iPad Jailbreak Tool Delayed
The iPhone Dev Team has announced that the release of the Spirit the jailbreak tool will be delayed. No further information was given for a possible future release date.
Earlier this month the iPhone Dev Team produced a video demonstrating a jailbroken iPad with their Spirit tool. The Spirit tool was only designed for new devices such as the iPad, iPhone 3GS, and iPod Touch. A user named Comex had hacked the iPad within the first 24 hours of its release and pledged to make Spirit available with the release of the iPad WiFi + 3G.
Now all that we can do is wait.
iAds Will Have an Entry Price of $1 Million
The high amount of usage that iPads, iPhones, and iPods receive translates into a huge advertising market for Apple’s new iAds platform.
Apple plans to charge advertisers a $1 million minimum when the platform is released on iPhone OS 4.0 in a few months. That places Apple’s iAds advertising network charge at roughly 5 to 10 times of its competitors. The cost for advertisers that want to be included in the iAds launch will approach the $10 million mark.
For serving up the ads through its network Apple will receive 40 percent of the revenue, and the developer of the app that the ad appears on will get the remaining percent.
South Korea Lifts iPad Ban
This past Tuesday South Korea announced that they will allow the iPad into their market, reversing the Korean Communications Commission ban that was put into effect earlier in the month.
South Korea had placed a ban on the U.S. version of the iPad because its wireless radio was not certified to work in the country and regulators were also concerned that some people would import large quantities of iPads for the sole purpose of reselling them for a high profit. South Korea currently isn’t on Apple’s list of international countries to get the iPad next month, which could create a sizable black market.
Malware Targets Windows iPad Owners
Malware disguised as an iTunes update is targeting Windows users who also own an iPad.
A dialog box pops up informing the user that an iTunes update for the iPad has been released. Anyone who clicks on the link is taken to a page that looks just like the real Apple iTunes download page. The phony update that the user downloads installs malicious code on their PC. The Backdoor. Bifrose. AADY virus is designed to steal passwords and login information for both email accounts and instant-messaging services.
“The trick is pretty simple,” said Catalin Cosoi, a senior researcher for BitDefender, who discovered the malware. “They’re clever to do it this way. If they were able to target Mac customers, it would have spread like wildfire, but because most antivirus companies detect this Trojan, it’s aimed at Windows users who have bought an iPad and who also don’t run a security product.”
We strongly recommend that anyone who wishes to download iTunes does so from the official Apple website. It should also be noted that the malware only affects the PC and not the iPad itself.
FIRMS POS System For the iPad
Lecere Corporation has developed a food services point of sales system named FIRMS that uses the iPad. The system, which also will works with the iPod Touch, costs roughly 10% of a traditional POS.
iPad Camera Connection Kit Demo
Apple Engineer Fired For Showing iPad to Woz
On the morning of the iPad launch an Apple test engineer had an iPad 3G prototype that he showed to Steve Wozniak while the two of them were standing in line at an Apple store.
Apparently this violated Apple’s Non Disclosure Agreement and resulted in the engineer’s termination.
Steve Wozniak’s recent comments on the situation are below:
But I can tell you that the test engineer who showed me an iPad after midnight, for 2 minutes, during the iPad launch was indeed fired. I opted to spend 2 minutes with Numbers on this iPad, trying some stunts I’d seen on Apple’s website demo video. I was not told that it was a 3G model and I had no way to know that. I was told that this engineer had to wait until midnight to show it outside of Apple’s secure area. And I’m an Apple employee who he was showing it to. My guess is that he was allowed to take the iPad outside of the secure area but still not supposed to show it.
Israel Lifts iPad Ban
Starting today, Israel will no longer prohibit iPads from coming into the country.
The Communications Ministry had banned the iPad with the given reason that it did not meet the European standards, adopted by Israel, for wireless use of communications frequencies.
The ministry has denied that the reason for the ban was due to concerns that the iPad’s wireless signal may cause interference with signals of military equipment.
The ban was lifted only after subjecting the iPad to what officials classified as “intensive technical scrutiny in a controlled laboratory”.
The ministry also ordered the release of 20 iPads that had been confiscated.
Denver Police Make an Arrest in iPad Theft Case
Police in Denver said Saturday they have arrested a suspect in the theft of an iPad in which the victim lost his pinky finger.
Police said they arrested Brandon Darnell Smith, 20, at 1:14 a.m. MDT during a traffic stop. Smith was being held for investigation of second-degree assault and robbery in the April 15 robbery of Bill Jordan, 59, The Denver Post reported.
Jordan said he had just purchased an iPad — the newest product from Apple Inc. — at the Cherry Creek Shopping Center April 15 when the suspect followed him down a staircase to the parking garage and accosted him, yanking so hard at the iPad he stripped some of the skin to the bone on his little finger.
Jordan’s finger was so badly damaged it required amputation.
Source: UPI
Overseas iPad Black Market
Overseas consumers who cannot wait for the iPad’s release in their own countries are turning to the black market.
In Taiwan consumers are willing to pay a premium to get their hands on an iPad. There are two stores in Taipei that are charging $800(US) for the 16GB model, $925(US) for the 32GB version and $1,020(US) for the 64GB iPad. Apple lists the U.S. retail prices at $499, $599 and $699, respectively.
Mr. Wang, the owner of one of the stores said that he purchased roughly 300 iPads from a U.S. company that specializes in the procurement of specialty goods for resale to overseas stores. It is his belief that there are a dozen stores in Taipei that offer iPads, and he also estimates that there are thousands of them for sale citywide. His Landmark store caters to individuals who are looking for hard to get gadgets. He said that there are similar stores at the electronics bazaars in Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai who are also selling iPads.
According to Mr. Wang his store sells about 10 iPads a day. It is also his feeling that the current shortage in the U.S. is possibly due to the amount of them that are being shipped overseas.
Apple Gift Card Contest
iPad Quick Vids
