Apple

Jailbreaking your iPhone has never been simpler with the latest release of JailbreakMe. Instead of the previous method of hacking into the iPhone through your PC, JailbreakMe.com exploits a flaw in the Safari Web browser's PDF viewer that grants instantaneous freedom from Apple's notoriously locked-down policies. Even before jailbreakme, jailbreaking iPhones was a popular practice with many benefits -- and many downsides.

Here's are 5 reasons why you should consider jailbreaking your iPhone with jailbreakme -- and 5 reasons to avoid it.

Jailbreaking is now legal, but that doesn’t mean Apple won’t keep trying to patch exploits that the jailbreak hackers are using. There will always be a cat and mouse game. The newest JailbreakMe exploit uses a PDF font bug in order to execute remote code on to it. While jailbreakers may think of this as convenient, they also need to realize that this is dangerous and Apple must patch this exploit in order to prevent hackers from sending iPhone viruses or other malicious code to iPhone or iPad users.

Hackers on Sunday released the first "jailbreak" for the iPhone 4, a browser-based exploit that allows users to run unauthorized code. However, some reported that the modification results in broken MMS and FaceTime functionality.

A hacker who uses the handle "comex," a member of the iPhone Dev Team, released the hack through a website, jailbreakme.com. Users can visit the site in their iPhone browser to begin the jailbreaking process.

Many developers and users of Apple's iOS devices bemoan the "walled garden" of the App Store approval process, but it appears that the company's measures have prevented mass data theft from iPhones, and iPads.

In a follow-up to his original review, Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal continued to laud Apple's iPhone 4 as "the best device in its class," while warning of issues with weak reception and dropped calls.

After 6 weeks of constant use with two iPhone 4 units, Mossberg found that in areas with "average or strong AT&T coverage" the iPhone 4 generally performed better than the iPhone 3GS, but performed worse than the 3GS in areas with weak coverage. One iPhone 4 was a review unit provided by Apple, while the other was purchased by Mossberg.

Earlier this week, the new unibody Mac mini went on sale in Taiwan. However, Apple accidentally listed the Mac mini with 8GBs of RAM for $19,900 NT (~ $621.77 in US currency), but was supposed to be priced at $47,000 NT (~ $1468.51 US). This of course, led to a blunder in Apple's history as the company raised the purchase price on orders from the $19,900 NT to $47,000 NT.

Apple released an update to its Safari web browser Wednesday. Safari 5.0.1 is available from Apple as a free download for Windows and for Mac OS X (Leopard or better). Mac users can also find it in Software Update.

This is an incremental upgrade, but it comes with one big new feature: Safari now has a real platform for third-party extensions, a feature that Firefox and Chrome have had for some time.

After weeks of stubborn denial from Apple that a problem existed at all, Apple finally said it would do something about the antenna reception issues that customers had been complaining about for weeks. After about 15 minutes of explaining that all smartphones have the same issues and that there really isn't anything wrong with the iPhone 4, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced a plan to address the issue. But does it?

It is now officially legal to jailbreak your phone in the US, after a move by the Library of Congress to revise the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, but Apple is still staunchly against the idea, claiming it will brick your jailbroken phone because it loves you, wants you to be happy, and wants to save the world from bad men.

In tests conducted by German consumer group Stiftung Warentest, Apple's iPhone 4 was shown to lose up to 90 per cent of its signal strength when held in such a manner that a finger obscures the antenna dimly located on the outsied of the gadget.

The outfit's laboratory tests show that the fact that the antenna is located around the outside of the phone makes is far more likely that the phone will suffer dropped calls when the user covers the blackspot at the bottom left-hand side of the phone with their fingers.