iPhone 4 prototype going for 70K on eBay… until Apple has it taken down

Stop us if you’ve heard this story before, but a sketchily sourced bit of rare Apple kits hits eBay — say an iPhone 4 prototype similar to the one Gizmodo got their hands on last year — and people start to bid crazy amounts of money for it… before Apple legal ultimate has it removed from auction. (And no doubt sends post-cog commandos crashing through some skylights, somewhere.)

It’s right now at $70K and climbing. No doubt that’s for the lulz, with bidders figuring no one will be held accountable when Apple legal has it pulled. So enjoy the spectator sport while it lasts.

Who’s selling it and how long it will take Apple to start issuing demand letters we don’t know. All we know is that Google probably isn’t one of the bidders. The amounts are far too even. No non-linear or squares of negative numbers in the bidding history, far as we can tell…

[@pytey via This is My Next]

Buy an iPhone 4/4S Prototype for a Million Dollars on eBay

So, a guy walks into a bar while an Apple employee is celebrating his birthday… wait, stop me if you know the punchline. While I doubt that the story repeats itself here, you could find out yourself for what will likely end up being over a million dollars, in what seems like a bidding joke at this point. At that price, I am sure that the seller of an iPhone 4/4S prototype is open to any questions. (Edit: the seller has revealed that he works as a repairman and bought it from a potential client who was unaware that the phone was a prototype. So, you would have to find that man to hear a story about it. Then another to get to the good details. It’s a chain of investigation.)

Obvious signs that the iPhone offered for sale is a prototype are how the Model No., FCC ID, and IC ID are missing actual numbers, with all numbers replaced with X. Don’t get too excited, algebra fans, there is no equation that will solve for X in this case. That is, unless you are also an engineer. Though the serial number is not actually valid on Apple’s site for obvious reasons, there is an ominous DF1692 code marked on the front.

Being a prototype, there is a lack of functionality, meaning this is more of a brick reminiscent of what is available in a huge array of stores. However the unlock screen and Emergency Call options do appear, so the hardware does indeed function. Trouble is, it cannot be activated through a standard copy of iTunes nor does an AT&T SIM card help.

In stark contrast to a new iPhone, the prototype has already seen a ton of damage. But the most blatant thing that the steep price grants the buyer is the opportunity to see what blank volume buttons look like, missing the + and – indicators, and you cannot put a price on that, can you?

This is simply my own speculation, but this could be an iPhone 4S. Considering how rumors said that the iPhone 4S is simply an iPhone 4 chassis housing new hardware feature being given to developers to test apps (so that new hardware can be tested without iPhone 5 being leaked), it seems like the seller would not know the difference. That is especially true since the iPhone 4 is not specifically labelled with the “4.”

Right now, the current bid is at $999,999. Who wants to break the million barrier as part of this price joke created by bidders with nothing better to do? Find the auction onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/cgi.ebay.com/Apple-iPhone-4-black-APPLE-GENUINE-PROTOTYPE-TESTER-/130540359649?_trksid=p5197.m7&_trkparms=algo%3DLVI%26itu%3DUCI%26otn%3D5%26po%3DLVI%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D1097641438049325804&autorefresh=true#ht_1298wt_176');" target="_blank" href="http://www.ip4help.com">here before it is taken down in an attempt for a real sale. Then once the new auction is up, make sure to have a good bar story to tell before bidding.

Dreamboard – Themes Made Easy

 

Not that Winterboard and other theme solutions are hard to use, but when you can change the look and feel of your iPhone making it look exactly like an Android-based device in two seconds, that’s just impressive. Having been previously available through Cydia for $2.99, Dreamboard is now available through Cydia for FREE.

Complete with web widget, “slide down to lock” and that gigantic clock, you can skin your iPhone to look & act like an Android device. Dreamboard goes beyond anything that previous theme software could do, and allows full customization of your iPhone. Additionally it allows you to change your theme instantly with no respring!

From http://dreamboard.us/ you can scroll through some of the themes in coverflow view including themes like Windows 7 Phone, Mac OS, and many more. The page is just view only however, to download the themes themselves you need to do a little more work. The creator of the software originally had a DreamStore app setup, however now all the themes have been moved to the Cydia store.

Using the Planet-iPhones Cydia Search feature I was easily able to get screen shots of the themes and decide which ones I wanted to download. From there I went to the phone and was easily able to locate and install the theme. Themes range from free up to $2, and if you visit the dreamboard wiki they have instructions on how you can create your own theme.

My hope is that now with the app being offered for free perhaps community support will open to doors to a larger theme library. Although even with the selection available today I was satisfied with what I found. My satisfaction however, might be based solely on the animated weather setting!

Check out DreamBoard today and let us know what you think!

