I have been reading numerous posts like this regarding Sprint charging an extra $10 for the Evo data plan. People are sending out Tweets like this. I think thy are all being a little unfair. Sprint has one of the most affordable plans at $69.99. With the $10 “fee” you’re just paying the same as with any of the other carriers. I think Sprint doing this A-la-cart for their customers is a good thing. They are not gauging they people who have “Smart” phones but with lower data usage.

I really do not think Sprint charging a premium for this Data Intensive phone is unfair. If anything it shows Sprint provides more flexible pricing for their customers.

Many developers and technologist are up in arms about Apple’s new policy which dictates the language programs are written in for iPhone OS.

I can understand the frustration from developers who want to pursue the write once run anyware model. Maintaing applications across many platforms can be expensive and for smaller companies, impossible.

While the use of such tools Titanium, Scheme Gambit, MonoTouch, and Unity3D allow users to do this. I believe the fear from Apple is that it dumbs down their platofrm and poses performance or experience issues.

If you look at a majority of application on the iPhone you can easily see the benefit the API and platofrm provide. I have used all of the major mobile platforms and the experience varies across them all. By using tools which allow you to have a consistent experience across many platforms you loose some of what makes that particular platform unique.

I don’t see Apple as evil here, I see them trying to keep their platform above the rest. I do wonder if this will cause other platforms to see more applications from more developers.

Will this type of restriction lead to lead to fewer applications submitted to the app store, or just less, low quality applications submitted?

Do you think their evil or just protecting their brand?

I have a Droid which runs Google’s Android Operating System and have the ability to run applications from any source on my phone. After all I own it, I should be able to do with it what I want. There is however a notice which requires me to acknowledge that I am installing something from an unknown source and accept the associated risk. iPhone users do not have that same functionality. They have to use software provided by developers who provide “Jailbreak” software and usually an associated application to download software from some third party application source.

Enabling SSH is a common procedure for jailbroken iPhones, allowing a user to log in via a Terminal emulator and gives the user\software the ability to run OS level commands. Unfortunately, not all Jailbreak software provides that simple step of changing the default password. iPhones have a default root password which leaves this security hole that people are taking advantage of.

There are some simple steps you can follow to secure this particular vulnerability. Install some terminal emulator on the iPhone to access a command line. Enter “su root” to access root level, enter “alpine” which is your default password. From there change your password using the passwd command. You will be prompted to enter a new password. (Hint: don’t use apline).

I was wondering what the Jailbreak community thinks of their responsibility to the people they provide their software (Jailbreak services) to. Do they currently provide a warning to the user of the software about this potential issue? Should they release a patch which prompts the user to reset their default password? Could this be avoided if Apple would allow 3rd party applications on the iPhone? All software you install has some level of vulnerability but with the proper support from the vendor, I think it could be better managed than it is today for the iPhone.

If you have used BlackRa1n and found yourself without Wi-Fi, YouTube and GPS then you will love to hear there is a solution.

From cydia and add repo “http://cydia.iphoneil.net/”
Then search for “ pushfix “ and install

Reboot and you are on your way.