Dirty trick - Page/Numbers unusable

pianoman · Apr 4, 2012

I just found out today - that if you're an owner of Apple's pro apps called PAGES or NUMBERS - that if you're jailbroken on 5.0.1 - it won't allow you to open your douments until you update to 5.1. Dirty rotten trick. I shouldn't be surprised. But it's a pain. I lean pretty heavily on those two apps. It says - can't open document until you've downloaded a newer version of the software -and of course at AppStore it says the newer versions only works with 5.1 or later.

Aaaargh...

Jmills87 · Apr 4, 2012

Not really a dirty rotten trick... many software companies force their users to be on a certain firmware version in order to use their software so that when they are troubleshooting issues they don't have to deal with several revisions of firmware. PS3 and Xbox360 do the same thing in order for you to play online.

pianoman · Apr 4, 2012

Jmills87 said:
Not really a dirty rotten trick... many software companies force their users to be on a certain firmware version in order to use their software so that when they are troubleshooting issues they don't have to deal with several revisions of firmware. PS3 and Xbox360 do the same thing in order for you to play online.

Lol! Spoken almost like an Apple rep.

That's not the reason here. Pages, worked thru "every rev" of iOS3 an 4 without a forced iOS rev update. And it worked on 5.0.0 and 5.0.1 FLAWLESSLY until the two days ago when Apple decided to "strong arm" the jailbreaK community. They really do NOT like us being JB'en. ;-)

Hungryghost · Apr 4, 2012

I believe if you edit /system>library>core services>system version.plist TEMPORARILY so that product version is 5.1 while you download the new version you might be able to get round this. Be sure to change it back afterwards. Obviously I am not responsible for any problems this may cause. People have used this trick to install iPhoto on 5.01. I think you'd more than likely get away with it.

Jmills87 · Apr 4, 2012

pianoman said:
Lol! Spoken almost like an Apple rep. That's not the reason here. Pages, worked thru "every rev" of iOS3 an 4 without a forced iOS rev update. And it worked on 5.0.0 and 5.0.1 FLAWLESSLY until the two days ago when Apple decided to "strong arm" the jailbreaK community. They really do NOT like us being JB'en. ;-)

This isn't an attack against jailbreakers, as you would encounter the same exact issue on an unjailbroken phone running an older firmware. If they wanted to block jailbreakers from installing the software, they could easily do that.

thewitt · Apr 4, 2012

Apple is not the only one who is now requiring the device be running the latest iOS software in order to run their apps.

pianoman · Apr 4, 2012

Thanks for your input, guys. Good input all. You're right, JMills, non-Jbers will also be experiencing this issue so the issue comes down to "the intent" of Apple. There were no new features released in Pages. So what's the impetus for the change?

Non Jbers happily upgrade iOS versions. Who do they want to PUSH (strong arm) to upgrade? JBers only.

I like the idea of faking the iOS tag in iFile. I'm too afraid of losing my JB so I probably won't do it. But thanks.

thewitt · Apr 4, 2012

Pages 1.6 fixed several performance issues with large files, supported the retina display, and removed some deprecated system calls - so will only run with 5.1 now.

If you fool it to run with 5.0.1 you may see issues.

Hungryghost · Apr 5, 2012

yes, if the app has been modified a lot for the update to 5.1 it might not be a good idea to install it on 5.0.1. More than likely the worst that would happen is the app would crash but you never know. Changing the version .plist is a fairly unsophisticated workaround and once you've installed the app you've got an app that 'thinks' its living in 5.1 and it might make a mess. It depends how much and what has been changed between the versions.

lbreganze · Apr 5, 2012

It means the JBers are no more? and it also and indication that the life of such apps which are not registered with Apple is no more in near future?

pianoman · Apr 5, 2012

Hungryghost said:
yes, if the app has been modified a lot for the update to 5.1 it might not be a good idea to install it on 5.0.1. More than likely the worst that would happen is the app would crash but you never know. Changing the version .plist is a fairly unsophisticated workaround and once you've installed the app you've got an app that 'thinks' its living in 5.1 and it might make a mess. It depends how much and what has been changed between the versions.

Thanks, HungryGhost! It worked!! Pages 1.6 seems to be running stably for me so far in 5.0.1 after your little workaround. That's what I love about this place - so many knowledgable people!

- even with naughty little workarounds.. Lol!!

Hungryghost · Apr 6, 2012

Cool... I suspected it might work. As I say im by no means an expert. But it seems to me that iPhone apps, unlike Cydia apps, are self contained units, and can only read and write to your phone in certain strictly defined ways. It all takes place within the /var>mobile directory...so it seems unlikely it could cause any serious problems with your phone. I suppose it's possible it could interfere with another app but I think the most likely problem is just the app crashes.
Obviously if anyone more knowledgable can contribute more information about potential risks that would be useful.