New iPad Jailbroken Already 255
An anonymous reader writes "Just hours after the new Apple iPad was released, it was jailbroken in three (how appropriate!) separate ways. This means that hackers have already found and exploited security holes to run custom code on the new iPad with iOS 5.1. The tools for jailbreaking your new iPad aren't yet available, but this first step means the software will be developed sooner rather than later."
Jailbreaks (Score:4, Insightful)
Remember: Jailbreaks are code execution vulnerabilities. On your oh so secure Apple device.
Re:I'm not going to make the tablet mistake again. (Score:5, Insightful)
Tablets are media consumption platforms for people that don't really use their computers for serious task, oh I know someone will post how they hacked the Gibson using their iPad and a bluetooth keyboard, but for the most part it's a consumer toy for consuming consumer baubles.
Moooooooooooooooooo
Re:Jailbreaks (Score:5, Insightful)
Remember: Jailbreaks are code execution vulnerabilities. On your oh so secure Apple device.
No software is 100% secure, all you can do is fix bugs and security holes as they become evident.
Speaking of that, when Apple *does* fix these security holes, it's painted as "Apple patches jailbreaking because they hate freedom!!!" instead of "Apple closes security vulnerability".
Damned if they do, damned if they don't, I suppose.
(Disclaimer: I think iOS should have a built in 'advanced' mode that effectively results in the same thing as jailbreaking).
This is good news (Score:2, Insightful)
I always wondered when people would start saying that the Apple OS was less secure than Windows.
Re:I'm not going to make the tablet mistake again. (Score:2, Insightful)
As a grad student, it works alright for basic note taking, e-books, browsing the web and the like, and I really like the fact that it is so portable given the battery life and miniscule weight. If you grab a bluetooth mouse and keyboard, you actually can get a pretty nice set-up going for basic functionality. However, I've noticed that my productivity for anything more in depth than what's described above has completely tanked. Sure, you can edit documents and store them in Dropbox for later, but you still have to go back and edit them on an actual computer to apply advanced styles or fix anything the tablet corrupted. You can't view applications side by side and must continually switch between them. Furthermore, some apps are just non-existent. I'd love to see some apps that could actually compile code. The only one I've seen do this successfully is AIDE for Android, which is catered towards actual Android development. I have yet to see just a basic C/Java/Python compiler for command line style programs, but the fact is the tablet is just not designed for that kind of work.
While I get a lot of use from my tablet now, basically because I have no other choice for this semester, I will be buying a laptop to do my main work. I'll keep the tablet as an e-reader.
Re:I'm not going to make the tablet mistake again. (Score:5, Insightful)
Riiiiiiiight. Because "useful to me" is synonymous with "useful to anyone". You're the ur-consumer. Everyone actually enjoying and consistently using their tablets is doing it wrong.
Re:Jailbreaks (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:I'm not going to make the tablet mistake again. (Score:5, Insightful)
Riiiiiiiight. Because "useful to me" is synonymous with "useful to anyone". You're the ur-consumer. Everyone actually enjoying and consistently using their tablets is doing it wrong.
Actually, if you look at Slashdot's history for getting the next big thing in tech completely wrong (rather lame, actually), all you have to do is find the next device that Slashdot Groupthink really hates and bet long on it.
Profit!
Re:Jailbreaks (Score:5, Insightful)
Damned if they do, damned if they don't, I suppose.
False dichotomy; they could have just shipped tablets that were not locked down, or as you yourself suggest, tablets which can be unlocked by the user.
And the cycle needlessly continues. (Score:4, Insightful)
Mad props to these guys and their reverse engineering skills. Perhaps one day Apple will decide it's simply not worth the effort to keep up with the cat-and-mouse game of jailbreak/patch and just finally allow people to sideload apps and use their tablets however they want. Sadly, I don't foresee this happening.
Re:I'm not going to make the tablet mistake again. (Score:5, Insightful)
An easier way to express this is also "Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public."
Re:I'm not going to make the tablet mistake again. (Score:5, Insightful)
Idiotic.
You don't try to cook pizza in your microwave, do you? You don't watch a movie on your phone (unless you have no other choice), do you?
The iPad is a wonderful "adjunct" to a computer. It is NOT a replacement therefore, and it was never intended as such. It is, however, the perfect device for, for example, the following:
Looking up stuff on the internet while sitting in your livingroom. (Coffee-table computing), where the "instant-on" puts nearly ZERO annoyance factor between desire for information and fulfilment.
