Category: News

How To: Protect Your iDevice From PDF Exploits

For all those of you who have used the JailbreakMe.com method of jailbreaking then you took advantage of a PDF exploit in the Safari application. This is good that you can jailbreak your device so easily but it also means anyone with the right know how can run code on your iDevice. This means that if in the wrong hands it could be used for malicious purposes.

The iPhone Dev-Team or Apple will eventually patch the PDF hole, probably the latter. For now you need to make sure your device is protected so that you don’t fall into any malicious traps. You need to install a Cydia package called PDF Loading Warner, this package displays a pop-up when your device is about to open a PDF. It won’t stop this exploit but it will let you choose not to open a PDF that might be malicious. It has caused some issues with iBooks when opening PDF files as you have to dismiss the pop-up numerous times. However it’s a small price to pay for such an easy jailbreak.

FaceTime uses 3MB of Data/Minute

The folks over at 9to5mac have found that FaceTime uses just under 3MB of data per minute. To be able to use FaceTime over 3G you need to jailbreak your iPhone 4 and then download the My3G app from Cydia. Then you can ‘trick’ the iOS into thinking it’s on WiFi when it’s actually using the 3G cellular network. Obviously this has it’s upsides such as using FaceTime where ever you like or watching high quality YouTube videos on the go. Bear in mind if your using FaceTime on 3G then take into your bandwidth cap into consideration. On O2 in the UK currently most iPhone 4 users have a 500MB+ cap. So if your on the 500MB plan then you can use FaceTime on 3G for a total of around 2 1/2 hours a month, that’s just on FaceTime. So make sure if you are using FaceTime on 3G that you don’t use it too much.

The Return of the JailbreakMe.com Jailbreak

Back in the 1.x days JailbreakMe.com was the simplest way to jailbreak your device. And now comex and Dev-Team have released the latest userland jailbreak which exploits a PDF flaw in MobileSafari. This means you can jailbreak any iOS device, including the iPhone4 on the 4.x firmware. Because the exploit that was used it public I’m sure it won’t be too long until Apple fix the flaw and then a new exploit will have to be used. As always remember to backup your SHSH files so that you can restore to your current firmware and keep on using JailbreakMe.com in the future.

To jailbreak just open up the site JailbreakMe.com and then slide to jailbreak and then just wait. It’s that simple!

An Update into What’s Happening

First of all I’d like to say thank you for visiting my blog, recently I hit the 175,000 hit mark which really surprised me. I’ve got so many plans to tell you about and if you have any feedback either leave a comment or get in touch via the About page.

You may have realised I’ve not really been updating consistently for the last 7 or so months, this is because I’m currently attending Sixth Form doing my A Levels, and after the first few months exams begin and so I’ve been working from January straight out until July. Still not all the work was done as I’ve only done my AS Levels and need to start my A Level work for the final year. I finished last Friday and so now can resume a normal posting routine.

I’ve had so many ideas over the last few months and been putting some of them into place, first of all is my iPhone applications. I’ve had an iPhone since January of last year and have been thinking of so many app ideas for the device, some have been implemented some have not. So I thought it was time to get a Mac and start developing for the platform. Obviously £800 isn’t cheap for the standard MacBook so I had to borrow it from my brother who was going on tour with the army for 6 months, as this would give me time to re-pay the debt. So now I have a MacBook and it’s a big step up from my 4 year old laptop that I had prior. So now I can begin to develop for the iOS platform, I have the ideas and now the time to learn the code and hopefully come out with some apps you will like.

Next is a website for all my projects, I’ve had websites for years now and they’ve always been host to my projects but I’ve not actively ran a website for over a year now so it’s all been planned and I’m buying a .co domain as soon as they become available to the general public, which should be tomorrow. Then I’ll design the website, which I’ve already had many ideas for and then put it out there for your viewership. It will host all the projects I’m currently working on or thinking of. The main one’s will be Photography, iOS Development, R5 Release Dates (a more comprehensive version with links to trailers etc). and my Cycorder Repair Service just to name a few. I will probably start a technology blog on the site too which might one day replace this current site, however I’ll update this for the coming months.

These are just a few of my ideas and there’s many more I’m keeping quiet just for now but if all goes to plan I should be up and running as soon as possible. I’m just hoping that the website is as popular as this blog seeing the amounts of visitors is just great, the only website that got close to this was my wiiscript website, which hosted GlovePIE scripts for use with the WiiMote which were written by me, at the time it was one of the most popular sites for GlovePIE scripts however I stopped running the site after about 10 months as I didn’t have the time to up-keep it.

