I recently used the website iphoneimei.info, and I was wondering if there is any way to obtain any or all of the following using Objective-C (with the IMEI and Serial Numbers):
The iPhone's Activation status
First and/or Most Recent activation dates
Expiration date(s) for Support, Repairs, & Service coverage
The iPhone's firmware version
If the SIM card is locked (if the iPhone has one)
I am already aware of the fact that getting the IMEI (and Serial) numbers is not possible, at least on the latest iOS versions and devices, so if there is any way to programmatically obtain the following information, please let me know.
Also, if this is not possible in objective-c, but rather in another language, please let me know. My base goal is to understand how online services (like iphoneimei.info) work, and what enables them to obtain their information (that is, specifically to do with the code).
Related
I'm unable to figure out why there are random codes being shown in various places on this website. It doesn't happen on other websites. It also doesn't seem to happen on Android devices. It doesn't happen when connected to WiFi. On one iPhone with iOS8 it doesn't have it, but on another it does. On another iPhone with IOS7, it has it. I can't make any sense out of the codes. Any ideas?
See image here: http://i.stack.imgur.com/IdblN.png
http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/10/verizon-wireless-injects-identifiers-link-its-users-to-web-requests/
As your comment suggests you might be seeing a tracking ID from your ISP, AT&T in this case.
Verizon uses the UIDH field which identifies someone to Ad services. It is essentially double-dipping, when the customer is also the product. Not to mention some website receives this header, combines user-provided data with the field, then selling this to someone else... Easiest data-collection strategy of their lives.
The function
[[UIDevice currentDevice] uniqueIdentifier]
Is deprecated in iOS 5 and I found the solution in this project using the MAC address: https://github.com/gekitz/UIDevice-with-UniqueIdentifier-for-iOS-5
Ok, it is solved. But now I discovery that iOS 5 CHANGED the format of code that uniqueIdentifier return.
In iOS 4.x it is in this format:
93F38DEB-3C0B-5C09-B746-0DFDFDDB297C
Now the iOS 5, the same function return in this format:
93f38deB3c0b5c09b7460dfdfddb297c
Anyone know if the code changed at all? It is different only is format or the code in really different for the same device?
A MAC Address is a (supposedly) globally unique identifier attached to a network interface, though they can be changed in many ways.
The uniqueidentifier that Apple used to provide access to was attached to the device hardware and not changeable, which made it excellent for tracking a user across apps and sessions. That's also the reason Apple is removing it, if I had to guess. Not having a way to track users across apps and sessions increases a user's privacy on their devices.
I wouldn't be surprised if Apple removes access to the MAC Address eventually for the same reasons, so it might benefit you to examine other options for tracking devices.
[[UIDevice currentDevice] uniqueIdentifier] will still give you the same result as before. The project that you link to is not a 1:1 replacement, it is an alternative that gives you a similar solution using a different implementation, thus the two string are different.
You shouldn't use unique identifier on iOS 5. That's all you need to know.
The unique identifier on iOS was always something redundant and a big security threat. Other operating systems don't have unique identifiers and they can live without them.
You can always generate unique identifiers on your server and send them to your device.
You can always generate them from some unique system property (e.g. MAC), using system functions. On iOS you can create a unique identifier using CFUUIDCreate. This identifier is unique across devices and across time (you'll get a different identifier every time you call it) but you can save them (e.g. into keychain).
The code CHANGED!!!!!
UniqueIdentifier is no more UNIQUE!!!
The first format have 36 hexa lenght
93F38DEB-3C0B-5C09-B746-0DFDFDDB297C
The second have 40 hexa!!!!!
Because this, it changed. I don't know if it append more hexa to identifier, but the bigger size changed al all.
I am researching how to create an app for my work that allows clients to download the app (preferably via the app store) and using some sort of wifi triangulation/fingerprints be able to determine their location for essentially an interactive tour.
Now, my question specifically is what is the best route to take for the iPhone? None of the clients will be expected to have jail broken iPhones.
To my understanding this requires the use of the wifi data which is a private api therefore not meeting the app store requirements. The biggest question I have is how does American Museum of Natural History get away with using the same technology, but still available on the app store?
if you're unfamiliar with American Museum of Natural History interactive tour app, see here:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/amnh-explorer/id381227123?mt=8
Thank you for any clarification you can provide.
I'm one of the developers of the AMNH Explorer app you're referencing.
Explorer uses the Cisco "Mobility Services Engine" (MSE) behind the scenes to determine its location. This is part of their Cisco wifi installation. The network itself listens for devices in the museum and estimates their position via Wifi triangulation. We do a bit of work in the app to "ask" the MSE for our current location.
Doing this work on the network side was (and still is) the only available option for iOS since, as you've found, the wifi scanning functions are considered to be private APIs.
If you'd like to build your own system and mobile app for doing something similar, you might start with the MSE.
Alternatively, we've built the same tech from Explorer into a new platform called Meridian which provides location-based services on both iOS and Android. Definitely get in touch with us via the website if you're interested in building on that.
