Poachers Pilfer Pwnage
Looks like unscrupulous poachers are stealing free software. Word this morning is that UK-based iphoneunlockuk.com is selling the otherwise free Pwnage tool and for a hefty £29.99 ($60). Not a bad profit margin for software they neither built nor have the right to distribute.
To quote the iPhone dev team, “We have all put in lots of time to bring you this application for FREE. We didn’t license this application to them, we don’t license it to anyone.” Looks like the miscreants didn’t do much to try to cover their tracks either. The application contains the original Pwnage credits and help file. In the words of the dev team, “Stop Thief!”
Pwnage is a free jailbreaking and unlocking tool for the iPhone and iPod touch. Among other things it allows users to access the iPhone’s Mac OS X command line and install and run third party applications.
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Forget Psystar, why isn’t Apple suing THESE guys?
OK, WTF? Take a look at gOS, the “Linux operating system designed for the 100,000,000 MySpace users”, and tell me if you see anything that looks familiar…
Stacks? Check. Dock? Check. Space theme? Check.
Still stumped? A quick read through of gOS’s feature description provides some more clues…
Linux meets MySpace With a stunningly beautiful interface and fun MySpace Apps, gOS Space 2.9 introduces a linux-based operating system designed for the 100,000,000 MySpace users.
Web on a dock. Now with the new gOS Space dock, you can email, IM, surf the web, while surfing through popular TV, movies, and music at the same time. The gOS Space dock aggregates the most popular web apps into neat, usable stacks for MySpace, News, Photos, Videos, Music, TV, Tools, and Fun.
The “g” in gOS supposedly stands for “Good”, although I think it may very well stand for Gleopard.
I’m not really sure what the point of gOS is anyway. I guess I could be wrong, but I sort of assumed most Linux users would want to steer clear of the “MySpace” generation entirely.
Thanks to faithful Macenstein reader Jeff for the tip.
Popularity: 5% [?]
Flickr find: 1Password icon shows up in the strangest places
If you’re an independent Mac software developer, having a wicked cool icon for your application is both a blessing and a curse. Users will remember you for the sleek, Leopard-ready goodness of your icon … and other unscrupulous marketers will rip you off shamelessly to promote their own products, rather than ponying up for an original design.
The all-time champion victim (self-reported) of icons ripped off is Panic’s Transmit FTP tool; the little truck shows up just about everywhere you could possibly imagine. New to the underground icon market, however, is the 1Password browser-key logo — it may make you think “Hey, I could drive Safari to the supermarket!” but apparently the makers of ProductKeyFinder, a Windows serial number app, found it too delicious to pass up. The purloined product identity is visible on PKF’s eBay sales page and on Flickr. It looks like the packaging has been updated (and the product renamed to Product Key Explorer), so this tale of icon swiping has a happy ending.
Thanks Roustem!
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