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Today: The U.S. government changes copyright rules involving products from Apple and other tech companies. Google says its cloud services are safe to use by government agencies. Apple is rolling out its iPhone to more global markets.

‘Jailbreaking,’ other copyright changes

The U.S. government has given owners of smartphones such as Apple’s iPhone the go-ahead to “jailbreak” the devices to run any apps they want — or even to use the phones on compatible wireless networks.

Librarian of Congress James Billington — who oversees the U.S. Copyright Office — said in a statement today that he has issued

six exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, including the two involving Apple’s iPhone and other mobile devices.

According to a document posted on Wired magazine’s website, Apple had fought the change, arguing that “iPhone users are licensees, not owners, of the copies of iPhone operating software.”

“The value of the iPhone, and hence the software embedded in it, is substantially diminished when the integrity and functionality of that software is compromised by jailbreaking (hacking), when Apple is left to deal with the problems that ensue, and when the positive feedback loops enabled by the App Store and the iPhone Developer Program are compromised,” Apple said in the letter (PDF) to the Copyright Office.

“Copyright law has long held that making programs interoperable is fair use,” Corynne McSherry, an attorney with the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, said in a news release today. “It’s gratifying that the Copyright Office acknowledges this right and agrees that the anti-circumvention laws should not interfere with interoperability.”

The Electronic Frontier Foundation said it had sought the “jailbreaking” provisions, along with a change that allows DVD owners to circumvent copy protection to use short video clips for educational purposes, documentary films and noncommercial videos.

“Noncommercial videos are a powerful art form online, and many use short clips from popular movies,” McSherry said.

While these may be big changes in the legal relationship between tech companies and consumers, it won’t necessarily harm the business models of companies such as Apple.

“While jailbreaking your iPhone lets you install apps that haven’t been approved by Apple, and aids iPhone app piracy, it’s still not something that most people are going to do,” Dan Frommer wrote today on the Business Insider blog. “The advantages aren’t worth the hassle.”

Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris told The Associated Press today: “Apple’s goal has always been to ensure that our customers have a great experience with their iPhone, and we know that jailbreaking can severely degrade the experience.”

The copyright changes include three other exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, allowing:

iPhone 4 jailbreak: timeline, cost and release date of Spirit & Pwnage. A number of jailbreak options are going to be soon available with us. And there is a new twist to jailbreaking. Library of Congress has said that jailbreaking is legal.

Though this may not hasten the jailbreak issues in the short period, nonetheless more people who earlier thought it to be illegal and thought it equivalent of hacking would also like to give it a try.

By the way it doesn’t destroys you smart phone’s warranty as good jailbreak solutions. In good quality jailbreak solutions you have an option that makes it as good as never jailbroke and well qualified for any warranty claims.

Right now we have Spirit, Pwnage and Dev Team who produce high quality jailbreak and their jailbreaks are mostly effective and don’t destroy your mobile handsets.

But right now with iPhone 4 controversy there are not many people who are excited by this talk. A reader says, “iPhone isn’t some magical device that everyone wants. There is plenty of room in the market for multiple platforms, and RIM, iPhone, and Android will probably continue to dominate for some time. I’m not so sure WinPhone7 will be able to grab enough to make a difference. And WebOS is a distant also-ran.”

Another reader says, “I think the device competition is great. Users have options with carriers and phones, which is how it should be. Can it be confusing? Sure, it can be for some, but better than than not having any choices. Just because a new model comes out doesn’t mean your old phone must be replaced. I’m happy to hold onto my Droid until July, 2011 – when my replacement window opens. Sure it isn’t as fast and flashy as some of the new phones, but it works just fine. In a year I’ll leapfrog to something better than anything out there today. That’s progress.”

source: http://www.ndchronicle.com/news/iPhone_4_jailbreak__timeline__cost_and_release_date_of_Spirit___Pwnage_1280176222/

Despite the high expectation that the iPhone 4 jailbreak and unlock might be released today, MuscleNerd confirmed that it will not. Apparently there are issues with important jailbreak apps such as FaceTime that need to be taken care of before the release. Like MuscleNerd says, there is no point releasing a jailbreak and unlock if it’s not stable.

