No Limera1n or GreenPois0n icon on iPhone/iPod/iPad's SpringBoard after Jailbreak? You're just doing it wrong.

For those who didn't know, SpringBoard is the home screen of the iOS, the screen where all of your apps are located. I won't tell very much about Limera1n or GreenPois0n, they are just jailbreaking applications (Limera1n works on Windows and Mac, while GreenPois0n has a version for Linux also). Basically, they are quite the same thing (they're using the same exploit), and they work with any iDevice running 4.0, 4.0.2 or 4.2 firmware.

They are both very easy to use, you just have to download, run, and click "Make it ra1n!", and you'll be told how to put your device in DFU mode in order to start jailbreaking your device. A problem experienced by some of the people who tried jailbreaking their iDevices was that there was no Limera1n/GreenPois0n icon on the SpringBoard after jailbreaking (even though the applications said that jailbreaking succeeded).

The idea is that iTunes (it doesn't matter what version it is, it just needs to recognize your device) must be kept running while jailbreaking. Don't ask me why, I also had that problem, and when I left iTunes running while I used Limera1n, my jailbreak succeeded (when you see that drop rain on your iDevice, it means that jailbreaking succeeded). Probably, there's something in iTunes which allows the device to receive data while in DFU mode.

Who would have thought that there's such an easy fix for this problem?

Limera1n/Greenpois0n and iPad on 3.2.2? Better...not.

If you've got an iPad and you want jailbreak on it, my recommendation is to avoid the update to 3.2.2 (if you haven't done it already). My iPad was bricked today by a an app (it was stuck at boot logo), and I decided that because there was no way of recovering the data I had on it, the best option was to update it to the latest firmware, 3.2.2. But it turned out that it was a bad idea....

Everything went fine, iTunes 10 successfully updated it to 3.2.2, but the problems started when I tried to jailbreak it. Even though it seemed that the jailbreak succeeded, I couldn't find on the home screen the icon/shortcut/logo/app/whatever of the jailbreak tool I tried. I tried both limera1n and greenpois0n, on three different computers. One was running Windows XP, one was on Windows 7, and the other was on Mac OS X. However, on none of the them I got the icon of the jailbreak solution I tried. So, I couldn't get Cydia, so the jailbreak was completely useless.

I really don't know where's the problem, some people reported that both solutions worked fine from the first try on their 3.2.2 iPad, others reported that they tried of few times and than they succeeded, and others reported that they got in the same situation as me. I think that I tried about 25 times to jailbreak that iPad. I really got tired of these iDevices. Unjailbroken, the iPad it is just a bigger iPod, even a much cheaper Android-powered device being able to do much more that an iPad can. But if you jailbreak it (it's legal in case you didn't know, read more here), you'll get a big headache with all the bugs and problems jailbreaking brings.

I ended up by restoring the iPad to 3.2.1 (I had SHSH on file for 3.2.1, so it was quite simple), and I did the jailbreak using jailbreakme.com. If you're still on 3.2.1 (or 3.2) and you want jailbreak, make sure you do it before updating the iPad to 3.2.2, because at that time you can save your iPad's SHSH blobs without any problem.Having SHSH saved on 3.2.1/3.2 (or even on 3.2.2 if you get there with a jailbroken iPad) means that you can anytime downgrade/restore to the version you have that SHSH saved.

Use them on your own responsibility:

Jailbreak by limera1n (Windows, Mac OS X): http://www.limera1n.com/
Jailbreak by greenpois0n (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux): http://www.greenpois0n.com/

Limera1n is available, jailbreaks iOS 4.0-4.1.

Limera1n has been released yesterday evening, and after geohot got angry and pulled the download link (I don't know exactly why), it seems that Limera1n is now available for download again on the official website. This new jailbreak tool promises to jailbreak almost any device running iOS 4.0 or 4.1.

