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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..."
If you'd get a normal tablet or computer, you wouldn't need to jailbreak it. Apple is moving us towards closed computer environments. If Microsoft did this everyone would be angry about it, but now that it's Apple its all fine and classy.
MuscleNerd is a pretty active contributor on the iPhone dev team, and has assisted significantly in finding vulnerabilities to SIM-unlock and jailbreak the iPhone with. It was only a matter of time, anyway.
Jailbroken or not, the iPad is still locked into Apple. There are much better alternatives to the iPad which will allow you freedom over your own device.
.Jailbroken or not, the iPad is still locked into Apple.
If it were, what would be the point?
In fact the whole point of Jailbreaking is to be able to ALSO run stuff Apple didn't approve, from Cydia or other sources.
Or to do your own development without going through Apple (though a $99/year barrier is hardly off-putting).
You can also continue to run Apple approved apps too, but it's hardly "locked" to be given a full range of options including commercial ones sold through Apple...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
why do we care?
People who buy this device are buying into the environment created for the device by Apple. As such, someone gaining root access to the device that Apple will analyze and patch, and you *still* won't be able to use the app store for... seems like a waste.
So, I ask again... why do we care?
0100010001101001011001 0100100000011010010110 1110001000000110000100 1000000110011001101001 0111001001100101
If you'd get a normal tablet or computer, you wouldn't need to jailbreak it. Apple is moving us towards closed computer environments.
Apple still sells laptops you know. And desktops. And the continue to improve both.
The other platforms are just as open as ever, they are not moving to a closed model.
Indeed, if Apple had done just what so many people on Slashdot demanded, and released the same OS X shipping on the laptops with an Apple app store then I could see something of a point, of a direction Apple wanted you to go that was entirely closed.
But instead they continue to do just what they have been doing, which is in ADDITION to growing an open platform, they are also growing a closed one as well so that people who gain no benefit from an open platform can gain the benefits of integration that come with a closed one.
And if in fact you thought the matter over carefully, you'd see that in fact Apple is still leaning just ever so much toward the open platform anyway since they are on the leading edge (along with Google) of full HTML 5 support on the "closed" platform that anyone can develop applications for featuring local storage, offline access, and all sorts of platform integration with things like the GPS and accelerometer...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
"In MY impression there is a preponderance of Apple-hating commenters here on Slashdot."
I think you'll find that about 20% of posters hate Apple, 20% would defend Apple if they were killing babies, and the rest don't care. Since you're an unabashed fan of Apple, I think you've adopted a bunker-like mentality that makes you feel that unless you're very complimentary to Apple that you hate them and you need to speak up to defend the honor of poor beleaguered Apple.
If you got a normal tablet or computer it'd suck. If I wanted that I could have, and did, buy it a decade ago. If Microsoft locked up the platform it'd be unbearable because the default platform would be so poorly designed, buggy, and lacking of basic functionality. You'd still be able to get a virus but you wouldn't be able to remove it.
The only reason to jailbreak the iPad IMO is to do connection sharing. I'd imagine the restrictions on THAT exist so that AT&T and others are willing to give such cheap data plans.
At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
Apple is good at marketing to the hipster market. Each hipster has a large supply of money they can spend, but didn't actually work for. It mainly comes from each hipster's parents and/or trust funds.
Now, Apple has gotten a lot of money from these hipsters in the past, and will likely get more in the future. This makes it look like their ideas are "good" to the executives at competing manufacturers, even when they're very fucked ideas (you know, like closed platforms).
After seeing Apple's success, HP, Dell, Google, Microsoft and others will try to emulate it by producing their own shitty tablets built upon closed platforms with shitty "app stores" and all of that crap. So now when you go to buy a computer, you'll get stuck dealing with all this nonsense.
You won't be able to buy an open tablet, all thanks to Apple and their success tricking their competitors into thinking that closed-platforms are the way to go.
It's probably good for browsing porn. I hate always having to boot a full OS for just to browse porn. It looks super portable too, so I'd be able to browse porn from just about anywhere. It has a fairly big screen, which would be good for browsing porn. And good battery life so I could browse porn for long periods of time. The touch screen is nice, so I'd be able to touch the porn I'm browsing. It has good Internets connections, so I'd be able to browse lots of porn fast. I don't think it's good for much else. I think I'm sold.
