So the new iPad isn’t called the “iPad 3” or “iPad HD”, what’s the big deal? Apple obviously had their reasons for severing the number from the name, but their timing is peculiar. Why make the decision with the third generation iPad when the iPhone is currently at iPhone 4S? The first possible answer is simple. Right now, Apple is releasing a new iPad each year, and at this rate, we would be at the iPad 6 in just three years. At that point, it’s getting a little excessive. According to Apple, the new iPad is breaking pre-order records already, and is on par to see huge sales. So if Apple is seeing sales increase even while dropping the numerical name, what’s the problem? I would argue that Apple would sell even more iPads if they kept the big ol’ numbers, and here’s why.

People like numbers because it’s easier to brag. As infuriating as it is, many people enjoy being able to say they have the newest iDevice. Take, for example, the iPhone. The easiest way for people to distinguish who has the better iPhone is simply comparing the numbers. And I would argue that it is because of these numbers that people feel the need to have the newest model. Numbers are simplistic. They leave no doubt whose model is newer. As vain and conceited as this seems, it sells. And Apple should care about this.

So let’s look at an example of another Apple product that doesn’t seem to be affected by the Apple hype. The iPod. Sure it’s sold millions upon millions of units, but it hasn’t seen the exponential increase in success of iPhones and iPads, complete with people camping out on release day. Right now, iPods are differentiated by their different “generations”. Nobody lines up to get the “third generation iPod Touch”. A new generation sounds like a revision, an improvement, not an entirely new device. In actuality, this may or may not be the case, but that doesn’t matter. What matters is the public’s perception. And when there is a strong number tagged on the end of the name, people seem to line up, because in their mind, it’s an entirely new device.

Am I saying that Apple made a mistake in moving towards labeling their devices with generations? Yes. Even still, they will likely sell more new iPads than iPad 2′s. However, they are risking the loss of the hype that makes their products sell like hotcakes. Sure people may take note when Apple refreshes their MacBook Pro line, but do you see Apple’s website slowing to a halt when pre-orders hit? (It took over 2 hours for me to pre-order my new iPad). Throwing in some light economics, I believe changing the name will represent a small negative shift in the demand for the new iPad, but this will be dwarfed by the enormous positive shift in demand that it will receive simply from being an innovative new Apple product. I simply think the small negative effect could be eliminated if Apple had released the “iPad 3”. At the end of the day, Apple will be laughing their way to the bank. It will be interesting, however, to see what the new iPhone model will be called, with its rumored announcement this fall.

 

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March 7th saw the announcement of Apple’s newest iPad, named simply “New iPad”. A departure from tradition, this marks Apple’s decision to discontinue a numerical model, instead focusing on refreshing the model on an assumed yearly basis. This is similar to the iPod line, where instead of numbers, the generation or year is used. Speculation has started that Apple may decide to introdudce this naming scheme for their newest iPhone. But enough on the name, what was all the hype about?

The New iPad’s most striking feature is its Retina display, a crystal-clear 2048 x 1536 pixels, totaling for over 3.1 million pixels. To put this into understandable terms, your HD 1080p television has a resolution of 1920 x 1080. So the iPad’s screen now has a better resolution than your TV, all packed into a 9.7″ screen. And the fun doesn’t stop there.

What’s under the hood? Apple needed some more muscle to power such a pixel-intensive screen, so they upgraded the internals to Apple’s A5X chip. This means quad-core graphics for blistering speeds. 4G LTE is also a new feature, offering a significant bump in using Verizon or AT&T’s 4G LTE networks. This means faster downloads and streaming speeds. Apple’s finally allowing you to use your iPad as a mobile hotspot now, providing wireless internet to your friends, if your carrier allows it.

So you like to take pictures and video? Apple’s got you covered. Continuing their obsession for assigning creative names to features such as the “Retina” screen, the new iPad will have five-megapixel  iSight (see what they did there?) camera, very similar to the one found in the iPhone 4S. This will also shoot 1080p video.

Keeping the same battery life (10 hours wifi, 9 hours 4G LTE), and  pricing scheme ($499 +), you can enjoy all of the new iPad’s new features without having to plug it in, or empty your wallet (somewhat). Pre-orders are live, but if you want to hold one on March 16th, you might want to line up, Apple’s site is showing delayed shipping for online models.  We’ll continue to review the new iPad (I managed to snag a pre-order due to arrive March 16th). What do you think? Are the new features enough of an upgrade, or were you expecting more?   Let us know in the comments below!

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This past monday, as many of you have already heard (and maybe watched) Apple had its annual WWDC.

Although not much was promised, some very exciting releases were introduced. Here is a quick summary to see what’s new:

1. Mac OSX Lion
A typical Apple release behavior, this newest release does not really revamp the OS, rather it enhances what it already has. Lion seems to focus mainly on emulating iOS in navigation, multi touch gestures, organization, and UI style. It sports over 250 new features; some of the more prominent ones include fullscreen apps, a multi-tasking feature called Mission Control,and  another organization feature called Launch Pad. But most surprisingly, instead of being priced at $125 dollars, it will only cost $25. And yet, this is not so surprising seeing as it is more of a heavy update rather than a new OS. Either way, it looks like a solid release.

