Using an Unlocked iPhone? Forget About Push-Enabled Apps
According to Dominik Balogh, the developer of a push-enabled "to do" list application for iPhone called NotifyMe, the Push Notification technology provided by Apple does not appear to be working on any "unlocked" iPhones. Unlocked phones are those that have been modified to work on unsupported carriers. For example, in the U.S., this would mean phones that were hacked to work on T-Mobile's network instead of on AT&T. This is different than "jailbroken" phones, which are phones modified to allow the installation of unapproved third-party applications.
At first, you might dismiss this problem since it only affects a small subset of users, but Balogh brings up an important question: "what should the developers do?" People who have purchased his application are now angry that it doesn't work, yet there's nothing he can do to help them.
The Problem with Push
A few weeks ago, Apple released their updated mobile OS, the iPhone OS 3.0, which included support for Push notifications among many other things. The two available NotifyMe applications were configured to use the new technology in both the free and paid versions. With these applications, users can receive push messages that remind them of items on their to-do list that need their attention.
Almost immediately after the company released the apps to the iTunes App Store, the support requests began rolling in. Balogh quickly realized there was a problem. Around 80% of the requests were from users who had installed NotifyMe on an unlocked phone. The users were complaining that the app either didn't work reliably or didn't work at all. Unfortunately, there was nothing Balogh or his co-developer Pavel Serbajlo could do to fix the situation.
Says Balogh, the problem involves the Push Notification service:
"...Every Push application has to request the unique token from the Apple's APNS servers to identify the device it's running on. Thanks to that token, APNS servers always know which device is yours. The token can be understood as an IP address -- the server has to know where to send the notification and for which application. APNS can also change your token regularly for higher reliability, so it's critical that the application requests the token again on every start (or when enabling the Push feature) to replace the old one if new token is forced by APNS.
On any unlocked iPhone, the application requesting the token is stuck. APNS does not provide any response at all and the application can either cancel the request completely by automatic timeout or let user wait with the progress bar forever. Either way, the user will never receive any Push message, because APNS has not provided the token."
In other words, if you're running an unlocked phone, you can forget about Push.
What Should Developers Do?
It may be easy for iPhone owners who haven't hacked their device to scoff at this issue: "Well, that's what you get for monkeying around with the firmware!" But the matter is not that simple.
Developers will have to determine how they're going to proceed now that they're aware of this limitation. Should they try to support the hacked phones? Should they just place a warning message in their app's description in the iTunes App Store? Should they ignore the problem (like Apple is doing)? Should they refund the money for the purchases?
Even worse, many of the unsatisfied customers are leaving poor, 1-star reviews when rating the application since they're unhappy it wasn't working for them. That seems incredibly unfair to the developer who has created a perfectly good application that works within the confines put forth by Apple. Yet now, new potential customers - including those content with their unmodified phones - will see these negative reviews and likely choose not to purchase, potentially overlooking great applications that would have worked just fine for them.
Apple's Involvement: Zip, Zero, Nada
Apple has every right to ignore this situation, we suppose, and that's exactly what they're doing. After all, the issue affects only a small community of hackers who have modified their phones. Or does it?
Does Apple have any responsibility to communicate this limitation to the developer community so they're not caught off-guard as Balogh was? After all, it's the developers who have to deal with the fallout - the overwhelming support requests, the unhappy customers, the bad reviews, etc.
At the very least, Apple could configure their APNS (push) servers to return an error message of some sort to let the developers know what caused the connection to fail, suggests Balogh. That way, the developers could at least plan to put a warning message in their app's description to cover themselves against these sorts of complaints.
Does that seem like a fair request? What do you think either Apple or the developer community should do regarding this issue?
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Push does work on iPhone 2G. Add http://cydia.iphoneil.net as a resource in Cydia. Install 'Push Fix' and You are ready to receive push.
This doesn't seem that complicated actually.
Developers of push app's should make it LOUD & CLEAR that unlocked phones are NOT SUPPORTED (adding "due to limitations of Apple's technology," if they feel like it).
The Good Point you make is that this is an issue not only for unlockers, but for developers(!) "Hello, Apple...." If they're ignoring this issue thinking that it's only a problem for unlockers, they're Wrong. In fact, it's in their interest to get the word out on this.
Posted by: matthew.weymar.myopenid.com
|
July 14, 2009 7:17 AM
Is this only when a phone is unlocked and on a different carrier? What if I unlock my iPhone, but still use the my proper native carrier?
I have considered unlocking my phone to allow for easier travel through Europe
Posted by: darylfritz.com
|
July 14, 2009 7:19 AM
I have a jailbroken phone but am on AT&T's network...it works fine for me. I don't think I have had any problems with push.
