Apple cuts ties with iPhone hacker, one year later

After a year, Apple Inc. has cut ties with a legendary hacker who managed to outsmart it by repeatedly jailbreaking its products.

 

Nicholas Allegra, a.k.a. Comex, said he was terminated just because he failed to reply to an email offering to continue his employment at Apple, Forbes.com reported.

 

"So ... no point in delaying. As of last week, after about a year, I’m no longer associated with Apple," he said on his Twitter account.

 

"(As for why? Because I forgot to reply to an email.)" he added.

 

Forbes.com's Andy Greenberg said that while Allegra was not too happy about being terminated, he has accepted his fate.

 

"I wasn’t too happy about it, but it didn’t seem like I was able to fix it. So that’s what it is," he said.

 

He also said his cut ties with Apple was more complicated though it "wasn’t a bad ending.”

 

Forbes.com said Allegra had two internships at Apple, one in the fall of 2011 and one over the past summer.

 

For now, he told Forbes.com he will concentrate on his studies at Brown. He added he does not see himself working on new jailbreaking tools for iOS any time soon.

 

Besides, he said his employment contract with Apple may affect future attempts to reverse-engineer Apple's devices.

 

“I don’t know whether or not it’s against the terms, but it probably is,” he said.

 

Jailbreaker

 

Allegra gained fame —or notoriety— with his tools to jailbreak iPhone and iPad devices.

 

Jailbreaking modifies the software to allow the device to download and install apps from sources other than Apple's App Store.

 

While the process allows more flexibility for the user, it can also put the user at risk since the device could be vulnerable to malware.

 

But Allegra accepted Apple’s employment offer last summer, with Forbes.com saying he did so because he was on leave from Brown, and because he was “bored” of jailbreaking.

 

Other targets?

 

On the other hand, Forbes.com cited another tweet from Allegra indicating he may still be into jailbreaking.

 

“So ... I hear the Wii U is coming out in a month,” he said, referring to the upcoming console from Nintendo. — TJD, GMA News