When Siri was launched back in October along with iOS 5, many iDevice users - myself included - were a tad bemused that Apple had decided to make its exciting new voice assistant a feature exclusive to the then brand-new iPhone 4S. The Cupertino claims of older devices being unable to facilitate the eloquent (albeit often mishearing) voice-activated sidekick were questioned by many, but with the iPhone 4S frenzy having died down, we all expected March to bring a new iPad inclusive of Siri.
The Redsn0w jailbreak tool is what the jailbreak community considers to be the "Old Faithful". Sure, plenty of other groups get in on the act with their various jailbreak utilities, but it seems as though no matter what firmware version is released, the iPhone Dev Team always comes though with alterations to its iconic tool in order to help iOS users liberate their otherwise heavily-restricted devices.
With the Hack In The Box Security Conference (HITBSecConf) behind us and the developer community looking forward to the announcements which Apple have to make at their Worldwide Developers Conference next week, it seems that the iPhone Dev Team have come to the conclusion that the time is right to give the jailbreak community a little pre-WWDC gift. Historically speaking, MuscleNerd and his compatriots are a team that just keep on giving, with this instance being no different, after taking to Twitter to announce that all of their software packages have been updated with the latest Rocky Racoon jailbreak 5.1.1 untether.
With the Chronic Dev Team, in conjunction with other members of The Jailbreak Dream Team, pushing out Absinthe 2.0 at the Hack In The Box Security Conference last week, there is undoubtedly going to be a lot more jailbroken iPads kicking around. Those owners of Apple tablets who couldn't jailbreak due to firmware restrictions have now been set free and are able to roam through the wilderness that is the Cydia store. Cydia already contains a large number of tweaks designed for the iPad, but the TenIconSwitcher for iPad adds to that list.
With all the note-taking and thought-jotting apps available for mobile devices, you could be forgiven for thinking that there wasn't really any room to innovate. Having gotten through quite a few myself, I was beginning to think this particular category of productivity was becoming an "if you tried one, you've tried them all" rigmarole.
With the annual HITBSecConf coming to an end last Friday, the jailbreak community is still reaping the benefits of the Absinthe 2.0 software which the Chronic Dev Team released to the world after their 'one more thing' announcement. Although the event itself featured some extremely talented and well known security researchers, it was perhaps the members of the Jailbreak Dream Team that were the celebrities of the event.
There are a few mobile developers we could categorize as "power releasers" - the app houses which seem to have a new app on an almost weekly basis. Chillingo is certainly one of them, and not only does it indefinitely have a new app on the go, but most of them are of good quality and well worth the purchase.
Although this week was meant to be all about Samsung with the release of the long-awaited Galaxy S III powerhouse, Apple - as it does - has unwittingly spoiled the party as the tech world becomes engrossed by leaks of the upcoming iPhone device.
I was recently given the pleasure of being flown to Amsterdam for "The Hack In The Box Security Conference". Whilst there I met up with the "Chronic Dev Team" and basically hung out with them for a few days.
As well as being one of the greatest innovators of all time, the late, great Steve Jobs was also a tremendous character. Whether at a keynote speech, in an interview, or addressing students at Stanford, Jobs was interesting to listen to, and his enthusiasm and unique oratory quirks are sorely missed by tech fans across the globe.
