• iPhone and PS3 Hacker George Hots ‘GeoHot’ Now Works For Facebook


    Hacker George Hotz ‘GeoHot’, who recently settled a lawsuit with Sony for publishing a PlayStation 3 crack online, now works for Facebook. His exact position with the company is unclear, but he may be on a the development team tasked with building the social network’s new Pad app.

    Geohot reportedly started working for Facebook last month but the announcement was made on 17th June only to be discovered today.

    According to iDB:

    We were just tipped off by the folks at Tech Unwrapped that George Hotz is now working for Facebook. Needless to say that I was a bit skeptical about the news and when I inquired for more details, I was pointed to GeoHot’s very own Facebook profile where he confirms that he is indeed working for Facebook…

    According to Gabe Rivera, GeoHot started working for Facebook in May, but he only announced it on June 17. If you have a look at his Facebook profile, it’s pretty clear that he is not joking.

    Hacker Joshua Hill, aka @p0isixNinja, who said in a recent interview that Hotz had made the move. Hill reportedly challenged Hotz to a iPad 2 jailbreak duel. Watch the live Q&A session:

    Geohot is a well-known for having originally unlocked the iPhone for use on wireless carriers other than AT&T and also for hacking into Sony’s PlayStation 3 console back in January and later sued by Sony. The case settled later in April.

    GeoHot is also known for iOS jailbreaking using a bootrom exploit found since iOS 4.1. The jailbreak tool called Limera1n and still in use since then.

    [via Yahoo]

  • iPhone 5 in September With A5 Chip, 8MP Camera. iPad 3 to Get Higher Resolution Display


    A new report by Bloomberg has backed up rumors from the past few months and says that Apple’s upcoming fifth-generation iPhone will make its debut in September and will boast a stronger chip for processing data and a more advanced camera and will closely resmeble the current iPhone 4 unlike many reports that hinted about a teardrop shaped build, The device will include the A5 processor, the more powerful chip that Apple added to the iPad 2 earlier this year, along with an 8-megapixel camera, up from the 5-megapixel model in the iPhone 4.

    Apple is also said to be testing a new version of the iPad that has a higher resolution screen, similar to the one now used in the iPhone 4. The screen resolution on Apple’s new iPad would be about one-third higher than that of the iPad 2 and will sport a more responsive touchscreen.

    The new iPhone will also come preloaded with iOS 5, which features Notification Center, new camera features, Twitter integration, iCloud support, an updated mail application, a location-based reminders application, iMessages, and much more. iOS 5 previewed earlier in WWDC and will be a unified OS for all Apple mobile devices:

    The new phone will run the iOS 5 operating system Apple previewed at a developer’s conference earlier this month. Codenamed “Telluride,” it will feature already-announced features such as improved messaging and photo-sharing, one person said. It’s also designed to run on all of Apple’s mobile devices, this person said. Until late last year, iPads, iPhones and iPod touches used slightly different versions of iOS.

    And the idea of a cheaper iPhone version seems to be valid after all:

    Apple is also working to finish a cheaper version of the iPhone aimed at attracting customers in developing countries, the people said. This device would use chips and displays of similar quality to today’s iPhone 4, the people said. Apple’s work on a smaller, lower-priced version of the device was discussed by people familiar with the matter in February.

    The next generation iPhone is expected to pack a new cellular chip from the Qualcomm that can support both GSM and CDMA networks.

  • iOS 5 Beta 1 Expires on August 4th


    If you installed iOS 5 beta 1 on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, It’s good to know that beta 1 has a time-bomb and is going to expire on August 4th.

    This won’t be an issue for developers or those with proper access to the newest beta releases from iOS Dev Center as they can upgrade to the newest betas as they become available from Apple. This leaves those who had a friend activate their UDID or who used the VoiceOver tweak to run iOS 5 on an iPhone without a dev account – this could very well effect you. If you are running the beta without a dev account, I suggest downgrading from iOS 5 beta before this becomes a potential problem, you don’t want to be stuck with a useless iPhone on August 5th.

    The expiration date was discovered and tweeted by jailbreak developer @ih8sn0w:

    iOS 5 official release is slated for this Fall

  • Facebook for iPad App Coming Soon


    Facebook is about to release an official iPad app, according to the NYT. Facebook has been working on it for approximately the past year and is closing up their testing ahead of a launch in the “coming weeks.” The Facebook for iPad is said to be “carefully designed and optimized for the tablet” and will be totally free:

    People who have seen the application said it has a slick design that has been tailored for the iPad and its touchscreen interface. Facebook developers and designers have also overhauled the Facebook Chat and Facebook Groups features for the application. And the app will go beyond the features available on the Facebook Web site by allowing users to shoot and upload photos and videos directly from the iPad’s built-in cameras.

    “The photo and video experience is amazing, offering full resolution and full-screen images,” said a person who has seen the app.

    Facebook for iPad is said to include everything from the Facebook website but will add mobile-optimized features like taking and uploading pics directly from iPad’s built-in cameras.