Update 6/1/2017
Thought I would update this old answer - AMNH is no longer using the Wifi-based system I describe above, as of a few years ago. They now use an installation of a few hundred battery-powered Bluetooth Beacons (also provided by Meridian). The device (iOS or Android) scans for nearby beacons and, based on their known locations and RSSI values, triangulates a position. You can read more about it in this article.
Navizon offers an indoor positioning solution that works for iOS as well as any other platform. You can check it out here:
http://www.navizon.com/product-navizon-indoor-triangulation-system
It works by triangulating the WiFi signals transmitted by the device. Since it doesn't require an app to run on the phone, it bypasses the iOS limitations and can locate any other WiFi device for that matter.
Google recently launched an API called Maps Geolocation API. You can use it for indoor tracking of devices, which essentially can be used to achieve something similar to what AMNH's app does.
I would do this using Augmented Reality. There is a system sort of in place for this, the idea being that you place physical markers that have virtual information associated with them. I believe the system I saw was a type of bar code. When a user holds up the phone with the app, the app uses the camera to read the code and then display information. This could easily be used to make a virtual tour type app distributable through the app store and not even require a WIFI or 3/4G connection. This assumes that you simply load your information and store it locally with your app. Then to update it you simply push an update through the app store. Another solution is to use a SOAP/REST service and provide the information in that way, and this does not use private API's, though it does require some form of internet connection. For this you can see a question I asked about this topic a little bit ago:
SOAP/XML Tutorials Question
In addition, you could load a map of your tour location, and based on what code is scanned you can locate the user on the map and give suggested routes based on interests etc.
I found this tutorial recently on augmented reality, I haven't gone through it, but if its anything like the rest of Ray's tutorials, it will be extremely helpful.
http://www.raywenderlich.com/3997/introduction-to-augmented-reality-on-the-iphone
I'll stick around to clarify any questions or other concerns you may have with your app.
To augment the original answer for devs who were using Cisco MSE for indoor location - now they have an iOS and Android SDK which enables you to do indoor location using the MSE. A simulator can be used as well to develop the app without implementing the infrastructure to start with : https://developer.cisco.com/site/cmx-mobility-services/downloads/
For indoor location you can use Bluetooth LE beacons since it's a very accessible technology nowadays, there are several methods:
Trilateration: it uses 3 beacons, but with the noise and attenuation of Bluetooth signals, it gets quite difficult to determine the exact position and also it's not easy to use more than 3 beacons to increase accuracy.
Levenberg Marquadt method: used to solve non-linear squares problems showed good results on indoor positioning.
Dead Reckoning method: using the motion co-processor of the device, giving an initial position you can calculate the moving path of the device. Not that easy to implement anyway.
I wrote a post on the topic, you can find more info here: http://bits.citrusbyte.com/indoor-positioning-with-beacons/
And you can use this iOS app for your own indoor positioning experiments: https://github.com/citrusbyte/beacons-positioning
I doubt the American Museum is actually using private APIS; you'll probably find the routers that have been setup serve different responses to each other, so the app can detect it's position in the museum.
If you are looking for a cheaper to way to do the same task, you could have signs with QR codes, and use an open source library to let users scan these barcodes as they move through the museum, and update the onscreen content accordingly. On an even more low tech level, you can just tag each area with unique numbers, and distinguish that way.
Is this even possible?
If not I'm really surprised this hasn't been open thru the API yet.
Apple doesn't allow the use of low level network/wifi/cellular api's. Interestinlgy during a previous period, there were apps in the app store that made use of private apis (a few WIFI-Scanners for example). They've all been banded from the appStore by now, as far as I know at least.
Also the newly available (since iOS 4) core telephony framework doesn't offer any methods or properties to serve you the information you're looking for.
So unless you're building a non-app-store-app I don't see a legitimate solution to your problem.
*sam
Several apps in the app store use OS 3 and get signal strength.
Apple fully approves them.
As par my app requirement, there is a couple of scenarios that I need to handle.
Scenario 1: To avoid piracy, I want to include some piece of code, whose job is sending both IMEI and Serial number of IPhone.
Scenario 2: At server side, I've a database, which has a list of both IMEI and Serial No info. Here I wanna validate both IMEI and Serial numbers. If both are not matched then I can make sure that the app is pirated.
Idea seems good. But I don't know how to handle these two scenarios in my app.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
This isn't something you can do with the iPhone SDK. The iPhone's IMEI or the serial number are not accessible via any API. Also an iPod Touch doesn't even have an IMEI.
Your idea is flawed too. How would you have gotten the IMEI and serial number into your servers database prior to app sending you the details? You can't get these details during purchase because its handled by the App Store and you can't get at that.
If the app was pirated, it would send you the IMEI and serial number anyway, so you can't rely on the app sending them the first time it's run because that would offer absolutely no protection against piracy at all.
The only option you have is to rely on Apple's fairplay DRM. Even though it has been cracked, and there are pirates, it's something you just need to deal with...