Unlocking any new phones without your carrier’s permission will be illegal after tomorrow. The ruling came from the Librarian of Congress on October 28, 2012: 

Computer programs, in the form of firmware or software, that enable a wireless telephone handset originally acquired from the operator of a wireless telecommunications network or retailer no later than ninety days after the effective date of this exemption to connect to a different wireless telecommunications network, if the operator of the wireless communications network to which the handset is locked has failed to unlock it within a reasonable period of time following a request by the owner of the wireless telephone handset, and when circumvention is initiated by the owner, an individual consumer, who is also the owner of the copy of the computer program in such wireless telephone handset, solely in order to connect to a different wireless telecommunications network, and such access to the network is authorized by the operator of the network.

Carriers like Verizon offers iPhones already unlocked and AT&T unlocks smart phones at the end of a contract. The decision would most likely hinder companies like T-Mobile whose promotions include “bring in your own device.” Obviously this new law has plenty of opponents, there’s already a White House petition with thousands of signatures.

The same decision also makes it illegal for you to jailbreak your iPad, but not your iPhone. Confused yet? These “exemptions” are all under the Library of Congress’s authority per the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) passed in 2008. Since then, the Library has been “granting” exemptions to users of copyrighted products from eBooks to DVDs. Until the ruling on October 20, 2012, unlocking cell phones was allowed.

Apple’s new iPhone had only been in the hands of hackers for a couple days before both iOS 6 was hacked and the iPhone 5 jailbroken.

Hacker extraordinaire chpwn posted this screen shot at right on Twitter for all to see.

Taller screens like Cydia too.
— Grant Paul (chpwn) (@chpwn) September 21, 2012

He hasn’t released any details on how he accomplished this hack (instructions have been posted elsewhere), but as you can see he has installed the app marketplace Cydia on his iPhone 5.

This is great news for anyone who was salivating at the thought of what could be done with that 4″ (1136×640 resolution) screen.

Users are now going to be able to install homebrew apps and custom tweaks on the iPhone 5, giving them the opportunity to expand the abilities of the iPhone 5 far beyond what Apple allows.

A few months back I posted a video showing 100 different possible hacks which could be applied to a jailbroken iPhone, and that was just the tip of the iceberg.

It’s a fact of life that gadgets go missing from time to time, and it’s also a fact of life that sometimes he gadgets have help. That’s why I’m pleased to show you a new app which will let a hacked iPhone take photos after it’s been stolen and send those photos to your email. The app is called iLostFinder, and you can find it in Cydia.

iLostFinder is better described as a tweak. It’s not set up to run as an app so much as it’s intended to work with your iPhone’s unlock screen. Once you have the tweak installed and configured, it will sit and wait for someone to enter the wrong passcode while trying to unlock the iPhone.

iLostFinder will use the front facing camera to take a photo which will then be sent to your email. Hopefully this will help you identify whoever is holding the iPhone, be it a relative, friend, or possibly a thief. You can also set it to display a warning message with instructions on how to return the iPhone.

This demo video offers more details: Read more

There was much joy yesterday when Amazon announced the release of the Amazon Instant Video iPad app. Video lovers can now stream any of 18 thousand videos as well as rent or buy from a catalog of over 100 thousand videos.

Unfortunately, the joy was tempered by the sad realization that the app refused to run on jailbroken iPads. There was little reason for the block, given that jailbreaking has little to do with piracy (and there are easy ways to get free content anyway). Read more