iOS 4.3.1 Jailbroken Already Using PwnageTool. Here’s A Complete How-To Guide !
The just released iOS 4.3.1 firmware update for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch has been successfully jailbroken, courtesy of some swift work by DjayB6 on iOS 4.3.1 jailbreak bundle, and Universal Ramdisk Fixer. The jailbreak though is tethered only for now, which means that you will have to boot it into jailbroken state every time you reboot.
Tethered Jailbreak for iOS 4.3.1 Now Available (But Probably Not A Good Idea)
Just a few days ago, Apple released iOS 4.3.1 — and already, the endlessly ingenious jailbreaking crowd has found their way in. However, let it be known: these early hacks tend to have a caveat or two, and this one’s certainly not the exception
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Fly or Die: The Nintendo 3DS, Rockmelt, And Mobile Wallets
The new Nintendo 3DS all that? Does Rockmelt have a chance? Will mobile wallets ever be adopted by real people in real stores? CrunchGear editor John Biggs and I tackle these questions in this week’s edition of Fly or Die. Watch the video to find out who our surprise guest is this time after we give our verdicts on his company’s product.The Nintendo 3DS uses simple stereoscopic 3D graphics that really pop out and combined with a gyroscope effect creates an incredibly immersive experience. You might look like an idiot playing it because you move your whole body around unnecessarily, but it is very addictive. Biggs wrote up his initial impressions here.Robocast Sues Apple For Infringing Its ‘Automated Browsing’ Patent 
Apple is on the receiving end of yet another patent infringement lawsuit. A company called Robocast alleges that Apple has willfully incorporated its patented automated browsing technology in a number of products, including iTunes, Apple TV and Front Row, without licensing their ‘invention’. Robocast, which was founded by Damon Torres, who claims to have pioneered the use of automated web browsing in the nineties, has earlier sued Microsoft on similar grounds.The court documents offer a fascinating read – as far as I’m concerned – so I’ve embedded them below.
iOS 4.3.1 Jailbroken Already Using PwnageTool. Here’s A Complete How-To Guide !
The just released iOS 4.3.1 firmware update for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch has been successfully jailbroken, courtesy of some swift work by DjayB6 on iOS 4.3.1 jailbreak bundle, and Universal Ramdisk Fixer. The jailbreak though is tethered only for now, which means that you will have to boot it into jailbroken state every time you reboot.
Tethered Jailbreak for iOS 4.3.1 Now Available (But Probably Not A Good Idea)
Just a few days ago, Apple released iOS 4.3.1 — and already, the endlessly ingenious jailbreaking crowd has found their way in. However, let it be known: these early hacks tend to have a caveat or two, and this one’s certainly not the exception
.
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Fly or Die: The Nintendo 3DS, Rockmelt, And Mobile Wallets
The new Nintendo 3DS all that? Does Rockmelt have a chance? Will mobile wallets ever be adopted by real people in real stores? CrunchGear editor John Biggs and I tackle these questions in this week’s edition of Fly or Die. Watch the video to find out who our surprise guest is this time after we give our verdicts on his company’s product.
The Nintendo 3DS uses simple stereoscopic 3D graphics that really pop out and combined with a gyroscope effect creates an incredibly immersive experience. You might look like an idiot playing it because you move your whole body around unnecessarily, but it is very addictive. Biggs wrote up his initial impressions here.
Apple is on the receiving end of yet another patent infringement lawsuit. A company called Robocast alleges that Apple has willfully incorporated its patented automated browsing technology in a number of products, including iTunes, Apple TV and Front Row, without licensing their ‘invention’. Robocast, which was founded by Damon Torres, who claims to have pioneered the use of automated web browsing in the nineties, has earlier sued Microsoft on similar grounds.The court documents offer a fascinating read – as far as I’m concerned – so I’ve embedded them below.
Apple: Judging an app by its icon
Do you judge a book by its cover? Yeah, so do I – at least in the first instance. What else have you got to go on? The name often doesn't tell you much, after all. The same could be said for apps and their icons. Seen alongside the thousands of others in the App Store, at first glance, the only thing you have to go on essentially is the icon. Now obviously, as a reviewer, I have to look beyond the icon when I'm browsing through the hundreds of new apps on the store, but for most people, a good icon could hook them in, leading to a potential sale. A shoddy-looking one, on the other hand... read more
The Ever-Elusive Mobile Wallet: Why NFC Chips Are Overhyped And Will Underdeliver
The idea of turning your mobile phone into a digital wallet has a long and fruitless history. People are getting excited again about the prospect of mobile wallets replacing those in your pocket overstuffed with receipts and credit cards because both Google and Apple are pursuing the concept. The key technology that could make mobile wallets a reality are near field communication (NFC) chips. Google is alreadysupporting NFC chips in Android phones such as the Nexus S and is expected to roll out tests of wave-and-pay systems at stores in New York City and San Francisco. Apple has been working on putting its own NFC chips in iPhones since at least last summer, although recent reports suggest the technology won’t be ready for the next iPhone 5.
