iOS hacker Pod2g, who has become increasingly famous over the last few weeks thanks to the progress he’s made on an untethered jailbreak for iOS 5, is one step closer to jailbreaking the iPhone 4S. Apple’s latest iPhone was tricky to hack thanks to its new dual-core A5 processor, but Pod2g reports the new chip “is not a problem anymore.”
We’ve seen Siri do nearly everything imaginable, but did you know that Apple’s virtual assistant is also a musician? The Yamaha Disklavier can be controlled by Siri, as demonstrated in the above video.
Siri takes a song from your iPhone’s Music library and sends it through an Airport Express to then get analyzed and played perfectly by the piano. Hey, it’s a lot easier than learning the piano yourself, right?
While hackers have already managed to figure out how to get a tethered jailbreak working for any iOS device released before the iPhone 4, and there’s even an untethered jailbreak on the horizon thanks to jailbreak master pod2g.
But what of the iPhone 4S and iPad 2? Thanks to security enhancements made to the A5 CPU, they are tougher nuts to crack. But hope is in sight, thanks to the efforts of pod2G, who thinks he’s almost managed to successfully jailbreak the iPhone 4S… except for one little hiccup.
If you haven’t already seen Apple’s new iPhone 4S ad in which Santa uses Siri, then go and check it out — it’s really great. You may notice than when Santa checks his calendar, he has 3.7 billion appointments on Christmas Eve, four of which are with Whitney Kollar, Mark Sloan, Paula Cristalli, and David Young.
These aren’t just random names dreamt up by employees at Apple’s marketing firm — they are employees at Apple’s marketing firm.
Apple recently seeded a second revision of its iOS 5.0.1 firmware, and besides decrypting key files that aid in the legality of a Siri port, the update seemed to bring nothing new to the table. Some speculated that the second update had something to do with Apple’s continued international rollout of the iPhone 4S.
It turns out that the new iOS 5.0.1 (Build 9A406) is meant to fix SIM-related errors that a limited number of iPhone 4S customers have been experiencing.
Samsung dropped its lawsuit against Apple in Germany after discovering a Qualcomm licensing agreement could shield the iPhone 4S from 3G patent-infringement charges. The South Korean smartphone maker later denied it was letting Apple completely off the hook.
For all of the talk of Foxconn opening a factory in Brazil to churn out iPhones and iPads, here’s the big, overlooked reason that Brazilian Apple fans need their devices to be built locally: 46.76% of any Apple device’s cost in Brazil is made up of crazy import taxes.
Siri is by far the iPhone 4S’s most-desired feature, and many non-4S users have been clamoring for hackers to make the voice assistant available on older iOS devices. While Siri ports have been demoed to the public before, it’s been made clear that public distribution is not possibile at this time due to legal issues.
Apple has made a Siri port legally possible with today’s iOS 5.0.1 revision by offering wide-open access to system files that were previously encrypted.
Apple has released two minor software updates today. A tweaked version of iOS 5.0.1 (Build 9A406) for the iPhone 4S has been pushed for users who haven’t yet upgraded to the latest firmware (essentially replacing the current 5.0.1 build).
The second-generation Apple TV has been updated to version 4.4.4 (Build 9A406a) and features small bug fixes and stability improvements. Both updates can be downloaded now.
The booster rockets have yet to stop for iPhone demand. That’s the word from one Wall Street analyst expecting sales of Apple’s handset to be 30 percent higher than predicted for the December quarter – and even more in 2012.
I’ve been so excited for the iOS port of Grand Theft Auto 3 that as soon as I opened my eyes this morning, I reached over to my iPhone and checked the App Store to see if it had arrived. (Sad, I know.) As promised, it was there, and having played it for a little while this morning, I can assure you it’s better than you ever imagined.
Apple’s new Siri assistant has really revolutionized the way in which we interact with mobile devices using our voice. It’s no wonder, then, that rivals are scrambling to introduce their own alternatives. Google already has one for Android, according to some reports, called Majel, and it’ll debut during the first quarter of 2012.
iOS hacker and Chronic Dev-Team member Pod2g is making quite a name for himself right now as he works away on an untethered jailbreak for iOS 5. According to his latest blog posts, he has now completed the code for an untethered jailbreak on all A4-powered devices, suggesting a public release of the exploit isn’t too far away.
