JailBreak Prevails!

This news is old but it's still a breath taking to say that last July, 26, 2010 the US Government has legalized software jailbreaking and unlocking, finally bringing the Americans on par with their oversea counterparts who’ve always been able to legally escape clutches of their phone makers and carriers. Meaning everyone will be able to run sanctioned apps on their iDevices or use the phone with another carrier.

It’s one of a “handful of new exemptions” from a 1998 federal law put in place basically in order to protect access to copyrighted works, the news gathering organization explained:

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.

Au contraire, running third-party apps that crack a phone’s baseband software is no longer a big no-no. This means anyone can now unlock their phone and switch carriers. Even more interesting, other exemptions allow cracking technical protections on video games to “investigate or correct security flaws” and bypassing security dongles if ones breaks and can’t be replaced.

But it doesn't stop there: Now it's perfectly legal to crack those dreaded DVD copy-protection schemes in order to rip the clips and use them for education, criticism, commentary, and noncommercial videos, but sadly it's only limited to college professors, film students, and documentary filmmakers.

Want your iPod Touch turn into an iPhone.

I recently found out that Apple's iPod Touch owners (such as myself) could get cellular features on it, which by the way it's awesome for those who wants to turn their iPod Touch into an iPhone.

a Chinese company called Yosion Technology, has developed the Apple Peel 520, which is a protective case with cellular enabler making the iPod Touch have call function and it's available online for about $57 USD  (Estimated around $445 HKD) with a one-year warranty. 

According to Chinese magazine PConline, the accessory fixes onto the iPod Touch and comes with a dock connector; built-in 800mAh battery (rated for 4.5 hours of talk time and five days on standby); and SIM card slot. It will only work with a jailbroken iPod Touch as the Yosion and YsSMS apps have to be installed for calling and messaging, and these will be able to run in the background. The Peel 520 will initially launch with a silicone rubber case, but a plastic version can be expected in the future. 

Note, that the Peel 520 doesn't turn the iPod Touch into a "full-fledged phone", and also stated that there's no auto screen lock when the handset is next to the ear and no caller name/number display. Bluetooth and hands-free calling weren't available during the hands-on test of the prototype, but these will reportedly be supported in the retail version of the Peel 520. According to initial tests, the reviewer didn't experience any dropped calls, although there was noticeable lag before the iPod Touch registered an incoming call. 

New iPhone = iDisappoint

Yesterday they were unveiling the new iPhone in San Francisco by Apple Inc's new chief executive Tim Cook, who replaced ailing icon Steve Jobs and I was shock to find out that an updated model iPhone 4S, which I believe Apple dialed a wrong number who were eagerly waiting iPhone 5 such as myself. No pun intended. XP

Apple fans worldwide, including us in Hong Kong, groaned in disappointment to think buying a lot of merchandise from the first Apple store in Hong Kong "claiming it sold more Macs on its opening day than any other Apple store in the world, Cook said", would bring us one step closer to the most anticipated smartphone of 2011 the iPhone 5, but all we got is a built-in talking assistant, dual-core A5 processor, 8 megapixel camera, 1080p HD recording with temporal noise reduction and in the end it's the same old iPhone 4 with a capital S on it.  It' will be available in 16, 32 or 64gb, I guess there's no 8gb cause it's too small nowadays unless it's purely for calling and texting which redundant, you can purchase a cheaper phone with that kind of usage.  A lot of people say iPhone is always a success. Now this time it is a failure, Such a disappointment.

More info about the built-in talking assistant. It's called Siri, it combines voice activation and artificial intelligence, allowing users to ask their smartphone questions such as the time, weather and can even make a phone call and reply to text messages. The smartphone's starting price of US$199 (HK$1,552) for a 16-gigabyte model in the United States could be its biggest come-on. Apple has yet to announce the Hong Kong price. The iPhone 4S will be officially available in Hong Kong by the end of next month and I also read that 16GB model at HK$15,000 each and the 64GB model at HK$25,000 man that's hefty price. Anyway some people are already accepting pre-orders of iPhone 4S on auction site eBay, selling 64GB models at about US$770(HK$6,005).