Free Soft
Oct 28

Not long ago, I was sitting across from the CEO of a media company. He showed enormous pride in the social value of his organization - in delivering news to the world via a global team of thoughtful, award-winning journalists.

He asked what made me proud to be at Sun. Among a number of things, I said I'm proudest of the role Sun plays in making sure stories like his are told - "Our technologies, after all, are how your journalists file their stories, and we play a central role in how you present them to the world via the network." I am unreservedly proud of Sun's role in making the world a more open, transparent place.

Beyond professional journalism, the network is a social utility for the world's citizenry - whose digital cameras and cell phones and blog postings and emails form a tidal wave of transparency. We live in a world whose traumas and triumphs are visible instantaneously. Sunlight's not just a great disinfectant, it's a wonderful safety net, too - you can't fix the problems you don't know about. But once you know about a problem, even small attempts to help, multiplied over the long tail of the internet, can make an extraordinary difference.

Over the past few days, the world has watched an earthquake in China lead to the death and dislocation of countless thousands. The San Francisco Bay Area, where Sun is headquartered, has felt the impact deeply - beyond co-workers, friends and family, we've suffered our own traumas with earthquakes. A cyclone in Myanmar triggered similar thoughts among those of us effected by hurricanes in New Orleans, Louisiana.

But the world's an increasingly transparent place. And any help, from $1 to $1m, multiplied over the world, makes a difference.

Which is why I'm sending personal funds to the relief organizations I trust to bring aid to those stricken.

And I'm encouraging you to take the time to make a similar choice.


Tagi: enormous pride, phes, earthquake in china, countless thousands, delivering news, global team, ays, citizenry, traumas, tidal wave, digital cameras, safety net, earthquakes, triumphs, co workers, hurricanes, 1m, transparency, ace, sunlight

Oct 28
I wanted to take a moment to say thank you to a very important group of people working through the evenings and holidays - our employees, partners and customers. You know who you are.

For most of us, holidays are a great time to catch up with friends and family. They're also a time of mad scrambles. As I'm sure isn't unique to the American tradition, some among us postpone holiday shopping until the very last minute (today, even). Which leads to a late surge in infrastructure requirements from those businesses that continue to bet the world will ever get its shopping act in gear (I'll take the other side of that bet, any day).

This leads to a late surge in purchase orders (for the record, we love that part, planned or otherwise), and then a late surge in shipment activities (not all datacenters are near airports, sadly), and then a late surge in installation activity - yielding a lot of travel for those responsible.

In a perfect world, we'd then be done, and home with friends and family.

But then it doesn't end.

Christmas Day is a day of massively high load for Sun's customers across the world. This year will undoubtedly set a pile of new records. Millions upon millions of network enabled gifts will be given in December, and a huge chunk will be unwrapped and turned on tomorrow. Digital still and video cameras will start pumping content to photo/video sharing services. Mobile phones will need to be provisioned, and will start downloading and sharing content (on a global basis, the network load from New Year's Eve MMS messages goes beyond staggering). Set top boxes, networked picture frames, video game consoles, navigation devices, stuffed animals, sports equipment and automobiles - will all come on-line tomorrow. On the same day. And everyone will (and should) expect flawless service.

For some of our customers, it's their single highest load day of the year - and single most valuable opportunity to shape their brands. For Sun and our partners, it's a day we're very focused on making successful. So to all of you working over the holidays - thank you. I and my team are aware and appreciative of your efforts, and you are making a big difference.

Please take the time to rest when the work is done. Remember, the difference between humans and computers is that our uptime is a function of our downtime.


Tagi: infrastructure requirements, phes, line tomorrow, flawless service, set top boxes, millis, datacenters, video cameras, holiday shopping, perfect world, day of the year, amg, sports equipment, picture frames, late surge, chunk, video game, great time, even

Oct 28

Proving again that Japan has the prettiest phones in the world, au by KDDI has released its Fall and Winter lines, showing off eight new models with emphases on super bright and big Organic EL screens, multimedia â??au BOXâ?? connectivity, and a funky mobile personal trainer and calorie counter called â??Karada Manager.â?? While we will probably never see these gadgets States-side, I can't stop myself from obsessing over them. Perhaps I've got a case of unrequited mobile love.



The Hitachi Wooo W63H and Casio Exilim W63CA both came with 3.1-inch organic electro-luminescent screens and the ability to sync up with au BOX and Lismo Video (which lets you download full movies onto your handset). The Casio Exilim also boasts an 8.1MP camera, making it a pretty good point-and-shoot replacement.


Sharp Aquos' model beats out the Hitachi and Casio on screen size (3.5-inches), even if it's not OEL. While the battery life is probably shorter, those .4-inches could make a big difference if you're a big TV-on-the-cellphone watcher.


Sony Ericcson's re fashion phone kind of reminds me of the Nokia I owned in High School, only its interchangeable fashion plates are much nicer. Right now, you can buy soon-to-be-dated 007 and Fifa World Cup themed plates.


The Toshiba W65T is a sportsy slider that includes, along with the au BOX connectivity and LISMO movie viewing, a Wireless Music option and GPS.


The last three phones in the line up are, more simplistic fashion phones. I guess not everybody's enamored with a handset that has more features than you can shake a stick at. Though the Kyocera W65K, SE W64S and Panasonic W62P (left to right) eschew LISMO and au BOX, they still come with the Karada Manager.

Even if none of KDDI's lineup makes it outside the Land of the Rising Sun, some of these features will probably trickle to the States a couple years down the line. [au by KDDI via Gizmodo Japan]



Tagi: casio exilim, fifa world cup, au by kddi, sharp aquos, phes, gizmodo, persal, lmo, kddi, ates, calorie counter, emphases, obsessing, mobile tv, fall and winter, enamored, wooo, fall winter, opti, battery life

Oct 28
This is NOT my release, but enough of you e-mail me about unlocking iPhones that I figured I should blog about it. Thanks to George Hotz who released this method.

So, if you're looking for how to unlock your new iPhone right out of the box (as of the 1.1.3 firmware), head to this post at The Unofficial Apple Weblog:

Software-only Unlock for iPhone

UPDATE: Zibri released an even easier unlock. http://zibree.blogspot.com/

Tagi: george hotz, iphe

Oct 28
A look at things to come...
Posted by George Hotz in stupid typo, iphe, phes, phe, dev team, backdoor, hacks, brick, paragraph, wp on 10 28th, 2008| icon3

Done in software from 4.6

Update: I just bricked a phone, and when I say bricked, I mean bricked. These bootloader hacks are dangerous. I made a really stupid typo, and it probably cost me a phone. When I go home, I will look at the phones I have in pieces; maybe there is some backdoor I overlooked. Maybe this is a sign I should put down the iPhone.

I am working on a loader for 4.03.13 that will run and unlock post bootloader. This is the better way to unlock 1.1.3

Ok, since I've gotten requests for it, the download link to the bootloader downgrader is at the end of this paragraph. Thanks to the dev team for the WP# discovery. I didn't brick my phone with this, I bricked my phone by typing 0 instead of 3FA000, but use extreme caution. I haven't included a patched bootloader, hopefully if you are using this, you have the skills to patch a bootloader. Here, don't say I didn't warn you.

Tagi: stupid typo, iphe, phes, phe, dev team, backdoor, hacks, brick, paragraph, wp

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