Dropbox updates ToS: What you need to know

Dropbox, the popular online file storage and sharing service used by many iOS apps, has updated their terms of service, ostensibly to make their policies “easier to read and understand, and better reflect product improvements”. This after controversies involving how they handled encryption, who could and couldn’t look at your files, and an incident when passwords were disabled for a very short period of time and anyone could, theoretically peek inside. They’ve put up a blog post to help explain the new ToS and the reasons behind them, and are updating it as they get users’ feedback. Some key points:

You retain ownership to your stuff. You are also solely responsible for your conduct, the content of your files and folders, and your communications with others while using the Services.

This is legal ass-covering. Dropbox is hugely popular among iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad users, primarily because it’s easy to use and they provided really robust APIs that developers could use to get around Apple’s up-until-now p!$$-pour file sharing abilities. A large amount of iOS users use Dropbox and a large amount of Dropbox users use iOS. To enable that sharing, they feel they need to “own” the files so they can avoid being sued if anything unforeseen happens (probably including legal demands.) So, if they use your files, it’s not their fault. If you misuse their system, by contrast, it’s all your fault. They’re not taking the fall for any illegal material you choose to store there.

We wish we didn’t have to use legal terms at all, but copyright law is complicated and if we don’t get these permissions in writing, we might be putting ourselves in a tough spot down the road. Not to bore you with the details, but please take a look at the license term in the TOS. We think it’s fair and strikes the right balance: “This license is solely to enable us to technically administer, display, and operate the Services.”

The important thing to remember is this: don’t consider anything you put on an internet connected device to be private. Ever. Some of it will be better protected than others. Some of it will be far less of a target than others. But anything stored can be accessed, by accident or by malicious interception. (Just ask any young star in Hollywood with a camera phone and lack of discretion, unfortunately.)

Security and convenience are always in contention and online services like DropBox fall heavily on the convenience side.

Read the whole blog post below and let Dropbox — and us — know what you think. Will any of this change your Dropbox usage? Will iCloud?

[Dropbox blog]

UPDATE: 1Password has a great blog post up about the Dropbox changes as well. [1Password]

Apple ditching Google Maps?

DropBox updates ToS: What you need to know

DropBox, the popular online file storage and sharing service used by many iOS apps, has updated their terms of service, ostensibly to make their policies “easier to read and understand, and better reflect product improvements”. This after controversies involving how they handled encryption, who could and couldn’t look at your files, and an incident when passwords were disabled for a very short period of time and anyone could, theoretically peek inside. They’ve put up a blog post to help explain the new ToS and the reasons behind them, and are updating it as they get users’ feedback. Some key points:

You retain ownership to your stuff. You are also solely responsible for your conduct, the content of your files and folders, and your communications with others while using the Services.

This is legal ass-covering. DropBox is hugely popular among iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad users, primarily because it’s easy to use and they provided really robust APIs that developers could use to get around Apple’s up-until-now p!$$-pour file sharing abilities. A large amount of iOS users use DropBox and a large amount of DropBox users use iOS. To enable that sharing, they feel they need to “own” the files so they can avoid being sued if anything unforeseen happens (probably including legal demands.) So, if they use your files, it’s not their fault. If you misuse their system, by contrast, it’s all your fault. They’re not taking the fall for any illegal material you choose to store there.

We wish we didn’t have to use legal terms at all, but copyright law is complicated and if we don’t get these permissions in writing, we might be putting ourselves in a tough spot down the road. Not to bore you with the details, but please take a look at the license term in the TOS. We think it’s fair and strikes the right balance: “This license is solely to enable us to technically administer, display, and operate the Services.”

The important thing to remember is this: don’t consider anything you put on an internet connected device to be private. Ever. Some of it will be better protected than others. Some of it will be far less of a target than others. But anything stored can be accessed, by accident or by malicious interception. (Just ask any young star in Hollywood with a camera phone and lack of discretion, unfortunately.)

Security and convenience are always in contention and online services like DropBox fall heavily on the convenience side.

Read the whole blog post below and let DropBox — and us — know what you think. Will any of this change your DropBox usage? Will iCloud?

[DropBox blog]

UPDATE: 1Password has a great blog post up about the DropBox changes as well. [1Password]

iPhone reunites mother and daughter after five years apart

A mother, who lost touch with her daughter, was able to find her again 5 years later thanks to a kind hearted iPhone user. The mother, a shoe cleaner in China, came across someone in the street with an iPad and asked if she could use it to get online to help find her daughter. Unfortunately the iPad was WiFi only and there was no network to be found. Luckily, the iPad user also had an iPhone. A photo was taken of the woman and it was posted to Weibo, a hugely popular Twitter-like site in China with over 140 million users.

The picture was reposted (re-weibo’d?) over 100,000 times and within three days her daughter had seen the photograph and the pair were in touch again!

Earlier in the week we heard about the visually impaired schoolgirl using an iPad to improve her school life. That is two uplifting stories involving iOS devices this week. May be Steve was right; these devices are magical after all?

[The Loop]