Owners of iPhones and other smartphones are one step closer towards taking complete control of their gadgets, thanks to a new government ruling Monday on the practice of “jailbreaking.” This weekend has seen a flurry of activity about digital rights, but the biggest news dropped Monday morning, when the FCC announced that it had made the controversial practice of “jailbreaking” your iPhone — or any other cell phone — legal.Jailbreaking — the practice of unlocking a phone (and particularly an iPhone) so it can be used on another network and/or run other applications than those approved by Apple — has technically been illegal for years. Most jailbroken phones are used on the U.S. T-Mobile network or on overseas carriers, or are used to run applications that Apple refuses to sell, such as Safari ad-blocking apps, alternate keyboard layouts, or programs that change the interface to the iPhone’s SMS system and the way its icons are laid out.While technically illegal, no one has been sued or prosecuted for the practice. (Apple does seriously frown on the practice, and jailbreaking your phone will still void your warranty.) It’s estimated that more than a million iPhone owners have jailbroken their handsets.
Apple fought hard against the legalization, arguing that jailbreaking was a form of copyright violation. The FCC disagreed, saying that jailbreaking merely enhanced the inter-operability of the phone, and was thus legitimate under fair-use rules.
The upshot is that now anyone can jailbreak or otherwise unlock any cell phone without fear of legal penalties, whether you want to install unsupported applications or switch to another cellular carrier. Cell phone companies are of course still free to make it difficult for you to do this — and your warranty will probably still be voided if you do — but at least you won’t be fined or imprisoned if you jailbreak a handset.
In addition to the jailbreaking exemption, the FCC announced a few other rules that have less sweeping applicability but are still significant:
• Professors, students and documentary filmmakers are now allowed, for “noncommercial” purposes, to break the copy protection measures on DVDs to be used in classroom or other not-for-profit environments. This doesn’t quite go so far as to grant you and me the right to copy a DVD so we can watch it in two rooms of the house, but it’s now only one step away.
• As was the topic in the GE ruling I wrote about, the FCC allows computer owners to bypass dongles (hardware devices used in conjunction with software to guarantee the correct owner is behind the keyboard) if they are no longer in operation and can’t be replaced. Dongles are rarities in consumer technology products now, but industrial users are probably thrilled about this, as many go missing and are now impossible to obtain.
• Finally, people are now free to circumvent protection measures on video games — but, strangely, only to investigate and correct security flaws in those games. (Another oddity: Other computer software is not part of this ruling, just video games.)
—Article by Christopher Null technology writer for Yahoo! News.
Jailbreaking is now legal
Downgrade ipad 3.21 to 3.2
Downgrade iPad 3.21 to 3.2 is coming very soon. This will allow you to Jailbreak the iPad with the latest firmware.
Hulu preview invite
Hulu has announced its pay service “Hulu+” . The service will allow you to use Hulu on an iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. The Hulu.com website states that the app will work on WiFi and 3G.
Request a Hulu Preview Invite here.
Get the Free Hulu Plus app here.
Unlike the normal Hulu on a computer you can Watch every episode aired from the current season of top shows from ABC, NBC and FOX. Never miss an episode throughout the season.
Stream thousands of episodes from hundreds of current and classic TV shows to your iPad, iPhone 3GS iPhone 4, 3rd generation iPod Touch, computer, TV, and other devices with a Hulu Plus subscription.
• Watch every current season episode of top TV shows from ABC, Fox, and NBC like Family Guy, Modern Family, Glee, 30 Rock, Saturday Night Live, The Office, The Simpsons, Grey’s Anatomy, and more.
• Enjoy full series runs or back seasons of classic shows like The X-Files, Arrested Development, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Desperate Housewives, Roswell, Miami Vice, Angel, Saturday Night Live, Law and Order: SVU, Ally McBeal, Xena, Quantum Leap, My So-Called Life, and more. Thousands of episodes from hundreds of titles.
• Enjoy up to 720p HD resolution with multi bitrate support for an optimized viewing experience for your screen resolution and network connection speed.
• Search and browse for shows and videos directly from your iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch.
• Resume play from where you left off on other Hulu Plus devices including your computer and select mobile phones, internet-connected TVs, and Blu-ray players.
• Manage your queue directly from your iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch.
• Watch over WiFi and 3G (on your iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and 3G iPads).
I personally think the service should be free but they charge $10 per month for the Hulu plus service.
Hulu opening page
Hulu plus menu page
The app seems to be buggy. It crashed a lot while I was trying to access it.
The Hulu+ app is a great idea but it needs to be refined and it needs to be a free service and a paid app.
iPhone 4 has a serious defect
The new iPhone 4 loses reception if you hold it by the antenna band.
If you hold it like the picture above you will notice a huge change in reception bars on the new iPhone.
The solution is to place a rubber bumper around the new iPhone to prevent closing the antenna circuit.
iPhone iOS 4.0 Jailbreak tutorial in Windows with fix for no MMS
For those of you that are having the problem with MMS for iPhone you can use this tutorial to restore your MMS.
iPhone iOS 4.0 Jailbreak tutorial Windows 7
To Jailbreak iPhone 3G, and 3Gs (4G coming soon) and iPod Touch 2G, and 3G with the newest firmware you need to…
1) Update to the newest iTunes.
