iPad Jailbroken 624
A day after the release of Apple's tablet computer, a hacker claims to have gained root access to the iPad. "A well-known hacker of the iPhone, who previously defeated Apple's restrictions on developers, has claimed in a video to have hacked the iPad. Just a day after release, the hacker, who goes by 'MuscleNerd' online, said that he has gained root access to the iPad..."
Doesn't surprise me. (Score:3, Informative)
MuscleNerd is a pretty active contributor on the iPhone dev team, and has assisted significantly in finding vulnerabilities to SIM-unlock and jailbreak the iPhone with. It was only a matter of time, anyway.
Re:Only Apple (Score:5, Informative)
Try to get outside apps running on a kindle.
Kindle Hacking: it's a lovely little linux box [boingboing.net]
What you see there is a Kindle 2 with the Ubuntu 9.04 port to ARM running in a chrooted environment. On the screen you see xdaliclock in front of an xterm with the remains of a "top" command and a few mildly embarrassing typos.
To open up the Kindle, I used the USB networking debug mode Amazon left hanging around when they first shipped the Kindle 2, a statically linked telnetd and a cross-compiler to bootstrap myself. From there, I built a daemon that can convert DRM-free PDFs and ePubs into something Amazon's reader on the Kindle can deal with.
After that, I started to get curious about what else might be possible. It only took a few evenings to get a moderately usable Ubuntu environment running.
Mostly, the Kindle is a lovely little Linux box. Getting X working took a bit of hacking, but everything else "just works" with very little configuration.
Re:Only Apple (Score:0, Informative)
Unless you're buying them second hand, iPad prices will not come down. At all.
Jailbroken locked? (Score:3, Informative)
.Jailbroken or not, the iPad is still locked into Apple.
If it were, what would be the point?
In fact the whole point of Jailbreaking is to be able to ALSO run stuff Apple didn't approve, from Cydia or other sources.
Or to do your own development without going through Apple (though a $99/year barrier is hardly off-putting).
You can also continue to run Apple approved apps too, but it's hardly "locked" to be given a full range of options including commercial ones sold through Apple...
Re:Only Apple (Score:3, Informative)
The price of the original iPhone dropped pretty fast after launch, in fact it dropped and doubled in storage capacity. The difference was so large they had to issue apple store credits to early adopters.
I don't expect there to even BE a 16GB iPad 1 year from now or even 6 months.
Re:Only Apple (Score:2, Informative)
You can put non-DRM books on iPad - http://gizmodo.com/5491935/reminder-the-ipad-will-read-drm+free-ebooks-from-your-nook-or-sony-reader [gizmodo.com]
Re:Only Apple (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Only Apple (Score:1, Informative)
Where can I get a normal tablet computer for the price of an ipad?
http://www.ecrater.com/product.php?pid=6404986
7 inch with 3G, only 399
Re:speedbump (Score:4, Informative)
All well and good, but there is no DRM on the iTunes Music Store music anymore - they are regular AAC files that are just tagged with your Apple ID. They will play in anything that supports AAC.
Initially though, I agree, it was all about doing the bare minimum to appease the music industry (who own the content), and encouraging you to break the DRM by burning to audio CD when you downloaded.
Re:Only Apple (Score:5, Informative)
I have OS X running on a whitebox - next question. Just because they officially discourage it, doesn't mean it is not possible. They don;t even make it difficult. The install DVD is not encrypted, has no serial numbers, does not phone home, does not need online activation. While it technically infringes the licence to do so, it is not hard to do.
Dayy-um! You Apple fanbois are deluded! Because it's hacked/hackable to work on a whitebox somehow equates to the company supporting it or making it an open system. So by this logic, the iPhone is an open platform as well, because it can be jailbroken. Whoa... whatever!
"Every product locked down" - this is just nonsense. While OS X itself features closed source components, just because this is the case doesn't mean it cannot be open. Open and open source are not the same thing. OS X features a multitude of open protocols, codecs, standards and features that are designed to make it play well with other operating systems, as well as a continued commitment to open source projects that it includes and bases large parts of its systems on - CUPS, Webkit, libdispatch, OpenGL, OpenAL, GCC etc etc, just to name a couple.
Because they have appropriated open source software for their own use and are making a profit on it, while at the same time closing off parts of it and making it impossible to write drivers for or boot on white box systems somehow makes them open? It's the exact OPPOSITE of open. They are only as "open" as they have to be to keep customers. I'm not faulting them for taking open source software and making a viable business out of it, in fact I commend them for such and have absolutely no problem with it. What I do have a problem with is people such as your self that try to then claim that they are somehow open and "good" when they are purely out for profit and any way they can squeeze more profit out of their customers is a good thing.
If they were truly open, why not sell OSX for any whitebox? Because they don't want to - they want to keep a CLOSED SYSTEM. I mean, duh. Come on, can you really not see this? They want to maintain control over the entire environment, this is diametrically opposed to an "open" system.
If Apple wanted to lock people into an App Store for OS X they would have done so already - they will do what works for them in a business sense, nothing more, nothing less.
