Earlier this year, a new law was passed in the United States that prevented owners of mobile phones from unlocking their devices and using it on another network without carrier authorization. The law also prevents users from taking unlocked phones abroad and using them on local carriers there. However, the law is now being protested by many users who believe that they should be able to switch their mobile phones to any carrier they choose.
Soon after the law went into effect, a “We The People” petition was created which stated that if 100,000 people signed, the White House would release a response on the issue. As of Monday, the Obama Administration is fully supporting the petition and White House advisor R. David Edelman issued an official response, mentioning that consumers should be able to unlock both mobile phones and tablets without facing penalties.
The White House agrees with the 114,000+ of you who believe that consumers should be able to unlock their cell phones without risking criminal or other penalties. In fact, we believe the same principle should also apply to tablets, which are increasingly similar to smart phones. And if you have paid for your mobile device, and aren’t bound by a service agreement or other obligation, you should be able to use it on another network. It’s common sense, crucial for protecting consumer choice, and important for ensuring we continue to have the vibrant, competitive wireless market that delivers innovative products and solid service to meet consumers’ needs.
This is particularly important for secondhand or other mobile devices that you might buy or receive as a gift, and want to activate on the wireless network that meets your needs — even if it isn’t the one on which the device was first activated. All consumers deserve that flexibility.
Despite Edelman’s response detailing plans for negotiation on the issue with both the Federal Communications Commission and mobile carriers, the Library of Congress is defending its position on the issue. Unlocking mobile phones, particularly Apple’s iPhone has been a major issue that has affected many users. This is an issue that is now being taken to a governmental level, although it is arguable that this is an issue that can be solved between the consumers and carriers.
{Via MacRumors}
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Earlier this year we reviewed .vs Racing and thoroughly enjoyed it, the only flaw being the lack of online multiplayer and Game Center integration. Now though VS. Racing 2 has been released promising to address some of those issues and a lot more.
VS. Racing 2 is a top down arcade racer where you race your tiny car around 36 different tracks. Your car can, and will need to be, upgraded based on the coins that you earn competing in races. Don’t worry if you don’t like to have to tinker with your car though as all you can tweak is your speed, acceleration and off-road capabilities.
There are three modes to the racing, first up is the standard single player fare where you unlock tracks as you progress through winning races. Online multiplayer has also been addressed although this is not real time racing. Instead you get to set a time around the track and then challenge a friend to beat your ghost time. It’s an improvement on the original but still no replacement for full online multiplayer racing.
Finally there is local multiplayer racing and this time there is the addition power-ups that you can pick up on track and unleash on your opponents including mines, oil and speed boosts to name but a few. This is a nice addition should you have the occasion where you have a group of friends available to play locally.
Once again the controls work well with three options available for you to pick from, these are virtual buttons, virtual steering wheel and the accelerometer. All of these are work well and it will really be down to personal preference as to which one works for you. What would be nice if it was possible to control the sensitivity of these controls too.
While the controls work well within the game the same can’t be said for the navigation menu’s which are sluggish. Sluggishness is also a problem in the loading of each level which considering the racing tracks are so small take a long time to load.
The tracks do look nice though, they show a good level of detail around the tracks should you ever find the time to look at it as you race around the track at speed. There are also multiple surfaces which directly affect how the car handles which you will have to take into consideration unless you want to go from 1st to 4th in a single corner.
With the addition of Game Center achievements as well as the ghost online racing this is certainly an improvement on .vs Racing, however the sluggish navigation and long load times let it down.
If you want to give it a try then VS. Racing 2 is available in the App Store for $0.99.
[rating: 3.5/5]
If you want a more relaxing way to get your daily 3 star fix than firing slightly perturbed feathered animals at different green animals then growing flowers could be just for you. And if that’s the case then you need to get hold of Chillingo’s latest game, Light the Flower.
The challenge in each of the 60 levels spread across 5 different homes is to get as much light as possible to all the plants in the house. The 3 star challenge comes from equally lighting up three stars as you bounce the light around the room to the sun thirsty plant.
The light source on each of the levels is the sun that streams in through one or more of the windows. You then get to use a combination of mirrors, prisms and filters to bounce and change the path of the light to the darkened corner where the plant has been positioned.