Thank you for reading and please leave any feedback or ideas as a comment or email me via the about page.

R5 DVD Release Dates (July 2010 – December 2010)

Check the R5 Release Dates page for the latest release dates. (Dates go up to December 2010 and include Blu-Ray dates).

July 2010
Green Zone – 13th Junly 2010
Death at a Funeral – 15th July 2010
Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang – 27th July 2010
Love and Other Impossible Pursuits – July 29th 2010
Please Give – July 29th 2010
Clash of the Titans – July 2010
She’s Out of My League – July 2010
An Invisible Sign of My Own – July 2010
All’s Faire in Love – July 2010
Icarus – July 2010

August 2010
Knight and Day – 5th August 2010
Predators – 12th August 2010
Unthinkable – 19th August 2010
A Nightmare on Elm Street – August 2010
Clash of the Titans – August 2010 (Second Date)
Animals United – August 2010
She’s Out of My League – August 2010 (Second Date)
Cop Out – August 2010
The Killing Room – August 2010
Love and Other Impossible Pursuits – August 2010 (Second Date)

September 2010
Date Night – 30th September 2010 (Second Date)
My Name Is Khan – 30th September 2010
Barbie Fashion Fairytale – September 2010
Young Americans – September 2010
Robin Hood – September 2010
New York, I Love You – September 2010
An Invisible Sign of My Own – September 2010 (Second Date)
Sex and the City 2 – September 2010
13 – September 2010
Wrong Turn at Tahoe – September 2010

October 2010
Takers – 22nd October 2010
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps – 28th October 2010
Leap Year – October 2010
Jonah Hex – October 2010
Repo Men – October 2010
Get Him to the Greek – October 2010
The Killer Inside Me – October 2010
A Nightmare on Elm Street – October 2010 (Second Date)
My Name Is Khan – October 2010 (Second Date)
Orlando – October 2010

November 2010
Predators – 11th November 2010 (Second Date)
Animals United – 25th November 2010 (Second Date)
Despicable Me – November 2010
Iron Man 2 – November 2010
How to Train Your Dragon – November 2010
Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore – November 2010
The Last Airbender – November 2010
Shrek Forever After – November 2010
Machete – November 2010
Sex and the City 2 – November 2010
Charlie St. Cloud – November 2010

December 2010
The Next Three Days – December 2010
Inception – December 2010
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World – December 2010
Love, Wedding, Marriage – December 2010
Get It at Goode’s – December 2010
Dinner for Schmucks – December 2010

Updated: 11th July 2010

For the rest of the dates go to http://tinyurl.com/r5dates

Note: not all dates are 100% accurate and are likely to vary, please keep checking back for updated release dates.

iPhone 4 Screen Issues

Today the iPhone 4 was launched in many countries however a few big problems have arisen. The first one being the retina display which on 1000’s of users iPhone 4 is showing a yellow tint in parts of the screen.

However there has been a follow up on this issue someone posting on the AppleInsider forums seems to know why:

Apple is using a bonding agent called Organofunctional Silane Z-6011 to bond the layers of glass. Apparently, Apple (or more likely Foxconn) is shipping these products so quickly that the evaporation process is not complete. However, after one or two days of use, especially with the screen on, will complete the evaporation process and the yellow “blotches” will disappear. How do I know? I was involved in pitching Z-6011 to Apple.
So if this is true then we might see this problem clear within a few days as if not Apple is going to have a huge problem, seeing as in a recent Engadget poll 55% of users said there screen had the yellow colouring issue, which out of a sample of 27,640 people is quite shocking to say the least. This isn’t the only issue of the day that is affecting users but the new revolutionary antenna system seems to be causing big issues with reception and dropped calls, although Apple says it doesn’t it’s just to do with how the signal is displayed.

iPhone 4 To Have 512MB of RAM

Apple are never open about the actual real specs of the iPhone. We know the iPhone 4 uses a A4 chip but we don’t know the clock speed but for Apple to keep up with todays competition it’s been reported that the new iPhone will have 512MB of RAM instead of the 256MB that the iPhone 3GS has. This will give a lot more head room for games, multitasking and other memory hungry apps.

This will also hopefully mean that for the jailbreak community that with the extra CPU speed and double the RAM that WinterBoard and other modifications will run a lot smoother and you can have a lot more complex themes.