Linux ported to iPhone! Absolute Nirvana!

Absolute nirvana. hit to read the official post

Ok, we had been waiting for it, and now finally, our favorite OS, Linux has been successfully ported on the iPhone. Devteam member planetbeing has done a incredibly phenomenal job of reverse engineering Apple’s hardware drivers and has successfully ported Linux on 1^st and 2^nd generation iPhones and 1^st generation iPod Touch. Though it’s a bit buggy as of now (read: no touch screen, wi-fi, audio and cell radio support), it’s definitely a first step in the direction of absolute nirvana on Apple’s darling device. The team is hard at work and even looks to port Android (yippee! Android) to iPhone. Thing just can’t be any better.

So if any of you guys want to check it out, hit this link, and if possible, lend a hand to this project. Even if you don’t know Linux or can’t code, just spread the word about it. Blog about it, digg it… try to bring this wonderful project into visibility.

Cheers for open source! Linux rocks! Even better on iPhone!

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What do you use: OS X, Vista or Linux?

For all users using shiny apple Macs, there is a little bit of nasty news. There was a contest organized, named PWN 2 OWN by the organizers of the CanSecWest security conference. It asked the attendees to show off their hacking skills against Vista SP1 (fujitsu laptop), Leopard 10.5.2 (Macbook Air, and Ubuntu 7.10 (VAIO). The first hacker to take down any of the three systems would get a cash prize of $20,000 along with the victimized laptop. Nobody managed to pull down any of the systems on the first day, as for the first day contestants were told to use only network based attacks. The second day, they were allowed to use web and email based attacks. And guess what, the Macbook Air was hacked down in 2 minutes flat. The attacker used a website holding malicious code and targeted Safari as its victim.

Ubuntu 7.10 was the only OS to remain unscathed. This proves a lot of things. First of all, Linux still rules in matter of security. Microsoft has been (shamefully) forced to make its OS secure. And while Apple may taunt about its OS being most secure, it is not the truth. The truth is, Mac OS X has a smaller user base. And so the hackers are not interested in attacking an OS having a smaller user base. And it is to be noted that OS X and Linux have the same roots. Now the question arises: why did Apple fiddle with an already stable base? Not only this, the attack was pulled off using Safari as its target. It’s the same Safari that Apple has been trying to install on our systems using Apple software update.

So, if you are a Mac user, beware. You are at a security risk. Avoid visiting suspicious sites. And windows users – DON’T USE SAFARI. Use Firefox or Opera instead (IE still has numerous security loopholes). Or do the best – switch to Linux. Linux users – rejoice. Time has again proved that you are using nothing but the damn best OS of this planet (I wonder what people on other planets use as their browsers, though).

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Apple: What are you doing?

If you have iTunes installed and you chose to use apple software update to update your copy of iTunes to the latest version, you are in for a nasty little surprise. Guess what? Apart from getting a updated version of iTunes, you find safari in the list of installed applications (even if you have not installed it yourself). Now this is really unfair. People use the update software to update the software they have installed themselves, apple. It’s not fair to shove unwanted software through a backdoor. No matter how good software is, no software company has the right to force it down to a user’s pc. This is unfair advertising.

If apple really wants people to use safari, it should make it good enough so that people go and download it themselves. Just like Mozilla Firefox. Your safari for windows is buggy, has multiple security loopholes, and uses its own font smoothing technique that makes the text look worse than original. And the worst of all: it misses a “add new tab button” – an absolute shame in my opinion. Improve safari first, and don’t even think of installing softwares on a system without its owner’s consent. You are a big company and have a cult following. You shouldn’t do acts like this that may cause your reputation to dive down. You are known as a innovative brand. So innovate. Don’t use cheap means.

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Apple iPhone SDK: I’m (not) happy

Apple launched the iphone sdk on the 6th. And I, as an iPod touch owner, left me with mixed thoughts. Apple never fails to surprise me and this time it was no difference. The iPhone and iPod touch are already wonderful devices and the upcoming 2.0 firmware will make them even more capable and powerful.

The iPhone will truly trash the competition as push E-mail and Calendars, Activesync and Exchange Support is coming to iPhone. It had already smashed the combined sales of windows mobile devices + Motorola in the 4Q of the last year, and now I can safely tell that RIM has got a reason to worry. It is going to be a true enterprise level device. And there are going to be multi touch games and applications. All this is going to make the iPhone a really cool gadget.

Though the feature additions are impressive on the iPhone front, all the iPod owners can do is curse Apple. Reason: you will have to spend more of your hard earned cash to get the installer application installed on your iPod touch. And guess what excuse apple says for that: “accounting reasons”. That sounds hilarious to me. And the iTunes store is not yet available for my country. It means that I will not be able to get third party applications on my iPod touch until apple starts the iTunes store service for my country (the iTunes app store is going to the exclusive place to get the apps – DAMN!).

So what I am going to do is to continue using my jailbroken iPod touch. At least I won’t have wait till June (when the 2.0 firmware arrives) and the best part: all the apps via installer.app are free of charge.

Somebody has fairly said “sometimes the best things in life are free”.

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