With newly added exemptions to DMCA act, Electronic Frontier Foundation has made some epic accomplishment in favor of Jailbreakers, Unlockers and Video artists. From now on, Jailbreaking is purely legal in U.S. and no jailbreaker in U.S. needs to bother about any legal ramifications if the hardware owner decides to jailbreak his mobile phone, making it to root access and willing to run unofficial third party apps on phone’s hardware.

This ruling comes as a major setback to Apple, which strongly ...]]>

With newly added exemptions to DMCA act, Electronic Frontier Foundation has made some epic accomplishment in favor of Jailbreakers, Unlockers and Video artists. From now on, Jailbreaking is purely legal in U.S. and no jailbreaker in U.S. needs to bother about any legal ramifications if the hardware owner decides to jailbreak his mobile phone, making it to root access and willing to run unofficial third party apps on phone’s hardware.

This ruling comes as a major setback to Apple, which strongly condemns Jailbreaking of its ‘closed’ products such as iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad. In an effort of keeping the overall environment in its firm control, Apple always desires to let users run pre-installed apps or approved apps downloaded/purchased from App Store. That’s one reason why Apple keeps plugging software exploits unearthed by hackers/jailbreakers and keeps releasing updated iOS versions with software fixes.

But now when ‘Jailbreaking’ has gone legal in U.S., Apple might not discourage ‘Jailbreaking’ the way it used to do it earlier.

This is how Apple will discourage ‘Jailbreaking’ from now on…

“Don’t Jailbreak your iOS device because….”

• It will severely ‘degrade’ your software experience
• It will make your device unstable/error prone
• It will hamper hardware reliability
• It will violate warranty of your iOS device

Still, i reckon, Apple need not worry about this epic judgement as Jailbreaking won’t really shoot up, even after becoming a legal activity in U.S.

Here’s why….

• ‘Jailbreaking’ isn’t a child’s play. It requires decent programming skills or at least deep understanding of digging the software roots.
• Jailbreaking puts the device at the risk of ‘bricking’(permanent damage), if anything goes wrong while rooting your device.
• ‘Jailbreaking’ doesn’t offer huge rewards to any iOS device owner. It just enables you to run unauthorized third party apps on your hardware. To most of the iOS loyalists, 225000 approved apps are more than enough.
• So far, only 10% of iOS devices are actually Jailbroken. That’s a pretty small minority which mostly comprises of hackers and geeks.
• Majority of Apple’s cult is absurdly religious, willing to follow every word that Steve Jobs preaches and in this case, Steve Jobs/Apple discourages Jailbreaking and hence there are least chances for the cult to disobey their ‘God’(Steve!)

Rather i see a reverse-psychology happening with Jailbreakers and hackers. It might happen that ‘Jailbreaking’ may go down by itself, post this judgement.

Here’s why…

Jailbreakers/Crackers are defined by doing stuff that’s illegal. Doing illegal stuff actually brings motivation to Crackers as there’s no monetary incentive of doing stuff like that. Now that Jailbreaking is legal, hackers/jailbreakers may rather turn focus on doing other illegal stuff, not ‘legal’ Jailbreaking, which may appear rather ‘boring’ to them.

Hence Apple need not worry about this ruling. It just needs to keep releasing iOS updates with patches to latest exploits, something that Apple has been doing for years now.

The world of technology is so fascinating and fast-evolving today that it is mighty hard for an “informed” guy to abstain from spending money on buying latest gizmos. Whether it’s laptops, Netbooks, smartphones or gaming consoles, affordable pricing and irresistible offerings has exploded the sales of funky gadgets that once used to get sold to elite customers only.

This ever-growing hunger of new breed of consumerist-major generation has led to fierce competition at almost every tech landscape you talk about. Every major technology company today is either busy defending its ...]]>

The world of technology is so fascinating and fast-evolving today that it is mighty hard for an “informed” guy to abstain from spending money on buying latest gizmos. Whether it’s laptops, Netbooks, smartphones or gaming consoles, affordable pricing and irresistible offerings has exploded the sales of funky gadgets that once used to get sold to elite customers only.