No, they wouldn't have. As I already posted, if they thought they could get away with it, they would have ... but if they tried it, their meager share of the OS market would dwindle to numbers not even worth tracking. The only reason they do NOT have a locked in environment, as I've already said, is because they don't have the power to force users into this. They have/had that power with the iPhone and look what they've done with it. You are insane to think they wouldn't love to do the same with the entire Mac line if they could somehow convince their users to do it... but it would leave too much to be desired at this point, since there is already a huge ecosystem built around a quasi-open standard that is the Windows environment. Trying to cut that off at the knees would be suicide for OSX.
It is a fallacy to suggest that because the iPhone business model was successful for Apple that they would try and shoehorn that onto the Mac business model.
I don't suggest any such thing. I'm saying they don't have the muscle to make it happen, and the iPhone is a perfect example of why they should NEVER be given that muscle.
You might as well say that now that Xbox live and the 360 are so well entrenched that MS will be moving that business model onto Windows.
Moving what business model to windows? You mean... oh I don't know ... Games for Windows Live? So... like, you mean moving the console model to Windows, which is EXACTLY what they have done/are in the process of doing? Are you trying to make my case or yours? Because you're succeeding very well in the former and failing miserably in the latter.
Re:Only Apple (Score:5, Informative)
N.B. The iPad is fully legible in full sunlight.
Good luck, however, reading your Kindle in the dark.
Re:Only Apple (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Only Apple (Score:3, Informative)
On the Apple platform, if you really want to hack, they always make it relatively easy to jailbreak. I doubt this is an accident.
Correction... They don't make it easy to jailbreak, but it is fairly cheap and simple to get a Developers License and add as many of your own apps to your iPhone OS powered device (iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad) as you like. They actually seem to be putting a fair amount of effort into making Jailbreaking more hassle than it's worth (they can't actually make it impossible, no matter how hard they try, IHO).
Re:Only Apple (Score:3, Informative)
iBooks supports ePub, and you can add your own books via iTunes. I've got a couple of the free Baen books [baen.com] in my iPad's library already.
A large number of Gutenberg's collection are in the iBooks bookstore for free (often with automated formatting), but you can get them directly from Gutenberg if you like.
Re:speedbump (Score:3, Informative)
but there is no DRM on the iTunes Music Store music anymore - they are regular AAC files that are just tagged with your Apple ID. They will play in anything that supports AAC.
While I'm glad they went to DRM-free, I still don't buy from iTunes because 1) they do tag them and 2) they do AAC and not mp3. I'll stick with buying cd's and ripping them myself.
Re:Only Apple (Score:5, Informative)
The Kindle DX is the closet thing to an iPad in the Kindle line, and costs about the same as an entry-level iPad.
Comparing the two:
With the Kindle DX you get a reflective screen that's readable in intense daylight, free included 3G in perpetuity (so you can ... buy more books wirelessly), and 4 days of battery life (with wireless on; 2 weeks with it off). It's a reader's device through and through.
Unless I'm mistaken, that's about where the advantages of the Kindle end. In every other dimension, I think the iPad owns it pretty hard.
Re:speedbump (Score:3, Informative)
They probably think it means Apple Audio Codec and not Advanced Audio and that it is entirely a creation of Apple and not a standard part of MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 that even the Zune plays.
Re:Only Apple (Score:3, Informative)
No the price dropped because Apple stopped making 4GB iPhone AND they cut the price of the 8GB by $100-200 or so.
I'm not talking about the iPhone 3G, i'm talking about the original device, the price dropped and the capacity doubled within 4 months.
Re:Only Apple (Score:3, Informative)
Darwin is basically just BSD with an extra dose of weird.
... and tens of thousands of bug fixes and performance improvements, all of which have been released back to the community, even though (for the most part) Apple had no obligation to do so.
Re:Still not worth purchasing (Score:5, Informative)
It makes your warranty void,
Point. But while arguing for the right to hack and tinker, that sort of comes with the job so is not an issue.
Installing not-windows on your HP voids warranties too, as stupid as that sounds, which is the exact type of thing the GP is wanting in his hardware.
I'm not saying this is a good thing, it's just not something a tinkerer/hacker type can really expect to state with a straight face.
prevents you from installing the official security patch,
Nonsense. My jail broken phone is running the latest software and patches.
and is generally a legal grey area ...
It is actually very easy to do without having to download or distribute any of apples copyrighted software (or any other software without an explicitly free license)
While of course some people can, and probably most people do, use jail breaking to violate copyrights with pirated apps, this is in no way a requirement and only takes your own will power not to do it to avoid breaking the law.
The open repositories that you gain access to with the jail broken software have a whole lot of free software, and you can of course continue to install free itunes apps.
Nothing about me modifying hardware I own, in ways that do not touch upon others rights, is in any way a legal gray area.
Not the webpage, it's the Ads. (Score:3, Informative)
I can verify that it doesn't impact Lynx. :) I can also verify that it's a PDF, so it likely impacts Windows and Apple computers.
See this previous discussion [slashdot.org] on Slashdot. It's not the website, it's the banner ad companies allowing a Russian(?) group of script kiddies to buy ad space and immediately redirect to an infected PDF file. Happens on a LOT of websites, including the base msn.com page occasionally. DeviantArt is a particularly bad offender. I've apparently made a career out of walking ignorant Southern United States women through removing these things over the phone.
