Apple: Jailbreaking iPhones and iPod touches is illegal

In comments filed with the U.S. Copyright Office related to a proposed new exemption to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which would explicitly allow jailbreaking of iPhones, Apple has argued that jailbreaking constitutes copyright infringement and a DMCA violation, and is therefore illegal. The company claims that jailbroken iPhones depend on modified versions of Apple’s copyrighted bootloader and operating system software, and that these more open versions compromise safety, security, and reliability, along with making it easier for users who wish to pirate software. In the days following the iPhone’s release, Apple actively combatted jailbreaking through changes to the device’s software; it had appeared to give these measures less attention since the launch of iPhone OS 2.0 and the App Store, which provides a legal way to add applications to the devices.


Full story

Blow a kiss with your iPhone on Valentine's Day

Wanna do something special for your lover one Valentine's Day ?
Use the iPhone.

This iPhone/iPod Touch application is aptly called "Blow a Kiss" and can be downloaded for free at Apple's App Store. I tried it on my iPhone 3G and it worked wonders: once launched, you are required to type in your name, plus the recipient's name and e-mail address and a short message. Then you just blow into the phone's screen (I tried some audible smooching and that worked, too).

The app then detects the kissing sound and automatically sends an e-mail to the recipient. The e-mail is adorned with hearts and displays the message in an eye-dazzling pink theme. I believe most ladies would like this very, very much.

Via news.cnet

‘iBoo’ iPod docking station debuts

Speakal — maker of the novelty iPod speaker systems the iPig and iPanda — has released the iBoo. It’s a new iPod speaker system that looks like a ghost. The iBoo is priced at $89.99.

Available in red, white or blue, the iBoo sports two speakers in its “eyes” with a downward-firing subwoofer hidden below — together the system outputs 15 watts.

The smiley face below the eyes acts as a sensor for receiving commands from an included remote control. The remote offers audio controls and iPod menu controls.

The iBoo rests on four feet which are rubberized to prevent rattling when the subwoofer is on. The iBoo also sports “human touch” volume control.

An iPod dock is built in, and it includes various cradles to fit different sizes of iPod. A 3.5mm input jack lets you connect other portable devices, laptop computers and more.

Via: Macworld

Use of iPod Touch for Web browsing catching up to smartphones

AdMob’s January report shows Apple’s iPod Touch with the highest rate of growth among mobile devices capable of browsing the Internet.

The number of worldwide requests from the iPod Touch rose from 4.7 percent in December to 7.4 percent in January, by far the biggest increase of any mobile device. The iPhone’s share rose from 10.8 percent to 11 percent.

Last month an AdMob report on ad requests from mobile devices showed the iPod Touch second only to the iPhone . AdMob supplies online ads to such devices, most of which are cell phones.

More at weblogs.baltimoresun

Convert Matroska MKV to common video and audio formats

Firstly, I'd like to explain the definition of MKV - MKV stands for Matroska video. More exactly it is about a container (from where the name Matroska, in reference to the Russian headstocks) making it possible to contain video (DivX, Xvid, RV9, etc), sound (MP3, MP2, AC3, Ogg, AAC, SDR, PCM), as well as subtitles (SRT, ASS, SSA, USF, etc) in the same file.

If you wanna to convert your Matroska video with the file extension .MKV to other common video and audio formats (MP4, AVI, WMV, 3GP, MP3, WMA, etc), the following software has the ability to perform the conversion job easy and fast!

Here is the description for Aimersoft MKV Converter:

The program is a multi-functional video application for converting video for any portable device such as iPod, iPhone, Zune, PSP, blackbery, etc.
Convert Matroska MKV file to other video and audio, cut, merge, crop, rotate, adjust with professional filters and effects, even add watermarks. Extract audio and frames.

Input video formats: Matroska MKV

Extract audio from your favourite clips and video and save to MP3 audio format.
Customize the conversion speed, file size and quality by selecting your own H.264 and MPEG-4 format settings.

Merge multiple videos into a single longer movie file with one click of the Join button.

Batch conversion: Save time by adding multiple video files and convert them in a single step.

Done!

Turn your iPod Touch into a iPhone the Easy Way

You’ve been able to turn your iPod Touch into an iPhone for some time. The trouble was that it took a little bit of work. First you had to jailbreak your iPod Touch, install a VoIP program and find a hotspot.

Things got better when TruPhone came out and now there is another company ready to play. Jajah has an app ready to go that promises to be a turnkey solution for those wanting to use the iPod Touch as an iPhone.

The upside to all of this is that you can get out from under the monthly contract and data plan. The downside is that you’ll need Wi Fi for calling goodness.

Via: iphonematters

"iPod to PC" Transfers Music and video from Any iPod, iPhone Onto Your PC

Pod To PC is a free software program to transfer data from any kind of iPod or iPhone to a computer. It supports all generations of the iPhone, iPod Touch, iPod Video, iPod Nano, iPod and iPod Shuffle making it an universal tool to transfer data from those mobile devices to a PC.

The software will run on any PC with Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows Vista installed. The only other requirement is an installation of Apple’s iTunes software. Pod To PC can copy music, videos and playlists from a supported device to the computer. Music and videos can be previewed and filtered on the iPod or iPhone prior to transferring them.

One interesting option is to automatically transfer all music and video files to the computer that are not already available in the local installation of iTunes. This makes it ideal to sync music and video collections. Could also be handy if you had to reinstall the operating system or iTunes on a computer after a crash to transfer all the music and videos back to the computer from the iPod or iPhone.

Duplicate tracks will not be copied. It is furthermore possible to copy full or partial playlists. All the related meta information such as ratings will also be transferred and preserved.

Pod To PC is an interesting software program for Windows users looking for a software to transfer data from an iPod or iPhone to the PC.

Via: ghacks