Jailbreaking Could Become a Legal Violation This Year

Back on July 26th of 2010, the US government made the act of jailbreaking electronic devices legal by federal law. This cleared up a lot of the confusion surrounding jailbreaking, and opened the door for folks worried about its legality.

Over the last two years we’ve been enjoying this freedom, most recently hacking our iPhone 4S and iPad 2 devices. But according to the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation), we could lose that freedom this year if we don’t act…

The EFF writes:

“Smartphones, tablets, and video game consoles are powerful computers with lots of untapped potential. Yet many of these devices are set up to run only software that’s been approved by the manufacturer. Modifying a device to run independent software – known as jailbreaking – is important to programmers, enthusiasts, and users. But jailbreaking creates legal uncertainty. Some device manufacturers claim that jailbreaking violates Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which carries stiff penalties.”

But if the U.S government already made jailbreaking legal, what are the folks at the EFF worried about? Well the ruling handed down by the Copyright Office in 2010 is due to expire this year and the EFF is looking to convince the Office to renew the exemption. Otherwise jailbreaking falls back into a murky semi-illegal state giving device manufacturers the power to pursue legal action against jailbreakers at will.

The EFF provides this link to the Copyright Office’s comment board. The Office needs to hear why folks think that jailbreaking is so important. Here are some suggested elements to include: 

• Which jailbreaking exemption are you supporting—smartphones/tablets, video game consoles, or both?
• What’s your background (are you a developer, hobbyist, user, independent researcher, etc.)?
• What device do you want to ensure you have the legal authority to jailbreak?
• What limitations would you face if you weren’t able to jailbreak?

Comments should be marked as class “5″ and are due by 5 PM ET on February 10. We’ll obviously keep you updated on the EFF’s progress and will keep a watchful eye out for the Copyright Office’s decision.

Have you sent your comment in yet? 






[Via: idownloadblog]

Virgin America’s Tribute to Steve Jobs

Image: Virgin America

Steve Jobs’ recent passing on Oct.5 sparked intense reactions all over the world, ranging from musical tributes to moving gestures by competitors to tributes from fans and late night talk shows. More than two and a half months later, it is still heartwarming to see big brands pay respect to the values Jobs stood for and to his achievements.

Virgin America adorned the side of their Airbus A320 jet with the now famous “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish” quote famously used in Steve’s 2005 Stanford University commencement address (from earlier quote from Stewart Brand, who used it in the farewell edition of the Whole Earth catalog in 1974 – thanks Josh). A spokesperson for the Silicon Valley-based airliner owned by British tycoon (and fellow entrepreneur) Richard Branson told MacRumors that it chose the quote “as part of an internal plane naming competition.” 

There are clearly legions of Steve Jobs fans at Virgin America, too.  Or at least one big fan.

The tail N845VA has been seen on the Orlando to SFO route, and it seems to be based in San Francisco.

[Via: 9to5mac]

Consider Donate to the People Who Make Jailbreaking Possible

On Friday, the first ever iPhone 4S-compatible jailbreaking utility, Absinthe, was released to the public. And although it bears the Chronic Dev Team’s moniker, a lot of folks contributed to the app’s development including pod2g, Saurik, MuscleNerd, and others.

Recent Cydia data shows that more than 1 million people jailbroke their A5 devices over the weekend, thanks to the work of the above-mentioned hackers. Can you imagine if they would have charged USD$1 to download and use their software? They’d all be rich!

But they didn’t charge us a dime, and probably never will. It blows my mind to think that so many people would put so many hours of work into creating something, and then just give it away for free.

For those interested, however, there is a way to contribute to these guys. The group has set up a shared PayPal account for donations — which are distributed among the members in pre-arranged proportions.

No, this isn’t an abused animal commercial with Sara McLachlan’s ‘Angel’ playing in the background asking for money. If you don’t want to donate, that’s cool. It’s not mandatory, but it’s always appreciated.

[Use this button to donate]

[Via: idownloadblog]

Cydia Was Installed on 953,232 Devices Over the Weekend

Earlier today, Chronic Dev Team was reporting that Absinthe, the first iPhone 4S-compatible jailbreaking utility, was downloaded more than 1 million times last Friday. That’s huge.

 

And the Dev Team seems to back up that theory with a new blog post entitled “Welcome new A5 jailbreakers!” The post breaks down how many people installed Cydia over the weekend, and on what devices…

“Here’s a quick breakdown of how many A5 owners have jailbroken their devices since Friday morning. The numbers as of Monday afternoon are:

• 491,325 new iPhone 4S devices
• 308,967 new iPad 2 devices
• 152,940 previously jailbroken (at 4.x) iPad 2 devices

Total: 953,232 new A5 jailbreaks in a little over 3 days.

The reason these numbers can be so precise is that one of the housekeeping activities that happens when you launch Cydia is a query to @saurik’s server for the list of available SHSH blobs. (Even if you have none on file, the query is still made).”

So around 800,000 devices were jailbroken this weekend for the first time. That’s pretty cool.

[Via: idownloadblog]

This is Why iPhones Are Made in China

In a recent report from the New York Times, the newspaper gives us great detail about why Apple outsources iPhone manufacturing to China, and how Steve Jobs changed the iPhone 2G weeks before the release.

The report features many short stories from Apple employees who give first-hand accounts of why Apple decided to move their manufacturing overseas. The article also gives a very interesting look of President Obama’s Silicon Valley Dinner back in February of last year . At the dinner, many Silicon Valley executives attended, including Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg.

Many executives were able to ask President Obama questions. While Steve Jobs was talking, President Obama interrupted him and asked him “what would it take to make iPhones in the United States?” Steve Jobs simply replied with “Those jobs aren’t coming back”.

The article also goes in depth about how weeks before the iPhone 2G was supposed to release, Steve Jobs had the screen changed from plastic to glass:

In 2007, a little over a month before the iPhone was scheduled to appear in stores, Mr. Jobs beckoned a handful of lieutenants into an office. For weeks, he had been carrying a prototype of the device in his pocket.

Mr. Jobs angrily held up his iPhone, angling it so everyone could see the dozens of tiny scratches marring its plastic screen, according to someone who attended the meeting. He then pulled his keys from his jeans.

People will carry this phone in their pocket, he said. People also carry their keys in their pocket. “I won’t sell a product that gets scratched,” he said tensely. The only solution was using unscratchable glass instead. “I want a glass screen, and I want it perfect in six weeks.”

Most of us probably already know why Apple outsources their manufacturing. Money. Not only is it cheaper to outsource to China, you can also hire workers much faster than in the US. Jennifer Rigoni, Apple’s former Worlwide Supply Demand Manager said “They could hire 3,000 people overnight. What U.S. plant can find 3,000 people overnight and convince them to live in dorms?”.

“The entire supply chain is in China now,” said another former high-ranking Apple executive. “You need a thousand rubber gaskets? That’s the factory next door. You need a million screws? That factory is a block away. You need that screw made a little bit different? It will take three hours.”

The article overall gives a good look at why Apple decides to manufacture their products in China. You can check the full 7-page report over at the NY Times.

[Via: idownloadblog & The New York Times]