This ever-growing hunger of new breed of consumerist-major generation has led to fierce competition at almost every tech landscape you talk about. Every major technology company today is either busy defending its own once-monopolistic business (Microsoft: Windows & Office, Google: Search & Advertising), aggressively invading into other’s businesses(Microsoft:Bing, Google: Chrome OS) or competing to dominate future-centric markets (Apple,Google, Microsoft, RIM, Nokia, HP: Mobile OS and Apps).

And quite recently, an untouched breed has started to appear across tech world, which may soon define an all new category of devices, the category of Touch-enabled Tablet devices. It’s also the category that’s currently synonymized with Apple iPad, a meticulously crafted evidence of technological advancement, built by Apple.

Honestly, i can’t stop admiring iPad and there are countless reasons for that. Being a gadget freak myself, i am sold to the beauty of iPad already and want to own it anyway.

Still,  I am scared of buying an iPad. Sounds strange ?. Here’s why i think so…

• I own a Windows PC not an iMac
• I own a Dell Laptop, not a Macbook
• I own a Sony MP3 Player, not an iPod
• I own a Motorola Droid(Android), not an iPhone

In short, I am happy keeping myself away from buying anything ‘Apple’. I am aware that Apple produces the best breed of desktop machines(iMac), the best laptops (Macbook), the best Music player(iPod) or possibly the best smartphone till date (iPhone, although i would love to argue on this), but all of that fails to convince me to turn to Apple.

Although I would have loved using that iMac ‘Magic Mouse’ or using that long battery Macbook or that beautiful iPhone etc etc but i am happy with my existing set of gadgets and don’t feel the need to expend unnecessarily over Apple’s high priced product line, just because that’s ‘cool’ or more ‘aesthetic’ and stuff like that.

But iPad has a different story altogether. When i think of consumer-oriented touch slate devices, i find no options but the iPad. It’s something that’s a little annoying to me as lack of options invites frustration to anyone (barring Apple Fanboys, of course) and we, the consumers are not used to having zero options. We choose, not accept !

Now, i admit that Apple has produced a futuristic device in the form of iPad and i would rather love falling for an iPad rather than waiting for HP or Acer or any other OEM to launch an iPad competitor.

But still, i am scared of buying an iPad. Not because…

• I hate iPad (i already said i love it!)
• I hate Apple (No, I admire Apple as a company for all its achievements and successfully building an absurdly religious cult)
• I hate Apple products(Again, i don’t hate Apple products. They’re too awesome to hate )

I am scared of buying iPad because i am scared of becoming yet another Absurdly religious Apple Fanboy !

It’s a human tendency to admire and defend what you own. It’s because you’re not defending the ‘product’ you bought, you are actually defending “your decision” of buying that product.

And i realize that once i buy an iPad, i won’t be able to stop myself showing it off to every other guy and explaining folks why this sleek gadget is ‘magical’, ‘revolutionary’ , ‘extraordinary’ etc etc, an early symptom of becoming a Fanboy.

I can foresee that soon after buying an iPad and unleashing its crafted beauty, i will turn so addicted with it that i will start wondering how was i bearing those clumsy, non-glittering, poorly designed ‘Non-Apple’ gadgets i had been using all along.

And eventually, I will replace my PC with an iMac, my Dell laptop with a Macbook and my Droid with an iPhone. In other words, i will surrender to the Cult of Mac by becoming a part of it. All this transition won’t happen immediately but once all my existing device approach their expiry, i won’t choose anything but Apple’s.

Although iPad would cost me just $499 or more but in a couple of years, i will transform into an ATM machine for Apple, who will be ready to spare hundreds, if not thousands of dollars on every product launched by Apple and plenty of apps, music and other stuff from iTunes.

Ultimately, i will start to prefer ‘Apple‘ over ‘Options‘, ‘Affordability‘ & ‘Openness’. I will become a devoted Apple Fanboy !

All the above thoughts scare me so much that i prefer abstaining from taking that first step(buying an iPad) towards the Black Hole(Apple’s Ecosystem).

As I am quite happy with my Android smartphone(Droid) so far, i would love to buy an Android Tablet/Slate, as and when it hits the shelves. Till then, I better avoid thinking about iPad anymore !