The supported products are iPhone 3Gs/4, iPad, and iPod Touch 3G/4G. For the unmentioned products: iPod Touch 2G support is coming soon, while for the iPhone 3G you must use redsn0w. For the moment, limera1n is available only for Windows, the compatibility for Mac is coming soon.

Theoretically, limera1n does hacktivate your device (allowing you to use it with any carrier), but many people reported problems after hacktivating their iPhones with limera1n, so I don't recommend you doing this yet (limera1n is currently in beta 4).

Hope I don't have to tell you that you're using it on your own responsibility, it is an unstable release so don't expect from it to be bug-free. You might have to restore your device or you may even get a bricked one as a result of using limera1n!

Download from here.

We'll probably have an alternative to iOS for the iPad soon, and that's the Chrome OS.

OK, I'm starting by telling that I have no idea about how popular "Hexxeh" is, but I never heard of him until now. And it seems that he isn't very popular on YouTube, as he has only a few thousands of views. But he did something really interesting, he succeeded to run the Chrome OS on the iPad. Yes, I'm sure you know, that OS created for netbooks by Google, running on the so popular iPad. So here's a video of what he did.



This seems to be quite real, because of two reasons: the first one is the pointer, which you can see that really moves when he clicks on something, and the second one is the speed of the OS, which shows that the Chrome OS might have been emulated on that iPad. Of course that there is a lot of job to do for Hexxeh, and one of the first things he needs to do is to improve the speed of Chrome OS (if he wants to release a official version of his work, of course).

How to install Frash (Flash) on your Jailbroken iPad (the easy way).

One of the biggest disadvantages of browsing the web via the iPad is its total lack of Flash, which makes it not that web-friendly. Apple claims that Flash sucks, that it uses enormous resources, that it is slow, it drains battery fast and many others. That's why they probably won't ever accept Flash on the iPad.

Actually, Apple is that one which sucks here, because Android shows that Flash can run decently on smartphones. OK, without counting on what's on YouTube, I can tell you that Nexus One is compatible with 99% percent on what's out there (yes, on the internet), and on over 90% of all websites containing Flash content, Nexus One is capable of playing that content smoothly.

Returning to iPad and Flash, there's a way of installing something like a Flash, named Frash, on it. But firstly, you need to know that you must have a jailbroken iPad. And you can jailbreak it only if you're on iOS 3.2.1 or below (sorry if you're on 3.2.2). For the right firmwares, just use http://jailbreakme.com/ (I hope I don't need to tell you that you're doing it on your own responsibility).

Then, after you finished jailbreaking your iPad, you must start Cydia, go to Manage | Sources, and there add http://repo.benm.at . After you've done that, just search for "Frash" on Cydia. Install it, and, bingo, you have....Flash, on your iPad. You just need to type on what's Flash content on websites in order to display it, but, unfortunately, it isn't as compatible as it should be.

I mean, stuff like ads work perfectly, but where we are talking about games or videos, you'll be disappointed. Mainly, they won't work at all. So, even with this trick, iPad's style of browsing is still far away from where's Android's browser.

VLC for iPad sent to Apple for approval.

VideoLan sent their free media player, VLC, to the approval process at Apple. If everything goes well (it shouldn't be any problems as the app doesn't break any rule, but we know Apple's style of denying apps for absolutely no real reason....), users will be able to play all kind of multimedia content on their iPads.

You won't be obliged to convert all of your videos to H.264 in order to get them working on your iPad, you will be able to put videos in any kind of format on your iPad, because VLC has plenty of codecs for almost anything (passing the limits QuickTime has).

This is a video demonstrating how VLC works on the iPad.


You can read more on Gizmodo.

BREAKING: Jailbreak & Unlock for the iPhone, now officially legal in the US.

The US Government announced today big changes for all iPhone/iPod/iPad users. Starting from today, Jailbreaking and Unlocking of these devices, along with rooting of Android devices and ripping of DVSs (for educational purposes only) are completely LEGAL into the United States, unless they are violating copyright law.