The Dev Team said last week they will release both the jailbreak and unlock for iOS 4 at the same time, so even though ultrasn0w is ready for release, the Team now has to make sure the jailbreak is bug free before making it available to the public.

An all-devices jailbreak that will liberate the iPhone 4 from its Apple lock and permit the installation of unofficial third-party software – among other things – has been promised as imminent by one of the iPhone Dev Team, who has confirmed that the group’s next release will address the fourth-generation smartphone.  MuscleNerd revealed that the next jailbreak app will work in a similar way to Spirit, addressing all devices, all bootroms and the latest official Apple firmware, with a “painless install”.

The exact timescale of the next jailbreak hasn’t been confirmed, but it seems to be going hand-in-hand with an unlock solution for the iPhone 4.  While Apple are selling unlocked versions of the smartphone in Europe, in the US the iPhone is locked to AT&T’s network.  So far the team have managed to inject cmd but they now need to keep that task running in the background persistently.

[via ZDNet]

An all-devices jailbreak that will liberate the iPhone 4 from its Apple lock and permit the installation of unofficial third-party software – among other things – has been promised as imminent by one of the iPhone Dev Team, who has confirmed that the group’s next release will address the fourth-generation smartphone. MuscleNerd revealed that the next jailbreak app will work in a similar way to Spirit, addressing all devices, all bootroms and the latest official Apple firmware, with a “painless install”.

iphone 4 hands on slashgear 75 slashgear 498×500

The exact timescale of the next jailbreak hasn’t been confirmed, but it seems to be going hand-in-hand with an unlock solution for the iPhone 4. While Apple are selling unlocked versions of the smartphone in Europe, in the US the iPhone is locked to AT&T’s network. So far the team have managed to inject cmd but they now need to keep that task running in the background persistently.

[via ZDNet]

I’ve been hinting about an all-in-one iOS 4 jailbreak package which would be compatible on all Apple devices and firmware version of iOS 4. However, today I’ve got bigger news and that is, we may be seeing a unified jailbreak and unlock utility coming soon for iOS 4 and iPhone 4. Yes you guessed it, a single utility which can do it all!

The iPhone Dev team behind the completely rewritten ultrasn0w has showed signs through their twitter updates that they might be releasing a unified package which would contain both the jailbreak and the unlock for iOS 4. Here is the actual tweet from the dev team:

“Planetbeing: We’re gonna be able to give you an unlock with the jailbreak.

Planetbeing: It will probably be the usual thing where you jailbreak and then install ultrasn0w from Cydia.

MuscleNerd: @Gangstatyzz hmm just staying the unlock is ready now, for whenever the public JB is done + debugged + packaged”

What does this mean? This means to get ready for a sooner than anticipated release of the official jailbreak and unlock utility for iOS 4.

Source

The iPhone 4 is no small thing to review. As most readers of Engadget are well aware, in the gadget world a new piece of Apple hardware is a major event, preceded by rumors, speculation, an over-the-top announcement, and finally days, weeks, or months of anticipation from an ever-widening fan base. The iPhone 4 is certainly no exception — in fact, it may be Apple’s most successful launch yet, despite some bumps on the road. We’ve already seen Apple and AT&T’s servers overloaded on the first day of pre-orders, the ship date for the next set of phones pushed back due to high demand, and die-hard fans in line outside of Apple locations a week before the phone is actually available. It’s a lot to live up to, and the iPhone 4 is doing its best — with features like a super-fast A4 CPU, a new front-facing camera and five megapixel shooter on the back, a completely new industrial design, and that outrageous Retina Display, no one would argue that Apple has been asleep at the wheel. So the question turns to whether or not the iPhone 4 can live up to the intense hype. Can it deliver on the promises Steve Jobs made at WWDC, and can it cement Apple’s position in the marketplace in the face of mounting competition from the likes of Google and Microsoft? We have the answers to those questions — and many more — in our full review, so read on to find out!