Using as an auxiliary computer using Telnet and/or VNC-type connectivity while doing development (or do you carry a second display with your laptop?)
Many musical applications (synthesizer/DAW control, mobile multitrack recording, etc.). In fact, I'd like a SECOND iPad for that!
Medium-scale gaming. Most games on a phone are a joke, due to screen size.
"Take anywhere" home security display/control. (Insert advertisement for LiveCams Pro here). Again, phone screen is too small, and the laptop isn't with you in the garage.
Oh, and as an e-reader while working. I use mine to browse documentation while doing development on my work-laptop. No more pawing back and forth between windows... REALLY handy when trying to learn something new!
CAN you do these things with other devices? Sure; but that's not the point. The point is whether it's BETTER for the application; not whether the application is POSSIBLE using another device.
And before I get yelled at for the "caps", I can't stand breaking my train of thought to shove in ridiculous HTML "style" tags, just because I want to emphasize a word; so I use "caps". Get over it. I'm NOT shouting...
Re:I'm not going to make the tablet mistake again. (Score:5, Insightful)
I have to admit it, I got caught up in the hype and I bought an tablet. The novelty wore off after a couple of days. Since then, it has sat on my desk, almost completely unused. In fact, it's one of the worst purchases I've ever made.
I bought a small car the other day. Worst purchase I ever made: it won't tow my boat, there's no room in the back for a goat and it can't transport my family of six. After a 1000 mile drive I feel totally exhausted, and it got stuck 100 yards up the half mile dirt track to my house, where it stays while I drive around in my old SUV.
Oh, wait, that's a lie - I have a small car because I don't have a house at the end of a dirt track, a boat, six kids, a goat or a regular need to drive more than a couple of hundred miles... And If I did, I'd quite possibly keep a second small car for convenience when I didn't need to take the goat.
That's where we're heading: PC=truck, Tablet=small car. Pick one or both depending on your needs.
The tablet is ideal for browsing the web, checking email (and making brief replies), playing casual games etc. while sitting in a comfy chair. I can also run the on-demand players for all 5 main TV channels here (only one of which is available on my "smart" TV). At meetings and conferences it's all I need to carry around unless I'm demoing certain bits of software, and it's a much less obtrusive way of taking meeting notes. I can plug in a camera adapter and preview my shots on the road (thats where the new iPads retina display is going to shine).
What it won't do is supplant my proper computer for serious work. However, I know quite a few people for whom a tablet would be all the portable computer they needed. For me, it's all the computer I need while sitting in an armchair.
Ps. I agree that the ePaper Kindle is a better tool for reading a novel. however, that's all a Kindle can do - even for reference books I find the tablet better.
Sent from my Tablet, sitting in a comfy chair.
Re:Or... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:I'm not going to make the tablet mistake again. (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm not some super-fucking-nerdburger like you are. When you can explain to me, in English, how I can get a C compiler onto my tablet without having a Ph.D in computer engineering, then I might take notice.
You want to have a C compiler, without knowing anything about computers?
This may be hard for you, in your infinite wisdom, to believe; but some people just want to run code.
Sure, lots of people want to just run code. These people, however, are not the same ones who want a C compiler. The people who want a C compiler, generally, are the ones that want to write C code. If you're not comfortable with compiling code yourself, then perhaps a C compiler is not the sort of application that you want to use.
Re:I'm not going to make the tablet mistake again. (Score:2, Insightful)
Idiotic.
You don't try to cook pizza in your microwave, do you? You don't watch a movie on your phone (unless you have no other choice), do you?
The iPad is a wonderful "adjunct" to a computer. It is NOT a replacement therefore, and it was never intended as such.
Then why do morons insist on using lame terms like "Post-PC quarter" and market them to folks as futuristic computer replacements. With glitzy UI's that sacrifice efficiency and powerful features for sloppy finger-based poke-and-drool ease on overpriced consumer devices that are used more to check facebook status updates than actual real world productivity. And to play lame-ass games. Or for little girls to play with FaceTime inspired by lame-ass disney afterschool shows.
Maybe for computer novices with no intention of ever learning to type or learn anything about *real* computing, they seem like wonder devices. In other words, most students in the United States of America who are having them issued by school districts.
And why are even supposedly educated radio announcers on NPR are typically oblivious that tablet computing has existed since the early 90's? In fact those devices are actually more USEFUL in trained hands than the current crop. Why does Apple even pretend their own Newton never existed?