This is a major hit Apple's face, who, because of its strict policy, didn't let users install unauthorized apps. This decision is a big news for users who were afraid that jailbreaking could bring them into illegality, so, starting from now, they can jailbreak and unlock their iDevices without any fear. However, it is not clear if Apple's policy is still applicable, as they might still refuse to offer support if the device was jailbroken (I'm not sure if this decision puts them into illegality if they continue doing that, we'll  most probably get a clarification of this on following period).

You can read more on this subject on Redmond Pie (they've also included the new DMCA legislation).

iOS 4.0.1 and 3.2.1 hitting the iPhone and the iPad. Jailbreakers MUST stay away!

Apple launched today two updates, one for the iPhone (4.0.1) and the other one for the iPad (3.2.1). It seems that these updates are patching the exploits used for jailbreak, so the guys who are working on these solutions are telling everybody who need jailbreak and unlock to stay away from these updates.

The only thing that the update does on the iPhone is to fix the signal issues (or at least, this is what Apple says). It is not confirmed if this fixes the issues or not (however, it seems that Apple silently recalled the iPhone, because many people who got their phone replaced are no longer complaining about the signal issues). I didn't find out yet what the update exactly does one the iPad.

I just warned you about what these updates do, but I won't offer you solutions for jailbreak at all. If you need, search on a dedicated website for something like this.

ExoPC Slate and ASUS Eee Pad EP101TC/EP121 are coming - can they stop iPad's explosion?

Engadget announced in the last two days, three new table PCs, all three being designed to be potential competitors to Apple's iPad. The first one is ExoPC Slate, which features a 11.6" capacitive touch-screen, 2 USB ports, HDMI out, SD card slot and a VGA webcam. What we can find inside: a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom N450 processor, 2 GB of RAM, 32 GB SSD storage space and a Broadcom Crystal HD chip, which promises to playback videos at 1080p. How can you compete with something like this, Apple? It is much over the iPad. Unfortunately, it runs Windows 7 Ultimate, which is not designed at all for a screen this size (surprisingly, the screen responds perfectly to anything the user tries to do). The price is probably going to be somewhere around $599.

The other two are ASUS Eee Pad EP101TC and EP 121, which, I have to say, are two completely uninspired names for these table PCs. Unfortunately, we don't have any details about what is inside, or their

prices. We just know that the first one has a 10" screen, and the second one has a 12" screen. While Joanna (the editor from Engadget who tested the device) was using the device, there were really important bugs observed related to the interface of the touch screen (it was quite unresponsive most of the time). Even though, the interface looks much better than that one from the ExoPC Slate. Its OS is a Windows Embedded Compact 7, and I'm sure that the interface is going to be improved and most of the bugs fixed in the future.

Apple announced that they have passed 2 millions of sold iPads, and it is not yet available anywhere in the world. Do you think that these three table PCs have the ability of stopping this boom of the iPad?

More details: here and here

Apple has problems with iPad 3G stocks.

The iPad is probably a best-selling product in this period. Nobody has expected for the iPad to have these big sales, even Apple. As we know, the international launch of the iPad (Wi-Fi model) has been delayed due to higher requests in the U.S. than they were expected. But the problems don't stop here.

A few days later after the 3G model has came out, more Apple Stores around the United States (mostly from the center and from the northern part of the U.S) announced that they had run out of any model of the 3G iPad. And the situation is worse than this, because several of them have limited stocks of the Wi-Fi model. It is currently not known when the stores will receive new stocks of iPads, but one thing is clear. The iPad is a huge success.

The Wi-Fi model should get out of the U.S. at the end of this month (if Apple respects its promise), but due to limited stocks in the U.S. I doubt about this. Even if we don't know when the 3G will come overseas, it is improbable for the europeans to see it by the end of May.

Apple delays iPad international launch -- iPad available unofficially, at much higher prices.

For many Apple fans who were waiting for the iPad to get out of the United States to buy one, Apple announced something that completely disappointed them. iPad won't be available (officially) for anybody who lives out of the U.S., because the iPad is not going to be launched at the end of this month, but at the end of May.