The Kindle is an e-book reader, not a tablet PC.
The iPad is an overgrown iPod Touch, not a tablet PC. For one thing, "PC" in Apple marketing language usually refers to Lenovo-compatible hardware running an operating system made by Microsoft.
You're still bound by Apple's environment. It's like having a laptop where you can't change your OS and in order install more applications you have to hack it.
Actually, Jailbreaking means you CAN change the core workings of the OS if you choose - you can replace any executable on the device, or (even better thanks to the Objective-C runtime) you can easy drop in replacements for individual methods in applications, commercial or built-in (like Springboard).
Your original point was "jailbroken or not", you cannot simply now stick your head in the sand and pretend it's impossible to jailbrake to proclaim of shortcomings that matter only to technical users (exactly the ones with the skills needed to jailbrake, though the iPhone tools were easy enough you didn't have to be especially technical).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Well, that didn't take long!
When I can tether the $499 iPad with my iPhone, I'll probably get one to replace my Acer Aspire One.
I have the money for the 3g version, but the idea of paying for two unlimited data plans is just offensive to me.
plus I can buy and fit / swap batteries with one button, use the webcam, burn dvd's, watch true HD on the 1920x1200 screen, etc etc etc...
obviously I haven't drunk the apple kool-aid
http://slashdot.org/~GuyFawkes/journal
Touchbook and WePad are the two I'm currently considering.
Including anything. Any piece of hardware that you buy to own belongs to you
In that case, watch these devices not be sold at all. Instead, the manufacturer will lease a device to you on a 20-year term with full payment up front, after which the lessee is expected to ship the device back. Because the manufacturer still owns the device, it can continue to place such demands on lessees.
Unless you buy a stand, you need to hold the device with one hand to keep it angled so you can look at it and if your other hand is busy that means you have no way to change pictures, etc.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
Come on, Dr. Sheldon Cooper, we all know it's you behind the lame nickname !
(Great punchline to episode 18 though !)
Running software not designed for it is not the real issue here. The issue is what is a stake and how appropriate the lockdown is.
apple tends to argue for "speed bump" DRM. basically make something difficult enough or a sufficient game of cat and mouse on the one hand (the speed bump) and and offer an express lane you can pay for. So for example, itunes. you can break the audio files if you want to. they impose some speed bumps to make it not worth your effort. then they offer enhanced value for staying in the itunes eco-system: the seemless updates to the ipod, cover art access, organization of the meta data, safe store, etc... All things you could do on your own but would most people would prefer it to happen magically rather farting around with bit torrent or sending your credit card to some russian mafia website.
Now for somethings like the iphone they have taken a much more agressive lockdown. I rationalize that by thinking about what they are protecting. You don't want crazy shit happening on a cell phone. so you make it hard to install anything not vetted by the mothership. Even the android market has this vetting. It's not that you can't do it. they just make it even harder. people will get much more enraged if their cell phones crash or the cell network itself starts malfunctioning.
SO that makes sense.
the Ipad is sort of in the middle regime so it's going to be more of a test of how apple wants to go. it's really more of a general purpose computer. some units don't have cell phones in them, and even those are not there primarily for voice but for data.
so you could see them going either way on this one. My suspiscion is they will try to maintain the lockdown. that's what they did with the ipod touch (which is not a cell phone).
The new rationale will be that this is an appliance not something you are supposed to mess with. protection for content owners will be seen as paramount over make-like access to the internals. Byt treating it as a appliance that protects content owners they will be able to more freely provide content without onerous access modalities. This will keep the device behaving more like an appliance than a computer.
COntrary to cory doctrow I see this as good. why? well it's not an either or situation, it's an all of the above. If I want true access to my computer then I should buy a computer that allows this. it's called a laptop. I can put linux on it. it's mine to mod. But I should expect that I'll also run into access restrictions from content owners. I might find that less user freindly. On the other hand if I want easy access then there's this appliance I can use for that. I can't modify it. that's the trade, but it's a trade that gives me a value I want.
you could wish for both in one device and if this were easy to provide then someone will do it.
but because both devices, laptop and appliance exist, I have not lost anything.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
I'm looking forward to doing some of the excellent unsanctioned things jailbroken iPhones can do on my iPad, such as lock screen calendar, weather and notifications, Palm Pre-style multitasking, video wallpaper, themes etc.
