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iPad Jailbroken
A day after the release of Apple's tablet computer, a hacker claims to have gained root access to the iPad. "A well-known hacker of the iPhone, who previously defeated Apple's restrictions on developers, has claimed in a video to have hacked the iPad. Just a day after release, the hacker, who goes by 'MuscleNerd' online, said that he has gained root access to the iPad..."
Try to get outside apps running on a kindle.
Kindle Hacking: it's a lovely little linux box
What you see there is a Kindle 2 with the Ubuntu 9.04 port to ARM running in a chrooted environment. On the screen you see xdaliclock in front of an xterm with the remains of a "top" command and a few mildly embarrassing typos.
To open up the Kindle, I used the USB networking debug mode Amazon left hanging around when they first shipped the Kindle 2, a statically linked telnetd and a cross-compiler to bootstrap myself. From there, I built a daemon that can convert DRM-free PDFs and ePubs into something Amazon's reader on the Kindle can deal with.
After that, I started to get curious about what else might be possible. It only took a few evenings to get a moderately usable Ubuntu environment running.
Mostly, the Kindle is a lovely little Linux box. Getting X working took a bit of hacking, but everything else "just works" with very little configuration.
I have OS X running on a whitebox - next question. Just because they officially discourage it, doesn't mean it is not possible. They don;t even make it difficult. The install DVD is not encrypted, has no serial numbers, does not phone home, does not need online activation. While it technically infringes the licence to do so, it is not hard to do.
Dayy-um! You Apple fanbois are deluded! Because it's hacked/hackable to work on a whitebox somehow equates to the company supporting it or making it an open system. So by this logic, the iPhone is an open platform as well, because it can be jailbroken. Whoa... whatever!
"Every product locked down" - this is just nonsense. While OS X itself features closed source components, just because this is the case doesn't mean it cannot be open. Open and open source are not the same thing. OS X features a multitude of open protocols, codecs, standards and features that are designed to make it play well with other operating systems, as well as a continued commitment to open source projects that it includes and bases large parts of its systems on - CUPS, Webkit, libdispatch, OpenGL, OpenAL, GCC etc etc, just to name a couple.
Because they have appropriated open source software for their own use and are making a profit on it, while at the same time closing off parts of it and making it impossible to write drivers for or boot on white box systems somehow makes them open? It's the exact OPPOSITE of open. They are only as "open" as they have to be to keep customers. I'm not faulting them for taking open source software and making a viable business out of it, in fact I commend them for such and have absolutely no problem with it. What I do have a problem with is people such as your self that try to then claim that they are somehow open and "good" when they are purely out for profit and any way they can squeeze more profit out of their customers is a good thing.
If they were truly open, why not sell OSX for any whitebox? Because they don't want to - they want to keep a CLOSED SYSTEM. I mean, duh. Come on, can you really not see this? They want to maintain control over the entire environment, this is diametrically opposed to an "open" system.
If Apple wanted to lock people into an App Store for OS X they would have done so already - they will do what works for them in a business sense, nothing more, nothing less.
No, they wouldn't have. As I already posted, if they thought they could get away with it, they would have ... but if they tried it, their meager share of the OS market would dwindle to numbers not even worth tracking. The only reason they do NOT have a locked in environment, as I've already said, is because they don't have the power to force users into this. They have/had that power with the iPhone and look what they've done with it. You are insane to think they wouldn't love to do the same with the entire Mac line if they could somehow convince their users to do it... but it would leave too much to be desired at this point, since there is already a huge ecosystem built around a quasi-open standard that is the Windows environment. Trying to cut that off at the knees would be suicide for OSX.
It is a fallacy to suggest that because the iPhone business model was successful for Apple that they would try and shoehorn that onto the Mac business model.
I don't suggest any such thing. I'm saying they don't have the muscle to make it happen, and the iPhone is a perfect example of why they should NEVER be given that muscle.
You might as well say that now that Xbox live and the 360 are so well entrenched that MS will be moving that business model onto Windows.
Moving what business model to windows? You mean... oh I don't know ... Games for Windows Live? So... like, you mean moving the console model to Windows, which is EXACTLY what they have done/are in the process of doing? Are you trying to make my case or yours? Because you're succeeding very well in the former and failing miserably in the latter.
N.B. The iPad is fully legible in full sunlight.
Good luck, however, reading your Kindle in the dark.
The Kindle DX is the closet thing to an iPad in the Kindle line, and costs about the same as an entry-level iPad.
Comparing the two:
With the Kindle DX you get a reflective screen that's readable in intense daylight, free included 3G in perpetuity (so you can ... buy more books wirelessly), and 4 days of battery life (with wireless on; 2 weeks with it off). It's a reader's device through and through.
Unless I'm mistaken, that's about where the advantages of the Kindle end. In every other dimension, I think the iPad owns it pretty hard.
There are no karma whores, only moderation johns
It makes your warranty void,
Point. But while arguing for the right to hack and tinker, that sort of comes with the job so is not an issue.
Installing not-windows on your HP voids warranties too, as stupid as that sounds, which is the exact type of thing the GP is wanting in his hardware.
I'm not saying this is a good thing, it's just not something a tinkerer/hacker type can really expect to state with a straight face.
prevents you from installing the official security patch,
Nonsense. My jail broken phone is running the latest software and patches.
and is generally a legal grey area ...
It is actually very easy to do without having to download or distribute any of apples copyrighted software (or any other software without an explicitly free license)
While of course some people can, and probably most people do, use jail breaking to violate copyrights with pirated apps, this is in no way a requirement and only takes your own will power not to do it to avoid breaking the law.
The open repositories that you gain access to with the jail broken software have a whole lot of free software, and you can of course continue to install free itunes apps.
Nothing about me modifying hardware I own, in ways that do not touch upon others rights, is in any way a legal gray area.
HA-HA-HA-HA!!!
First of all, that's not a tablet, that's a laptop with a swiveling screen ... Seems pretty brittle to me, and certainly looks like it was designed during the darkest days of Soviet Russia, but more importantly, did you even read the specs of that? Copy/pasting:
* 8.9-inch touchscreen-enhanced Eee PC
* Panel rotates 180-degrees into tablet mode for ultra mobility
* Energy-efficient Intel Atom Z520 processor
* Long-lasting battery life with 5 hours of interrupted use*
* Exclusive touch-optimized software suite
* 52GB Hybrid Storage (16GB SSD + 16GB SD Card + 20GB Eee online Storage**)
* Complete wirless connectivity with Bluetooth v2.1 and Wi-Fi 802.1 b/g/n
* Complimentary stylus for ultimate precision
My face started to contract in a smirk when I got to the "5 hours of interrupted use*" (note the asterisk pointing to some caveats), but then I cracked in a loud laugh when I got to the "Hybrid Storage": 52 GB including 20 GB of ONLINE STORAGE??? Gimme a fscking break, at least Apple has the good taste to wrap their reality distortion with beautiful visuals! If this is the best cr*p you can come up with (and if it isn't, epic fail!) then the iPad is a better buy than I had thought!!
(And "complimentary stylus for ultimate precision"? As in "our touch interface is really not that finger-friendly, and is multi-touch only in the sense that if you touch it once then you can touch it again and again, multiple times in succession!!"??? The most laughable counter-example I've seen in a while!)