Take A Plunge

The first jailbreak application for Apple’s new iPhone 3GS is available. It’s just been two weeks after the launch of the iPhone 3GS. George Hotz, a 19-year-old Google employee created the application.

Jailbreaking the iPhone 3GS is a good news for the users because it will let them install any programs, even those which are not from Apple, directly onto the iPhone.  

Hotz was a part of the team that unlocked the first-generation iPhone, at the age of 16. The unlock helped users by allowing them to operate the first-generation iPhone with any SIM card.

“Normally I don’t make tools for the general public, and would rather wait for the development team to do it. But guys, what’s up with waiting until 3.1? That isn’t how the game is played,” Hotz wrote in his blog Friday. “We release, Apple fixes, and we find new holes.”

Hotz offers a step-by-step procedure of what users need to do to jailbreak the iPhone 3GS in his blog. He also mentioned about a soon to come jailbreak for the Mac OS.

Jailbreak Preparation

Before you proceed with jailbreaking the iPhone 3GS, you should be prepared with Windows on your computer, the latest iTunes installed on the PC, and an iPhone 3GS with 3.0 firmware. Then HotZ wants you to backup your files and programs.

Then go to purplera1n.com. In the website, Hotz instructs users to click “make it ra1n” and wait. On bootup you need to run Freeze, the purplera1n installer app.

“Hopefully you’ll figure out what to do from there,” Hotz wrote. If not, users are instructed to e-mail purplera1n support or call a support hotline.

Purplera1n is small enough and there’s no need for a 20MB file to be torrented, according to Hotz.

Complaints And Compliments

After his blog post, Hotz has been getting both complaints and compliments. Some users are concerned about their jailbreaking attempts, while many others praised him and his development team for their hard work.

Researchers plan to track the meanderings of thousands of festival-goers at a top European rock festival using Bluetooth technology. They hope to find the source of a new generation of tracking devices.

The research team is from the University of Ghent in Belgium. It thinks that their research could yield new satellite navigation applications for the retail and security sectors.

“We have installed 36 Bluetooth scanners across the site and along a few surrounding roads, as well as bus stops,” the university’s Nico Van de Weghe said on Friday of the project at the Werchter festival, northeast of Brussels this weekend.

Mobile phones that are equipped with  Bluetooth can be tracked within a radius of 30 meters by the scanners. The researchers are also taking care of the privacy issues of the people flocking to see Coldplay, Kings of Leon or Metallica. Researchers will only track the devices’ MAC address (the number that identifies each device on a network) and not phone numbers or personal details.

The research is carrying out on geographical information systems, like satellite navigation systems. They hope to find out a solution to track moving objects in real time.

BenVista unveiled the latest version its photo enlargement sofware, PhotoZoom Pro 3 recently.

New features-

• 1. I has a new S-Spline Max interpolation algorithm
• 2. PhotoZoom Pro 3 is able to create enlargements up to 1 million by million pixels
• 3. The software adds multi-processor support and batch processing
• 4. It works as a stand-alone application
• 5. It can also work as Photoshop plug-in or action

PhotoZoom Pro 3 comes at a cost of $219. If you want to upgrade from versions 1 or 2, then just pay $99. You need PowerPC G4 and G5 or Intel processors, and OS X 10.4 or 10.5. If you want to use it with Photoshop, then you should have Photoshop CS2 or newer.

The founder of Gizmodo and Engadget, two of the most popular gadget sites on the Web, has launched another site for technology junkies.

GDGT.com is the latest site from Peter Rojas. This site has been described as a social platform for people who love computers, digital cameras, mobile phones, MP3 players, videogame consoles and other such items.

“GDGT is a new kind of technology site — a social gadget platform that enables you to connect with the community through your gadgets, and connect with your gadgets through the community. It’s a place for you to engage with your devices and hang out with people who are as passionate about their gear as you are.”

GDGT users can discuss and post their own reviews on the latest electronics. They can list detailed specifications, features and pictures of the products categorized into various categories.

YouTube has doubled the size limit for video uploads to its website so that users can post more high-definition (HD) videos.

According to a recent blog post in YouTube blog, the size limit for uploads to the site has been doubled from one gigabyte to two gigabytes.

“The increase means you can upload longer videos at a higher resolution as well as large HD files directly from your camera,” YouTube said. “The changes allow you to share links directly to the HD version of your video, as well as embed the HD version on your blog or website,” it also said.

HD video is popular but because of the higher resolution it results in larger files. However, the site will still have 10-minute length restriction for videos posted.