Unfortunately, one of us is misinformed. If you could point me to any phones or tablet PCs running Microsoft operating systems that have locked down application distribution pipelines, I'd be surprised. It has been my understanding that I can write a program for any Microsoft OS, put it on my website, and let anyone run it without Microsoft's permission.
The Xbox is the only exception I'm aware of, and in many ways it is still the most open mainstream game console on the market (for developers).
Insert self-referential sig here.
Firefox says that Google says that this site has viruses or browser exploits in it...
Anyway. A little googling revealed the following. I'm not suggesting they're a 1:1 replacement for the iPad, but they might be worth further investigation:
1. The Enso Zenpad. This seems to be about $250. It's 5" which is a little on the small side and runs Android. Not sure what the battery life is like, but it is apparently shipping now. It does not seem to have built-in 3G, but it can take an adaptor via USB and does support WiFi.
2. The HiVision Speedpad. I'm not sure this is shipping but it's a 7" 800x480 Android device, which claims to retail for $100(!) The battery life is allegedly 6 hours. Again, no internal 3G, but it can take a USB adaptor and it comes with WiFi built-in.
For the love of God people! WTF is wrong with you guys? It is a freaking mass produced consumer product, not the elixir of youth or manna from heaven. It is also not the Dajjal (AntiChrist) either. Do you vehemently argue over the merits/evils of your washing machine or your sink's waste disposal unit? If people want to buy a severely crippled product, it is their own decision to make and money to spend. You do not lose anything if someone else buys it. Similarly, if people don't like a particular Apple/Microsoft/Boeing/Airbus/Sienar/Incom etc. product, then they are not committing heresy against the Holy name of the Immortal Omniscient God Emperor either. Get it into your heads people! There is no obligation on you to support or hate a freaking mass-production, soulless commercial entity.
Because it does.
apple will not be able to do this on a desktop / full laptop and with M$ tried this the US GOV will stop it so fast.
apple hardware lock in is bad but a app store lock in with fees for people to make free apps and a 30% cut of sales for payed apps will KILL MAC OS X.
I was in Best Buy a week ago (that is, pre-iPad), and I didn't see a tablet PC running Windows or Linux.
Didn't Microsoft introduce TabletPC in 2001? Aren't there lots of iPad killers about to hit the shelves? Didn't the iPad *just* launch?
How is Apple monopolizing the market for tablet computing devices?
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
Its just your prejudiced. Its NOT fine when Apple does it - and those who us with just a bit of IQ would NEVER buy an Apple product!
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
Probably on MacOS, Windows, Linux.
So far only ePub format is supported in iBooks and I don't know about their further plans, but you most certainly can copy your own books onto the device. You can also use its full blown PDF reader with pinch zoom, full UNICODE support (the reason why I did not buy the Kindle is it's shitty with both of those things), color, international keyboard, and the screen is almost the same resolution.
And yes, this is typed on an iPad. Try that with your kindle sometime.
Musclenerd is a significant contributor to the jailbreak scene, however I would like to see credit go to the proper people. He says that in his tweet "Courtesy to spirit" which is the jailbreak that posixninja and comex had been working on for the past couple of months. In this instance, he is posting a video to confirm it works, not take credit.
how does it feel to be a moron?
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
Jail-break or not, the DRM alone is enough reason for me to not to even consider Apple's iPad and iPhone. I want to be able to watch porn or whatever and install any software I want on my device. Apple can disagree, fine, but I don't need to buy their DRM-crippled crap.
Perhaps the GP meant that Microsoft is the only alternative to Apple, and that Russian programmers can easily circumvent Windows security. That still doesn't explain how they would get into my Linux box.
As someone who has enjoyed using a ultra-mobile device for many years now, starting with Palms and currently a n810, how does an iPad stack up with something like the n810?
