It's official: iPhone 1.1.2
We get some hands-on time with version 1.1.2 of the Apple iPhone firmware, courtesy of our UK iPhone. — In the UK, November 9th is D-day for everything iPhone. One detail about this date strikes the fear of god into iPhone hackers, however …
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple's iPhone firmware cadence has been running hot all autumn: August brought the 1.0.2 update, and by late September reports of 1.1.1-to-1.0.2 downgrades showed owners actively rolling back to keep modified phones alive. Version 1.1.2 is now in reviewers' hands via UK-sold handsets, four days before the November 9th UK launch.
The timing is what spooks the hacking community, as T3 notes: every launch-date firmware drop threatens to wipe out jailbreaks and unlock methods overnight, and the same-day Engadget pickup framing 1.1.2 as a jailbreak-breaker signals this update lands squarely on that fault line.
First-order effects
- UK buyers picking up iPhones on November 9th get hardware shipping with 1.1.2, while existing owners who accept the iTunes update lose their current jailbreaks and unlocks.
Second-order effects
- Grey-market unlocked US iPhones — sold against Apple's intent — become fragile assets, since any forced firmware push can relock them to AT&T and strand owners who paid for an open device.
Third-order effects
- If Apple keeps pairing firmware releases with hardware launches, firmware becomes the control point in the iPhone ecosystem — the lever that decides whether carrier locks and unauthorized software survive, independent of what the hardware allows.
The trend: Smartphone firmware updates are turning into the recurring battleground between platform-holder control and user modification, with each release resetting the hacking community's progress.