This decision comes after a much higher demand for the iPad in the United States than Apple has expected. If you don't live in the U.S., you won't have it because Apple wants to sell the iPad to people from the United States firstly and then to other from another parts of the world. I really don't understand what Apple wants. U.S. citizens CAN also wait (and in a "fair world", should wait) for an iPad if they want one, if this is Apple's problem.

Anyway, there are also companies which are already selling the iPad in Europe, but the main problem is the huge commission they put on the price, just to make profit. For example, in my country there is only one big company from what I know which sells iPads, and the price is with about 50% higher than it's if you buy an iPad from Apple. But, even though, it is selling very good.

So, if you don't live in the U.S. and want an iPad, you more options:

• buy an iPad with the commission that is put to the price
• go to the U.S. just to get one (it's not a viable solution at all)
• make a trick and get one at almost the same price as it is in the U.S. (it's quite complicated, and it's also risky so I won't explain how here)
• wait and hope that Apple won't delay it again

So that's it. That's what they wanted. This is not cool, Apple!

Testing the iPad (+video).

A few days ago I had the opportunity of testing the product which Apple says that it's a revolutionary one, the iPad (they said the same when they launched any other product).

Firstly, I'll tell you its specifications. It has an Apple A4 1 GHz processor, based on ARM technology. The storage memory varies between 16, 32 and 64 GB, and, related to RAM memory, this is a complete mystery (yet). It is known that physically it seems to be having 512 MB of RAM, but in practice, it reveals only 256 MB of RAM (showed by different tests). It is certain only that the RAM is integrated into the chip of the processor.

It also has a 10 inch capacitive multi-touch screen, perfect for almost anything. On the connectivity side, we have the Wi-Fi model, which starts at $499 with 16 GB of storage, and the Wi-Fi + 3G model which is going to be available soon, this month. The battery offers 1 month for stand-by, and about 10 hours when surfing web on Wi-Fi and stuff like that.

On the Apple Store I've waited for a few minutes after I got one to play with (everybody was running to get one to test when somebody finished testing one). I think that there were about 15-20 iPads available (it is a quite big store, in Dadeland Mall, Miami).

The first sensation was that it was fast. But not as fast as I was expecting, but it was pretty good. The applications are launching like on the iPhone (slowly, showing who made them or things like that), and some of them really looked very well. But several were made especially for the iPhone, and looked very bad because they were running at a low resolution (I'm sure that this will be a problem for a long time).

I found it difficult to play with it using its accelerometer, considering that I used an iPhone for about 1 year and a half, and now I have the Nexus One. It is an updated version of iPhone OS, so the menus are updated in many basic applications (they look really good).

Many fans of Apple said that the iPad is very fast, faster than even the Nexus One. I don't agree with this. They probably said this even without ever touching a Nexus. It is clearly faster than the iPad.

There have been reported several problems with the iPad after only a few hours after it was launched, many users complaining that on their Windows machines and especially when connected to USB hubs the iPad refuses to charge. Apple says that when it gets into sleep, it starts charging automatically, but they can't actually prove that this happens at all times, because there is no icon indicating if it charges or not. And there are also problems with weak Wi-Fi signal and connection problems on LAN configurations.

And if you want one, if need to know that it has no camera and no GPS. You can buy additional accessories, and even if the iPad starts a $499, you can easily pass $1000, considering that Apple has only quite expensive accessories.

Apple has reached again, a great success with the iPad. In the first day of selling, the sells with the pre-orders passed 300 000 units. This is completely astonishing. To compare, Google sold only 135 000 Nexus One units after 74 days, while there were about 1 million iPhones (first generation) sold after the same period of days. I don't know how Apple does this, but it is known that Steve Jobs has currently the most profitable company in the domain of mobile devices.

Below is a video taken with my Nexus One, while I was testing some of iPad's functionalities: