Sweden has a new officially recognized religion, and it's the Missionary Church of Kopimism, which has been finally been successful, after trying to gain recognition since 2010. What's different about the religion is that the congregation is a group of file sharers who hold that "copying information is a sacred virtue."
The religions followers are called Kopimists from "copy me." Kopimists hold CTRL+C and CTRL+V as sacred symbols, and prior to their recognition as an official religion, Sweden had characterized Kopimism as a sect.
After failing twice before, authorities finally recognized the organization as an official religion when the Church of Kopimism formalized its method of "praying or meditation." The Church’s founder, Philosophy student Isak Gerson and hopes that the Church's validation will "increase church attendance," so to speak.
"I think that more people will have the courage to step out as Kopimists. Maybe not in the public, but at least to their close ones," Isak said. "There’s still a legal stigma around copying for many. A lot of people still worry about going to jail when copying and remixing. I hope in the name of Kopimi [copy me] that this will change."
Recognition of the religion doesn't mean that copyright infringement is now legal, by the way.
During the past six months the Missionary Church of Kopimism has seen its membership triple, from 1,000 to 3,000. While it's hoped membership will spike with new recognition, no matter what, Gerson encourages both followers and non-followers to continue file-sharing.
He said, "We confessional Kopimists have not only depended on each other in this struggle, but on everyone who is copying information. To everyone with an internet connection: Keep copying. Maintain hardline Kopimi."
Sweden has a new officially recognized religion, and it's the Missionary Church of Kopimism, which has been finally been successful, after trying to gain recognition since 2010. What's different about the religion is that the congregation is a group of file sharers who hold that "copying information is a sacred virtue."
The religions followers are called Kopimists from "copy me." Kopimists hold CTRL+C and CTRL+V as sacred symbols, and prior to their recognition as an official religion, Sweden had characterized Kopimism as a sect.
After failing twice before, authorities finally recognized the organization as an official religion when the Church of Kopimism formalized its method of "praying or meditation." The Church’s founder, Philosophy student Isak Gerson and hopes that the Church's validation will "increase church attendance," so to speak.
"I think that more people will have the courage to step out as Kopimists. Maybe not in the public, but at least to their close ones," Isak said. "There’s still a legal stigma around copying for many. A lot of people still worry about going to jail when copying and remixing. I hope in the name of Kopimi [copy me] that this will change."
Recognition of the religion doesn't mean that copyright infringement is now legal, by the way.
During the past six months the Missionary Church of Kopimism has seen its membership triple, from 1,000 to 3,000. While it's hoped membership will spike with new recognition, no matter what, Gerson encourages both followers and non-followers to continue file-sharing.
He said, "We confessional Kopimists have not only depended on each other in this struggle, but on everyone who is copying information. To everyone with an internet connection: Keep copying. Maintain hardline Kopimi."
Two weeks after an initial port of Siri to the iPhone 4 was shown off, developers have managed to get the final piece working: talking to Apple's servers, a key part of Siri functionality.
Developer Steven Troughton-Smith, who earlier managed to get the UI working, along with Chpwn, have managed to leap over the authentication hurdle. Of course, it requires a jailbroken iPhone 4 or fourth-generation iPod touch. But don't expect to see it in Cydia anytime soon.
For one, Troughton-Smith wants to do more extensive testing. For another, it requires files from a jailbroken iPhone 4S, which means it wouldn't be legal. That said, once the results and procedure are published, it wouldn't be hard to imagine this showing up on BitTorrent sites.
In addition to the iPhone 4S files that are required, the 20-step process requires a validation token from the iPhone 4S that has to be taken "live" from a jailbroken iPhone 4S.
With regard to distribution, Troughton-Smith said, "No, I could not be a part of that. I have no doubts that others will package this up and distribute it quasi-illegally, or try and sell it to people. I am only interested in the technology and making it work; proving that it works and works well on the iPhone 4 and other devices."
Although they managed to get it working on an iPod touch 4G as well as the iPhone 4, since the microphone on the iPod touch is relatively poor compared to the iPhone, you have to speak loudly and clearly to the iPod touch to make it work.
In terms of performance, the hacked Siri version seems to be fully functional, and work as well and as quickly as on the iPhone 4S, which has a much more powerful A5 processor (vs. the iPhone 4's A4).
So, why did Apple choose to hold back the functionality from the iPhone 4? It wasn't because of hardware, obviously. The need for differentiation between the 4S and 4 comes to mind, since aside from Siri, there isn't really a reason to buy the 4S instead of the 4 ... seriously.
However, that's not the only reason. We've spoken to an insider and at least part of the reason is something that's been noticed with the iPhone 4S already: Apple's servers. They already have trouble handling Siri requests from the iPhone 4S devices out there. Add in all the iPhone 4 devices and you'd see server meltdown.
We also don't expect this hack to be open for long. Apple is bound to close it down with an iOS 5 update. The only question is how long it will take. Then the next question: how long will it take jailbreakers to work around the new restriction?
[Note: jailbreaking iOS basically means hacking the software so that users can get around the restrictions Apple places on their iDevices. Although it has been ruled legal by the U.S. Copyright Office, Apple reminds folks that it does void your warranty. An iOS update, even a minor one, will often require hackers to issue a new jailbreak, so those with jailbroken devices are always reminded to hold off on upgrading until a new jailbreak is published, or until it is determined that the old jailbreak still works.
Jailbreaking is not the same as SIM-unlocking an iPhone, but it is a necessary step toward that end.
Cydia is a parallel App Store speciailizing in apps for jailbroken devices.]
You can watch a couple of videos below, showing the functionality on iPhone 4 and iPod touch 4G.
Things continue to go poorly (in the legal sense) for Samsung in Europe. A Netherlands judge has ruled that three Samsung Galaxy-type smartphones, the Samsung Galaxy S II, the Galaxy S and Galaxy Ace, can no longer be sold or marketed by the company's Netherlands-based subsidiaries in numerous countries across the European Union.
There are caveats to the ruling, which came from a district court in The Hague, however.
In terms of sales / marketing outside the Netherlands, one might think the ban on Samsung's Netherlands subsidiaries might not have much effect. However, FOSS Patents believes that Samsung's European operations depend on its Netherlands operations as the primary hub. This preliminary injunction could mean that Samsung would have to modify the logistics of its E.U. supply chain.
In terms of which countries are affected by the ruling, it's not all of the countries in the E.U. The court has ruled that the patent infringed upon is one particular European software patent (EP 2059868). This means that if Samsung were to make changes to the software load of the devices, they could be sold again.
Additionally, the status of that patent differs between various E.U. members. Apple hasn't pursued validation of the patent in all the member states. Apparently, the patent has been validated with local registrations in Germany, Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland, the U.K., as well, of course, as the Netherlands. Among the countries that haven't validated the patent locally are Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, and Spain.
The judge rejected several other patent infringement claims from Apple, including the claim that Samsung had copied its physical designs for smartphones and tablets.
The ban is set to go into effect in about seven weeks, on October 13th.
Out of the blue, Apple has released iOS 4.3.5 and iOS 4.2.10. The new versions fix another security hole, and were released only about a week after Apple patched other security holes with iOS 4.3.4 and 4.2.9.
iOS 4.3.5 is available for iOS 3.0 through 4.3.4 for iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 (GSM), iOS 3.1 through 4.3.4 for iPod touch (3rd generation) and later, iOS 3.2 through 4.3.4 for iPad.
iOS 4.2.10 is available for iOS 4.2.5 through 4.2.9 for iPhone 4 (CDMA).
The new release fixes the following security issue (and Apple must be happy that, unlike the PDF issue fixed in the last release, it managed to fix this prior to the exploit being pointed out to it by an external source):
Impact: An attacker with a privileged network position may capture or modify data in sessions protected by SSL/TLS
Description: A certificate chain validation issue existed in the handling of X.509 certificates. An attacker with a privileged network position may capture or modify data in sessions protected by SSL/TLS. Other attacks involving X.509 certificate validation may also be possible. This issue is addressed through improved validation of X.509 certificate chains.
Just as with iOS 4.3.4 and iOS 4.2.9, if you are using the JailBreakMe jailbreak, don't install the update. If you already have, you can still jailbreak using redsn0w, but it's a tethered jailbreak (meaning you have to re-jailbreak every time the device reboots) and it won't work on iPad 2 (yet).
If you choose to update, to do so you simply plug your iDevice into you computer, start up iTunes, and if necessary open up your iDevice in the sidebar on the left and force it to check for an update.
Out of the blue, Apple has released iOS 4.3.5 and iOS 4.2.10. The new versions fix another security hole, and were released only about a week after Apple patched other security holes with iOS 4.3.4 and 4.2.9.
iOS 4.3.5 is available for iOS 3.0 through 4.3.4 for iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 (GSM), iOS 3.1 through 4.3.4 for iPod touch (3rd generation) and later, iOS 3.2 through 4.3.4 for iPad.
iOS 4.2.10 is available for iOS 4.2.5 through 4.2.9 for iPhone 4 (CDMA).
The new release fixes the following security issue (and Apple must be happy that, unlike the PDF issue fixed in the last release, it managed to fix this prior to the exploit being pointed out to it by an external source):
Impact: An attacker with a privileged network position may capture or modify data in sessions protected by SSL/TLS
Description: A certificate chain validation issue existed in the handling of X.509 certificates. An attacker with a privileged network position may capture or modify data in sessions protected by SSL/TLS. Other attacks involving X.509 certificate validation may also be possible. This issue is addressed through improved validation of X.509 certificate chains.
Just as with iOS 4.3.4 and iOS 4.2.9, if you are using the JailBreakMe jailbreak, don't install the update. If you already have, you can still jailbreak using redsn0w, but it's a tethered jailbreak (meaning you have to re-jailbreak every time the device reboots) and it won't work on iPad 2 (yet).
If you choose to update, to do so you simply plug your iDevice into you computer, start up iTunes, and if necessary open up your iDevice in the sidebar on the left and force it to check for an update.
Out of the blue, Apple has released iOS 4.3.5 and iOS 4.2.10. The new versions fix another security hole, and were released only about a week after Apple patched other security holes with iOS 4.3.4 and 4.2.9.
iOS 4.3.5 is available for iOS 3.0 through 4.3.4 for iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 (GSM), iOS 3.1 through 4.3.4 for iPod touch (3rd generation) and later, iOS 3.2 through 4.3.4 for iPad.
iOS 4.2.10 is available for iOS 4.2.5 through 4.2.9 for iPhone 4 (CDMA).
The new release fixes the following security issue (and Apple must be happy that, unlike the PDF issue fixed in the last release, it managed to fix this prior to the exploit being pointed out to it by an external source):
Impact: An attacker with a privileged network position may capture or modify data in sessions protected by SSL/TLS
Description: A certificate chain validation issue existed in the handling of X.509 certificates. An attacker with a privileged network position may capture or modify data in sessions protected by SSL/TLS. Other attacks involving X.509 certificate validation may also be possible. This issue is addressed through improved validation of X.509 certificate chains.
Just as with iOS 4.3.4 and iOS 4.2.9, if you are using the JailBreakMe jailbreak, don't install the update. If you already have, you can still jailbreak using redsn0w, but it's a tethered jailbreak (meaning you have to re-jailbreak every time the device reboots) and it won't work on iPad 2 (yet).
If you choose to update, to do so you simply plug your iDevice into you computer, start up iTunes, and if necessary open up your iDevice in the sidebar on the left and force it to check for an update.
For those long-suffering iPhone users still stuck on the AT&T network, some validation of their experiences. A just-released study showed that AT&T's claims of "fastest 3G network" were true, but it was also the most inconsistent, with the most dropped connections.
The study, by PC Magazine, titled "The Fastest Mobile Networks 2010," focused on data connectivity, and not voice calls. When they speak of dropped calls or dropped connections, they are speaking about data connections. Here's what they said:
We didn't test voice quality, dropped calls, or coverage areas; while those are very important measurements, these tests were all about mobile Internet. We ran approximately 1,000 rounds of tests (totaling more than 10,000 individual tests) in 20 cities.
Of course, a smartphone is not really a smartphone if you can't make a call on it.
There's no denying that Apple and AT&T are BFFs, at least for now. The fastest AT&T data connection in the nation comes via an AT&T tower mounted at Apple's headquarters at One Infinite Loop, in Cupertino, CA. One has to wonder if they'll be a Verizon tower erected when that carrier starts selling the iPhone (it will; the only question is when).
Reliability is where AT&T drops the ball, and that's where Verizon steps in. Verizon has always touted the size and reliability of its 3G network, while AT&T has emphasized speeds. As with anything, speed only matters if you can connect.
Also, ironically, since AT&T just instituted the first capped tiers in the U.S. for data service, it can now be said that AT&T is the fastest network to your limit, as well.
Meanwhile, its also evident from tests that location matters, and not just city-to-city. Indeed, cellular being what it is, location within a city definitely matters, as anyone who's dropped a call when they've entered a dead zone can attest to.
Things ought to be interesting the next time PC Magazine does this test. Sprint is rollings its 4G service out to more locations, Verizon will roll out 4G LTE later this year to more locations, and AT&T plans LTE service as well.
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