Hasta La Gadget!

The Library of Congress made it legal, MuscleNerd showed us it was a go, and now Comex and company have delivered the long-awaited jailbreak to the fourth rendition of iPhone. According to their new page JailbreakMe, the hack works right on the iPhone 4 (or 3GS, or 3G, or iPad, or…) itself, using via the handset’s Safari browser to reportedly break into most any iOS device. The servers are getting slammed pretty badly, and only a few Engadget editors have so much as seen the page pictured above so far, but rest assured we’re testing this as we speak and will have more details up soon.

Update: Sorry folks, we’ve tried repeatedly, but apparently the servers just can’t handle the load — Comex tweets that the purple screens we’re seeing are evidence of server fail. Here’s hoping for a Cydia celebration when the stampede is over.

Update 2: Comex says you might want to reboot if you got stuck staring at that purple screen, and you could also try their backup server (click our second source link) to help the Dev Team divide the load.

Update 3: We successfully got the jailbreak to start working, but it crashed Safari. Upon reboot of our phone we’ve got… nothing but the Apple logo. Take note, this can brick your phone, so proceed with caution! Video of the experience after the break. After a reset, our phone is giving us nothing but the Apple logo. (Update to the update, the phone has been restored).

Update 4: Our intern Sam has successfully jailbroken his iPhone 4 according to this pic, so it can be done!

Update 5: Comex reports that iPads running iOS 3.2.1 aren’t presently working properly, and that MMS problems after jailbreak are a known issue.

Update 6: Good news? Saurik (of Cydia fame) has pitched in to secure JailbreakMe some better hosting. Bad news? Reports indicate that FaceTime doesn’t work after jailbreak, either.

Update 7: Seven updates? You bet, because it’s looking like there’s already a fix for the missing FaceTime and MMS features. Head on over to Redmond Pie (in more coverage below) for instructions to install the Cydia package that brought video chat back to two of our iPhone 4 handsets. If you’re just downloading JailbreakMe for the first time though, you shouldn’t need to do a thing, as Comex claims both have been fixed in a new version of the hack that just went live.

Continue reading Official: iPhone 4 jailbreak hits from iPhone Dev Team (updated with video)

Official: iPhone 4 jailbreak hits from iPhone Dev Team (updated with video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 01 Aug 2010 17:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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What is it about the word peel that screams “throw on the back of an iPod touch and grant it the power of mobile internet?” We spotted Yosion’s Apple Peel 520 just this morning bound for Chinese markets, and now the FCC has unveiled ZTE’s own Peel 3G router. Although the user manual and external photos don’t explicitly state it, one look at the (slightly enhanced) image above removes all doubt that this is made to fit snugly around a certain finger-friendly iDevice with a headset jack on the bottom right. Additionally, the user manual’s setup screens are all sketched out in what appears to be a more mobile Safari-friendly size. The Qualcomm-powered CDMA2000 case is brandishing Sprint logos on the front and back, which frankly wouldn’t be the first (or even second) time the carrier’s targeted the Apple faithful. Only this time, there’s no WiMAX — bummer. Crafty, wacky, zany? We’re sure Mr. Hesse is chortling, but perhaps he can catch a breath or two and disseminate out some proper release details post-haste.

[Thanks, The Kaiser]

ZTE Peel for Sprint outed by FCC, another 3G-equipped iPod touch case originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oh, sure — you’ve got at least 893.1 options (at last count, anyway) when it comes to noise cancelling headphones for your iDevice, but do any of those plug directly into the dock connector instead of requiring a separate battery? Exactly. That’s the claim to fame for Blackbox’s i10, a new set of earbuds that rely on power from your iPod or iPhone in order to achieve that active noise cancelling action that the youngsters are so crazy about these days. According to the company, these will filter out 92 percent of background noise using Phitek Systems’ ANR technology, and the inline remote makes it easy to adjust volume and the like. They’re available today for £79.99 ($123) over in the UK, but only heaven knows when they’ll mosey over to North America.

[Thanks, Sharmee]

Continue reading Blackbox i10 noise cancelling earbuds tap into iPod / iPhone dock connector for power, pleasure

Blackbox i10 noise cancelling earbuds tap into iPod / iPhone dock connector for power, pleasure originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Why should iPhones get all the cool cases? Speck is offering two fitted ArtsProjekt cases for the iPhone Touch.

In case you’ve never heard of the creatively spelled group, ArtsProjekt is a global platform featuring products designed by high-profile independent artists, designers, and brands. It’s meant to merge cutting-edge art with made-to-order products. It’s also a unit of Zazzle.com.

The two new designs are printed on fabric and then fused to a Speck hard-shell Fitted case. The design shown here is called “Mother Nature.” The other design is called “The Vamp” (or the “Red Ribbon,” as it’s listed on the press release) and has a more of a dreamy goth look.

Both cases are limited edition and sell for $39.95. You’ll find them exclusively at Apple Stores.

It’s ugly. It’s buggy. It requires a Windows PC. But PlayOn for iPhone actually works, slinging Netflix, Hulu, CBS and more to your waiting Apple device over WiFi and (occasionally) 3G. Using the same PlayOn desktop client that presently redirects video-on-demand to your game console or a media streamer attached to your TV, subscribers can download an app on July 15th that transcodes content for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad as well, and is today the only way to get Netflix on your phone.

We spent some quality couch time with the program over the last couple of days, and with a powerful PC, fast internet and WiFi connection, we found video quite watchable on our iPhone 4, and there’s no knocking PlayOn’s breadth of content available, with loads of TV, a good deal of anime and your entire Netflix streaming queue available on the phone. The interface is barely there, though, just a series of poorly-spaced nesting menus, and it can take quite a few touchscreen presses and a bit of thought to find what you want to watch. There are a few bugs too, like one that kept shooting us back to the main menu randomly upon a button press, and another that locked us into a particular piece of content until both app and desktop server were restarted. Some content could have looked better on the 3.5-inch Retina Display if only we’d had the option to press the HD button, but the only controls Media Mall provides are forward, backward and volume, and even with full bars we’re afraid we couldn’t get 3G playback to work reliably. Since the company still offers a free 14-day trial of the service, the software’s definitely worth a try, but if you want Hulu or Netflix on the go (or even around the house), we imagine you’ll eventually end up using their dedicated apps instead.

Update: PlayOn’s PR team tells us some of the exact bugs we found have already been fixed for tomorrow’s launch, including crashes that return the user to the main menu, and system states that chain the user to a previously selected video. That’s an impressive turnaround!

Update 2: The same team just pinged us again, and it looks like they’ve hit a roadblock. Apparently the app is once more “in review” under Apple’s watch, so only Cupertino knows when exactly it’ll be released to the world. We’ll let you know as soon as we hear more.

PlayOn for iPhone brings a wealth of streaming video to iOS, we go hands-on (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Jul 2010 15:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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