Clearly the iPad has a bigger screen but that is the only true advantage I see for it. It is heavier than my n810 which comes in at 226g vs 680/730g for the iPad. However given that it is bigger and thus you can grip it better I'm not seeing that a a huge problem. (However I'd be lying if I said that even at 226g the n810 can get annoying to hold for extended periods of time.)
Furthermore the n810 is almost fully open. Easily open enough for everything I do with it. Ebook reading, watching videos/listening to music, remote connections via SSH/RDC, scanning WiFi, an alarm, etc. It is by no means perfect but it's very very good when I'm on the couch/lazy-boy.
That is the slot that I would see an iPad, or any tablet like device, filling for me. But given that it's closed, save for having to jailbreak it to open it up, and the current price tag it seems like all I'd be getting is a bigger screen with less flexibility. (I can even watch flash when I'm at home via RDCing to one of my main computers!) And don't get me a bigger screen would be nice but if anyone has used something like a n810 and now a tablet how do they stack up?
Really, I know what I'm doing...Ohhhh, look at the shiny buttons!
"No one said fanboi, and it was you yourself that placed you in the category of enthusiastic supporter of apple."
Incorrect. You need to re-read the thread.
http://www.rootstrikers.org/
Since my iPad is on WiFi and I didn't pay anything for a data plan.
Asus T91 MT, Lenovo just released one as well. 9" and 10" screens, multitouch interfaces.
They both run Windows 7 which has quite an acceptable touch interface even for programs that were not made specifically for a touch interface.
I can verify that it doesn't impact Lynx. :) I can also verify that it's a PDF, so it likely impacts Windows and Apple computers.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
Your ideas interest me and I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
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.
It's not surprising that a veteran iPhone hacker was able to root the iPad right away. After all, they have very similar hardware.
Property is theft.
I can verify that it doesn't impact Lynx. :) I can also verify that it's a PDF, so it likely impacts Windows and Apple computers.
See this previous discussion on Slashdot. It's not the website, it's the banner ad companies allowing a Russian(?) group of script kiddies to buy ad space and immediately redirect to an infected PDF file. Happens on a LOT of websites, including the base msn.com page occasionally. DeviantArt is a particularly bad offender. I've apparently made a career out of walking ignorant Southern United States women through removing these things over the phone.
(Yes, it's my own personal hell, why do you ask?)
Apple would not be able to do this on a desktop / full laptop. {sentence deleted because it made no sense}
Apple hardware lock in is bad, but an app store lock in with fees for people to make free apps and a 30% cut of sales for payed apps will KILL MAC OS X.
Fixed it! Damn you make my OCD itch!
The game.
You seem to be under the impression that the iPad is kept closed because Steve Jobs cares whether or not you get a virus.
I can see why somebody might think that. It's due to the well-cultivated impression that Apple cares about providing safe computers to their mindless drone users. Please allow me to offer you a dollop of "cynical". . .
The iPad, along with the rest of the Apple line of ultra-popular not-really-a-computer items, (iPods and iPhones), are all about putting price tags on content. This is why they are getting billions of dollars worth of free advertising from the media. The media loves the iPad! They believe it will save their sorry asses. If everybody uses an iPad, then television networks, newspapers and magazines will be saved with the new revenue stream! (Same as happened with the music distributors, though not, it should be noted, the actual musicians. As per usual.) This is why, even though the iPad is a piece of half-baked crud, the media is hailing it as the second coming, (well, the third coming, actually. The iPod was first, and the iPhone was second.)
But all of this glory is only possible when the hardware is locked down, when content is locked down, and when users have had their brains removed with a syringe or turned to pudding by a constant barrage of Wifi microwave noise. When the mighty Apple does all of your thinking for you, you can be a dumb-fuck consumer and still move money from your pockets to those of the media providers. And the dumber you are, the better, because you'll need the media more than ever to tell you what to think, feel and say.
So basically, Fuck Apple. Jobs has chosen which side he's on, and he picked the red light saber.
What a shithead.
-FL
This device does what most people want it to do. They don't give a flying fuck about "software freedom". They just want it to do cool shit. Which it does.
Yes, not thinking makes life a lot easier. But it doesn't make you alive.
