ZiPhone. Most jailbreakers know this word, and the service that ZiPhone provides, yet not most people know about Zibri. So I decided to contact him, and interview him, and ask him some questions about the future of ZiPhone and more importantly about ZiTouch.

But as I interviewed Zibri, another user on the IRC channel private messages me, and asks me to get both sides of the story. Because hidden deep inside the jailbreaking world, there is a conflict. Who is right and who is wrong is up to you to decide…

(If you want to read the first part you’re good, if you read the second part, I recommend reading through the rest)

To view the interviews click on “Continue Reading”.

—[Zibri]—

Shade:How old are you?

Zibri:37

Shade:What is are some/any of your past accomplishments?

Zibri:Well I modified almost everything I have ever bought..
Search google for “zibri firmware” or “zibri tomtom”

Shade:Where do you live?

Zibri:Rome, Italy.

Shade:What type of computer do you use?

Zibri:A simple pc and a laptop. Intel based.

Shade:What is the current shipping status of your ipod touch?

Zibri:Returned to sender because of an UPS error. It has been resent and should be here in 4 working days.

Shade:How long do you think it will be until ZiPod/ZiTouch comes out?

Zibri:Soon.

Shade:Will it be called ZiPod or ZiTouch or ZiPod Touch, and will it be a part of ZiPhone or a different application?

Zibri:I registered zitouch.org but I think I will just include an option in ziphone.

Shade:Will Zi-stuff be irrelevant after 2.0 is released?

Zibri:For a few days probably.

Shade:Will you try to jailbreak 2.0?

Zibri:If it’s worth upgrading, yes.

Shade:Will you develop apps with the SDK for 2.0?

Zibri:I don’t think so.

Shade:Anything else you would like to tell the world?

Zibri:http://www.icdc.com/~dnice/sunscreen.html

And “Namaste!” of course
—
And this is when another user on the IRC sent me a private message, this is where it all started to get a little bit interesting…

—
[GEEB]

—
Shade:
Who are you?
Geeb:
im geeb
im dev team affiliated but im no coder
i guess im a minion
they are a great bunch of people so i hang around them like a bad smell
Shade:
What is the deal with the Zibri/Dev team fiasco
Geeb:
woah where to start
1 sec
http://pastie.caboo.se/private/apsndsykfjnqtghjcnaw
—
Geeb:
but you are opening a BIG can of worms
so might be better to stay away from it
Shade:
ahh but I just love worms!
can you summarize for me why there is hostility between the two?
Geeb:
well read that
but,
from the dev team side
zibri stole the exploit that became ziphone
and did it for monetary gain
and burned ANOTHER exploit (jerrySim)
Shade:
Was Zibri part of the dev team?
Geeb:
yes
then there was a split
which became the elite team
which Zibri then disbanded allegedly
http://pastebin.ca/914305
—
Geeb: A bit more backstory there
theres a lot of blogs with stuff on, including some hilarious made up ones
Shade:
What is the dev team planning now
Geeb:
well, iPlus is top of the heap made by Aviegas who is now affiliated with us
next in line is iLiberty
by George Zjlotto
geeb:
another famous iPhone guru
THEn theres PWNED
custom firmware
Shade:
Oh the custom firmware
Geeb:
loaded thru iTunes
you make your firmware with a tool being coded as we speak
as it was decided not to distribute a custom ipsw for legal reasons
Shade:
hah

Shade
Didn’t you guys need to match the size actatly?
Geeb:
i dont know the technical details, makes my head hurt
Shade
yeah isn’t it illegal to decrypt the firmware?
and Apple has a … copyright so to speak on the firmware
Geeb:
Im no lawyer, so no comment
Geeb:
but the dev team know what they are doing legally
Shade:
so you cannot so to say go buy a harry potter book and call everyone Bob in it?
Geeb:
heheheh
Shade
So anything else you wish to tell me about anything iphone/ipod releated?
Geeb:
ummm
aCujo is doing a lot of great bootloader work
but most people do their stuff silently then pop up unexpectedly
unfortunately ziphone is taking all the attention
Shade:
ya
Geeb:
but a LOT of time goes in to “eductating” people into its roots
Shade:
what do you mean by educating people?
giving them the same backstory you now have
—

