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Infiltrating the iPhone

Despite Apple's attempts to thwart hackers, Denver woman is known as 'undercover leader'

Jeff Smith, Rocky Mountain News

Published October 8, 2007 at midnight

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Just before he went off to college, 17-year-old George Hotz, of New Jersey, successfully unlocked Apple's iPhone so it could be used on wireless networks other than exclusive provider AT&T.

But it's Denverite Erica Sadun - mother of three, software writer and gadget blogger - who could be the iPhone hacker extraordinaire.

Sadun, 43, who has a doctorate in computer science, has created more than a dozen free iPhone applications - including a voice recorder, programs to attach songs and photos to e-mails, and a game to catch butterflies with a net.

She has written or co-written 30 books on subjects ranging from digital photography to the soon-to-be-released Taking your -iPhone to the Max.

She writes for the unofficial Apple Weblog sponsored by AOL at tuaw.com. She calls it a "part-time thing," but in a recent 30-day period she posted 75 blogs.

In the geek world, Sadun is famous. And prolific.

Jesus Diaz, a blogger on the gadget Web site Gizmodo, hasn't met Sadun but referred to her recently as "Develop Goddess."

"There are not many women doing this kind of thing," Diaz explained by e-mail. "I think people respect her even more for that."

Her book editor, Jeff Pepper of Berkeley, Calif.-based Apress, also hasn't met Sadun. But he was impressed with her when he noticed her postings about two years ago on the O'Reilly Digital Media Blog.

"It was clear she was really funny and doing interesting hacks," Pepper said.

He describes Sadun as "really into" gadgets, "tearing into them and finding the fun."

The biography for her new book, as promoted on Amazon.com, describes her as an "unrepentant geek" who "has never met a gadget she didn't need."

A fellow blogger on tuaw.com recently referred to Sadun as "our own iPhone-hacking Rebel Alliance undercover leader."

"I love seeing what comes new onto the scene," Sadun said. "I love being able to do cool things."

Sadun and other hackers are in the middle of a storm: Apple just released its latest iPhone software update, rendering many unauthorized applications, including Sadun's, at least temporarily useless.

Apple, headed by Steve Jobs, has warned against unauthorized access to its property, with the company maintaining it wants to keep control to make sure the phones aren't damaged by software modifications.

"I'm a little disappointed," Sadun said in a telephone interview from her home last week. "But to take the actions of a major corporation personally is pointless."

Sadun is a hacker - but in the sense that computer geeks think of themselves: cleverly creating new applications using available tools. The mission: to enable everyone to use the -iPhone, not just AT&T customers.

"I think it's a wonderful device," Sadun said, noting its touch-sensitive screen. "It's completely redefined the way someone interacts with a portable device."

Experts say unlocking the -iPhone so it can place calls with a different carrier appears to be legal. But the issues are murkier if solutions are sold for financial gain.

Diaz of Gizmodo noted teenager Hotz took advantage of tools and methods developed by others to create a hardware hack that's "complicated to do for every mortal," partly because of rewiring involved.

But a group of hard-core hackers known as the iPhone Dev Team created a much simpler software solution for unlocking the iPhone. Sadun was part of a separate team that helped put together the graphical elements that interact with the user, including buttons, text and pictures.

As of last week, the Dev Team was working on a free unlock to counter Apple's latest iPhone software update.

It's well-documented that Apple tries to ignore hackers, and such is the case with Sadun. She said she wanted to include two company illustrations in her -iPhone book but needed Apple's permission. She said Apple didn't respond, even when she made her request through the normal PR channels. "It looks like we'll have to redraw the illustrations."

Pepper confirmed Apple didn't respond to that particular request but said the company sometimes has answered previous requests.

Apple didn't respond to an e-mail for this story.

Sadun's relationship with Apple goes back to the mid-1980s when she was a graduate student in computer science/digital imaging at the University of Pennsylvania. The Mac computer had just been introduced, and the University of Pennsylvania had a deal with Apple. "I got to play with it," she recalled.

Sadun went on to get her Ph.D. in computer science at Georgia Tech University and moved to Colorado with her husband, Alberto, who is a physics professor at the University of Colorado at Denver.

She has written how-to books on digital photography, iMovies, Photoshop and WebTV, among other topics. She previously worked with editor Pepper, who then was at O'Reilly, on an electronic book on Microsoft's Zune media player.

When the iPhone came out, Pepper, now assistant publisher for Apress, said he knew Sadun was just the person to go beyond the traditional user book, "break into this thing and give people the fun stuff."

"I gave her an impossible schedule to hit and she hit it," Pepper said. "She will take an idea and run with it, and give you back twice as much as you ask for in terms of another idea."

Sadun, who declined to have her photograph taken for this story, said her job is "not as exciting as it sounds." She said she spends much of her time communicating and collaborating with others over the Internet, "virtual electrons dancing on the screen."

The user name or nickname she goes by: Erica Sandun. "Erica Sadun is extremely boring," she maintained.

The biography blurb on Amazon.com describes her this way: "When not writing, she and her geek husband parent three adorable geeks-in-training, who regard their parents with restrained bemusement."

In training, indeed.

Sadun recently blogged that her 7-year-old daughter "figured out that if you set the iPhone to never sleep and put it into camera mode, you can script it . . . to take time-lapse series of images."

Maybe the next-generation Develop Goddess is in the making.

Sadun's creations

Erica Sadun has created a dozen applications for the iPhone, although most are temporarily useless because of Apple's latest software update to thwart unauthorized developers. Sadun's applications can be found on or at .

Best known for Snap2Album

• Captures what's on the iPhone screen and puts the image into the iPhone media folder. You can use the images as wallpaper, e-mail them, send them to a Web gallery or copy them to your computer.

• Butterfly: Catch the butterflies with a net by tilting the iPhone in different directions.

• Light: Displays an all-white page, turning "an expensive phone into an expensive flashlight," Sadun said

• Pirate: Turns whoever is in front of your iPhone camera into a pirate. It opens your e-mail with the picture attached to send to friends.

• SendFile: Enables a user to attach any file to e-mail

• SendPics: Keeps photos taken by the iPhone in full resolution for sending to friends. Normally, the iPhone photos application would scale down the pictures.

• SendSong: Enables a user to attach a song to an e-mail

• Sensors: Displays what the iPhone accelerometer is sensing. Useful for developing games and applications. The accelerometer detects when someone rotates the iPhone.

• Voice Notes: Enables users to record voice messages, play them back and send them by e-mail

• XLauncher: Application launcher and organizer

Sadun's latest book

Erica Sadun's newest book, Taking Your iPhone to the Max, published by Apress and due out Dec. 17, features a guide to iPhone basics as well as undocumented tricks, e-mail, voice mail, surfing the Web, using iTunes, games and iBooks, connecting to the TV, ripping DVDs and hacking OS X to run apps.

or 303-954-5155

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