts of JailbreakMe. In theory, you are now working less time with customers, but receiving the same amount of pay. Personally, I dont see the big deal for an employee. Its better than working at super market and having to clean the s**t off the walls. Ask me how I know.
morpheousmartyAug 6, 2010
@dvddesign
If someone were to unlock your phone would you also consider it vandalism? But that doesn't really matter, these are floor models that will get wiped before getting sold anyways so this isn't really a consumer issue. This is a presentation issue, which is why Apple will find a way to clamp down on this.
neuralnetworkAug 6, 2010
And as a customer, I hate it when a Best Buy employee tries to sell me some service plan worth half as much as the actual product that I'm buying, in case my electronic device should stop working. You may feel cool and smart while you are doing it like you are sticking it to 'the man' but you are just being annoying.Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
Closed AccountAug 6, 2010
Some people have to make a living d**kh**d, who says they want to do that sort of s**t? Most people that have to sell incentives know how useless most of it is and how annoying it must be to bring it up. Simply put, it's not their fault, it's their job.
kent1146Aug 6, 2010
@NeuralNetwork:
Bad analogy. You can say "No thanks" and walk away. Someone working at an electronics store can't say "No thanks" and stop an unwanted jailbreak or mod of their sales models.
arekkusuAug 6, 2010
I HATE IT WHEN PEOPLE DO THEIR JOBS RAWWWWWRRRRRRR
Closed AccountAug 6, 2010
they actually have to try and sell you crap. the managers will yell at them if they don't. its a s**tty company policy and not so much the employee (who isn't even working on commission).
neuralnetworkAug 6, 2010
@RMB101988
Where do you get off calling me a d**kh**d? If anyone's got a dick for a head, it's probably you, because you can't get a real job cause you weren't smart enough to go to university.
<RMB101988's body goes into convulsions and head starts shooting out semen...cause it was overstimulated by the simple logic>Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
gerrylazloAug 6, 2010
In other words, they are getting cornholed from both directions. D-bags f**king with the products, and corporate making them dance like monkeys for low pay. Yeah, let's kick them in the balls for needing food and heat.
skillelAug 7, 2010
This account has been closed by the user
computriusAug 8, 2010
@NauralNetwork
Wow, way to defend yourself being called a d**k h**d by proving your a d**k h**d. Who says he isnt going to a university? Who says its any of your @(*#$ business if he isnt? People like you are what is wrong with this country and this world. d**kh**d was too nice. Your a scum bag piece of trash.
bbtwebAug 6, 2010
some people never leave a high school mentality and get some weird kick out of screwing with other people. Seriously though, they must have absolutely no life. Who seriously says to themselves: "Self, today feels like a great day to take my Nexus One down to the store and jailbreak a display iPad!"
nullcodesAug 6, 2010
Deal with it bro.
vintagestylesAug 6, 2010
do your f**king job and shut the f**k up. the customer is always right. don't want to fix jail broken i stuffs any more then quit and find something better than the dead end job your at.Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
morpheousmartyAug 6, 2010
Dude, check his profile, he's 16, what do you want, him to work at Google?
1hrsleepAug 6, 2010
And here we have someone who has never worked in retail.
morpheousmartyAug 6, 2010
What do they do at Best Buy? It's fairly easy to restore an iOS device, and a jailbroken device just has Cydia, so I'm sure it's a lot easier to fix than what happens on a PC, but I would really like to know what they do at Best Buy. Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
tonyperkisAug 6, 2010
Wow some people on here are brutal. I don't go around and bitch about stuff like this while Im at work, I do my job, put a smile on and help every customer. Does it suck having to offer all the best buy services, yes. But you dont understand how many people benefit from these. I felt the same way before I started working there. If you dont wan't them, then dont get it. Simple as that. Many people who this may be there first computer ever do like these services though. Heck, even people who know computers like the services and warranties just because it makes it easier on them if we do it for them.
I don't want to sound like I'm whining, just voicing my opinion to other techies who might feel my pain too.
chuckdrawsAug 6, 2010
I don't know what Best Buy you work at, but anywhere around where I live, no stores have any working iphones or ipod touches or ipads on display.
As for the 'vandalism', I don't see how it harms the device. I'd find it awesome if the display device was jailbroken. Some people could've put other features on the device, further driving someone to want the device.
But I do agree that doing it just for the fun of it is kind of a dick move.Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
jedakiahAug 7, 2010
As a Best Buy employee I strongly encourage this behavior. Jailbreaking our display models allows customers to see all of what the device can be. Granted eventually an employee will catch it and we'll probably reset, but we have to do that all the time anyways cause of passwords and stuff.
However, during that interim you will have made our display model more popular, more useful, and teach more people about jailbreaking's usefulness. This will help us sell more models and make our store more popular.
Of course you will also be helping teach Apple a lesson about too much control and possible (as if) help future models be more open. At the very least you'll teach some consumers about the value of open...
I am very tempted to do this to our display models, even though I'll likely be the one who will have to eventually reset it.