There is no doubt that if Apple or Google can make NFC chips in phones a mainstream payment option, it could upend the payments industry and put either of these two technology companies smack in the middle of billions of dollars of commercial transactions. Apple could tie the mobile wallets to people’s iTunes accounts, and Google could tie it to Google Checkout or some other account. But before that happens, there are a few things standing in their way: Local merchants, credit card companies, and consumer behavior.
Study: Mobile Ad-Tracking Systems Are “Blind” To 80 Percent Of Apple iOS Devices
Apple mobile iOS devices (iPads, iPhones, and iPod Touches) are used by 130 million people, but they present a huge blindspot to advertisers. All Apple mobile devices use the Safari browser, as do millions of Apple laptop and desktop computers. Safari blocks third-party cookies by default, which is good for privacy and good for consumers. But it is bad for advertisers who rely on browser cookie tracking to measure the effectiveness of their ads.
Marin Software, which offers a way to manage paid search advertising, conducted a study it provided to TechCrunch which shows that 80 percent of the time iOS devices don’t count paid-search conversions (i.e., clicks) because cookie-tracking is turned off. On the Mac, the undercounting occurs 50 percent of the time. All told, when you count all browsers, 38 percent of all paid-search clicks are not being counted.
Apple Keeps Right On Approving Amazon And Netflix Updates Without In-App Purchases
Remember when everyone was freaking out over the Apple in-app subscription changes? You should. It was just a month ago. And while some of the fears that arose do appear to be very real, the two things most people focused on were Amazon’s Kindle app and the Netflix app. Well guess what? Both received updates today, and neither includes the supposedly mandatory changes.When Apple first announced the in-app subscription option, the wording seemed to indicate that any app that offered a subscription outside of the app would now have to offer it inside the app as well — which Apple would take a 30 percent cut of. The same was said to be true for in-app purchases. If you sold content outside of the app (on the web) to be used in that app, you were supposed to offer it in the app as well (and with a best-price match guarantee). But again, a month later, Netflix and Amazon keep getting app updates and neither includes these changes. Read More
Adobe Just Made Medialets Its Mobile Ad Server
For all the angst about the lack of Flash on Apple’s iPads and iPhones, most of the discussion seems to center around video. But a bigger impact by far is on display advertising, which tends to be done mostly in Flash. Adobe needs non-Flash alternatives for tablets and smartphones, particularly for people who design display ads.
Today, Adobe announced that it is integrating Medialets’ mobile ad platform into its own creative suite. Designers will be able to insert Medialets ads into InDesign layouts and then serve them on mobile apps. The reason this is notable is that Medialets essentially will become the de facto plug-in mobile ad server for Adobe. Medialets’ technology works with iOS devices and will also work with Flash in Adobe AIR apps. It powers the ads in The Daily iPad app, for example, a position it won over Apple’s own iAds.
Apples To Apples: Apple Inc. Files For Apple Corps’ Old Apple Logo Trademark
The legal dispute between Apple Corps and Apple Inc. for the rights to the Apple logo are far reaching. Since the first case back in 1978, Apple Inc. has slowly whittled away at Apple Corp’s initial legal settlement banning Apple Inc. from entering the music industry. It wasn’t until a 2007 settlement when most of Apple Corps’ trademarks were given to Apple Inc. thereby paving the way to the November 2010 release of the Beatles catalog on iTunes. There was, however, one piece of trademark that Apple Inc. never got, until now: Apple Corps’ Apple logo.
Moving from iPad 1 to iPad 2 has been an exercise in confusion followed by fear followed by despair and now acceptance. I have no idea what I’ll be left with, given that I’ve attempted to move from one Mac Book Pro to another, back up iTunes to DVD, upgrade to 4.3 of iOS on 2 iPhones and the old iPad 1, and finally move everything that’s left to the new iPad 2. At this point I really don’t care what happens, just that it does.Apple haters can jump in anytime with comments (oh, wait, they can’t anymore on the new Facebook Connect what-is-your-real-name gateway) about how iTunes should go away. Maybe, but who can say if this insanity would be improved by making it wireless. So while I’m waiting to be dismayed by the elimination of music, Mad Men 4th season files, family photos, contacts, my grandfathered unlimited AT&T account, and other arcana I don’t realize I’m going to miss, I’ll talk about something else.