I'm perfectly happy to allow the herd bop along with the EEG barely registering so long as they don't expect me to follow suit. Sadly, though, when 90% of the population is stupid, it does in fact affect the quality of life for the remaining 9%
The final 1% are the super-wealthy who push shit like iPads. That, and banks, -the other great invention which came into existence through another massive failure of the populace to think. Although, the bank problem is (slightly) excusable in that nobody had the opportunity to know they were being screwed. This time there is no excuse.
Oh, and the giant scam which is the banking system is why you happen to believe that selling and buying stuff is the only way you can survive in this world.
-FL
How does it feel to be poor? Anybody who doesn't have an iPad is poor.
This guy is actually more right than he realizes.
The people who are likely to buy iPads are those who are too lost to realize that aligning themselves with corporate culture is a one-way ticket to the Dark Side. These are the people who want others to think for them. In the case of the iPad, this is incredibly obvious; Apple picks which applications are allowed, which media is deemed appropriate, and the manner in which you are allowed to absorb them. It's like a for-profit church, and given that Apple calls its various programming experts "Evangelists" indicates that they bloody-well realize this and in fact promote this impression.
The tone this guy is using, one of disdain and gloating, says a great deal about the quality of the soul, (or lack thereof), one can expect to cultivate by aligning with corporate culture. In a financial climate where people are living in tent cities and starving due to massive corruption and greed, this vile idiot is able to make an off-hand joke about being poor? That's utterly disgusting. And THAT is what lives beneath the cultured veneer of the average Apple user. Make no mistake about that.
So yes, I think Apple certainly does show its true colors with the iPad release.
It is a machine used to suppress not just the human mind, but the human spirit.
-FL
Agreed with the reply above. I waited for the iPad announcement before I made a decision on a tablet. When the iPad dissapointed me, I went and bought the Asus T91MT with Win7 and it's touch and multi-touch interface is excellent. 3 USB, 2 CF expansion slots, VGA plug, full keyboard, Wifi, Bluetooth. 32G SSD. Couldn't be happier and it cost me $400.
"Remember when I said I would never lie? Well, that was the first time."
Uh-huh. Try reading a book on the iPad -- at the beach.
Don't get me wrong, I think the iPad will be great. But it's not an e-reader. The problem with e-ink is that it's not a mature technology. Apple is playing it smart here - stay out of the e-ink business until you can have color, or at least monochrome at a speed that is acceptable, and without that annoying "screen flash" as pixels rearrange when you turn pages. Once you can do that I think Apple will jump in and we'll see iPads with eink options (or perhaps some other kind of e-ink display appliance, maybe even a usable web browser). Why should Apple release an e-ink device that is just as annoyingly slow as all the others out there, when they can wait until all the tech is in place and jump in at the last minute with a device that gets it right, and then take credit for having practically invented the e-reader, the way they did with the mp3 player and the smartphone?
I just went ahead an stole an iPad, and *then* jailbroke it.
I can't wrap my head around all the fuss about the iPad being a closed device. So what if you can't get root out of the box? This means that novice users can't break it easily. The Apple experience is an experience where "it just works." The Macintosh, the iMac, and OSX are all products of bringing users to wonderful applications, technologies, experiences, and opportunities in a method that "just works." You don't have to set dip switches, you hardly ever have to install a driver, you don't need to find a missing .dll and you don't need to compile anything. You just point, click, and use. There is a HUGE market for this, especially if you were born before 1970. I think cars are a good analogy - buy a 1969 Chevy with a 350 in it and when you open the hood, boom, you had all access. Swap headers, put in a better carb, even make the air intake stick out of the hood. But if you screwed up the timing chain or used the wrong alternator, you bricked your car. Buy a new BMW, look under the hood, and you see a nice clean BMW logo and a lot of plastic covers. They made it, they made it as well as they could, and if you mess with it you'll probably screw it up!!
Apple has always done the same thing by keeping its logo nice and shiny on top and engineering everything underneath so that it works. I'm not a drone and I like jailbreaking my phone so I can customize it, but most of the good ideas that were coded and created by other software engineers was eventually integrated into the Apple experience. Think Soundjam for iTunes. I'm sure Apple has future OS' for the phone and pad that lets you do whatever you wanted to when it was jailbroken but stock. They just can't think of everything the first time around OR they didn't want to release the device with those features since it cut down on performance (my jailbroken iPhone runs much slower than the stock version).
All I'm sayin is just 'cause they put out a great device without root access doesn't mean you don't have full ownership and it doesn't mean that they are creating more consumer drones. They are putting out a product that works to spec and their record shows that the keep improving in my opinion.
What pray tell will the US government do. The US govt did not lift a finger during the MS trials in Europe, where they were found guilty. Nor in the SCO lawsuits when MS was found to be giving financial aid to SCO nor any other time and Microsoft is a convicted abusive monopoly in at least 3 major governments including the US (EU and Korea, Taiwan seems to get special privileges as well for some reason).
You're assuming Apple cares. They outsell Iphone's and Ipods to Macs by at least a factor of 10 to 1. At least, I estimate it would be in the order of 20-40 to 1. Maybe Apple wants to kill OS X now that Iphone OS has become the golden goose. It certainly fits Apple's control uber alles MO.
There is a significant cost in maintaining disparate OS's as well, but more importantly it kills apple's "Just Works" marketing if a user needs to determine if they have the correct version of Apple's OS in order to get something to run. But this is besides the point, Apple will bring this to the desktop not because it gives them more money but because it gives them more control.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
The issue is [...] how appropriate the lockdown is.
I think I agree. How does one measure the propriety of building the lock down, though? Do we measure what the population want vs. what Apple wants? In the mathematical model of free markets, what's good for sellers is good for buyers; do we have a market failure going on here? There are a lot of questions one can ask here, some more useful than others, some more urgently in need of an answer than others, but everybody in this debate ought to know the questions.
Apple tends to argue for "speed bump" DRM.
No matter how you twist and turn it, "speed bump DRM" is imposing artificial limitations in the service of someone's profitability, and not the user's.
Yes, there's an argument that ensuring someone else's profitability is also in the user's interest (see the copyright rationale). But if people really bought into the "I give up my rights temporarily to have better music" argument, why would you need DRM? If there is DRM, does that make people buy into the argument more often? Or is DRM always counter to the user's interest?
You don't want crazy shit happening on a cell phone.
Be very careful here: Apple's various goals is one thing, their strategies for achieving them are another.
Wanting high quality secure software is a fine thing. Wanting your users to have that is fine too.
That doesn't mean that every way of reaching that goal is justified.
For instance, Apple couldn't have turned "not vetted by mothership" into warnings rather than errors and let the user proceed anyways. Then the user can have all the benefits of someone else's auditing and their own freedom.
but it's a trade that gives me a value I want.
I think that's the most important point here: this is something you want. How many people want the same thing? How many fully informed people want the same thing?
I think that arguing that what Apple is doing is good/bad, right/wring, smart/dumb based on "what I want" is a rather risky proposition.
So... uhm... thanks for letting us know what you (in my eyes a random internet stranger) likes and dislikes? Or did you say something more?
You do not lose anything if someone else buys it.
If other people use an insecure operating system on a net-connected device (i.e. Windows on PC) I get more spam and less bandwidth.
If I use OpenVMS and everybody else uses Linux, no one's going to write games/drivers/... for my OS.
If everybody buys a device because of the slick UI, and the device implements a certain policy, then that policy becomes the norm, and future device makers might not give me an alternative to a policy I don't want.
Things cause other things to happen. People buying an iPad or two won't, but everybody and their brother owning an iPad will.
Somebody had to say it, right? Right.
I'm really not all that interested in a closed thing, however well designed, that I know I'll be fighting with the former owner of, just for the right to actually use it.
Really, Apple needs to just give it up. Don't sell the damn things at all. Just make it the iRentalPad, that way they can continue their onerous culture, and take care of the iRecycling at the same time.
That's probably the primary reason for making the batteries so damn tough to replace, if you think about it. Since they actually are trying to sell the things, despite wanting to continue owning them, making sure they come back for "repair" and "service" just completes the deal, with no iFool the wiser...
Blogging because I can...
That said, you'd avoid these touch screen keyboard devices anyways if you've ever actually compared them with physical keyboard devices, like Blackberrys and Nokias. Blackberry and Nokia make drastic design choices optimized around typing email messages. Apple sells a video game platform with email on the side.