After asking him if I should ask any certian questions to Zibri,

—
Geeb:
Ask why theres been no updates…like to afc2 and 3.9blank
Shade:
what do you mean by afc2 and 3.9 blank?
Geeb:
afc2 is used to connect the iphone to progs like iPhuc to transfer data via the cable
Shade:
oh
Geeb:
3.9blank is more complicated
Shade:
and they havent been updated in Ziphone?
Geeb:
ziphone downgrades the bootloader (BL) to 3.9 from 4.6
but unless its patched, you CANNOT reupgrade to 4.6
Shade:
ouch
never?
Geeb:
which you may or may not need to do in the futuree
Shade:
does that count for ipod touches as well?
Geeb:
you can do it if you open your phone
i have no touch experience sorry
but yes i believe so
3.9blank enables you to upgrade if needed
Shade:
so he currently has afc2 and 3.9blank or no?
Geeb:
no
everyone else does
and its all public and open source
zibri is no coder
but people are potentially causing problems with their phones

—[Zibri]—

Shade::
Why hasn’t ZiPhone been updated to afc2 and 3.9blank?
Zibri:
well i tried to keep the iphone as close as the original as i could.
Zibri:
the 3.9 blank is a BIG risk
for everyone
3.9 is JUST FINE
and can be upgraded by apple easily
and it’s ORIGINAL
Shade:
My sources say that you cannot upgrade 3.9 to 4.6 with your current ziphone
Shade:
without opening the iphone
Zibri:
lol
your sources are DEV TEAM. and they are just ignorant
Zibri:
about afc2
it’s planned on future versions
Shade:
ok
Zibri:
to explain better:
normal bootloaders
don’t have blanked addresses
and can be upgraded by a proper fls/eep pair using bbupdater
Shade:
ok
Zibri:
what DEV TEAM idiots call “blanked address” it’s a stupid trick to simulate the A17 short
so to allow flashing by THEM
but my aim is to be as close as possible to original
Shade:
ah
that explains it a bit more
Zibri:
so now after more that 3 million ziphoned phones, apple has 2 only choices:
1) leave the 3.9 bl
2) upgrade it.
and by the way
don’t get fooled by VERSION numbers
4.6 has LESS features than 3.9
Shade:
really?
Zibri:
they removed them just to be more “safe”
Shade:
what did they remove specifically?
Zibri:
and there are no “user” improvements in bl 4.6.. it’s just a BOOTLOADER after all
they crippled the memory read call
that’s why it was not possible to “nordump” with 4.6 BL
another thing:
i have heard many lies by the so called dev team
one of them is that ziphone kills wifi
that’s completely WRONG
Shade:
Ok
Zibri:
apple quality assurance is a s**t… i have yet to see 2 identical iphones
sometimes the wifi is just “deaf”
under some circumstances
you could have a brick after ziphone. but it’s not ziphone’s fault.
it’s because people upgrades to 1.1.4 then uses ziphone (it’s 1.1.4 that bricks some phones)
and that’s because many people used “dev team” stuff
Shade:
oh
Zibri:
like geomod bootloader of the first hardware unlocks or they just broke the baseband trying a hardware unlock
i have friends (people I met here on irc) that unlock 50 phone/day
not a single incident.
i myself unlocked say.. 10 iphones
not a single problem.
obviously you are free not to believe me.
Shade:
hmm
Zibri:
but again.. read this:
Shade:
i belive you
more info than my “source”
Zibri:
Power Phlogger statistiche:
—————————
http://www.ziphone.org
Numero degli Hits dal 30/01/2008: 2150000
it’s italian
Shade:
snap
Zibri:
but easy to understand
2150000 people from January 30 2008
different people
we hit 1.500.000 downloads with 2.5c
Shade:
What is your view on iPlus ?
Zibri:
and there are many mirrors around
Shade:
and congratulations!
Zibri:
iPlus does NOT exist. dev team took ziphone, modified, and wrote a very FUNNY credit.txt
