A teenager in New Jersey has broken the lock that ties Apple’s iPhone to AT&T’s wireless network, freeing the most hyped cell phone ever for use on the networks of other carriers, including overseas ones.
And no no, this is not the pure software-based unlocking. Some serious soldering work involved(and voids the warranty). It takes the guy 2 hours per phone.
It’s high noon, Apple and AT&T — we really hate to break it to you, but the jig is up. Last night the impossible was made possible: right in front of our very eyes we witnessed a full SIM unlock of our iPhone with a small piece of software. It’s all over, guys.
The iPhoneSIMfree.com team has proved their claim that they cracked Apple’s iPhone SIM lock system, and prove it they did. The six-man team has been working non-stop since launch day, and they’re officially the first to break Apple’s SIM locks on the iPhone. It’s done. Seriously. They wouldn’t tell when and how they would release it to the public, but you can certainly bet that they’ll try to make a buck on their solution (and rightly so). We can hardly believe the iPhone’s finally been cracked. No, scratch that — we just can’t believe it took this long.
Click for more on iPhone unlocked: AT&T loses iPhone exclusivity »
So over the passing months, the UAC prompt has gone from nice idea (as it was advised) to “not the best solution” to something that admins may actually have to find a way to work around.
The latest version of a well-reviewed third-party security policy enhancement system for Windows Vista claims to solve what its manufacturer characterizes as “not a secure solution” to a critical problem Windows historically had with administrator privileges on programs. But in the announcement of the upgrade earlier this week, a key Microsoft product manager is quoted as having acknowledged Vista’s own take on the solution was not quite enough, effectively reversing his company’s stand on User Account Control.
Click for more on Microsoft Endorses Product That Turns Off Vista UAC Nags »
Sk0t, an ex-administrator of the EliteTorrents BitTorrent tracker, who uploaded the latest Star Wars movie got arrested, pleaded guilty to ‘conspiracy to commit copyright infringement’ and ‘criminal copyright infringement’ and got jail and home confinement. As part of his home confinement, he agreed to install some tracking software on his computer. The problem is He’s an Ubuntu Linux user and the government doesn’t have any tracking software for Linux. So he’s been told that he must use Windows for the term of his confinement.
Seagate plans to add solid-state drives based on flash memory chips to its lineup of storage products sometime in 2008, which will introduce the drives across a range of products including desktop and notebook PCs, offering various storage capacities.
SSDs, as solid-state drives are also known, use flash memory instead of magnetic disks to store information. Flash is a type of non-volatile memory, which means the chips retain stored information when power is off. Other memory types, such as DRAM, lose data when the power goes off.
Click for more on Seagate to offer solid-state drives in 2008 »
As the only major OEM offering pre-installed Linux, Dell is eyeing new markets and working with virtualization to increase the market for its Ubuntu clients.
Dell first announced that it would preinstall Ubuntu Linux on some of its consumer desktops and notebooks just three months ago, but the results have shown the vendor that there is no reason to stop there.
At the same time, Kevin Kettler, Dell’s chief technology officer, spoke of how Dell is also looking to preinstall virtualization technology in its PCs to give users the option of running both a Linux operating systems as well as Microsoft Windows.
Click for more on Dell Keeps Linux Penguins Marching Forward »
Linus Torvalds, creator of the Linux kernel, has, along with others like Richard Stallman, literally changed the world of software forever.
Linux-based distributions seem to pop up every day, more and more devices now run Linux at their core, from mobile phones to inflight entertainment systems, to the world’s mission critical server infrastructures.
Linus Torvalds relates his plans for the future of Linux, including the 3.0 kernel, problems with the Linux release cycles and which distro he personally runs on his home PC. ” ’Compile everything by hand’ ones simply weren’t interesting to me,” Torvalds says. And there was that time he was bitten by a ferocious real-life penguin.
Google may just be the center of the universe now. A new add-on for its Earth satellite program, called Sky, lets users explore space and see photos of the precise star formation overhead based on their locale.
People can now use Google to peruse astrological wonders such as the Crab Nebula, an expanding remnant of a supernova 6,300 light-years from earth. Markers within the star photos pull in explanatory text from online encyclopedia Wikipedia. Overlays outline constellations such as Leo, illustrate phases of the moon and show how the planets visible from Earth orbit over two months.
Skype has clarified an earlier statement which appeared to blame Microsoft’s monthly patch for last week’s outage of the VoIP service. Skype had attributed the two-day crash of its service to a large number of Windows users logging on after rebooting their systems to install Microsoft’s monthly updates.
Owing to a lack of additional information, the justification seemed to blame Microsoft. On Tuesday, however, Skype posted a full admission that sought to clear the software giant.
Click for more on Skype absolves Microsoft from outage blame »
A low-rent recidivist con man who targeted eBay customers was jailed for two years on Tuesday. Phillip Shortman, 20, from Cwmbran near Newport in south Wales, was sent to a young offenders’ institution following a conviction for ripping off consumers to the tune of £14,000 and breaching the terms of his probation. Shortman was given an eight-month suspended sentence in January after he was convicted of buying thousands of pounds in stolen fuel cards. He was also found guilty of another £45,000 eBay fraud in 2005, an offence that earned him a year in a detention centre.
This time around the married father-of-two ran bogus auctions for items including 2006 Ryder Cup tickets, a Sony camcorder, and hi-tech mobile phones. He also obtained goods including a £250 laptop and computer parts without payment. Shortman responded to requests for payment for the laptop by sending abusive emails to the seller.
Click for more on Serial eBay fraudster jailed for two years »