Short on cash for the holidays? If you don’t mind shopping at Radio Shack and have an old iPhone to trade-in, you can get a killer deal on a new iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S this week.
How killer? Well, how does a free iPhone 4S with no money down sound to you? Pretty good? Well, guess what: play your cards right and you could not only get a free iPhone 4S, you’ll get Radio Shack to pay you a little money to take an iPhone 4S off their hands. You just need to combine the right offers.
Here’s a great sleight-of-hand trick from Samsung: trumpet that you’ve sold 300 million phones through November. While everyone is amazed that the South Korean company pumped out nearly six times as many mobile phones than Apple, people will forget the iPhone maker rules smartphone profits. Nice try, but it won’t work.
The iPhone 4S has finally been approved by Chinese regulators. Apple’s newest device today received its network approval, paving the way for carrier China Unicom to begin offering the smartphone in time for Christmas.
Earlier this morning, we told you about a promising untethered jailbreak for most older devices capable of running iOS 5. Unfortunately, though, this jailbreak will only work on past-gen devices like the iPhone 4, the iPhone 3GS, and the iPod touch.
Why? So far, the A5 chip inside of the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S have proven impossible to jailbreak by conventional methods. The iPad 2 was jailbreakable under iOS 4.3.3 thanks to the JailbreakMe 3.0 userland exploit, but since then, no further jailbreaks — tethered or untethered — have been identified.
Here’s the good news, though. French jailbreaker Pod2G just took to his Twitter feed and while he didn’t confirm his new jailbreak exploit would work on the iPhone 4S or iPad 2, he at least suggested that it was possible it would. Could this be the ray of hope every iPhone 4S owner has been looking for?
In technology, two years can be a lifetime. It’s encouraging to learn the iPhone 3G is still going strong. According to reports, suppliers will ship 2 million of the handsets during the December quarter, making it the second best-selling iPhone behind the iPhone 4.
Warner Bros. issued an update to its terrific Scribblenauts Remix game for iOS yesterday, which introduces voice-controlled gameplay to the iPhone 4S with a feature called “Scibblespeak.” Much like Siri, the device’s built-in digital assistant, Scribblespeak allows you to create objects like a “zombified cheerleader” using nothing but your voice
In the ever-changing patent wars, somedays you are the windshield and some days you are the bug. After coming up roses Thursday, Apple finds itself on the losing side against Samsung and Motorola.
How do you know you’re reading a report from a bug-eyed, sensationalist quack? When they take the newest and hottest trend and then say, “It’s almost as bad as this other popular trend amongst godless teenagers today!”
Here’s a good case study. Over at Fox News, a psychiatrist is claiming that Siri is just as damaging psychologically to kids as “violent video games!” WHAT?!?! Heaven forfend!
Although AT&T provided few details on how many iPhones the carrier sold this quarter, several analysts are upping their estimates based on consensus that Apple will report record-breaking sales. The Apple smartphone has “general strength across the board” with sales hovering around 30 million units for the three-month period.
The Olloclip ($70) is a clip-on device for iPhone 4 and 4S which gives the built-in camera lens a little more flexibility for wide angle and close-up shots.
It includes three lenses. At one end, the largest of the three is the fisheye. At the other end you have a general-purpose wide angle. Unscrew this, and you uncover a tiny macro lens nestling underneath.
This week, a lot was made in the news about Siri’s supposed pro-life leanings. Essentially, a bunch of people got upset because Siri couldn’t find a local abortion clinic, even though abortion clinics don’t actually call themselves that. Apple denied that Siri had any pro-life leanings whatsoever, saying instead the service was in “beta.”
So what really happened? Well, Apple just learned its first lesson about search: you’re held responsible when the information people are expecting to see doesn’t show up in a search query, even if that information is only tangentially related to the actual words in the query. It’s a headache Google’s been dealing with for almost a decade.
This video shot with an iPhone 4S has a couple of great “We’re going to need a bigger boat” moments in it. Shot about 25 miles southeasy of Wrighstville Beach, the 18 foot Great White shark circled this 21 foot ship for a good half hour, occasionally slapping the side of the boat with its tail, probably to test how easily the boat of meat would capsize. Incredible.
[via Daring Fireball]