Jailbreaking was once a major gray area not so long ago, and it stayed that way until a court decision was made ruling that the act was actually fully legal so long as it didn’t directly infringe on any copyrights.

While you would think this ruling would forever lay to rest the question of legality regarding a jailbreak, it might not be that simple in reality.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) have begun lobbying for users to add their electronic voice to a petition which aims to ask the United States government to declare once again that jailbreaking an iPhone does not violate the DMCA. The EFF are also asking for this initial exemption — which is set to expire — to be extended to cover tablet devices as the Apple’s iPad. Right now, though very similar to the iPhone, it isn’t actually part of the current ruling as it stands.

One very well known iOS developer, Charlie Miller, is an advocate for voicing a change that will redefine the DMCA ruling and add even further credence to the right for users to jailbreak their device.

Not everyone feels this way, and many believe that you shouldn’t be worried as the current ruling should be permanent, and no further action is required.

Miller has been quick to point out that the exemption could expire, making sure that jailbreaking remains legal is very important.

If you wish to lend your voice to the cause and help ensure that, now and forever, jailbreaking remains legal, go to the Electronic Frontier Foundation website and send a comment to the Copyrights Office using the links provided. All comments must be received by February 10th at 5PM Eastern Time.

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It appears like iOS users are the ones who are crazy about mobile web browsing. According to the latest data, Apple’s operating system has finished 2011 on top with a 52.1 percent market share of mobile web, although that’s a fall from a 54.06 percent lead back in January 2011.

The new info comes to us courtesy of NetMarketShare which keeps track of the visitors to their network of websites. And surprisingly, their data suggests that Android users are not too much into mobile web.

Google’s OS is in the third spot with a 16.2% share behind Java ME with 21.27% market share. The ones which failed to get into the top three include Symbian (5.76%), BlackBerry (3.51%) and “Other” (1.07%) which should include Windows Phone.

The dominance of the Apple OS in mobile web browsing has been steady throughout 2011, with only slight fluctuations.

The highest numbers for iOS are in October when its market share climbed to 61.5 percent, most probably as a result of the iPhone 4S launch. The lowest was in February when its share dropped to 46.57 percent, likely due to customers selling their iPads to get their hands on the iPad 2 which was released in March.

Going a bit deeper into the info, Apple’s iPhone has a 25.24% share, while the iPad accounts for 24.53% and the iPod Touch is at 2.32%.

It’s certainly surprising that the Android platform’s share is far behind, especially when we consider the fact that Android has dominated the market when it comes to the number of devices sold and activated.

The new build follows the company’s recent release of 5.0.1 which was aimed at fixing a couple of important bugs, including the iPhone 4S battery issue that still appears to be affecting some users.

Early on, there were reports that suggested that 5.1 would bring new features to Siri including hardware controls which will allow iPhone 4S users to adjust Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radios through the voice-controlled assistant. For now it appears like the new version of iOS does not bring these changes.

The release notes of the software, which comes to us courtesy of BGR, do not reveal any major features at all.

The update looks to be a minor one that is coming with fixes for issues affecting Music Player, Newsstand and Game Center. There are also some changes in the APIs and iCloud storage.

What is interesting is that the folks over at 9to5Mac have discovered reference to two new iPad models, “iPad 2,4” and “iPad 3,3”, in the beta software.

The iPad 2,4 is thought to be a new version of the iPad 2 that might get released on Sprint’s 3G network. As you might know, 3G iPads are only available on AT&T and Verizon in the US. The tablet may also be a version meant for other networks around the world.

For those that were hoping for some major changes in this version, it seems you will have to wait a little longer. Perhaps in iOS 5.2, Apple will grant our wish and add hardware controls to Siri.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you likely know what Siri is. This amazing communications technology is the prize jewel when it comes to the iPhone 4S, but what about those of us that are perfectly content with our iPhone 4? Why should we be left out on the latest in artificial intelligence? According to Apple, it’s because the processor in the iPhone 4 just can’t handle the demand of the app and connecting to Apple’s server for Siri communication. This sounds at least somewhat believable, at least until you realize that Steven Troughton-Smith and iPhone developer, Chpwn, have already successfully hacked Siri to run relatively smoothly on Apple’s iPhone 4. The biggest set back is that the microphone in iPhone 4 isn’t as sensitive as the 4s and you do have to raise your voice at Siri in order for it to respond, according to the hackers responsible.

Unfortunately, getting the iPhone 4 to play nice with the Apple Siri Servers isn’t exactly a two-step process; in fact in its current form it takes about 20 steps and requires access to a working jail-broken iPhone 4S. When it comes to hacks, though, the scene can change very quickly and so eventually this could be a much shorter process and require a lot less work to get done. So what can we do for now? At the moment we are limited and can merely play around with the app on our iPhone 4 (and Ipod Touch 4, too), but no connecting to the servers- which is where the magic happens.

Getting the app running on the iPhone 4 or Touch 4 requires Siri files from an 4S, OpenSSH and iFile, an SFTP client, and a Jailbroken iOS 5 operating system. Essentially you just need to extract the files, open the SFTP client and write down the following:

HOST: IP Address of your network from WIFI settings on your iPhone
USERNAME: root
PASSWORD: alpine

Next up, open the directory, { /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/  } and copy AssistantServices.framework, which should be located in the files extracted from the iPhone 4S.

