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This news is fairly dated (about 4 weeks), but the new Jailbreak is out for iOS devices (iPhones, iPads, etc).

Most family and friends are familiar with the fact that I despise Apple (ironically, I was an Apple ‘fanboy’ for almost 10 years and was in pretty deep prior to my ‘digital awakening’ in 2003); however, there is no doubt that the iPad rules the tablet market and will for some time. I speak as a user of both Android and iOS and can tell you that it will be some time before the Andriod environment is suitable for tablets. But mark my words, Android will overcome iOS with tablets. It is just a matter of time. It is a lot like the PC market in the late 80s/early 90s … Apple opened the door to the industry for every-day users, but Windows eventually overtook the market. Apple’s walled-garden mentality just isn’t sustainable – and, like PCs and most recently phones, won’t be for tablets.

I have 2 Android tablets (which I have since given to the kids) and still hold on tightly to my iPad 2. The only reason, though, that I considered owning an iPad and still maintain ownership is the possibility of Jailbreaking. I have introduced a few peers to this world, and it’s interesting to see them discover it. How easy it is (it takes just minutes), how much it opens your experience, and how much more productive you can be with your device now that it is free from Apple’s confines.

Jailbreaking sounds a lot more ‘dangerous’ than it is. It is simply an opening of the Operating System – which allows you to customize and tweak your tablet to do things that Apple doesn’t want you to do. Why does Apple not want me to be able to use a flash drive or have USB connectivity with my iPad? Why doesn’t Apple want for me to be able to network with my home PCs? Why doesn’t Apple want me to be able to see various system folders and files? It all comes down to them wanting to control the user experience. I understand this for most users – it’s what made Apple appealing to me as a first time computer user; however, I changed and want to do more and explore under the hood with my technology. Jailbreaking allows you immense freedoms.

Try it out here.

Click here to download Adobe Photoshop (CS2 – but pretty recent) for free – straight from Adobe!

You’re welcome.

I’ve been hearing a lot about this lately on some of the sites I frequent – there is a lot of chatter out there about this technology.

So, then, I’ll just leave this link here.

With AAPL’s precipitous fall of late, adding further to its woes was the reception of the iPhone 5 in China last week. While there were a couple of ‘technicalities’ (weather and a new reservation protocol) that certainly contributed to this lemon-launch, pics often over-rule logic of the day – wow.

Interesting article on the NY Times site (a few weeks old – sorry. Been sitting in my inbox for a little bit whilst I tried to find time for this post) about pirating online.

I find it humorous that the video mentioned (below) uses the ‘cat tv’ format to throw off copyright-police-engines. Now you know why, in case you’ve maybe run across one of these silly videos.

My whole analogy of pirating (instead of whack-a-mole, as mentioned in the article) is a water balloon: you squeeze one end, and the water will move to another part of the balloon. Changing the elasticity of the balloon (laws) or the hand (enforcement) won’t work. It’s content distribution (the water) that some genius, somewhere, is going to figure out.

or hotel, field, or shed. He wasn’t too sure …

I remember a couple of years ago when Digg did their huge redesign … long-time users (myself definitely included) where pissed. The change made the site from the solid aggregator into a social-media wanna-be. Soon, those who disliked the direction Kevin Rose took changed horses to Reddit.

Today we learned their slow death has been finalized with the payment of peanuts vs the $200 million they were offered by Google (and turned down) in 2008.

Good Riddance, Digg.

So Gavin is pretty head-long into Steam, which is a gaming app/community. He can download games, I can gift him games (when he does chores, he gets points from me. Points translate to new games), I can track his usage, etc. Oh … and there is a messaging feature built in, too. Even cooler, I even have the Steam App on my tablet – which I used yesterday while he was playing …

I was pretty excited that my kindergarten son is now messaging with me … pretty cool.

Just testing … Sending this from work phone. Found an app for posting -surprise- on this archaic OS.

From this year’s CES. Awesome.

˙ǝɹǝɥ ʇı op uɐɔ noʎ puɐ ‘ʎןǝʇɐן sǝʇıs snoıɹɐʌ uo sıɥʇ buıǝǝs uǝǝq ǝʌɐɥ ı

5.5 Terapixels = 5.5×10¹² pixels

At a 16:9 aspect ratio that gives you: 3.127×10⁶ px by 1.759×10⁶ px.

Assuming this thing captures in 12-bit RAW format (pretty standard): were looking at approximately 8.25TB per image.

Really?

Below is the excerpt from the new biography (published today – I’m reading it on my Android Tablet) of Steve Jobs – the iconic co-founder of Apple. It briefly explains his turn on Christianity as a youth …

One documented reason he went into over 40 interviews with the author prior to his death in August was so his children would understand why he wasn’t there for them. Sad, really.

But to the point of his move from Christianity to Buddhism …

The catalyst was his realization that this God let this happen to these children; yet, he grew his immense fortune from the child-workers in China (noted, as many tech companies do nowadays) with terrible conditions and labor practices – and never outwardly made a difference his youthful self was so disgusted by.

As iconic as his followers believe him to be, his humanistic legacy is quite pathetic. Once his shiny gadgets fade into obsolescence, I would only hope those that have built his current pedestal will see through the iEuphoria and understand that he ultimately failed with the tremendous opportunity he had to truly to Think Different for humanity.

the magazine cover that shook young Steve Jobs in 1968

So I canceled my cell phone plan today. I’m going completely Google Voice effective February 2 (day my cell contract ends – end of billing cycle). It’s a pretty slick program that really has some amazing tools.

In 2001, Tina and I went through similar tech jump by eliminating our LAN lines altogether, going completely cell. I remember many people thought we were crazy. I guess this is Crazy, part II.

For now, I’m still searching for number on Google that I like and will be porting everything to it. Should you be in my contacts, I will let you know my new phone/text number soon enough.

Wish me luck!

So now Google is boldly proclaiming that they are supporting Flash in this move, which directly sticks it to the HTML5 standard Jobs is trying to push on iOS products.

Ouch!

Another example of ignorant masses getting caught up in the baloney of hip advertising versus the real-world practicality of technology.

It’s a bit criminal for Best Buy to sell an HDMI cable for so much cash, but they get away with it preying upon one of the fallacies of consumerism (“you get what you pay for”) and the many customers who think the name brand is king. And this is an easy trap to set, because most consumers buying electronics and gadgets are lulled into these mindless purchases by the justification of the major cash they are usually forking out at the time – say, for a flat-screen tv with components. When you’re spending $2,000, what’s another $200? Additionally, many are simply seeing the high cost as an insurance plan for said tv/components … I mean, what could it hurt?

at Best Buy, you’ll pay $1.04 a linear inch for a Monster Cable HDMI.

at MonoPrice.com, you’ll pay $.03 a linear inch for an  HDMI cable.

But HDMI technology is simply DIGITAL signal transmission. It’s binary data: 1s and 0s being sent across a wire. You will find no difference between a Gucci HDMI (or Monster) and a Radio Shack cord. Really. Get over it.

Educate yourself here, folks.

And you can donate that $144 savings to me. Just let me know how you want to pay by clicking here.