2) download redsn0w_windows
Here is the MAC OSX version of redsnow
3) download restore ipsw firmware for your iPhone or iPod
4) Run RedSnow and follow the on screen instructions
a) Run Redsnow
b) Choose the firmware you downloaded for your iPhone or iPod. The file is probably located in the Downloads folder.
c) Click next
d) Choose the options you want then click next
e) Put the iPhone or iPod in DFU mode
f) Hold down power button for 3 seconds
g) Without releasing the Power button, hold down the Home button for 10 seconds.
h) Release the power button but keep holding the home button.
Allow the software to install then you’re done.
Open Cydia to update and fix the white Cydia icon.
Top 10 apps for iPad
Here are my top 10 favorite apps for the Apple iPad.
1) Air Video
This app allows you to play the videos from your computer directly on your iPad. You don’t even have to convert them to a format that the iPad will normally play. This app will play avi, mpg, mkv, and mp4 video files on your iPad without taking up storage space on your iPad.
2) Perfect Browser
The perfect browser is a web browser for the iPad. This app allows you to have tabs on the top of the browser to let you toggle between web pages.
3) Mobile Mouse
Use Mobile Mouse as a wireless remote for your PC entertainment system. It has native controls for Windows Media Player, Hulu, and much much more.
4) Ambiance
Sometimes you just got too much on your mind and you can’t sleep. Ambiance plays different sounds like wind chimes, wind, rain, etc. These sounds will prevent you from thinking and makes you sleep. Set the app to automatically start and set the timer and 1 button will put you fast ton sleep.
5) Office2 HD
Open, edit, and email word, excel, and PowerPoint files on the iPad with the office2 HD app.
6) ColorSplash
Edit your favorite pictures directly on your iPad with ColorSplash. Change colors, make black and white pictures have a touch of color or just give your pics that professional touch.
7) ABC
Catch your favorite ABC episodes of Dancing With The Stars, Flash Forward, Cougar Town and more on the ABC app for the iPad.
8) Teleport
Control your home MAC or PC from the road with Teleport on your iPad. Some software can’t be installed on your iPad but you can still access the programs from anywhere with Teleport.
9) Analytics HD
For all of you that have your own websites you can monitor the traffic, keywords, page views and much more with Analytics HD for the iPad. Just input your Googke analytics account info and monitor it with this easy to use app.
10) Text+
This is a no brainer. Text+ is a free app that let’s you text from your iPad. I love my iPhone but texting is a pain because of the small keyboard. If your like me you take your ipad everywhere. Now you can text from the larger iPad screen and keyboard with unlimited free text messaging.
Now I just need a way to tether iPhone 4 to ipad by the iphone4 release date.
iPad jailbreak tutorial
iPad jailbreak tutorial
Here it is. The Jailbreak everyone’s been waiting for.
The Spirit Jailbreak will allow you to jailbreak your iPad, iPhone 3Gs and all of the rest. Previously the iPad and the newer 3Gs iPhones on FW 3.1.3 were unable to be hacked but now you can using Spirit Jailbreak from spiritjb.com.
Spirit is an untethered jailbreak for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch on the latest firmwares. i.e. 3.1.3
1) Download file.
For Windows users download this file.
For Max OSX users download this file.
If your using Windows 7 use the file in compatibility mode for XP. (I couldnt get it to work in compatibility mode for my iPad so I used an actual Windows xp machine) with iTunes 9.1.
2) Connect iPad
3) Start file Spirit.exe
4) Wait 30 seconds and its done.
Now the search for iPad ipa files and cydia ipad apps begins… I’ll keep you posted.
Update
The iPad ipa’s are all over the place now. Leave a comment and I’ll try to find the ipa you need. If you know how to get installous you’ll see a bunch of apps there. If anyone needs installous instructions just let me know.
My latest update: After using the Spirit Jailbreak my iPad will not locate me anymore. It seems like the gps is no longer active. To fix it I restored and re jailbreak the iPad and it’s working fine now.
If you’re using installous you’ll, get the white icons on your iPad. To fix this install apps using iTunes. Don’t forget to turn on iTunes sync
Apptracker will have a long list of apps on their website.
Update
Installous has been updated with an iPad version of the program. The new version works great. No more white icons and it looks great on the larger iPad screen.
My iPad rant
I keep hearing about what the iPad isn’t and I just have to say that the ipad is an incredible device. I’m at a coffee house in Long Beach Ca hanging out and I’m able to access the internet, my blogs, email, edit pics, etc on a device that actually works.
Police raid Gizmodo Editors house to search for 4G iPhone information
Today police raided the editor of Gizmodo’s house to search for information in regards to the iPhone 4G that was found in a San jose bar last week.
In the latest turn of events police with a warrant confiscated computers to find any information in regards to the 4G iPhone.
According to Bloomberg News Service late last week, Gawker said no investigators had spoken to employees. Apple has not commented.
While there may be other relevant laws, Section 485 of the California penal code states that someone is “guilty of theft” if they find “lost property under circumstances which give him knowledge” of the true owner or of how to find the owner, and if the person doesn’t make “reasonable and just efforts” to return the property.
If charges are filed, it could be a felony case under California law, since the property was valued in excess of $950. Some legal observers have suggested that charges could be brought against the person who sold the device as well as Gizmodo.
