Interviu cu iH8sn0w

sn0wbreeze 2.1 pentru Windows este in lucru de ceva vreme si iH8sn0w, developerul programului, a dat un scurt interviu unui site canadian in care explica intreg procesul de dezvoltare a unui asemenea program pentru comunitatea iPhone. In interviu el abordeaza si subiecte precum primii sai pasi in comunitatea iPhone, relatia cu Dev Team si Chronic Dev Team, vorbeste despre primele programe facute pentru comunitate sau despre exploit-ul descoperit pentru baseband-ul 05.11.07. iH8sn0w are 15 ani, se numeste Steve, e din Canada si de programele sale depind sute de mii de oameni de pe glob. Daca le-ar face cu mai putine probleme cu siguranta ar avea parte de si mai mult respect in comunitatea iPhone.

Iata si interviul impreuna cu un video preview a unei posibile versiuni a sn0wbreeze pentru iOS 5.

iW: Greetings! Would you mind introducing yourself to our readers?

My name is Steven. Some people call me Steve. I’m known in the community as the handle ‘iH8sn0w’. You’ve probably heard about me in the Jailbreaking community.

iW: Let’s have a quick look into your bio. We, just like our readers, would like to know more about the man behind the nickname.

A: Well… I am currently 15 years old living in Toronto, Ontario (Yeup, Canada). I Had my first computer when I was 2, and built my first application when I was 8. I have had a history in other scenes but not under this Nick. I was formerly involved in MapleStory hacking. But, since Nexon kept making things harder and harder, I moved on.

iW: Speaking of your nickname – how or why was it selected?

A: Hmm… Simple. 1) I’m Canadian (therefore dislike snow). 2) the ‘i’ in the beginning of my nick is there due to an ‘i’ in almost every apple product. 3) I added the sn0w from the original idea yellowsn0w/ultrasn0w. Put it all together. You’ll get iH8sn0w.

iW: How did you end up becoming an iPhone hacker? Or well, rather, how did you become involved in iPhone hacking scene?

Well, originally, everybody called me fake in the community. and I can see why with all of the fakes these days. I started development on ‘iREB’ back in August of 2009 which was very very poorly coded. Nothing big, I maybe had about 200 followers. Nothing big. When I announced one day that I was searching through the 3G/3GS baseband for a crash people didn’t care. The only time they started to care is when I announced I found a useful crash in the baseband. Drama started to happen right about here. MuscleNerd was calling me out daring to send him the command. However, while this was going on, I kept getting @replies saying” fake!!! Go away!!” and stuff like that. This made me very furious and I posted the baseband command on Twitter. geohot then came into contact with the command and announced that it was not exploitable. However, he then looked again and found a way to exploit it. Thus bringing blacksn0w to 05.11.07/3.1.2 users. When geohot wrote a blog post about it, he credited me + added me to his whitelist for jailbreak devs. Things picked up here.

iW: A lot of folks wonder what it takes to become an iPhone hacker. How easy is it to get into the scene and what sort of knowledge does one require?

A: To be honest. Getting into the scene today is not so easy because its not as easy as the 1.x days. Patches and exploits are harder. I would say that intelligent people would be able to enter the scene no problem, especially with experience from other scenes (e/x comex). But, if you would like to learn as much as possible. All public knowledge of iPhone hacking is posted on TheiPhoneWiki.

iW: Although you collaborate with The iPhone Dev Team and The Chronic Dev Team you choose to release your tools under your own brand, ih8sn0w, instead of officially joining one of these groups of devs. What gives?

A: I don’t think the Dev-Team likes me. MuscleNerd specifically ignores me for no reason. As for the chronic dev-team, They are AWESOME! I talk regularly with the members of the chronic devteam. If I get stuck at times, and I ask if they found a solution to the obstacle, they would tell me. We are friends. 🙂

Joining the teams is not up to me. You need to be invited. I doubt the iPhone-Dev would ever accept me. As for the chronic dev-team, one can dream.

iW: So are you a one-man-army, or are there other people on your team?

A: At this moment, I work by myself. At times, I do ask people in irc or members of the chronic dev-team for assistance.

iW: After Limera1n jailbreak for iOS 4.1 was released by geohot you’ve announced plans to update Sn0wbreeze with his exploit. How is your work on that progressing?

A: Well, work is progressing very good! Adding 5 new devices to sn0wbreeze takes time, and people need to understand that. Also, with the new lockscreen bug announced, Apple will surely push a new firmware to patch it and patch the untetherness of the current jailbreaks. Which is why I urge users to get their blobs, that way, when the time comes, they’ll be ready.

iW: We’ve heard that Sn0wbreeze development has hit some snags since you’re not getting the help you need from the iPhone Dev Team. Is this the reason we’re still waiting for Sn0wbreeze 2.1 while pwnage tool for Mac is already available?

A: Not true. Its just due to the fact of how big this update is, makes the process slow. Especially as a one man army.

iW: We’ve already seen some videos of functioning Sn0wbreeze 2.1 beta posted online. When could we approximately expect to see it released – in a few days or in a few weeks?

A: Well, the video that I saw posted on this blog isn’t going to be sn0wbreeze 2.1. Its far too early in stages to even be used. Maybe when 5.0 hits.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hD4ly5PtOpA[/youtube]

iW: Which devices will Sn0wbreeze 2.1 support?

All of them. Every iOS up to 4.1.

iW: What are the new features we could expect from this new version of Sn0wbreeze (v2.1) that we did not see in previous releases?

5 new devices.

I improved the stability majorlyz

Sandbox patches are properly done. (so chpwn doesn’t have to bother telling me its broken).

Enable HDR

and Install SSH

iW: What about iReb, how soon could we expect an updated version and what could we expect from it?

A: sn0wbreeze 2 has iREB built in, so the standalone app will be in a few days after sn0wbreeze 2.1 is out.

iW: What are your plans for the future: do you plan to simply keep updating your tools or are there any major plans for new hacking tools in store?

A: It depends on what Apple throws us.

iW: After Sn0wbreeze 2.1 the most talked about topic among the iPhone users community these days is the (hopefully) incoming “true”unlock for iOS 4.1 powered devices (such as new iPhone 4 units that ship with this iOS version preloaded). As someone who possesses inside knowledge on this topic, how soon do you think it will arrive -if ever-?

A: I don’t think we’ll see an unlock for 4.1. Maybe 4.2, but that all depends if a new useful baseband crash is found.

iW: You’re doing an invaluable service for the entire iPhone community. Is there any way we could return the favor?

A: Users always have the option to donate via PayPal on http://iH8sn0w.com

But it is not required. 🙂

iW: Any last words for our readers?

A: No matter how many times the “big boys” try to bring you down, keep fighting.

iW: Thank you for answering our questions and we’re looking forward to hearing more good news from you and about your hacking tools for iDevices. And we definitely cannot wait to get our hands on Sn0wbreeze 2.1.

iW: P.S. ih8sn0w’s website is located at http://www.ih8sn0w.com while his Twitter account is located at twitter.com/ih8sn0w – make sure you check them out!