Man Uses iPhone to Protect Home From Robbers
The Apple iPhone has been growing in popularity quite rapidly and is already the dominant smart phone on the market today due to its huge range of uses for daily life situations, but a new report from Texas has shown that the smart phone has an unexpected utility that many might not have thought about. It turns out that a Dallas, Texas man named Vince Hunter had his iPhone on him while visiting his family in the state of Connecticut, more than 1,500 miles from his Texas house. As he was refueling his car, he received a text message that alerted him to the fact that his home’s motion detectors had been activated. Having experienced previous home break ins, Hunter had purchased a complex security system for the house that included 3 live surveillance cameras capable of streaming their video to any computer or digital device capable of playing video. Using an app known as iCam, Hunter watched the video from his iPhone as the robbery took place. Hunter’s wife also received the message and contacted her husband who asked her to call the security company.
As the break in was attempted, Hunter was able to observe it via his iPhone and even see the police when they arrived. The thieves threw 3 bricks at the tempered glass of the home, but were unable to break it until the 4th made it into the Hunter family’s living room. The alarm did scare the thieves off, but Hunter’s iPhone-less neighbor was not as fortunate. His home was cleared out by the robbers only minutes before they tried Hunter’s. Police will now make use of the security camera footage to track down the criminals.
iPhone 4 Jailbreak Just Released
A recent court battle in the home nation for Apple Inc. has insured that more iPhone users than ever will be able to jail break their phones and do so legally. The latest version of the smart phone, the iPhone 4, now has new software from 3rd party sources that will allow users of the device to over ride iOS 4 and be able to install apps which may not be approved by the phone’s maker. Only days after the US copyright law upheld the rights of iPhone users to use the jail break software, JailbreakMe 2.0 came out and is now being offered via a sit that will allow users to install it directly to their phone via the built in Safari web browser that comes with their Apple smart phone. Problems were to be expected as a normal course of bug testing with the public at large and the 2.0 version of the app was no exception. Developer Comex commented that initial issues were solved that revolved around the Multimedia Messaging Service and also the Face Time video chat features. In prior years, the process of performing a jail break on a user’s own phone was deemed to be a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in the US because the law was seen as being designed to stop users from going around any mechanism designed to safe guard a software maker’s copyright.
However, just a week ago the Librarian of Congress in the US ruled that the legally acquired jail break software could be used and in order to cement the ruling, issues a number of exemptions to US citizens so that they could perform the function without violating any federal laws.