Not even 2 weeks and Apple’s new iPhone has been already hacked. An international team of programmers announced on Saturday that the device had been “pwned” — hacker jargon for “controlled” or “compromised.”
This organized group, which calls itself the “iPhone-dev team,” played an important role in the worldwide dissemination of the original iPhone, releasing a series of tools that allowed the device to run third-party software and to work in countries where Apple had not yet struck deals with local carriers. By February 2008, estimates of the number of unlocked iPhones in circulation around the world ranged from 800,000 to 1.5 million.
The value of the latest hack, dubbed Pwnage 2.0 and available for free download here, is not so clear.
For one thing, although it “jailbreaks” the new iPhone — meaning it allows it to use programs not authorized by Apple, it does not yet “unlock” it to run on unauthorized cellular networks.
Just shows no one has the monopoly of technology know-how. :-) What a disaster.
Just going to point out that apple gets to sell all those “hacked” iphones. I don’t see any real harm here. If anything apple sells more phones this way….
Actually, “pwned” is NOT “hacker jargon”, it’s actually a corruption of “owned”, and it started with “gamers”. It means the same as owned, just in “l33t speak”.
if you don’t know basic terms about tech, hacking and games, DON’T write for a tech news site.
Carl,
You skipped the point I guess. Owned=Controlled as well. It is considered a hacker related term. I am sure you have gone through life without any mistakes :)
*Frank J smacks a bitch*
A hacker related term… Better described as an internet related term. It and other words and leetspeek cannot be cleanly placed in any category. The explanation is trite and out of place in an otherwise well written article. Clean and concise seemed to be the style of the article, and without that explanation, it carries through quite well.
Anon,
Thank you for getting it!
Don’t get too peeved about the article’s inaccuracy. They copied their definition of pwned straight from wiki. pwned is of gamer origins and like everything else on the internet it spread like AIDS. It means power owned. Way to use your thesaurus Frank, but this is the internet and we don’t give a shit.
I hope this teaches apple to branch out a little more and quit being so exclusive.
That sucks that iphones have to get hacked to run certain programs…
that’s why microsoft is better, because of all the affiliations with other companies.
apple answers to apple.
Anonymous – It would be nice to have a name to your comment, but you can’t have everything.
Don’t be hung up on definition.
pwned is from gaming. Like MANY other words. The P on the keyboard is next to the O and frequently gets fat fingered when typing owned. This is how pwned came to be. Dipshits. It doesn’t me “power owned”. It simply means WTF PWNED you asshat.
Who gives a rats ass about iphones anyway? they suck ballz
Gavin – Bingo!
As a hacker who pwns iPhones, I’m getting a kick out of these replies.
OMG LMFAO @ Power owned . What a douche . He just outright tried to make up a definition and get away with it .
I agree with gavin 100000% If you buy one of these sh!t phones you deserve to have it bricked.
There is at least 5 better phones out one with 12x the processor speed and its 16 gig stock with card reader. And 2x better camera for 1/2 the price and it can use almost any program out .
Fucking consumers. Grow some brains.
BTW these are the same people that “Can’t own a dvd/cd without the case”
I cant stand these people . WTF cares about the case . You totaly miss the point of the art(s)
Godless – 10-4 and I am amazed this post has so many people going to the extreme, but it’s all good.
To possibly beat a dead horse, I have another speculation for the origins of “Pwned”.
From what I understand it is indeed a misspelling of “Owned” though not stemming from the early speculation. (Or fact depending on who you ask.) It was found in an RPG from several years back. There was a typo in the game that said “pwn” in a sentence instead of “own”. according to what I know this turned out to be a hit with the gamer crowd who began using it. Over the years the original meaning of the word has changed quite a bit.
I had at one time known the actual game that this stemmed from, but I’ve forgotten. I’m sure it is out there on the net somewhere though.
As for the actual article, I find it mildly humorous, but I would agree that it isn’t really hurting Apple, except possibly their business model.
Who honestly gives a shit about this neanderthal drivel that “hackers” talk. Most of them are just lemmings anyway and wouldn’t know what a hack is if one sat on their head.
Apple must hate this. Yeah, they might still sell the phone, but one of the selling points to telcos is that users are tied to them – this just blows that out of the water.
But as all telcos are f**king thieves anyway, all I can say is GREAT WORK!
BIG L – O – L
HARHARHAHRAH
MY OPINION IS BETTER THAN YOURS WOOAAARRGGFGHHHH:@@:@::@:@
In all actuality, PWN is actually a verb, derived from an unknown origin, either Latin, or anglo saxon..meaning, to own, or. take posession of….AH fuck it, it means you just got yo ass whooped!!! HOW DOES IT FEEL TO GET PWNED NOOB@!!!! THIS IS MY HOUSE YOU FUCKTARD@@ PWNGE….
thats what it means..make sense now?
what phones are you talking about godless?
hahahaha, your pwnage has AIDS!
ahhhhh the satisfaction of not contributing anything valid to a conversation
and damn it forgot to say…
photoshopped!
But in both the gaming and hacking scenes, “owned” is not used as a term for literal ownership or control, it’s used to describe how somebody was beaten. a synonym would by “destroyed”.
For example, when they first jail broke the first iphone, a lot of people said “apple got pwned”, but obviously apple was not literally taken control of, it was merely beaten.
i realize that this has been covered, but a lot of people have given incorrect meanings, or just gave examples. i feel this is more succinct version /elitist