But even locked back then just meant, "locked for the typical user." We're getting to the point where like cars before us, we aren't working on Chevy small blocks anymore.
And now "locked" means something else? There is no absolutely locked hardware that I know. If Apple can update OS on their phones it's not by some magical power that nobody else can possible posses.
> If Apple can update OS on their phones it's not by some magical power that nobody else can possible posses.
Yeah, it's only signed by cryptographic keys that nobody else is likely to ever possess.
You "only" need to put in a new Boot ROM with your own key ("When an iOS device is turned on, its application processor immediately executes code from read-only memory known as the Boot ROM. [...] The Boot ROM code contains the Apple Root CA public key, which is used to verify that the Low-Level Bootloader (LLB) is signed by Apple before allowing it to load." https://www.apple.com/business/docs/iOS_Security_Guide.pdf) AFAICT this ROM is probably deeply integrated into the CPU, so hopefully you have some really precise tools and/or plan to make your own replacement CPU as well.
Yup. Companies are pushing unlocking the devices into seriously illegal territory. Yes, in principle you can unlock anything - you can always kidnap the CEO and beat him with $4 crowbar until he gives you the key. In practice we would like to be able to do it without harming people.
I am not an Apple user but I cannot help but notice some kind of "jailbreak" business going on there. Could it, perhaps, involve breaching iPhone security in some way that could lead to loading arbitrary code with system privileged and even modyfing the OS itself? It sure looks this way from a cursory googling. It appears Apple had been and still is susceptible to various attacks. As is every other company.
It's never going to be impossible to access these devices (and I suspect Apple deliberately doesn't make it too hard). But every year it gets more expensive, riskier, and requires more specialised knowledge. Modern BluRay keys are already out of reach for a casual home user (speaking as someone who tried to play my own BluRays on Linux). Soon we'll be at the point where you need a cleanroom and an electron microscope to bypass protection.
But you still can't use the Cast button from your phone to launch on those devices. My Xbox One shows me the option for YouTube videos, but nothing else. There isn't a one-stop option right now.
Wasn't that because Apple wants 30% off all sales? Microsoft had a similar clash with Apple over Office for iOS. The apps were free, but if you wanted to buy a license to use them, you would have to purchase that license directly from Microsoft because Apple wanted a slice of the upsell. This would have added a 30% tax on top of the universal service fee Microsoft was selling, even if it was just a link to the website from within the apps. I don't know how that was finally resolved, but this is just how Apple conducts business.
Are you familiar with Primecast? A third party reversed how Amazon authenticated its movies and for a day, you could actually cast the movies that your Prime subscription allowed, including rentals. It was no different than if you authenticated on the website. Amazon quickly scrambled to shut that app down and still hasn't answered with their own method for Chromecast. It isn't even a technical issue, it is a control issue.
Now I don't know the licensing terms they have with the content providers, but they certainly aren't fulfilling the consumer demand.
No, I wasn't familiar with that. Still, the present issue seems one step worse than that.
Digital music sold used to have DRM, because it just couldn't be avoided since the licensing terms of the content required it. The Primecast seems likely to be the same.
It's more like them saying, "Sorry, user, we can't let you do that."
Where as this (and what Apple does) is more like, "What's that user? You want <competing thing>? Well, fuck off!"
Thinking on it though, massively slowing down deliveries of books from publishers Amazon doesn't like was actually the first time I've seen Amazon do something like this. So this actually isn't the first time; now its a pattern.
Side rant: Amazon Prime's media crap is also especially annoying to me personally, since I spend most of the year outside of the US, where it doesn't work at all. (Go Netflix!))
I'm pretty sure Windows 7 compatibility mode just makes it so that when a program asks "What version of Windows am I running on?" the system will lie and say "Windows 7." The rest of the compatibility comes from shims written to patch popular and broken applications that incorrectly used Windows APIs in incorrect ways or expected different results from specific calls. Patching broken DRM is beyond what the backwards compatibility can do. SecureROM for instance had a low-level DLL in system32 and games that were "secured" with that DRM used it to take advantage of the system. I read this as that Microsoft isn't providing a way to install that DLL anymore and it would potentially open up an attack vector if they allowed it.
But the replacement part and send out the field service technician. Deere wants to own the service contract.
As another example, I had a check engine light on my car. It was ~$500 to check the code fault and replace a sensor. If I had my own access to those codes, I could have done the work myself for a fraction of the cost, but the car manufacturer knows that I'm limited in my options. If I want to renew my car tabs, I'll have to pay them and their service technician to do the work. It's a racket.
That's the reason for the openness of the basic ODB-II protocol. You can buy a sub-$100 code reader that can read all the basic powertrain codes and can reset the MIL.
That and 2 minutes of Googling will point you in the right direction generally.
My cars haven't seen the inside of a dealer's service bay in over 10 years, other than for warranty or recall work.
But OBD-II only has to (by law) provide certain information to the reader, mostly to do with emissions control.
If you own a BMW, for example, the detailed diagnostic information for the rest of the car is sitting on their MODBUS, which is only readable with a very expensive tool and software sold only to BMW dealers.
Yes, but those systems are not involved in the grandparent post's problem of a MIL ("check engine light") preventing the car from passing inspection.
Whether or not you can service the rest of the car in a DIY or third-party fashion is a commercial concern, not a regulatory concern. I think BMW makes fine cars, but their anti-DIY stance is why I won't own one. (Porsche, Mercedes, and the VW group are more DIY friendly, though still not totally.)
I think you mean CANBus. You can purchase very inexpensive CAN transceivers, but you're on your own figuring out the messages. MODBUS is an industrial automation relic (but like all things in ind. automation, still very popular), and not limited to a particular physical layer.
