WSJ Profiles the Chronic Dev Team

The WSJ has published an article on AriX, Chronic, Geohot and the Chronic Dev Team.

The article focuses on Ari, the 15 year old hacker who originally wrote iJailbreak. It tells the story of how he became interested in hacking the iPhone and how he joined up with Chronic and others to form the Chronic Dev Team.

Earlier this year, Ari and his team tried to hack more efficiently by working with another group -- iPhone Dev Team, an invitation-only bunch in their 20s and 30s who have typically been the first to roll out iPhone hacks.

Members of the iPhone Dev Team worried about working in a large group. In part, they were concerned that if information leaked out about the security holes they were probing, others could exploit them first. Or, Apple could plug the holes. In March, the two groups stopped communicating.

The article also notes that GeoHot has been helping the Chronic Dev Team and that they have released the purplera1n jailbreak in spite of the iPhone Dev-Team's desire to wait for firmware 3.1.

Mr. Hotz, who took a paid internship with Google Inc. in April, joined the hackers in early June. In emails, he says he has done the project on his own time and was happy to help "a bunch of cool guys with a good attitude."

More than a week ago, both Chronic Dev and iPhone Dev said they figured out how to jailbreak Apple's new phone. The iPhone Dev Team wanted to wait to release its software so Apple can't plug the security hole in the device immediately.

But Chronic Dev and Mr. Hotz released theirs as soon as it was ready. "A lot of people bought their phones expecting to jailbreak their phones, and now that we have the capability to do it, we should let them," Ari says. "A lot of people have thanked us."

Much more in the article linked below...

Read More [via TheiPhoneBlog]