The touch controls are smooth and accurate. You can drag the mirrors around the room and rotate them so that you can get the perfect angle. It’s also worth noting the splitting the beams of light is key in some of the levels as multiple plants have to be bathed in sunlight.
The challenge is increased as you progress through the various houses not only by multiple plants but also by their need for different colored light. This is achieved by passing the sunlight through different colored filters.
Throughout the game your progress is hindered by a variety of household items that are strewn throughout the different rooms which block the light from passing requiring you to bounce the sunlight around them.
As with all such games you can progress through the game relatively easily if you don’t care to achieve all three stars on each level, but then where’s the fun in that!
The game has a Cut the Rope feel to it especially in regard to the cartoon style graphics and the jolly background music that keeps things moving along nicely! Light the Flower is a fun, challenging puzzle game and the nature of the game means that you can just keep making slight adjustments to achieve the result you desire.
Additional levels are promised in future updates but that’s not to say that the 60 levels aren’t good value in themselves especially if you complete them all with 3 stars. If you want to unlock the current 5 houses you will need to get all the stars you can though, otherwise you’ll need to unlock them via a 99cent in app purchase.
Light the Flower is available now for just 99 cents in the App Store and as a universal game it’s great value for money if you do happen to own both an iPhone and an iPad. What it doesn’t do is synchronise your data between the two devices which is slightly frustrating.
Both Crystal and GameCentre integration is included so you can view your progress with all your friends.
[rating: 4/5]What we like
What to know
If you are one of the millions of players who downloaded and lost hours of their lives playing Jetpack Joyride then I may have a new game to break that addiction.
Madcoaster from App Store dominators Chillingo is a new universal game where you control a roller coaster train on a never ending journey through multiple lands in order to collect as many coins and travel as far as you can with all your lives intact.
The game has a great cartoon look to it and the multiple lands look great as you speed through them. The game starts with just a few ‘themes’ enabled which you travel through for 1,000 meters at a time. Should you complete 1,000 meters you will continue on through another ‘theme’ until you run out of lives.
The themes are based on different events and locations, so one moment you may find yourself zooming past panda’s in a Japanese themed environment and the next past pumpkins in a Halloween inspired theme. Additional themes can also be unlocked via in app purchase or by reaching 10,000 meters in the game. The in-app purchases are nicely positioned meaning that you don’t have to keep on buying them.
Your roller coaster carts have no speed control but things get pretty crazy straight out of the traps and you’ll need fast fingers as you leap gaps, loop the loop, and move up and down tracks.
As you fly along the rails you can pick up coins and smash though a variety of animals, the only thing that can kill you is falling off the track though, in fact smashing through the animals that are standing on the tracks or hitting birds that are flying past the tracks earn you rewards rather than hinder you.
All these things contribute to the variety of objectives that are set for you on each run and clearing these objectives will provide upgraded carts for you to ride. Not that these carts have any additional features, instead they just look different to prior carts, it would be nice to have power ups to make your cart faster or jump higher.
The game has that addictive quality that makes you want to try one more time to beat your current high-score or complete one more of the 30 achievements that are available via Chillingo’s social gaming network Crystal, or the GameCenter integration.
Madcoaster is a Universal app and is available from the App Store for just 99c so grab it while you can.
[rating: 4/5]What to know:
On Sunday evening the Dev-Team released the latest editions of PwnageTool and redsn0w to provide an untethered jailbreak for devices running iOS 4.3.1 – almost three years since the first version of PwnageTool was released for the 1.1.4 firmware. The jailbreak works on all devices that support the 4.3.1 firmware, except for the iPad 2.
You can download PwnageTool for Mac, or redsn0w for both Mac and Windows, from the Dev-Team’s blog. However, if you require the ultrasn0w unlock to use your device, you shouldn’t update your firmware just yet – ultrasn0w isn’t yet fully compatible with the latest version of iOS. The Dev-Team’s blog warns:
WARNING WARNING — ultrasn0w users don’t update yet! We need to first release an update to ultrasn0w that fixes some incompatibilities when FW 4.3.1 is used on the older basebands supported by ultrasn0w.
This jailbreak comes courtesy of Stefan Esser – aka iOn1c – a security researcher based in Germany, whose dedication to an untethered jailbreak has made this exploit possible.
