40Tech

As some of you have no doubt heard, Apple has recently applied for a patent entitled: Systems and Methods for Identifying Unauthorized Users of an Electronic Device. This technology is, ostensibly, supposed to give Apple the power to help you protect yourself in the event someone else has gotten a hold of your iPhone. It also gives Apple the power to remotely wipe your iPhone if you have Jailbroken your device — the legality of Jailbreaking notwithstanding.

Just that last detail is enough to get many people up in arms, but it is the method in which Apple wants to implement its new Big Brother feature that has people truly freaked out. After taking a bit of time to think about it and consider the implications, I have decided that I am one of those people.

Everybody knows that the folks over at Apple are flighty, at best, when it comes to what is allowed or rejected from their App Store. They have their, reasons, of course, but those reasons are often unclear to the public, or even to the developers of iPhone and iPad apps. Apple’s rejection of, or sudden pulling or neutering of apps has been the subject of much contention and even a few blog posts here at 40Tech. There may be a light at the end of the proverbial tunnel, though, with OpenAppMkt.

Jailbreaking is the process of reconfiguring the restrictions Apple places on the iPod Touch and iPhone firmware to allow you to gain access to any code on your device. One familiar case is with Apple’s App Store. We all know that all apps must undergo an approval process before it is available to download at the App Store. The applications that are not approved, however, sometimes end up at third-party application installers like Cydia. Here is a look at how to avail yourself of those apps through jailbreaking, along with a look at the pros and cons of jailbreaking.

One of the most annoying things about eReader apps on the iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad (that have their own dedicated stores) is their proprietary nature — namely, they generally only read books you have purchased from their respective companies, regardless of the library you already own. This can be a pain, as it leads to both multiple eReader apps on your phone and several books inevitably left twisting in the proverbial wind. You can use Stanza for iPhone to solve this problem, but why not put all of your books on that pretty iBooks bookshelf? As of version 0.7, Calibre lets you do just that!

If you are a dedicated Windows Live Messenger user and own an iPhone, you may want to take a gander at the official, recently released (and free) iPhone app for the longstanding IM service. The new Live Messenger app is fairly slick and easy to navigate, has push notifications, displays updates from many of the services you can integrate with in your Windows Live account — including Facebook — and handles the job of basic messaging very well. That said, there are a few obvious gaps and design flaws that have made the experience a bit frustrating for some…

All but the last are free!

If you have kids from one to four and have an iPhone, you will want to take a look at the games below. They are great for simple play, as well as educational tools to help stimulate your child’s development in everything from numbers, letters, and shapes, to critical thinking, motor skills, reading, and imagination. Your curious child will gain some serious satisfaction from being able to play with mommy or daddy’s toy, either alone or with you, and you will be able to instill in them an early respect for your expensive technology (of which we all find more of in our lives these days). Except the last one, all of the iPhone toddler games in the list are free, and offer hours of educational entertainment for your budding baby!

Hit the jump for some great (mostly free) toddler games for the iPhone!

So far, we’ve been avoiding all of the iPad chatter here at 40Tech, choosing not to get involved in the sweeping web-wide hype that it’s generated. Admittedly, some of that avoidance is fuelled by the fact that we don’t own a single iPad between us – but we hear good things. Personally, the slowly withering anti-Apple in me is inclined to wait until version two of the iPad is released, hoping for an even better experience (and a self-facing camera for video chats), but this new piece of tech/giant iPod Touch (or iPhone) has taken the worlds of techies and reg’lar folk by storm. I know this because both my mother and my wife (mother of my child) have expressed an interest in getting one. So this begs the question: Did you get your mom an iPad for Mother’s Day?

When I heard, yesterday, that Apple had approved the Opera Mini browser for iPhone, I was a bit more than surprised — I was shocked. Apple’s track record in rejecting any app that might interfere with their business plans or control over their userbase seemed to scream that there was absolutely no way they would [...]

Following up on the first and second what’s on my iPhone posts, I continue my micro-reviews of my rapidly expanding app list, proving that my app addiction knows know boundaries. I have no idea how the fact that iPhone OS4 will allow some 2160 apps on the iPhone will affect me. My wife may steal [...]

Following up on the first what’s on my iPhone post, I continue my micro-reviews of my rapidly expanding app list, supporting my rapidly deepening (and apparently serious) app addiction.  This time around, I am going through the second springboard page — as always, discounting the possibly useless search page. Page two is, in some semblance [...]