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Add multitasking, connect to a Bluetooth mouse, sync over Wi-Fi, and more–all without waiting for iOS 4.
Apple’s iOS 4 enables multitasking and other new and useful features, but the iPad can’t join the party until this fall. If you jailbreak your iPad, however, you can multitask today–and that’s just the beginning.
Your jailbroken iPad can run all kinds of third-party apps far beyond the selection in Apple’s App Store. Want to sync over Wi-Fi, connect a Bluetooth GPS or mouse, and browse the entire iPad file structure? Here’s how.
Jailbreaking Basics
Jailbreaking your iPad lets you install third-party utilities and applications. (That’s different from "unlocking," which allows you to use a device with a different phone carrier.) When jailbroken, the iPad becomes an actual computer in that you can tweak the interface and make modifications at the lowest levels. This is a double-edged sword: You could run unstable tools or even damage your device, although that’s highly unlikely. Remember that with your jailbroken iPad, Apple isn’t around to tell you what you can and can’t do with it–for better or for worse.
Fortunately, if you pay attention to what you’re doing, you can run the warranty-voiding process without incident–and if you change your mind later, you can return to Apple’s default, locked-down environment.
How to Jailbreak Your iPad
As with all major installations, begin with a backup. Connect the iPad to your computer. In the left iTunes column, right-click the iPad’s name, and pick Backup. You can restore your data from here if needed.
Download Spirit to jailbreak the iPad. Note that the jailbreak process depends highly on your version of iTunes and iOS. As of this writing, Spirit hadn’t yet been updated to work with iTunes 9.2; be sure that you have an older version of iTunes or that Spirit now supports iTunes 9.2 before proceeding. The jailbreaking community usually compensates for Apple’s updates within several days or weeks.
Unplug other iPod devices, and connect your iOS 3.2 iPad directly to your computer. Run Spirit. The process will modify and restart the iPad; leave everything alone until the process is complete. Did it work? Great.
If it didn’t work–as happened to me initially–quit Spirit and restore your iPad in iTunes. If iTunes won’t even recognize the iPad, kick it into DFU (device firmware upgrade) mode. Connect the iPad, and hold the lock and home buttons for 10 seconds. Release the lock button, but continue holding the home button. The screen should stay black, but the iPad should appear in iTunes. Restore the iPad, and then reattempt the jailbreak.
Again, if you ever get cold feet and want to revert to your iPad’s original state, just restore the iPad in iTunes. If iTunes doesn’t recognize the iPad, put it in DFU mode first.
Hulu has finally announced their long-rumored subscription service, and it’s a doozy. It’s called Hulu Plus. For US$9.99 per month, you’ll get you ad-supported access to the full current seasons of most shows and full back seasons of select shows. Plus, brand new Hulu Plus apps for the iPhone and the iPad will bring the television to you. The apps work over either WiFi or 3G, though the iPhone version requires iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4.The service sounds pretty good — I would have to untangle my internet service from my cable bill, but otherwise, a system like this might just replace my cable box.
I can’t think of another iPad app that looks quite as striking as Emerald Observatory. This US $0.99 app is the kind of thing you’d be proud to display if it was a physical object; even when it’s running on the iPad, I’m tempted to leave it on as a conversation piece.
The single display gives you your local time, the position of the sun, the rise and set times of the sun and moon (and the 5 brightest planets), twilight start and end times, the current moon phase, a display of day and night on a world map, the current day and date (with a leap year indicator), and the ability to move forward or backward in time in order to see different planetary alignments and sun positions.
A report outlining advertisers’ plans for Apple’s new iAd program indicates that the new interactive ads won’t reachiPad users until iOS 4 becomes available for it in November.
iAds will go live on iOS apps for the iPhone and iPod touch starting July 1, although Advertising Age reported that “a check-in with declared iAd advertisers found that many are still in the early stages of flushing out concepts and creative.”
The story added that “some are weeks — perhaps months — away from having an iAd in the system.” It cited “an agency exec with several iAds in the works,” as saying, “most advertisers won’t be there on July 1; there just isn’t enough time,” an issue partly blamed on Apple itself.
Apple is doing “all the technical production of iAds, and telling agencies it will take six to eight weeks to produce an ad after the creative is produced,” the report stated.
It’s getting easier and easier to enjoy in-flight entertainment on Apple’s briskly moving tablet, but why wait till you get to the gate to dive in? If you’re flying out of Kuala Lumpur, you can play with that 9.7-inch IPS touchscreen while you daydream of that time that watched Entrapment with your soulmate, book your flight, find departure times and even check in at dedicated kiosks. Adapting its iPhone application MHMobile for iPad use, Malaysia Airlines has installed five terminals at Kuala Lumpur Sentral so far — where the company presently serves just 900 customers a day. See the interface in action after the break, or just download the existing app at our more coverage link if you’re in search of that elusive globetrotter feeling.