Second up, copy all files from SpringBoard_Assistant_pics folder to:
/System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app

Once done with all the copying, open iFile and open the same directory from the previous step. You’ll find a file named N90AP.plist for your iPhone or N81AP.plist for your Touch. Tap on that file, edit it and type:

<key>assistant</key><true/>

Then,

<key>720p</key><true/>

Finally, reboot and you should have the Siri app on your iPhone/Touch. Keep in mind, however, that for now this is only the app and until Steven and Chpwn test the server hack a little bit you won’t get a true Siri experience on your phone- just a cool app to fiddle around with.

So in the end, is getting the GUI worth all that effort? If you are the hacker type and enjoy messing around with software, then yes. If not then I would probably wait around until a proven tutorial for communicating with Siri comes around. No matter what though, it seems clear that Apple’s claim that the iPhone 4 can’t handle Siri is, well, just a marketing strategy to sell more iPhone 4S devices after all. Of course don’t get too excited, as proven in previous Siri coverage, Apple is very good about shutting down hacks at every turn.

[Source]

We knew that the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch were popular. We knew that people who purchased these devices would inevitably download a few apps. As it turns out, the average is more than just a few. In fact, the average iOS user has downloaded a total of 75 apps. That’s on average.

How did we arrive at this number? Apple has just announced that the App Store has broken the 15 billion download mark. That’s right. Fifteen billion apps have been downloaded from the App Store in its relatively brief history and that comes by way of 200 million iOS users. Some quick math gives us 75 apps per user.

While it took Apple nine months to reach its first billion, the last billion happened in just one month. It helps when you have a huge established user base and a total embrace of the “app” concept. To date, the App Store has over 425,000 apps for your downloading pleasure and Apple has paid over $2.5 billion to developers. That works out to an average earnings of $5,882 per app. I imagine apps like Angry Birds skew that figure just a little.

Photo from Business Insider.

As great as touchscreens may be, they rarely offer the same kind of visceral experience as you get with real buttons and real moving parts. That’s kind of the idea behind Pinball Magic, a mini pinball cabinet for your iDevice that goes along with the free app.

The net result is a portable pinball machine, complete with real buttons on the sides for the flippers and a real plunger in the front for launching the ball. You don’t get a real ball going around hitting real bumpers, but this is pretty close.

In fact, the free app for Pinball Magic even takes advantage of the tilt sensor in your iPod touch or iPhone, giving you that “warning” when you try to tilt the machine. It’s just like the real arcade, except smaller and digitized.

After seeing people convert iPad’s into Street Fighter cabinets, converting an iPhone to a pinball machine isn’t quite as impressive and I’m pretty sure it’s been done. Even so, the retro enthusiast in your life will surely appreciate this $20 gift.

[Read, Buy]

The second generation version of the Apple Peel is set to hit random retailers in China this Monday, March 28. If you happen to have a friend hanging out in Shanghai, you can get him or her to ship one over for your iPod touch, giving it iPhone-like capabilities. Naturally, you’ll need to jailbreak your iPod touch first.

It’ll still do the voice and text thing as the older version, but the new Apple Peel 520 will toss in some GPRS data connectivity. This is going to be painfully slow for anything more than text-based e-mails, but at least it’s something if you don’t happen to be bathing in some Wi-Fi.

Pricing is expected to be in the $79 to $90 range.

[Yoison]

Considering how much we use our smartphones these days, I’m totally less inclined to get a standalone media player. Then again, something like the iPod touch really is just an iPhone without the phone part. The Samsung Galaxy Player is much the same and it’s almost ready for market.

This isn’t the first time we’ve heard of the phone-less version of the Galaxy S, but it is interesting that they are planning two different sizes. The four-inch Samsung Galaxy Player 4 will be pretty much the same as the Galaxy S phones you’ve already seen, loaded with Android 2.2 Froyo (upgradeable to Gingerbread), Super Clear LCD, WiFi-N, 8GB memory, microSD expansion, and Bluetooth 3.0.

The camera is just a 3.2-megapixel autofocus unit on the back, but there is a VGA camera on the front for video calls (Skype comes pre-installed). The five-inch version sounds like it’s pretty much the same, except for the Streak-sized screen. In this way, this new generation of media player might be better thought of as small tablets rather than phone-less non-phones…

In any case, we’re expecting these to ship out to State-side retailers this Spring. Will it meet the same fate as the Zune? Samsung certainly doesn’t hope so.

Pfft, pretty much all iPod speaker docks are the same right? The JBL On Air is a little bit of a different beast, though, since it makes use of the AirPlay wireless streaming. That and, well, the “halo” design is pretty sweet too.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this design or this technology, but JBL has officially come forward to officially announce this speaker. You can use your AirPlay-enabled Mac or iOS device (4.2+) to stream your tunes from some distance away. The little screen on the On Play will show the current track information.

The rest of the specs aren’t as exciting — dual alarm clock, FM radio, USB port for firmware updates — but I guess they’re still worth mentioning. Pricing, which just so happens to be an important tidbit, has not yet been announced but JBL expects to start selling this rounded out speaker in the spring.

Beyonce’s Halo track not included.

[JBL]

Instead of looking like a fairly standard rubberized case, the idea with the new-gen Apple Peel 520 is that it not only adds iPhone-esque functionality to your iPod touch; it also adds an iPhone 4-esque look to it. If the people around you don’t look too closely, they probably would mistake your Peel’d iPod touch for an iPhone 4.

You even get those two round buttons on the left side for volume. They’ve added in a couple more round buttons on the other side, apparently for call and end. The aesthetic is certainly improved over the original, but is the performance? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

[micGadget via Yoison]