Government Makes iPhone Jailbreaking and Unlocking Legal

by Sebastien on Jul 26, 2010

The Associated Press just published an interesting piece titled New Gov’t Rules Allow Unapproved iPhone Apps which seems to announce the legalization of iPhone jailbreaks and unlocks:

Owners of the iPhone will be able to break electronic locks on their devices in order to download applications that have not been approved by Apple. The government is making that legal under new rules announced Monday.

The decision to allow the practice commonly known as “jailbreaking” is one of a handful of new exemptions from a federal law that prohibits the circumvention of technical measures that control access to copyrighted works. Every three years, the Library of Congress authorizes such exemptions to ensure that existing law does not prevent non-infringing use of copyrighted material.

Another exemption will allow owners of used cell phones to break access controls on their phones in order to switch wireless carriers.

This is real big news! Up until today, there was a legal mystery surrounding iPhone jailbreaks and unlocks and even though you owned your iPhone, it wasn’t clear weather jailbreaking/unlocking it was legal or not. It seems it won’t be an issue anymore.

Now the big question is: will Apple be forced to provide a way to jailbreak the iPhone? Can you imagine the irony of the situation?

[Thanks @RyanStylee for the tip]

 

Saurik Talks About Jailbreaking

by Sebastien on Jul 25, 2010

A few days ago we showed you a video of Saurik showing off his iPhone 4 jailbreak. New videos of Saurik showed up on YouTube and they are very interesting to anyone willing to learn more about jailbreaking.

Saurik gives us a quick history of iPhone jailbreaks and goes over the what, why and how of jailbreaking. It is definitely a must-watch!

If you’re new to jailbreaking, these videos as well as these links will get you started:

 

Protect Your iPad Screen With InvisibleShield

by Sebastien on Jul 25, 2010

Zagg, the company behind InvisibleShield for iPhone has come up with InvisibleShield for iPad. Not only will this protects your iPad from scratches but it will also prevent fingerprint smudges and smears. This video shows how effective InvisibleShield can be.

You’ve got several options. You can get full body coverage, or just the front, or just the back. At the very least, I think the best thing to do is to get the front coverage. Unless your iPad is in a case, the back of it will probably get scratched too so that might be a good thing to get the back protection as well.

All Invisible Shields include a lifetime replacement warranty for the life of your device as well as a 45-day money-back guarantee. It’s hard to go wrong with that…

See Zagg website for more information.

 

iPhone 4 Jailbreak and Unlock Won’t Be Released Today

by Sebastien on Jul 25, 2010

Despite the high expectation that the iPhone 4 jailbreak and unlock might be released today, MuscleNerd confirmed that it will not. Apparently there are issues with important jailbreak apps such as FaceTime that need to be taken care of before the release. Like MuscleNerd says, there is no point releasing a jailbreak and unlock if it’s not stable.

The Dev Team said last week they will release both the jailbreak and unlock for iOS 4 at the same time, so even though ultrasn0w is ready for release, the Team now has to make sure the jailbreak is bug free before making it available to the public.

 

Survey Shows A Majority of iPhone Owners Happy With AT&T

by Sebastien on Jul 25, 2010

A recent survey by Yankee Group reports that 73% of iPhone owners are actually happy with AT&T. As a point of comparison, 69% of smartphone users are happy with their providers, which suggests AT&T has a higher satisfaction rate than its competitors.

These results might come as a surprise, especially if you read tech blogs who never miss an occasion to raise their voices against AT&T. Yankee Group explains why…

“Consumers transfer the high gloss of their Apple iPhone experience to AT&T,” says Carl Howe, Yankee Group analyst and author of the study. “The iPhone creates a halo effect that rubs off.”

In other words, iPhone customers’ praise for their network may be a result of the famous “reality distortion field” that surrounds Apple CEO Steve Jobs and his company’s products.

To AT&T, there is a perception problem:

“There’s a gap between what people hear about us and what their experience is with us. We think that gap is beginning to close,” says Mark Siegel, an AT&T spokesman. “It doesn’t mean we’re perfect; we still have work to do. But that’s no surprise to us, because we have a great network.”

Personally I’ve never had any problem with AT&T. You can say I’m one of those 73% of happy AT&T customers.

What about you?

[CNN]

 

Trippy iPad Wallpaper

by Sebastien on Jul 25, 2010

iPad within iPad within iPad within iPad…

 

Top 10 iPhone News You Missed This Week

by Sebastien on Jul 25, 2010

This is a summary of the 10 most popular articles published on the blog this week:

And a few iPad news from z iPad Blog…

 

A Little iPhone Hacker in the Making

by Sebastien on Jul 24, 2010

I found this on Twitter today. I thought it was kinda funny and cute. Watch out Dev Team, this little girl is coming after you, hehe.

 

How to Read Saved Web Pages in iBooks

by Sebastien on Jul 24, 2010

Patrick from Just Another iPad Blog shared a nice tip about how to save web pages for reading in iBooks.

Have you ever started reading a long article on the web and thought that it would be great to be able to read it in iBooks on the iPad? If so, did you know it’s quite easy (on a Mac) to print a web page as a PDF to iTunes and read it later on the iPad (or iPhone) in iBooks?

Well … it is. Read on for a quick rundown on how it’s done …

This little trick requires a few steps, so instead of copy/pasting what Patrick wrote, I suggest you go check out his article.

 

Is Apple Becoming Sloppy?

by Sebastien on Jul 24, 2010

As the holder of a Masters in Advertising, I’ve always appreciated Apple’s marketing machine. No matter what you think about the firm from Cupertino, you have to admit their PR and marketing machine is perfectly oiled. Every word, every product have been thought through to deliver the exact message Steve Jobs & Friends want you to receive.

Lately though, I think Apple kinda lost control of their PR/Marketing machine showing the oh-so-perfect company can be sloppy at times. Here is what I think Apple screwed up in the last couple months.

1. Apple announces the iPhone 4, which will supposedly come in black and white.

2. Rumors going around say the iPhone won’t be available in white at launch. Strangely, Apple doesn’t even deem it necessary to communicate on this.

3. On the iPhone 4 pre-order day, Apple just let us find out by ourselves the white iPhone wasn’t available. Lame.

4. Apple finally decides to speak up and admits the white iPhone won’t be available until mid-July.

5. In the meantime many people start reporting having problems with the iPhone 4 antenna.

6. Steve Jobs sends a cocky reply to the iPhone 4 antenna complainers telling them they don’t know how to hold their phones and they should buy a case.

7. Apple admits the problem comes from the formula used to display bars. They say they will release a software update that will fix this.

8. Apple holds a special event where they pretty much confirm there is no problem with the iPhone 4 antenna. Because there is no problem, they will give away free cases. Wait, what?

9. On the same day, Steve Jobs says the white iPhone will start shipping at the end of July.

10. A few days later, Apple says in a 2-sentence statement that the white iPhone 4 will not be available until later this year.

I think there were communication mistakes on Apple’s part. These antenna and white iPhone episodes could have been killed since day one if they had sent the appropriate information instead of staying silent and closed out.

But hey, at the end of the day, I’ve got my black iPhone 4 which I love, and I also get a free Bumper. So no, I’m not complaining, I’m just laying down facts from the last few weeks.

What do you think?

 
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