Closed AccountAug 6, 2010
Why are people praising this immature douchebaggery? This is the equivalent to going into computer stores and putting curse words on the windows screensavers, then changing the passwords. It's just being annoying and childish and f**king stupid. Grow the hell up, people.
birdvswormAug 6, 2010
what are these "computer stores" you speak of? they sound newfangled and interesting.
balthisarAug 6, 2010
Heh, when I was a douchebag little kid, the Commodore 64's at K-Mart would always get this (or similar) treatment:
10 PRINT "KMART SUCKS! ";
20 GOTO 10
gfoderaAug 6, 2010
get over it. it hurts no one except for you and your aching ****.
Closed AccountAug 6, 2010
Hurts no one except the people who have to fix it, and the people who have to pay to fix it, and the people who have to pay for the products sold by the people who have to pay to fix it and so on.
But yeah it's my aching **** because I don't act like a d**kh**d twelve year old.
gfoderaAug 6, 2010
It IS your aching ****, because it stops at the clerk resetting it when he finds it jailbroken. no damage, no product cost increase. no huge melodrama like you are writing out. it's over. you're writing a tear filled diatribe and acting like a rape victim. maybe you can start a therapy group called "Victims of Jailbroken Display Products" Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
philbertAug 6, 2010
It's a prank, it takes maybe all of a minute at the most to undo.
skillelAug 7, 2010
This account has been closed by the user
Closed AccountAug 6, 2010
f**king nerds. Get a life.
travelsonicAug 6, 2010
You're on digg..... ironic?
arekkusuAug 6, 2010
They're not sticking it to the man they're sticking it to the store clerks. Dumb.
gfoderaAug 6, 2010
how are they sticking it to the clerks? what happens to them?
Closed AccountAug 6, 2010
HACK THE PLANET!
ngmcs8203Aug 6, 2010
Just watched Hackers the other day on HBO or something for the first time since it came out. Love the movie, but man is it cheeeeeeeeese ball.
Closed AccountAug 6, 2010
Oh Pharaoh Jobs, let our iPhones go, lest the internet gods bring a plague of jailbraking flashmobs upon thine house.
/new new testament
bbtwebAug 6, 2010
in case you haven't seen the news, go ahead and jailbreak YOUR devices all you want, it's legal. No one is stopping you.
nubnubAug 6, 2010
Did they just block the domain?
proctorAug 6, 2010
I think they block most websites. Last time I went into Best Buy, I could only get on Best Buy.com and Apple.com
philbertAug 6, 2010
Yes I used to work at Best Buy years ago, you can't surf the real web on the computers, you only get the in store private network. What I used to do was go into the private employee system and find a link to a PDF file somewhere, clicking it would load it into IE where I could get a real address bar and go where ever I wanted, though usually it was just to allmusic.com to help a customer find something. Of course that's only something employees could do.
thekitchensinkxAug 6, 2010
To save people time, the last half of the video is watching progress bars fill. It's not very exciting.
philbertAug 6, 2010
But you get to listen to that sweet song while you watch. /s
heaintheavyAug 6, 2010
Can't believe he found a royalty-free song that good...
ihaterobotsAug 6, 2010
Wait, shouldn't Apple be allowed to use the hardware they own however they want?
jesushimselfAug 6, 2010
Absolutely beautiful and poetic :)
notmanAug 6, 2010
This is only going to 'challenge' more people to jailbreak their floor models.
uber7dudeAug 6, 2010
Coldplay... buried.
joerodAug 6, 2010
would have been cooler if he used a jailbroken iphone 4 with mywi
doublebaconsodaAug 6, 2010
Now that the ipad is jailbroken I do not despise it.
philbertAug 6, 2010
I still don't want apple getting my money. If I got one it would be used.
enantiodromiaAug 7, 2010
wow, way to take a stand!
Closed AccountAug 6, 2010
There's only about a million and a half other ways to do the same thing. Using a public proxy. Going through a translator (english to english). Tunneling through a home connection. Etc, etc... This is only up here because it was done using a Nexus One. I guess that was the obvious burn part.
ronintetsuroAug 6, 2010
This account has been closed by the user
roiperezAug 6, 2010
Pathetic. Waste of time.
pat7047Aug 7, 2010
Really? That dude's password is THAT long?
path411Aug 7, 2010
it's a wifi key... If you aren't using atleast 128-bit you are pretty stupid.
schneidz101Aug 7, 2010
i feel bad for watching the whole video for just watching a dialog box move across the screen.
and i honestly cant tell the difference of what he installed. looks exactly the same from when he turned it on before.
the article mentioned that he got into a dispute with the bb employee; where is that in the video. i want my 3 minutes back.
binaryechoAug 7, 2010
So you didn't see the Cydia icon? What did you think was gonna happen?
schneidz101Aug 7, 2010
all that work for an extra icon. why would the store employees re-flash them if it only added an icon that nobody (meaning me) didnt notice ?
i was hoping that the unit would show some sort of animation of an apple logo behind bars or something... that would embaress the store.
enantiodromiaAug 7, 2010
this is absolutely the most pathetic "movement" of our time.