Although these methods don’t currently support Apple’s latest iPad tablet, a jailbreak for this device is on its way. The Dev-Team has already performed a jailbreak on the second-generation device, but the tools to do it aren’t quite ready for public release.
The quickest way to jailbreak your device running the 4.3.1 firmware is to upgrade to this version through iTunes and then use redsn0w to jailbreak. No restore is needed for this method, and it’s surprisingly quick.
For more advances users who wish to preserve their baseband version, you can use a custom firmware to jailbreak your device with PwnageTool, but again, this method is currently for Mac users only. The advantage to this method is that users can modify their firmware before they install it – enabling them to choose the size of their root partition, pre-install Cydia packages, and more.
Right now this jailbreak is still pretty hot, so if you have trouble downloading the softwares above from the Dev-Team’s blog, it’s best to be patient and try again later. You can find download mirrors using Google if you don’t want to wait, or you can try the torrent files for each software.
]]> https://touchreviews.net/untethered-jailbreak-ios-431-released-dev-team/feed/ 4But first, some background.
For those new to the ecosystem or not in the know, jailbreaking describes a process where the locks on the iPhone OS are overridden. Apple is a firm believer in the managed user experience. They implement locks on the operating system to ensure every iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch only runs approved applications. Only approved applications are listed in the App Store and this is the only source of applications. To receive approval an application must adhere to the rules and regulations Apple makes rules regarding application inclusion and then be vetted and approved by a Human who ensures those rules are met. This is in contrast to an ecosystem like Android that has a central application store called the Marketplace but that also allows applications to be installed on the operating system by simply clicking a link. Apple maintains this is done to ensure a consistent user experience that adheres to Apple’s own application development guidelines.
Jailbreaking then takes software that has been written to override and replace Apple’s locks on the operating system so that any application can be installed. A couple of popular jailbreaking applications are Spirit and Redsn0w. While each implements their overrides in different ways and to different effect, the end result is the same. Once the locks are broken, the user is free to install any application they desire that has been written for the iPhone environment. A popular app store for jailbroken devices is Cydia. Cydia comes installed with a lot of jailbreaking applications and is typically available on the device at the end of the jailbreaking process.
The question remains then, why would someone jailbreak their device? The most common answer is to bring applications or features that aren’t otherwise available. Because of the closed, and sometimes restrictive, system Apple implements there are programs that aren’t available any other way. One I saw that has gotten some press lately was the Wi-Fi Sync app from Greg Hughes. It allows a jailbroken iPhone OS device to synchronize over a local Wi-Fi connection instead of through the USB cable. I also saw Backgrounder (multitasking) and Categories (folder-based icon management). All bring functionality to the device that isn’t otherwise available. A native Google Voice app is another example of a rejected application available on jailbroken devices. People jailbreak their devices either to gain this functionality, make a political statement about Apple’s practices, or a little bit of both. The problem with jailbreaking is, should your hardware fail and you seek a replacement from Apple, you will be rejected. Jailbreaking contravenes the terms of service of the iPhone OS and breaks the warranty on the device. It’s true you can restore the device back to its previous state but apparently traces are left behind that Apple can use to prove your previous deeds.
If part of the movement behind jailbreaking is a reaction to the features the iPhone OS does not currently support, it will be interesting to see what effect iPhone OS 4.0 brings. With native multitasking and icon management, two of the prime features jailbreaking offers will be built in. Although it is unlikely Apple will open up its processes any more in the new operating system, if two of the main jailbreaking features are natively available it makes sense many will opt to stay with the native operating system. Some have also speculated that Apple rejected Mr. Hughes’ app because they had native support in the works. Wouldn’t that be interesting? I’d like to see how the jailbreaking numbers skew before and after the official release of iPhone OS 4.0 with all the goodies and features Apple hasn’t included yet.
While jailbreaking can bring some interesting and different functionality to your iPhone OS device, it is also fraught with disadvantages. It is not a decision that should be taken lightly. Personally, I’m going to hold out to see how iPhone OS 4.0 operates on my device before I decide whether or not to go down the road of my friend. Native, unaltered operating systems are always the most stable and I’m not personally convinced it’s for me.
What do you think? Would you consider jailbreaking your iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch? If you have already, would you consider sharing your experience in the comments section? Did you find it to be a positive experience or negative? Would you do it again? Leave us your comments on this and anything else pertaining to jailbreaking you’d like to share.
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