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New iPad Jailbroken Already
An anonymous reader writes "Just hours after the new Apple iPad was released, it was jailbroken in three (how appropriate!) separate ways. This means that hackers have already found and exploited security holes to run custom code on the new iPad with iOS 5.1. The tools for jailbreaking your new iPad aren't yet available, but this first step means the software will be developed sooner rather than later."
Tablets are media consumption platforms for people that don't really use their computers for serious task, oh I know someone will post how they hacked the Gibson using their iPad and a bluetooth keyboard, but for the most part it's a consumer toy for consuming consumer baubles.
Moooooooooooooooooo
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
Remember: Jailbreaks are code execution vulnerabilities. On your oh so secure Apple device.
No software is 100% secure, all you can do is fix bugs and security holes as they become evident.
Speaking of that, when Apple *does* fix these security holes, it's painted as "Apple patches jailbreaking because they hate freedom!!!" instead of "Apple closes security vulnerability".
Damned if they do, damned if they don't, I suppose.
(Disclaimer: I think iOS should have a built in 'advanced' mode that effectively results in the same thing as jailbreaking).
Hopefully the jailbreaking community will only use one exploit at a time so that when Apple patches the first, they can use the next and so on. What I would like to know is whether there are multiple groups working on this, and if so, do they communicate their exploits so that no more than one is revealed to Apple at a time?
'The tyrant will always find pretext for his tyranny.' - Aesop's Fables
I have to admit it, I got caught up in the hype and I bought a smartphone. The novelty wore off after a couple of days. Since then, it has sat in it's charger, almost completely unused. In fact, it's one of the worst purchases I've ever made.
Smartphones in general are rather pointless devices. They're far bulkier than my flip phone, so they're not very good on the go. They're much less comfortable to use than my netbook or my laptop, especially when I have to do a lot of typing. They're so vastly underpowered relative to even a netbook that they're not usable for anything computationally intensive. My Kindle is a much better e-book reader.
I learned the hard way that the usefulness of smartphones is purely a marketing creation. They look like they have potential, but in practice they're just the combination of the worst of every other type of computer or computing device.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Riiiiiiiight. Because "useful to me" is synonymous with "useful to anyone". You're the ur-consumer. Everyone actually enjoying and consistently using their tablets is doing it wrong.
Actually, if you look at Slashdot's history for getting the next big thing in tech completely wrong (rather lame, actually), all you have to do is find the next device that Slashdot Groupthink really hates and bet long on it.
Profit!
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Faceplant? I agree.
Idiotic.
You don't try to cook pizza in your microwave, do you? You don't watch a movie on your phone (unless you have no other choice), do you?
The iPad is a wonderful "adjunct" to a computer. It is NOT a replacement therefore, and it was never intended as such. It is, however, the perfect device for, for example, the following:
Looking up stuff on the internet while sitting in your livingroom. (Coffee-table computing), where the "instant-on" puts nearly ZERO annoyance factor between desire for information and fulfilment.
Using as an auxiliary computer using Telnet and/or VNC-type connectivity while doing development (or do you carry a second display with your laptop?)
Many musical applications (synthesizer/DAW control, mobile multitrack recording, etc.). In fact, I'd like a SECOND iPad for that!
Medium-scale gaming. Most games on a phone are a joke, due to screen size.
"Take anywhere" home security display/control. (Insert advertisement for LiveCams Pro here). Again, phone screen is too small, and the laptop isn't with you in the garage.
Oh, and as an e-reader while working. I use mine to browse documentation while doing development on my work-laptop. No more pawing back and forth between windows... REALLY handy when trying to learn something new!
CAN you do these things with other devices? Sure; but that's not the point. The point is whether it's BETTER for the application; not whether the application is POSSIBLE using another device.
And before I get yelled at for the "caps", I can't stand breaking my train of thought to shove in ridiculous HTML "style" tags, just because I want to emphasize a word; so I use "caps". Get over it. I'm NOT shouting...
I have to admit it, I got caught up in the hype and I bought an tablet. The novelty wore off after a couple of days. Since then, it has sat on my desk, almost completely unused. In fact, it's one of the worst purchases I've ever made.
I bought a small car the other day. Worst purchase I ever made: it won't tow my boat, there's no room in the back for a goat and it can't transport my family of six. After a 1000 mile drive I feel totally exhausted, and it got stuck 100 yards up the half mile dirt track to my house, where it stays while I drive around in my old SUV.
Oh, wait, that's a lie - I have a small car because I don't have a house at the end of a dirt track, a boat, six kids, a goat or a regular need to drive more than a couple of hundred miles... And If I did, I'd quite possibly keep a second small car for convenience when I didn't need to take the goat.
That's where we're heading: PC=truck, Tablet=small car. Pick one or both depending on your needs.
The tablet is ideal for browsing the web, checking email (and making brief replies), playing casual games etc. while sitting in a comfy chair. I can also run the on-demand players for all 5 main TV channels here (only one of which is available on my "smart" TV). At meetings and conferences it's all I need to carry around unless I'm demoing certain bits of software, and it's a much less obtrusive way of taking meeting notes. I can plug in a camera adapter and preview my shots on the road (thats where the new iPads retina display is going to shine).
What it won't do is supplant my proper computer for serious work. However, I know quite a few people for whom a tablet would be all the portable computer they needed. For me, it's all the computer I need while sitting in an armchair.
Ps. I agree that the ePaper Kindle is a better tool for reading a novel. however, that's all a Kindle can do - even for reference books I find the tablet better.
Sent from my Tablet, sitting in a comfy chair.
In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
If that was true they wouldn't have fought against the EFF when the DMCA exemption was brought up. Had they won, you can guarantee they would have been firing DMCA takedowns at everyone and anyone who created a jailbreak.