The Christian religion has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world. -- Bertrand Russell
"Unfortunately, the price and release date of the Neofonie WePad 11.6-inch tablet PC are still unknown at this time. "
The Touchbook seems to be released, though.
This is why, as a security professional, I have a real problem with you Apple fanbois...
Firstly, a locked down device is not immune to vulnerabilities or attacks - *any* device that has *any* connectivity to the public Internet is potentially susceptible to some form of attack, even if it's just a case of pounding it with a Denial of Service attack that means it ends up spending far more time processing the IP packets in that attack rather than doing what it should be doing.
Secondly, on a more open system (yes, I definitely mean Linux and also include Windows in that to degree), you can install updates to counteract security vulnerabilities but you can also control the services and applications running on your system to make yourself more secure - therefore, for example, if you ditch IE and Outlook on Windows and run, say, Firefox and Thunderbird instead, then you immediately close your system down to a lot of Trojan and backdoor programs that make use of the heavy integration and high permissions that both the former have in Windows. However, in the Apple iPad world, you're stuck with Safari as a browser, and the particularly poor track record that Apple has in fixing security holes in it.
Thirdly, if "special" means that I take the time to understand how a computer OS works and how I am responsible for the security of my data and information within that OS, then, yes, I'm "special", and happily so.
It could be argued that the reason why there are so many viruses and Trojans on Windows is because Microsoft did a very good marketing job at convincing inexperienced people that you don't need much in the way of computer skills to use a PC - and this is why those same people don't update their systems, don't check what's running on their systems and don't stay away from parts of the Internet where there's a high risk they can download something nasty onto their PCs.
Apple have gone a stage further and done something ten times worse now. They're more than happy for you people to buy their products on the basis that you don't like Windows, want to stand out from the crowd yet cannot be bothered to spend any time learning how a computer works. Along with Apple's "locked down to all vulnerabilities" hype, that makes you even more dangerous...
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
All the comments around here are all about how iPad is overpriced and stuff or how superior it is to it's competition. Here is the time for something different : congratulations. Cracking the iPad in 24 hours sure wasn't a piece of cake (or maybe it was?) and I must thank the guy who has done this in the name of all iPad owners (don't own one, don't plan to) because of the freedom it gives them, whether they realise it or not. They chose the most closed and evil competitor but, now, things are different.
I am with the I-don't-like-shiny-computers poster above as far as computer preferences go, but I have to hand it to you, that was a beautiful reply you penned.
The real question here is what are you interested in tinkering with. Some people like to tinker with computers and some people like to tinker with any of a myriad other things. Very few people like to tinker with more than a few things, though, and expect almost everything else they own to "just work".
I don't care how well written my furnace's user manual is, or how well designed the controls are, I haven't the slightest interest in learning its fundamentals. If it stops working, I call an HVAC guy to fix it.
In addition to the other links you're getting about Kindle Hacking, which doesn't seem to be too hard and opens up a world of Linux possibilities, there's also an official Kindle Development Kit.
There might be a truly locked down device out there, and it's annoying that more manufacturer's don't make their devices more open platforms, but I don't know how much there is to complain about, really. The bottom line is that for most people who actually care about how open their devices are, there's usually a way to get what they want, even if it isn't what they want out of the box.
Tweet, tweet.
Dude, the iPad is single-tasking. So if he was typing that post with one hand, then apparently the implication that he was pleasuring himself to... Slashdot.
I need to go clean my brain now...
... as the next guy, but - I've got an iPhone with many gigs of music... all as MP3s. I don't use it for reading that much, but I have read a few books... as PDFs or HTML. There are a lot of ePub books out there. You can get tons of free video from YouTube.
There are plenty of reasons to dislike the iUniverse - but "locked down content" is not really one of them. There's tons of open content out there, and iDevices play it quite nicely.
I've been hearing this for so long that I finally have to speak up. Yes, I've been reading hundreds of books on a LCD screen (NEC MobilePro 900c). For years. With zero disconfort. No, I'm not a teenager with wonderful eyesight. I don't wear glasses either and I don't feel that my eyesight has dimished any in all those years. Eye exams once a year have confirmed that.