2. iOS 5
The biggest relief here is notifications, they finally added the, very Android like, drop down notification bar and no longer will you be interrupted midgame for a text message. Instead the status bar at the top merely flips to show the notification and allows for continuous concentration on the angry birds game at hand. Apple also introduced News Stand (iBook for magazines and newspapers) as well as a tabbed Safari (as well as offline support). Another new feature called Reminders acts as a nice, calendar integrated to-do list. Photos allow crop and rotate as well as using the volume button for the shutter release. iPhone can now be PC-Free, meaning they work straight out of the box. With software updates via wireless connection and a updated GameCenter as well as wireless data syncing, this update is quite a luxurious one!

3. iCloud
By far the most momentous release of the day, iCloud was introduced by Steve Jobs himself who focused on the “it just works” mantra (potentially ad-nauseum). This new feature is truly awesome and houses a lot of potential for growth. Most all data will be  synced online, completely wireless, encrypted, and extremely fast! The only caveat, a $24 dollar/year price tag. And while this is better than Amazon’s option, we here at iTHs really don’t like paying for our features

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So, I have amassed a sizable set of different articles and then narrowed down the rumors to arrive what I believe may be our next iPhone:

• 4 inch screen – as opposed to the current 3.5 inch screen (a reaction to the larger android phones
• potential full – slide out keyboard – although I doubt it
• unfortunately, most of the rumors point to a 3Gs type update. . . so not that much added value
• purported iphone 5 cases indicate very little to no physical changes in the placement or structure of the device
• integrated NCF payment system – would allow you to use the phone as a credit card . . . basically
• Finally, a white iPhone!! rumored to be released for both GSM and CDMA based models

so that’s the iPhone 5. . . maybe

either way,

cheers,

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The iPhone dev team recently reported that, with the help of the chronic dev team, “This means iPhone unlockers can safely restore to a custom 4.2.1 pre-jailbroken IPSW and retain their current baseband and unlock”.

PwnageTool also supports all the other 4.2.1 devices other than iPod touch 2G:

• iPhone3G
• iPhone3GS
• iPhone4
• iPhone4-Verizon
• iPod touch 3G
• iPod touch 4G
• iPad
• AppleTV 2G

Other improvements:iBooks has been fixed to work with books protected by DRM.

• The wifi problem on AppleTV 2G was fixed as well.

Thank you Dev Team!

Official Bittorent Releases:

PwnageTool_4.2.dmg -> PwnageTool_4.2.dmg.6176918.TPB.torrent

SHA1 Sum = af365f5de19d7ee19cbe1c67b2f226996a46b3ac

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All serious jailbreakers know that SSHing is an essential.

Here is a little walkthrough on how to install OpenSSH:

1. Open Cydia and scroll down the main page to where it says “OpenSSH Access How-To.” Tap that option.
2. On that page, click the blue linked text “Open SSH” in the first step. You’ll be presented with the OpenSSH package page. Click the install button in the top right corner, confirm when it’s finished, and return to Cydia.
3. Open the Settings app from your home screen and go into your Wi-Fi settings. Click the little blue arrow next to the Wi-Fi network you’re currently connected to. Make a note of your IP address in the “IP Address” field (it should start with 10 or 192).
4. To connect to your iOS device from your computer, use an SSH-capable application like Terminal on OS X or puTTy on Windows. Type ssh root@YOUR_IP_ADDRESS(replacing YOUR_IP_ADDRESS with your actual IP address). When prompted, enter your password. It’s alpine by default. Once finished, you’re connected! You can also use an SFTP application like Cyberduck to connect as well, but that’ll limit your interactions to pretty much only file transfers.
5. Lastly, you want to change your password. To do this, type the passwd command. You’ll be asked for a new password. Type it (nothing will show up for privacy reasons) and press enter. Type it in again to confirm it. Assuming you type your password correctly, you will be told it was changed successfully.

That’s it! Enjoy SSH’ing with your iOS device.

IMPORTANT:

Make absolutely certain that you alter the password of the mobile account! As mentioned above, by default it is “alpine”, but until the root and the mobile account passwords are changed, your phone is at high risk!

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Apple is preparing on launching iOS 4.3 either today or in the very near future. Good news: it’s already be jailbroken! PwnageTool has already jailbroken the iOS 4.3 beta and is therefore believed to be able to jb the final version as well.

The Jailbreak works on the iPhone 4, iPad, iPod Touch 4G!

This is a semi-tethered jailbreak! It is also not that easy so be wary!