you know why ?
Shade:
why?
Zibri:
it’s true i have used also other programs
what’s not known is this:
1) the exploit ziphone relies upon (the ramdisk exploit) was found by ME and unfortunately I told that to BGM (a member of dev team)
2) i MYSELF found the offsets for unlocking 1.1.4, changing imei and for patching lockdownd in 1.1.4
–THE LOG FILE–
Zibri:
<Zibri:> by the way
<Zibri:> what if we send the ramdisk BEFORE ?
<Zibri:> i mean
<Zibri:> instead of using iphuc
<Zibri:> we could:
<Zibri:> put the ramdisk in memory
<Zibri:> then reboot
<Zibri:> set nvram args and reboot.
<Zibri:> sounds neat
<Zibri:> so we could just put it there BEFORE and boot directly from that
* asap18 is on IRC
* sunnyDlite has left IRC
<bgm> reboot clears memory
<Zibri:> hmm you told me that there was something surviving
<Zibri:> can’t remember now
<bgm> i thought so. ramdisk doesn’t survive.
<Zibri:> no.. you don’t follow me
<Zibri:> forget ramdisk
<Zibri:> from normal iphone os
<Zibri:> if i reboot,
<Zibri:> does the memory survives?
<bgm> i am not sure anymore
<Zibri:> because if it does,
<Zibri:> we can just
Session Close: Mon Jan 28 00:00:00 2008
<bgm> i thought so. ramdisk doesn’t survive.
—
Zibri:
lol
these are GREAT dev team experts
i was mislead all the time.. they didn’t share anything…
then i understood why
because they didn’t know anything
only 3 people were really working
and one is GRAY
Shade:
who?
who are the three?
Zibri:
the author of the very first unlock (the unlock that was then used using geohot hardware hack)
i said 3 just to say a number
i mean maybe one or two.. let me see
well bgm is good but as you just read..
ohh i forgot the DATE of that log
wait
Session Start: Sun Jan 27 02:53:37 2008
Session Ident: bgm
Session Close: Mon Jan 28 00:00:00 2008
Shade:
ah
and when did ziphone come out?
Zibri:
i had ziphone from a month before release
i was using it myself for speeding up tests
then a friend saw it and said
that’s AMAZING !
you should RELEASE IT
the world will give you a standing ovation
exact words he said
a week after ziphone 1.0 was released
Shade:
anything else you would wish to say to rebut what the dev team has to say?
Zibri:
and now i just can’t believe my blog is translated in 20 languages
“rebut” ?
Shade:
counter
Zibri:
what do they have to say ?
Shade:
i dont know
Zibri:
i am not forcing anyone using ziphone.
Shade:
just pretty much everything you said
Zibri:
i just released it.
Shade:
covers it
Zibri:
and believe it or not I found everything that’s in it today.
in version 1.0 i used some ready made hacks too
but on 1.1.4 i had to change everything.
and I changed the code slightly even in 1.0 to make it SAFE
Shade:
1.1.4 worked very nicely on my premacworld 16 gb
Zibri:
that’s why no iphone has ever been harmed while creating AND using ziphone.
Shade:
ipod touch
took 7 tries
Zibri:
well
on ipods there is a stupid problem
i have inspected the ipod bootloader
and the bug ziphone relies upon is THERE
so it must be something else…
Shade:
does it matter if it is pre or past macworld?
Zibri:
proff of that is the latest video on ziphone.org
no.. i don’t think so
Shade:
ok
Zibri:
i think it’s only a timing problem..
Shade:
ya…
ok well
Zibri:
maybe some FATTER ipods are a little slower in the boot process
Shade:
i have to go
so anything to wrap it all up?
Zibri:
so slowing down ziphone can help
no need
i just have to get an ipod.. do a few tests
and release 2.6
—

As you can see here we have two different stories. Which one is true? I’ll leave you to decide.

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