Of course...I'm not unlocked...and I have seen the push fix in Cydia...I skipped it since it didn't seem like something I needed.
@Chris: Yep, this issue won't affect you. Jailbreaking is OK, unlocking isn't.
I am very interested. I have everything ready, and would very much appreciate it.
Well people unlock their phones for different reasons but i guess apple needs to do something about it. So far they dont seemt o have done anything. But it is there problem if they dont want to fix it... then whatever.
Hey Moron,
The latest update to Mobile Substrate fixes this, stop whining you hacking bastards, you're getting this for free.
AT&T's days of carrier exclusivity for the iPhone are numbered, one way ( Federal anti trust ) or the other ( Apple will not renew contract with the Death Star ).
If you're uncofortable with unlocking your iPhone, or want one but hate AT&T, just sit tight til next year.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29510498/
Well, the real question is: why does an app on the device need to do a round trip through Apple's servers to display a message to the user on the screen and why are users willing to accept this? The rest are all side issues of bad, if not absurd, engineering decisions.
I tried replying to the tweet of this article with a picture proving my using push notifications on an unlocked iPhone 3GS on Tmobile USA, without using the Cydia fix. No one seemed to respond, but they're working 100% fine for me, no issues at all.
This is totally wrong. 2 month old information. The devs have already fixed this issue. I'm on tmobile, jailbroken and unlocked WITH PUSH.
I got a new 3GS and in New Zealand iPhones are always 'unlocked' by default.
I use it with the 'official' carrier but yea,.. it is technically unlocked, while not through any kind of software on my end is the end result the same?
Will push not work on my phone because it is natively unlocked?
Lies. This is NOT for ALL Unlocked iPhones, only HACKTIVATED iPhones.
If you have an officially unlocked iPhone ($$$), push works just fine with any carrier.
I don't suppose Sarah Perez knows a whole lot about anything outside of a Best Buy store in regards to technology. Otherwise she wouldn't have submitted such a lame and INACCURATE story. Yes. It's a current problem with hacktivated phones. Yes. The Dev Team is aware of it. Yes. The Dev Team is working on a fix.
Nothing to see here. Just a slow motion train wreck. Go work for Fox, Sarah.
Inaccurate news. Go work for Obama's economic team, Sarah.
I wonder what the fix is. If it's list issue, how did they get around it.
I'm glad she wrote the article, since I didn't know about this problem (Locked with At&t). Even though it doesn't affect me, it's good to know about problems that have cropped up.
I wonder why Apple wouldn't provide support for iPhones on other networks? I mean, to get the phone you either have to deal with At&t (full contract or sign-up & break the contract) or pay more for phone (lock/unlocked). Whether it's on another network shouldn't be an issue since it's been paid for one way or another. This is obnoxiously anti-competitive in my opinion.
another stupid article. Stop writing about things you don't understand
When will a tech blog get this right. There are several ways to make push notifications work on unlocked (no just jailbroken iphones)
I guess you get more clicks by stating LIES
Why are people with unlocked phones expecting things from the APP STORE to work anyway, when visual voicemail doesn't work ?
Why are people with unlocked phones expecting things from the APP STORE to work anyway, when visual voicemail doesn't work ?
When will comments handle inadvertent double-clicks properly BTW?
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As stated by several commenters above, less than 1 month after this article was written, there are now MANY ways to activate the push-enabled apps even on unlocked iPhone 3.0 phones... it's simply a matter of knowing where to find the info and work arounds. Hint: it's not on the Apple / iPhone site.
Regards,
Kayla
Unlocked iPhones Guru
www.unlockediphones.net
Ok,
if that's so easy, tell me.
I haven't found any fix that would let push notifications work for developers that work with apple's sandbox push notification server.
Anyone?
J.
The simplest solution: http://softunlock.com
It works and it's free.
yeah i agree! it works and it is free..
my 2 cents, the reason in part that push wont work is bcs the certificate generated has to do with your sim and your phone since you may be using another sim this may not work. now since my contract with att was done i should be allowed like any other phone to unlock it but his is not possible with att or apple.
apple should fix this no questions, if i'm buying something from apple they should make it work and not making me stay with att. as the ceo of google why they resigned from apple.
any other phone after you finish your contract is allow to be unlocked it should be the same with the iphone.
btw why pay to do this just search google for blackra1n, you can do this yourself easy and in 5 minutes.
also for the stupid person that mention visual voicemail, this has nothign to do with push
Unlocking your iphone can be a double edged sword. You may gain a lot of free features but you also lose a ton as well. Including the warranty that protects your iphone. In addition, as an iphone developer it can be especially frustrating to watch your apps downloaded illegally, making you lose revenue! argh!