Hasta La Gadget!

We have absolutely no idea what this means for iSpot owners’ service plans if they go through with this — for all we know, they’ll detect un-iPad-like amounts of usage and threaten to up your monthly fee — but if you’re the risky type and you’ve got an iSpot lying around, its pesky MAC filtering can be a thing of the past with just a tiny bit of effort. There’s a blog out there that now has concise instructions posted for gaining root access on the hotspot and tweaking config files to obliterate the MAC filter and enable USB tethering (by default it’ll only do WiFi), but if that’s too much effort for you, another site — cheekily named “iSpot instant jailbreak” — just hooks you up with a binary that you can upload to the iSpot to take care of the filtering in one fell swoop. Again, proceed with caution, because it’s anyone’s guess how Clear is going to take all this.

[Thanks, Travis]

Update: We’ve pulled the iSpot instant jailbreak link after hearing reports that it might be doing more harm than good — and there might even be some malicious intent involved because it apparently opens a backdoor that allows remote access to the admin console. Welcome to the seedy underbelly of device hacking, folks.

Update 2: The creator of the iSpot instant jailbreak just reached out to us know that the remote admin issue was “an error on [his] part” and that the latest version of the config file has it removed; we’ve re-added the link to it, but as always with these sorts of things, use caution here and be ready for potential flakiness.

Clear iSpot’s device filtering falls to the hackers in near record time originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Aug 2010 16:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Cut-rate, webcam-based 3D scanner coming soon to a MakerBot store near you originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Aug 2010 11:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We know our readers: obsessive early adopters who’ll stop at nothing to have the latest and greatest software on their handsets. Just like us. Unfortunately, sometimes we get burned in the process. But the community is nothing if not tenacious. Now we’ve got an apparent “fix” for anyone who updated their EVO 4G to the Android 2.2 Froyo build discovered on HTC’s servers, only to find out that they were running a non-final build. User Pojoman over at XDADevelopers just upped the .3 to final .6 RUU from Sprint that should correct any woes. Based on the enthusiastic feedback we’re reading we’d say that this is good news. Nevertheless, the usual disclaimers apply before hitting the source link below, especially with HTC already acknowledging that a fix is on the way via official channels. Yeah, we know, blah blah blah.

HTC EVO 4G Froyo .6 update seems to fix early adopter issues originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Aug 2010 02:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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JailbreakMe brought root to the iPhone 4-wielding masses, but also unearthed a nasty exploit in a PDF font. Thankfully for the rooted and those who never intended to root, Cupertino claims it has already patched the hole. “We’re aware of the reported issue, we have already developed a fix and it will be available to customers in an upcoming software update,” an Apple spokeswoman told CNET. We’re not sure exactly when it will arrive, but we’d lay odds on soon — in the meantime, don’t open any PDFs you don’t trust, don’t do anything illegal or immoral, and hit up Comex’s hack ASAP if your heart’s still set on that shiny new unlock.

[Image Source: F-Secure]

Apple: PDF security hole fix is already ready to go originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Aug 2010 19:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As with any jailbreak or rooting of a handset, “hacking” a phone OS is usually exactly that: exploiting a weakness to get unsigned code onto a device. That means that any other hacker, be they sufficiently nefarious, could use that same exploit to mess with your phone in the bad, not-installing-emulators-off-of-Cydia sense. Early iPhone jailbreaks (back when installing your own ringtones was a wild idea) took advantage of a TIFF exploit, the recent EVO 4G root found a hole in Flash Lite, and the JailbreakMe exploit is stuffing its code in a PDF font. Until Apple patches this exploit (when asked, Apple told us it was “aware of the reports and looking into them”) we’d be extra careful about which PDFs we open — there aren’t any reports of malicious use so far, but with Safari’s seamless handling of PDFs, it wouldn’t be hard for some hacker to hide a potentially phone-invading PDF behind some harmless looking hyperlink. The iPhone devteam points out that this isn’t the only known exploit for Safari on iOS, so there’s no need to start hyperventilating about this particular one… unless it’s a slow day at your mainstream media publication and you’re looking for something to hyperventilate about.

Oh, and are you looking for a surefire way to steer clear of PDFs? Cydia has a PDF loading warner that lets you skip PDFs your browser is trying to load on a case by case basis. Of course, you’ll need to jailbreak your phone to use it. Ironic, right?

JailbreakMe using PDF exploit to hack your iPhone, so could the baddies; Apple looking into reports originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 Aug 2010 15:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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