IBLOG SPACE

Almost for as long as Apple has made the iPhone, owners of the handset have hoped to coax more features out of it than are officially supported. That desire spawned the jailbreak scene, hacking the iPhone – and, since then, the iPod touch, iPad and Apple TV – to bypass some of Apple’s limitations. So what’s a jailbreak, why should you do it, and will Apple confiscate your iPhone if you try? Read on as SlashGear 101 brings you up to speed. What’s a Jailbreak and why should I be interested? Basically, it’s a way of modifying the software running on an Apple phone so that you can do things with it that Apple either didn’t envisage or isn’t keen on allowing. The most common reason to jailbreak your iPhone is to run apps that otherwise you couldn’t get. Apple is reasonably strict about what third-party software it lets into the App Store, and many developers have fallen foul of its rules. An iPhone which has been jailbroken, however, can access unofficial app stores, the best known of whi

DISH Network and EchoStar have issued a statement regarding the recent ruling from the U.S. Federal Court of Appeals in their legal battle with TiVo over technology patent infringement. The battle has been ongoing since 2004 with rejected appeals and small victories along the way for DISH Network and EchoStar. The Federal Circuit ruled today that it has unanimously vacated a previous district court’s contempt ruling but has a 7-5 split decision on the court’s ruling regarding disablement of subject devices. DISH Network and EchoStar plan to seek a review over of this part of the decision from the United States Supreme Court. They’re response to the ruling is as follows: “DISH Network and EchoStar are pleased that the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals has unanimously vacated the district court’s contempt ruling regarding our software design around. We are disappointed, however, that the Federal Circuit in a 7-5 split decision has affirmed the district court’s ruling on the disablement

The following image has been circulating the internet for the past few days, resulting in mass hysteria due to the fact that Apple is currently suing the pants off of Samsung for infringing on their copyrights. This image appears to show that the Samsung F700 was first shown at CEBIT 2006 and released in February of 2007. What whoever made the image didn’t take the time to do was check their facts and find that although Samsung may have spoken about advancing their cell phone plans previous to 2007, they only showed the F700 design for the first time February 8th, 2007. First, have a look at the following press release. It lets you know exactly when the F700 was released in early, but not early enough , 2007: Seoul, February 8th, 2007 – Samsung today announced a new addition to its Ultra portfolio with the introduction of Ultra Smart F700. This revolutionary mobile phone will be showcased at 3GSM World Congress, the largest telecommunications event, next week. The F700 features unriv

We mentioned earlier this month that President Obama is taking full leverage of social media with plans to host an online town hall meeting from Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, CA. Well, the time is here, and the meeting will start streaming live today at 1:45pm PDT or 4:45pm EDT. If you want to hear about his budget plans and join the discussion on the economy, then make sure to RSVP on the event page . The event will be streamed on the White House’s Facebook page with questions being selected from Facebook users that have signed up for the event. As of yesterday, over 25,000 people have RSVPed to take part in the virtual meeting. The actual meeting on location at Facebook headquarters with Mark Zuckerberg is not open to the public. This will be Obama’s second time leveraging Facebook, the first being in 2008 when the social platform was crucial to his recruiting of volunteers and raising funds for his presidential race. If you want to join in on the discussion on ways to reduce

Have a look at what amounts to a really odd concept and a surprisingly radical new look at how a mobile phone aught to be shaped. The official name that the designer of this product has chosen is “Transducer Mobile Phone Concept” – true to conceptual industrial design form, of course. As the designer’s name is Jasper Hou and he’s added his name as a brand on the device, we’re going to go ahead and keep calling it the Jasper Transducer. This device, as you’re soon to find out, allows you to translate your calls rather than just translate your voice in person. This is a function that Google will almost certainly look into for future versions of Google Translate as they’ve already got their in-person translation well underway. Can you imagine? Call up Australia Bart Simpson style and actually understand what they’re saying! – Just kidding, this device does not work with Australian accents. What it DOES do is work with GPS, has a transparent LCD display, multiple color options for the case

One of ThinkGeek’s most popular April Fools’ jokes of recent years has been the iCADE arcade cabinet for the iPad , and having been green-lighted the retro peripheral is finally going on sale. ThinkGeek has just told us that pre-orders for the iCADE kick off today , with the cabinet expected to ship from May 20. Priced at $99.99, ThinkGeek’s version of the iCADE will have the same retro “April Fools” graphics as the original prank. Bluetooth is used to hook up to your iPad, which slots into the screen section, giving you a proper arcade joystick and controls to use. It’s all ideal for Atari’s “Greatest Hits” gaming collection , released into the App Store earlier this month. Later on, ThinkGeek intends to release an iCADE API so that developers can use the controls in their own titles. Best order quickly, though; the first batch has apparently already been sold, so anybody pre-ordering now will be getting units from the second batch

Cisco may be ditching Flip , but that doesn’t mean other manufacturers aren’t keen to put out point-and-shoot HD camcorders. Samsung ‘s HMX-W200 is the latest, a Full HD capable camera with a shock, water, dust and general-mistreatment resilient casing. Packing a 5-megapixel CMOS sensor, the W200 has an anti-water coating on its 2.3-inch 230k dot preview display, which Samsung reckons will prevent it from misting up with condensation. Handy for a sauna, though most of the time you’re probably not allowed to film in there anyway. Other specs include still shooting with autofocus and an F2.2 lens, digital image stabilization and microSD/SDHC for storage. The 1,300mAh battery is apparently good for up to 2hrs of continuous use, and it’ll withstand 3m submersion in water or 2m drops. A flip-out USB plug makes for easy offloading of your footage, and while you could obviously then spend time post-processing it, the W200 itself allows you to momentarily pause recording (without then starting

Given the ongoing legal spat between Apple and Samsung , it seems particularly timely for Apple’s patent on the original design of the iPhone 4 to be granted by the USPTO. Filed back in September 2010, and approved earlier this week, the patent covers all angles of the fourth-gen smartphone’s physical design. The iOS UI – which is another area where Apple claims Samsung has taken a little too much inspiration – isn’t actually included in this particular patent. Anything shown with a broken line isn’t part of the filing. Of course, Apple’s main complaint regarding Samsung concerns not so much the iPhone 4 but the design of the iPhone 3G/3GS, which the company reckons is far too similar to the Galaxy S to be coincidental. Apple holds the ornamental design patents for those previous generation handsets, too.

f you’re into Android and have a taste for GSM frequencies, then T-Mobile USA may be the best place for you today. The T-Mobile G-Slate we reviewed earlier this week is finally on sale , priced at $529.99 with a new, two-year agreement, while the T-Mobile Sidekick 4G is also fresh to the carrier’s shelves, in black or magenta , priced at $99.99. Over at Android Community the intrepid Chris Burns has been putting the T-Mobile Sidekick 4G through its paces . Can the first Android-based Sidekick live up to the Danger legacy, or is this just another QWERTY Samsung with social aspirations? Finally, the G2x is finally headed into T-Mobile retail stores, having been exclusively available online since last week . Our T-Mobile G2x review will be going live very soon, so keep reading SlashGear!

RIM may have sold 45,000 BlackBerry PlayBook tablets on the QNX slate’s first day of availability, according to estimates from analysts Jefferies & Co. Surveys among retailers revealed around 20,000 PlayBook sales on the day, reports eWeek , while pre-orders for the tablet are believed to have amounted to a further 25,000 units. Meanwhile, enterprise users – RIM’s original target audience – are believed to be even more interested than consumers showing up in stores yesterday. “We also estimate enterprise preorders to be meaningfully higher than consumer” analyst Peter Misek suggested, going on to predict that ”PlayBook sales are far exceeding MMI’s [Motorola Mobility's] XOOM sales.” Not everybody has been convinced, however, and early reviews of the PlayBook – ours included – criticized the 7-inch tablet for its shonky firmware and dependence on a BlackBerry smartphone for key apps like mail, calendar and contacts. Meanwhile the iPad 2 , although yet to have any official sa

Some people are just plain dumb. A man was arrested for trying to rob a small store using a Sony game controller. The man is 20-year-old Cameron Pittman and he is now facing charges of strong-arm robbery and violation of probation. I wonder if he thought using a game controller wouldn’t get him in as much trouble as a real gun if he was caught. Apparently, this moron put the controller in his pocket, went into the store, and tried to rob the place. The attempted heist was in Florida. The guy was caught when a police officer walked into the store in the middle of the robbery and arrested Pittman. Pittman dropped the remote and gave up. That’s gangsta’ right there.

Farewell, sweet PSP Go , there’s obviously only room for one gaming slider with PlayStation pretensions. Sony has apparently confirmed that production of the PSP Go has been stopped, telling AV Watch that its current stock will be the final units available. Sony will continue to support the PSP Go, and firmware updates are apparently still in the works, but for now the PSP-3000 will be the only portable gaming hardware the company sells. That’s aside from the Sony Ericsson XPERIA Play , of course. According to Sony, clearing out the PSP Go will allow them to focus on the NGP , the Next Generation Portable expected to hit the market later in 2011. More on the Sony NGP in our recent SlashGear 101 feature .

Unofficial ebook libraries, where users share digital books between themselves, have flourished in a murky legal halfway house so far, but Amazon is looking to make the whole thing official – albeit on its own terms. Later this year will see the launch of Library Lending for Kindle Books, offering Kindle-format ebooks from 11,000 libraries across the US. The ebooks will be readable both on dedicated Kindle hardware – from all three generations – as well as in Amazon’s Kindle apps for iOS, Android, PC, Mac and other platforms. Any notes or annotations made will be preserved and visible again if you re-borrow or later purchase the ebook (though not visible to other borrowers). Amazon is partnering with OverDrive for the Library Lending launch, so we’re presuming that there will be 7-21 day limitations on loan periods, and that each title will only be available to one person at a time, just as with a physical book. The service will launch at an unspecified point later in 2011. Press Rel

The Motorola Xoom tablet has been around for a while now here in the states and you can pick one up if you want that runs on the sprint WiMax area. If you don’t like Sprint or live outside a WiMax area, that feature won’t do you any good. If your carrier of choice is AT&T, a version of the Xoom tablet has crossed the FCC test bench to get the approvals it needs the head to the AT&T network. The device is called the IHDT56ME1 and it has test reports talking about WCDMA bands II and V support meaning 850Mhz and 1900MHz. Considering that those are the same bands that AT&T users for its mobile network the safe money says that the new tablet is bound for big blue. There is no indication when the tablet might land at this point.

AT&T has offered up the details on its financials for Q1 2011. As with all financials there are tons of facts and numbers inside the documents that outline just about everything you need to know about the financial status of AT&T at this point. I think there are only a few key points that the average geek might be interested in. One of those is that AT&T saw a 10.2% growth in wireless revenues and an 8.6% increase in wireless service revenues. That may be a surprise to some with Verizon having the iPhone 4 now. The consolidated revenue for AT&T was $31.2 billion in the quarter for an increase of 2.3% from the same quarter a year ago. AT&T also had an increase of nearly a million iPhone activations year over year to 3.6 million with 23% of the new subscribers getting the iPhone. iPhone subscriber churn also remained unchanged year over year. The key to that last statement in my opinion is that most of the iPhone 4 users are still under contract. We will see how much

Motorola delays Droid Bionic for enhancements by Shane McGlaun When the Droid Bionic smartphone finally does launch, I hope it has a ringtone that makes that ne-neee-neee-nee sound Lee Majors made when using his bionic powers. Motorola has announced that the Droid Bionic has been delayed so that it can add enhancements to the device. The enhancements were the result of feedback from CES. Exactly what enhancements are being made is unclear at this point. The Bionic was originally to land in Q2 with Verizon Wireless. The device will run on the Verizon 4G network and it is the first 4G smartphone from Motorola. A Motorola spokesperson told the WSJ, “Based on compelling feedback since [Consumer Electronics Show in January], we are incorporating several enhancements to make this an even better consumer experience.” The bionic was one of the big reveals at CES for Motorola.

When it comes to processors for all sorts of smartphones and tablets ARM parts are right at the top of the most used list. That means that there are a lots of smartphone makers that are constantly on the lookout for what the next big thing from ARM will be. ARM has offered up its latest roadmap that outlines the processors coming from it in the future. One of the most notable facts from the roadmap is that the next gen ARM Cortex-A15 dual core processor had been moved up. Moving a product to an early release is a welcome change from the new products that are often delayed. The A15 will come in both dual-core and single core versions. Perhaps even more tantalizing is that ARM has noted that a quad-core version of the A15 will land “later” according to Engadget. That quad-core part will probably not be available until sometime in 2013. ARM claims that the new processor will offer a five times improvement in performance. Samsung, ST-Ericsson and TI are already licensing the tech.

We all see concept devices on occasion that look really cool and we think that they will likely never make it to reality. The Compufon from Kosmaz Technologies is a concept right now, but the phone is going to be made according to the company. In fact Kosmaz is shooting for Q4 2011 right now so be looking at stores come Christmas time. The phone will run Android 3.0 as the OS and for now, the hardware inside the blocky, rectangular body is a big unknown. The company says the Compufon will use next gen CPU and GPUs and the company sees it as a Web TV for use in the home. One of the coolest things about the Compufon is the awesome tablet dock that is available. The tablet has a big 10.6-inch screen, stereo speakers, Bluetooth headphones, and a longer lasting battery. It will weigh under 1.5 pounds and has a leather case with a Bluetooth keyboard inside. Pricing is unannounced at this time.

I think 3D is cool on a notebook or a TV, but some things I prefer to view in 2D. I don’t want to have to read a lot of text wearing 3D glasses for instance. Some video I prefer in 2D as well, especially if the effects are the sort that are hard on eyes. Toshiba has a cool new notebook that is able to show both 2D and 3D video on the screen at one time. The new notebook is the first notebook to be able to offer 3D and 2D effects simultaneously on the screen. It is called the Toshiba Dynabook Qosmio T851/D8CR . The notebook needs no glasses for 3D effects, which is a huge plus for most users. The webcam on the computer supports face tracking to make the glasses free 3D work. The machine is also able to turn 2D video into 3D video if the user wants. The heart of the machine is an Intel Core i5 processor and graphics is handled by the GeForce GT 540M GPU. The screen is 15.6-inches wide and it has a full 1080p HD resolution. The Os is windows 7 Home Premium. It has a Blu-ray player, 750GB

A new Skype for Android update has enabled 3G voice calls in the US, addressing one of the biggest complaints users have made about the free VoIP software. The new app, v1.0.0.983, brings the same 3G calling functionality as international users have been enjoying to the US, rather than limiting it to the Verizon version of the Skype app as has been the case until now. Meanwhile, there’s also a security fix in the new version. Skype is yet to confirm exactly what it is, but we’re guessing it’s something to do with recent complaints that the app can share personal information without users realizing it. Skype is a free download from the Android Market, though obviously you’ll need a (free) account to actually use it. More details here .

You can’t be online without being familiar with YouTube and the hoards of questionably made videos that are available there for people to watch. I would wager most web users have uploaded videos to the site as well. YouTube has announced today that it is transcoding video in a new format when it is uploaded by the user. The new format that YouTube is using is WebM. The reason for the move to WebM is to allow the video to be played on any device by users from all around the world without needing a different plug-in. WebM is an open media format for audio and video on the web according to YouTube. YouTube will continue to support H.264 format as well. YouTube notes that it is working right now to transcode more of the videos on its site into WebM to reduce the technical issues that prevent users for accessing video. It will take a while to transcode all the video on YouTube to the new format, the streaming video company notes that each day about six years worth of video is uploaded. The

I have the original Apple TV and I can say without a doubt it was a worthless device for me. I used it maybe three times and it sits crammed into a drawer unused today. The new Apple TV had some changes to make it smaller and work better and so far, it has proven to me considerably more popular than that original device. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo from Concord Securities published the findings of a survey conducted of Apple suppliers this week that shows sales of the new Apple TV have merited consistent since the device launched last year. Sales of the Apple TV hit 250,000 units in the first six weeks and hit a million sold right before Christmas of 2010. The new device launched in October 2010. Kuo believes that Apple has shipped 820,000 units of the Apple TV in Q2 fiscal 2011 running from January to March. This is all the more impressive since Apple considered the Apple TV a hobby and is nowhere near as aggressive with marketing and talking about the TV product as it is the iPhone and iPad

When it comes to the semiconductor market, we tend to think that there are only Intel and AMD because most of us just think about computer processors. Intel is at the top of the overall semiconductor market in revenue, which includes processors for all sorts of devices from computers to smartphones and more. However, a company that might surprise you is right on its heels. AMD is way down the list if top semiconductor firms in revenue behind a bunch of companies that you may not even be aware exist. AMD sits at number 12 in the rankings of the top 25 semiconductor suppliers for 2010 and in 2009; it had the number eight spot showing things are going the wrong way for AMD. The second place company in the semiconductor market for 2010 is Samsung’s, it held the same spot in 2009 as well. The cool thing is that Samsung Electronics is growing much faster in the semiconductor market today that Intel is. The percent change for Samsung between 2009 and 2010 was 59.1%. At the same time, Intel gr

Intel has confirmed that it has received the Android 3.0 Honeycomb code from Google, and that it is “actively” working on porting the tablet-centric platform to run on x86 chips like its Atom processors. Revealed during Intel’s glowing Q1 financial results call , president and CEO Paul Otellini said that the company was working with “first-tier notebook vendors” on Android tablets using Intel processors. Leaks back in March suggested Intel was readying as many as eight Android-on-x86 devices for demonstration at IDF Beijing this month. “We are seeing very good design momentum with Oak Trail across multiple operating systems. Over the course of this year, Intel will have tablet platforms that run Windows, Android, and MeeGo” Paul Otellini, CEO, Intel The exact identities of those vendors involved is still unconfirmed, though it’s worth noting that Intel revealed – and then pulled – a product page for an Atom Z670 based version of ASUS’ Eee Pad Slider earlier this week. Otellini say

UK retailer Carphone Warehouse has thrown open sales of the 3G-enabled Motorola XOOM , with the 10.1-inch Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablet available both SIM-free and unlocked, or subsidized with various data plans. Alone, the XOOM 3G is £579.99 ($948), while you can grab it from £129.99 ($213) if you’re willing to commit to 24-months of data. £25 per month and £129.99 upfront gets you 5GB per month; alternatively, pay £199.99 for the XOOM and that same £25 gets you unlimited data. There are month-to-month plans available as well, though you’ll have to pay the full, unsubsidized amount for the tablet itself. While we criticized the XOOM – and Honeycomb – for being only part-finished in our reviews, both the platform and the hardware do have plenty of promise. Whether they’re enough to take on the iPad 2 remains to be seen.