The Walled Garden Has Won
Ten days ago Google discovered that apparently innocuous Android apps were in fact infested with “DroidDream” malware that included an Android rootkit, with the apparent intent of creating a smartphone botnet. It infected more than a quarter of a million devices before Google intervened. The thriller writer in me immediately began to wonder what would happen if black hats built a wildly popular game that doubled as a botnet beachhead. Imagine if Angry Birds was secretly the world’s biggest botnet: even without root access to its install base, those hypothetical black hats could grab private data from tens millions of people, and/or probably DDoS every wireless network in the developed world, especially if it ran as a background service with location access.
That will never happen, of course: it’s what security guru Bruce Schneier calls a “movie-plot threat.” But it does illustrate that you couldn’t stop a Trojan app like that in advance. Android Market security is based on permission requests when an app is installed: such requests are routinely ignored, since nowadays almost every app asks for full Internet and SD card access.Ah, you might say, if only Android apps were vetted in advance, like Apple’s! In which case you should really stop kidding yourself. Most apps seem to be reviewed in an hour or less (after days in the queue.) Apple appears to check the libraries they link against, and maybe they can decompile to the original source code, too – though I doubt it – but iOS apps are written in Objective-C, which includes support for C itself, a language for which labyrinthine obfuscation has become an art form. Any developer worth his/her salt could write an iOS app that includes code whose use only becomes apparent when the app receives a secret signal.
You Can Order An iPad 2 Right Now. Are You Buying?
Slightly ahead of the announced 1 AM PST launch time, Apple’s iPad 2, which was introduced earlier this month, is now up for sale at the company’s US online store.
Estimated shipping date for iPads are from March 18 to March 25th. That day, the iPad 2 will also be made available in 26 additional countries – Apple says further international availability and pricing will be announced at a later date. Online orders will ship within 3 to 5 days, and buyers are limited to two units per order.
Analyst: Non-iPad Tablets Will Be Collecting Dust On Store Shelves
The immense popularity of the iPad, and now the iPad 2, has Apple’s competitors, in the words of Steve Jobs, flummoxed. What to do? According to a J.P. Morgan Research analyst, it may well be that all of these competitor tablets will be sitting on the store shelves as folks decide en masse that the iPad is the way to go. In other words, competitors try to convince people that their tablet is “better” than the iPad could well be wasting their time. And money, of course.The report, which was obtained by Cnet, was presented by one Mark Moskowitz, and says that competitors trying to play catch-up are going to have a “tough” time, and that, the effort to flood the market with tablets could result in a severe over-saturation. Nothing’s quite worse thank sinking a bunch of money into a product’s R&D, manufacturing too many of them, then having them sit on store shelves—next to signs that say, “Sorry, we’re out of iPads. Check back later!”
Before It Even Begins, Apple Wins SXSW
Over the past week, there’s been a major dilemma in Geekland: what do we do on March 11?You see, we’ve known for months that it’s the first day of the SXSW conference in Austin, Texas. But last Wednesday, Apple announced it would also be the day that the iPad 2 officially goes on sale. The questions immediately began: do we keep our plans intact and head to Austin? Or do we hang back and wait in line for the iPad 2 at 5 PM? Luckily, Apple thought ahead.
TechCrunch Review — The iPad 2: Yeah, You’re Gonna Want One.
In January 2010, shortly after its unveiling, I first got my hands on an iPad. My initial reaction? “The iPad is like holding the future.” And that’s funny because here we are, just a little over a year into that future, and something new has come along that makes holding the iPad 1 feel like holding the past: the iPad 2.A week ago, after its unveiling, I got some hands on time with the new hardware and my initial assessment was that it pushed a device that already had no true competition even farther ahead. But now I’ve had the chance to actually use the thing non-stop for a week. Is my feeling the same?
Actually, it’s even stronger.
As Apple Ponders Their Subscription Ruling, Readability Goes Full HTML5
A few weeks ago, Readability got word that their iPhone app was rejected by Apple. While obviously, that’s never good news, this was especially hard to take because the reason for the rejection was that they were offering a subscription service without offering Apple’s new in-app subscription layer. They were dumbfounded and pissed off by this rejection because they didn’t see it coming and it didn’t seem to make sense. But rather than dwell on it, they went right back to the drawing board.The result of that and two weeks of fast-paced work is a full-on HTML5 version of their app, which Readability is releasing today. The web app is specifically designed for both mobile and tablets, using some of the more advanced aspects of HTML5, including offline storage support.
On Apple TV Special Apps, Sports, And The Slow Bleeding Of Cable
Buried today in the iOS 4.3 release is an unmentioned, but very interesting update for the Apple TV: access to bothMLB.tv and NBA League Pass. Yes, the live sports are coming to the Apple TV!That’s great news for Apple TV owners, but such functionality has actually been available for some time on the rival boxes by Roku. Still, the ramifications of this are potentially huge because the lack of sports content has been the one point used over and over again in arguments against these new wave of Internet-powered set-top boxes killing cable. Between this, Roku, and Xbox Live getting ESPN content, we’re definitely getting closer to a full-on cable revolt.
