The release of iOS 5 in October 2011 was one of the biggest iOS revisions and brought over two hundred new user features. A lot of these features have been well reported on and have been classified as substantial additions such as the new Notification Centre and the new iMessaging system.
The cat and mouse game between the engineers at Apple and the people that provide us with jailbreaks is turning into more of a war than a game. For as long as I can remember, the production of a jailbreak for new devices and firmwares has always had stumbling blocks, but rarely has it thrown as many obstacles in the way as the current pursuit of the A5 jailbreak. We are only eight weeks away from the the iPad 2’s first birthday, and in that time we have only seen an untethered jailbreak possible on iOS 4.3.3 using JailbreakMe 3.0.
For those of you who have been involved in the jailbreaking community for quite some time, you will no doubt be familiar with the legendary hacker known as PlanetBeing. His real name is Yiduo David Wang, and at one point he was one of the core members of the iPhone Dev Team alongside the likes of MuscleNerd. Obviously we all know the former as one of the biggest names involved in providing baseband hacks and device unlocks, whereas Wang was more focused on the actual jailbreaks.
iOS is undoubtedly a great mobile OS. Despite losing out to Android in terms of sheer activations, customer polls suggest iPhone users are not only happier with their devices, but more likely to stick with Apple’s smartphone range should they outlive their increasingly lengthy contract expiration dates.
I think pretty much every owner of a smartphone device who has the slightest interest in music will have heard of the Shazam service. For those that haven't then let me introduce you to what I would consider the pioneering music identification service. Shazam launched in 1999 as a company who provided users with the ability to identify music via their mobile telephone. I remember the early days of the service when you had to dial '2580' on your phone then hold the microphone up to the music to allow the service to gather a sample. It then connected to the company using your devices data connection and sent an SMS back to you with the name of the song and artist.
Without a doubt, 2011 was a big year for the smartphone industry. We had the iPhone 4S, two new Google Nexus Phones and Nokia took to Windows Phone 7 like a duck to a frozen like - it got in there eventually.
Apple's Photo Stream is potentially one of the most useful new features that Apple added to iOS 5 for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. It takes everything that is saved to your Camera Roll, including newly taken photos and images that have been saved and then synchronizes it across iOS devices.
If you work in an environment where your smartphone is constantly in danger of getting water-damaged, you can either a. get yourself a heavy, rugged phone like the Motorola Defy or, starting today, b. apply a waterproof, internal coating from Liquipel!
A few days ago we brought you the news that iOS security researcher Pod2g had enlisted the help and support of some of the most influential and prominent developers and hackers in the jailbreaking community to try and make tangible progress in the pursuit of an iOS 5 untethered jailbreak on A5 devices.
Probably one of the most talked about features on the latest iteration of the Android operating system is the facial recognition unlock software that comes bundled with it. The ability to use your own face to unlock your mobile telephone or tablet is one of the coolest new updates we have seen implemented into a mobile operating system in recent times, but questions will always surround how secure this actually is.