All Downloads can be found at the bottom of the file

Good Luck

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1. Download PwnageTool bundle for your version of iOS device

2. Extract and end up with these two files: CydiaInstaller.bundle and a .bundle file, for this guide, we are using iPhone 4 bundle iPhone3, 1_4.3_8F5148b.bundle. Move all these files to your desktop.

3. Download PwnageTool 4.1.2 and copy it to your desktop. Right click, and then click on “Show Package Contents”

4. Navigate to Contents/Resources/FirmwareBundles/ and paste iPhone3, 1_4.3_8F5148b.bundle file in this location.

5. Now go to Contents/Resources/CustomPackages and here replace the CydiaInstaller.bundle file with the version that you downloaded in Step 1, and then simply close this folder.

6. Download iOS 4.3

7. Start PwnageTool in expert mode and select your device

8. Find your ipsw and select it

9. Select Build

10. Quite PwnageTool

11. Download Ramdisk_Maker.zip, extract the file, and move the folder to your desktop

12. Now open ramdisk_maker.sh file, and edit the paths required in a program like TextEdit, as shown highlighted in this screenshot.

13. Now start Terminal and run the following commands:

cd desktop

cd ramdisk_maker

./ramdisk_maker.sh

14. Follow directions that pop up in terminal:

15. First, create a folder on desktop named My_Ramdisk. Then change the extension of the original iOS 4.3 Beta file from .ipsw to .zip, and then extract this .zip file.

16. Here you will see a file named 038-0408-002.dmg. This is the file we need. Copy this file to My_Ramdisk folder that you created on desktop.

17. Once you have done that, you will notice that Terminal screen will automatically move to the next step.

18. Now go to ramdisk_maker folder that you saved earlier on desktop, here open the fileOptions.plist in a program like TextWrangler (available for free on the Mac App Store). Here change the <integer></integer> value under SystemPartitionSize <key></key> to 1116

19. Now save this Options.plist file and move it to My_Ramdisk folder. At this point, you will once again notice that Terminal will automatically move to complete the process.

20. Once done, you will now notice a new file named final_ramdisk.dmg in My_Ramdiskfolder. Rename this file as 038-0408-002.dmg

21. Now change the extension of the custom iOS 4.3 Beta firmware file that you created earlier from .ipsw to .zip, and then extract this .zip file.

22. Here, replace 038-0408-002.dmg file with the one you created in Step 19 above.

23. Now select all files, and click on “Compress 9 Items” so that it is converts back into .zip file. Now change the extension of this .zip file to .ipsw and you are done making the custom firmware, with fixed ramdisk.

24. Start iTunes, click on your iOS device icon from the sidebar in iTunes. Now press and hold left “alt” (option) button on Mac, or Left “Shift” button if you are on Windows on the keyboard and then click on “Restore” (Not “Update” or “Check for Update”) button in the iTunes and then release this button.

25. This will make iTunes prompt you to select the location for your custom firmware 4.3 file. Select the required custom .ipsw file that you created in Step 24 above, and click on “Open”.

26. wait

27. Since it is semi-tethered you will need tetherboot to help here. So download Tetherboot and extract it

28. First, we will need three files from the original iOS 4.3 Beta firmware namely:kernelcache.release.n90, iBEC.n90ap.RELEASE.dfu, and iBSS.n90ap.RELEASE.dfu.

Change the extension of the original iOS 4.3 Beta file from .ipsw to .zip, like you did in Step 15 above, and then extract this .zip file.

Now copy kernelcache.release.n90 file, and then copy iBEC.n90ap.RELEASE.dfu, andiBSS.n90ap.RELEASE.dfu files which are found under /Firmware/dfu/.

Move all these three files, and tetheredboot utility to a new folder named “tetheredboot” on the desktop

29. Now to boot your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch into tethered mode, connect it with your computer and start it in Recovery Mode by holding Home and Power buttons until the connect to iTunes screen appears on your device.

30.Start Terminal and run the following commands:

sudo sh

enter your administrator password, then:

cd desktop/tetheredboot

./tetheredboot iBSS kernel

31. At some point you will be asked to enter DFU mode

32. Wait

33. Have some food and take a break that was kinda ridiculous! You’re done though so also have some fun!

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Downloads:

Download tetheredboot.zip

Download Ramdisk_Maker.zip.

Download PwnageTool 4.1.2 for Mac

Download Ramdisk_Maker.zip

Download iOS 4.3 Beta

Download iTunes 10.0.1 for Windows and Mac OS X

Download iOS 4.1 for iPhone 4, 3GS, 3GS and iPod touch 4G / 3G

Download iOS 4.1 for Apple TV 2G

Download iOS 3.2.2 for iPad

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To those familiar with jailbreaking, it is common knowledge that upon updating to your new iOS firmware, you can basically kiss you jailbreak farewell . . . but not anymore. Saurik has found a solution.

With the newest update of Cydia, comes the “Manage Account” feature that lets you keep track of your packages and app purchases via a facebook or google account.

This saves you the hassle from updating repos or re-buying paid for apps!

Great Job Saurik!

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