Do you think that maybe, dunno, setting the font size and background color might help? As
in, not attempting to stare at minuscule letters on a bright white background? Use large fonts (as large as you feel confortable reading without straining your eyes at all), and grey, light greyish-yellow or light greyish-green background. Feel free to adjust the brightness and contrast too.
E-Ink is very nice, but it's not the killer feature of readers. The killer features are low price (sub-$100), no DRM, decent reader app, SD card and acting as a plain USB mass storage device with any OS. If any reader managed to offer that, e-Ink would be a nice perk, but not a must-have.
Getting back on topic, iPad will wipe the floor with all the so-called "readers" that are not really just readers but attempt to do anything more. Feature for feature, it's not even a contest.
[And before you call me an Apple whore: I don't own any Apple hardware and don't recall using their software recently.]
i ate crayons when i was a kid and now i have two braincells and the blue ones taste nicer
I think you might have mistaken me for someone other than who I am. I see that you say you're a security professional but I'd like to point out that I was working with hardware and writing code while you were still in diapers. I've been on the internet since it was called DARPANET and there were only 8 systems on the net. I won't quote job titles or list employers; you can fill in the rest for yourself.
To discuss these issues honestly requires actually thinking about what you are saying. Trotting out labels like "Apple fanboi" or "Microsft troll" usually indicates a certain level of intellectual dishonesty. It's typical these days to choose a trendy position and search out / manufacture evidence to support that position but while the pages here are full of this kind of wankery, I'd expect something better from a security professional.
So let's talk about security for a bit here. You've listed some reasons for the current mess on the net and I'd like to suggest you add another one to your list: Microsoft wanted to make your web browsing experience to be richer and filled with multimedia. Out of that choice of direction came ActiveX and a host of other "services" that download and execute code from remote machines automatically. This was done intentionally - I can't imagine how they thought that this wouldn't create opportunities for the bad guys to exploit those systems. When you hear about "drive by downloads" then this is what makes it possible. Some (like you) would place the blame for malware / viruses on the inexperienced users but it doesn't matter who you are when you visit CNN or some other very reputable site and one of the ads on the page (served by a third party) contains exploit code that Windows helpfully executes for you. In fact, every part of the internet is a dangerous place - even for security professionals like you.
You're absolutely right that the choice of browser makes a big difference in security. Like you, I use Firefox along with some extensions to block some of the worst offenses out there. I get my email through Gmail these days; they do a good job and since I'm not using Thunderbird or Outlook (or some other similar program) my exposure is a little less. But even if you get every hole patched up, every exploit neutralized, every bad thing firewalled - somebody will see an email message that says something like I Love You and they'll open it right up and launch the attachment to see a picture of their secret lover. Since I browse with Flash blocked I'm very aware of what the web might look like on a machine that doesn't have Flash. And when you speak of "locked down" and blame Apple - I'd like to submit that I'm writing this on my laptop which is running Vista. Look up "protected media path" and see what you think - and keep well in mind that Windows 7 has all the same "protections" baked right in. My "big" computer runs XP Pro and my Asterix box is running Linux; the only Apple device I own right now is an iPod Touch. I guess I'm not a very good fanboi.
So let's get back to security for a moment and see how it relates to an iPad. Your description of a denial of service attack - well, that's true of any network connected device, isn't it? I'd submit that someone who wanted to run that kind of attack (very hard to get away with long-term) would be going after a system that's important or valuable in some way. I can't imagine some script kiddie crowing about how he pwned an iPad. It's going to be very hard to slip some executable code onto an iPad; that application lockdown is beneficial when you look at it this way. Even those "I Love You" attacks go nowhere because their attached executable can't run. One other benefit from the lockdown / app store that you as a professional might appreciate: those programs are tested by and sold to you by Apple. That's important to the corporate types - someone to take responsibility for the problems that the code they sold you might cause. And even if worse comes to worse, plug it into the computer and in iTunes hit the "reset t
Installing non windows won't void your warranty, that's just bullshit made up to make Apple seem nicer or at least no worse than Microsoft
http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/27/1753218
Tell it to slashdot and the other news outlets that reported it as fact.
Or at least redirect your bitch fest of whom made it up to someone else.