Video: Hands-On With An Engineering Prototype 64GB iPhone
The backstory isn’t exactly detailed, but somehow M.I.C. Gadget got their hands on what seems to be an unreleased 64GB iPhone. All they’re stating is that the phone is not for sale and it was “definitely leaked from Foxconn’s factory in Shenzhen.” True? We don’t know, but it at least seems like the real deal. The backside shows a model number of XXXXX and an FCC ID of BCG-AXXXXX — just like Gizmodo’s prototype iPhone 4. The software however registers the phone with a model number of 995-6049LL running iOS 4.1 and is not SIM-locked. Best of all though, the phone shows 64GB of storage.Interestingly enough, the casing itself seems void of any changes. Even the external antenna is the same, which seems to state that either this is a fake — possible — or Apple is following previously-set precedents and throwing accessory makers a bone by keeping the casing the same for another model year.
Still, it’s anyone’s guess if this is the real deal. It is slightly different in several key areas — silver ring around the lens, symbols on the volume buttons, different faceplate — from the last purported 64GB iPhone posted by M.I.C. Gadget. You may wanna peep the video after the break before coming to any conclusions.
Adobe’s Wallaby Can’t Jump Very High
Earlier today, Adobe Labs released Wallaby, a way to convert simple Flash games and animations into HTML so that it is readable on “devices that do not support the Flash runtimes.” Those would be iPhones and iPads. In other words, Wallaby is Adobe’s way of bowing down to HTML5 and, by extension, to Steve Jobs who has always insisted that there is no need for Flash because HTML5 will take over.
Adobe’s capitulation to Apple has been going on for a long time—first with Flash converters for iPhone and iPad apps, and now with Flash in the browser. Remember that Apple at first tried to block Adobe’s moves, but eventually relented.
So Wallaby is a converter for Flash content on the Web that makes it Apple-friendly (it really works with any Webkit browser). That’s all well and good, and the way it should be, except this Wallaby cannot jump very high.
Explor, Touch-Based App Discovery To Get Around The App Wall
Back in 2007, we covered AdPinion, a Y Combinator startup that allowed you to vote on ads you wanted to see on the web. In 2008, we covered the launch of Appalanche, a web-based app recommendation engine. Then in 2009, we coveredAppsaurus, a native iPhone app recommendation engine that was aiming out “outsmart Apple’s App Store genius”. What do all of these startups have in common? They’re all actually the same startup. And today, the company behind them, Hello, Chair, is combining what they’ve learned over the years into one new startup: Explor.The truth is that Explor is going after the same problem that both Appalanche and Appsaurus did: app discovery on the iPhone. But they recognize that no one (including them) has nailed it just yet, so they’re going for a new approach this time. Instead of being about search and categories, Explor focuses on a touch-based experience to navigate through the app store. It’s simple: you find an app you like and you touch it to see more apps like it. It’s seamless and a really nice way to browse.
Dear Apple, Please Copy This Notification System For The iPhone Immediately
As you’re aware, I tend to take Apple’s side on almost all matters iPhone versus Android. Having tried over a dozen Android devices ranging from the G1 to the Nexus S, I simply still prefer iOS. And it’s not really close. But there is one argument I absolutely cannot make on Apple’s side: the notification system. On Android devices, it’s good. On the iPhone, it’s awful.It’s not like I’m saying anything sacrilegious here. Everyone knows it sucks. And that undoubtedly includes Apple, as they have made moves in the past year indicating as such. Moves like hiring Rich Dellinger, the guy who designed the great notification system for Palm’s webOS. And they have been sniffing around some of the Push Notification apps in recent months as possible acquisition targets. But today we bring them all they really need: the idea for how it should work. Please Apple — please — copy this system.
Why Payments Are Hard, Even For Apple And Google
Editor’s note: Guest author Ohad Samet is an expert in managing fraud and other risks in payments systems. He was previously a senior manager at PayPal and blogs at As Risky At It Gets.
We hear a lot of chatter about new payment services, and who’s competing in the space, and obviously who’ll win the space or own a big piece of it. Lately we’ve seen some movement when both Apple and Google announced new payment options for digital publishers and exchanged a few blows. So are the giants going to displace PayPal soon?
It’s A Good Day To Be An iPad Competitor . . . Oh Wait, It’s Not
Apple CEO Steve Jobs on Wednesday introduced the iPad 2 at a special event in San Francisco, taking even more momentum away from its competitors.
I’ve had a lot of people in the last 24 hours tell me that the iPad 2 isn’t as revolutionary as the first generation device. Yes, that’s true. But not every device a company releases has to be or can be revolutionary.
Apple has released three revolutionary products in the last decade alone: iPod, iPhone and iPad. I really can’t think of any products from Apple’s competitors that fit in the revolutionary category in that same time period.
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