Mobile payments system Square may not be on VeriFone’s Christmas card list , but it seems someone at Apple has a soft spot for the system. Square CEO Jack Dorsey has confirmed that, as of this week, the reader dongle will be available in all US Apple stores, priced at $9.95, as well as online . Both white and black versions of the reader are available, each plugging into your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad’s headphone socket and working alongside the Square app to accept mobile payments. That $9.95 also gets you $10 of credit, so in fact Square is paying you $0.05 for the privilege of signing up; alternatively you can download the app and request a free reader dongle through the mail. There’s a 2.75-percent transaction fee payable each time you accept money using Square, and the system takes US-issued Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover cards. Payments are deposited into your bank account daily.

It’s not just Toshiba’s AT300 tablet which is fresh to the company’s Regza range today. Toshiba also has a trio of Regza 3D HDTVs – the 55ZG2, 47ZG2 and 42ZG2 – along with three new Blu-ray DVRs – the RD-BZ810, RD-BZ710 and RD-BZ610 – each hitting Japan in late May. The Regza ZG2 line have IPS displays measuring in at 42-, 47- or 55-inches, 16-segment LED backlighting, along with Active Scan 480 for high-speed screen refreshes. There’s also upscaling – both of SD to HD content, and 2D to 3D content – active shutter glasses and 2TB integrated hard-drives that support timeshifting and scheduled recordings. Toshiba has thrown in a total of six digital terrestrial tuners. The sets are all networked, and support “Remote Play” from Windows 7 along with streaming DLNA content. There are USB ports for hooking up external storage and camcorders for direct AVCHD playback, various HDMI ports and an SDHC memory card slot. No word on pricing or availability outside of Japan at this stage. As for

Eric Schmidt may have to get his personalized stationary reprinted, now that Larry Page has taken over as Google CEO, but the new Executive Chairman of the Google board shouldn’t have any issues paying for fresh letterheads given the whopping salary boost that comes with the position. As CEO, Schmidt was earning a single dollar per year; as Executive Chairman, that jumps to $1.25m along with some juicy bonus potential. In fact, Schmidt’s target bonus is 400-percent of his base salary. In 2011 he could potentially take away a $6m bonus, depending on Google’s overall performance, according to the SEC filing that reveals the figures. Schmidt had followed in Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin in taking just $1 in annual salary each year since 2005. The three execs hold considerable shares in the search giant, of course; Schmidt himself has just sold around $300m worth.

Full specs of Toshiba’s second attempt at the Android tablet market emerged back in March , but it’s only today that the new slate has been officially named and given a price. The Toshiba Regza Tablet AT300 has a 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 “Adaptive Display” promising better outdoor visibility and viewing angles, NVIDIA’s dual-core Tegra 2 processor and Android 3.0 Honeycomb. There are also twin cameras – 5-megapixels on the back, 2-megapixels on the front – and HDMI connectivity. Inside there’s 1GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth, while ports include an SD card slot, mini USB, USB and headphones socket. The AT300 measures 177 x 273 x 15.8 mm and weighs 765g, and Toshiba reckons it’s good for 7hrs use on a full charge. Thanks to the Toshiba Regza App Connect support, it can apparently integrate with your existing Toshiba HDTV, Blu-ray player, laptop and more. Expect it in Japan in June, for the equivalent of around $700, while rumors suggest it’ll arrive in the US in the f

Android ‘s dominance in smartphone popularity may be squeezing Apple , but that pattern of user preference hasn’t spread to tablets yet – and may not for some time. They’re the opinions of several new reports out this week, with comScore discovering that, unlike when solely phones are considered, Apple’s entire iOS range beats out Android in popularity by 59-percent. That difference, particularly when it comes to tablets, looks unlikely to change other experts reckon. Goldman Sachs released a 68-page report on the state of the tablet ecosystem, Business Insider reports, concluding that Apple is likely to dominate proceedings for at least the next two years. In fact, Goldman predicts that Apple could well hold 71-percent of the tablet market in 2012, despite the growing number of Android 3.0 Honeycomb models. It’s a shift that will see Microsoft and Intel particularly undermined, they claim, as ARM-based models continue to oust x86 tablets running Windows.