(Yes, it's my own personal hell, why do you ask?)
Re:Only Apple (Score:1, Informative)
Extreme example shows the logical flaw: You buy a gun. You simply cannot do anything you like with it.
Okay, so now we're into the world of laws and rights, aka the real world.
There is a fine distinction between doing "anything you like with" an object and doing "anything you like to someone with" an object. Going on your example: I buy a gun. I can modify the gun. I can shoot the gun. I can disassemble and reassemble the gun. I can do whatever I want with that gun. I cannot shoot a person with the gun barring cases of self defense which is a different issue. I cannot do whatever I want to someone with that gun.
You're talking about computers? Well, I can easily build a page turner for a shop-bought scanner, and set up a book scanning service. From there I can use OCR and finally distribute the resulting text files around the world.
Do you believe your rights extend that far?
I believe that my rights stop short at distributing that text file. Up until that point, I am doing what I want with hardware I own. As for the book, fair use dictates that I can take reasonable measures to make archival copies of a work for personal use. I believe that building a machine to facilitate a format shift of a book is a reasonable measure, albeit a little excessive for my tastes. Fair use would not cover distribution of that format-shifted book.
You never had the freedom to do anything you liked with anything you owned. Ever. When you start to impinge upon the rights of others, your freedom ends.
Focus on the reality, not this hand-waving "I should be able to do anything!" crap. You never could, and never will.
The reality of this world is not that black and white, as I have illustrated above. Nearly any action that would impinge on the rights of others can be stopped short of that and redirected so that everybody's rights are intact. Now, many of these actions may seem weird and not justifiable in a practical sense, but why should such justification be necessary? That is the freedom that the "I should be able to do anything" group wants and should receive so long as they do not deny another person's rights, both inalienable and government granted (as is the case of copyright). Yes, it removes a safeguard that would prevent a person from breaking a law, but if they know what they're doing they should be responsible enough to own up to the consequences. It beats this alternative:
A certain company in the satellite TV business once cared what you were doing with your hardware, and their focus spread to any freely available replacement component of their devices (i.e., programmable Smart Cards). If you bought a programmable Smart Card or a writer for one, this company would sue you because one possible use was to bypass their subscription service, and they didn't care that you had no intention of using it for that purpose. I seem to remember a lot of backlash from this very site for those actions. Let those events be a warning to anyone who is not in favor of being able to tinker around with one's own hardware.
Re:Only Apple (Score:4, Informative)
HA-HA-HA-HA!!!
First of all, that's not a tablet, that's a laptop with a swiveling screen ... Seems pretty brittle to me, and certainly looks like it was designed during the darkest days of Soviet Russia, but more importantly, did you even read the specs of that? Copy/pasting:
* 8.9-inch touchscreen-enhanced Eee PC
* Panel rotates 180-degrees into tablet mode for ultra mobility
* Energy-efficient Intel Atom Z520 processor
* Long-lasting battery life with 5 hours of interrupted use*
* Exclusive touch-optimized software suite
* 52GB Hybrid Storage (16GB SSD + 16GB SD Card + 20GB Eee online Storage**)
* Complete wirless connectivity with Bluetooth v2.1 and Wi-Fi 802.1 b/g/n
* Complimentary stylus for ultimate precision
My face started to contract in a smirk when I got to the "5 hours of interrupted use*" (note the asterisk pointing to some caveats), but then I cracked in a loud laugh when I got to the "Hybrid Storage": 52 GB including 20 GB of ONLINE STORAGE??? Gimme a fscking break, at least Apple has the good taste to wrap their reality distortion with beautiful visuals! If this is the best cr*p you can come up with (and if it isn't, epic fail!) then the iPad is a better buy than I had thought!!
(And "complimentary stylus for ultimate precision"? As in "our touch interface is really not that finger-friendly, and is multi-touch only in the sense that if you touch it once then you can touch it again and again, multiple times in succession!!"??? The most laughable counter-example I've seen in a while!)
Re:Only Apple (Score:3, Informative)
I read that as well, but I think that wasn't Apple but some journalist.
In any case, right now it looks like their biggest problem is how to produce them fast enough for the existing demand rather than trying to get them sell better
Re:Only Apple (Score:3, Informative)
I've read technical articles and a 200-page novel on my N800, which has an LCD. In the past I've also read a novel on a laptop, which was not a particularly pleasant experience.
The main thing about the N800 display is that it's over 200 DPI, so it looks like proper text, whereas text on a regular computer LCD is either blocky or blurry. I think the latter (antialiasing, with or without subpixels) is the problem because our eyes cannot focus so well on something blurry. Of course, reading on the N800 requires a properly adjusted backlight, so I believe e-ink would be much better in practice.
Re:Only Apple (Score:3, Informative)
Correction. My FF extensions (4 that are public on mozdev and mozilla) were downloaded 500,000 times. They are actively used by about a third of those people.
These same extensions are also downloaded from various other unofficial sites and I do not have statistics on that.