New tool jailbreaks Microsoft Surface slabs in 20 SECONDS
Microsoft was quick to brush off the debugging hack that allows locked-down Windows RT Surface slabs to run any unauthorised desktop software. But now the exploit has been packaged into a slick jailbreaking tool that can unlock a Redmond fondleslab in seconds. A programmer going by the name of Netham45 has released RT Jailbreak …
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Re: Win 8 RT rooted
@Eadon - I notice that you complain a lot about people making what you perceive personal attacks on you, yet somehow you seem to think it's ok to suggest that other commentators are insane and should be locked up in a psychiatric institution.
Pathetic, really.
Re: Win 8 RT rooted
I don't know where you get that idea from, but having owned several Android tablets (TF Prime being the latest), and currently rocking a Surface, I can tell you that for my usage patterns, the Surface does not have a better battery life (it's similar) and very much worse when asleep.
And no, I'm not using the dock when I compare the TF Prime to the Surface for battery life.
Re: Win 8 RT rooted
Hmmm - how about you post the complete set of battery stats from Toms Hardware rather than the single chart that puts the Surface in an appreciably better light?
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/surface-windows-rt-battery-life,3346.html
Re: Win 8 RT rooted
This 'love place' - are the cushioned walls chairproof?
Re: Win 8 RT rooted
But the battery still wouldnt last as long as the Windows RT tablet.
The Surface might only have a 720p screen, but it is a 'better' screen than any android tablet to date:
"Our Lab measurements found the Surface RT to have the lowest Screen Reflectance of any Tablet in our Display Shoot-Out article series. The Surface RT also has the highest Contrast Rating for High Ambient Light for Tablets, which quantitatively measures screen visibility under bright ambient lighting – the higher the better"
"The Surface RT screen resolution of 1366x768 pixels is comparable to most existing Tablets, but many of the latest Tablets have been launching at 1920x1080 or above, which provides double the total number of pixels, and 50 percent greater Pixels Per Inch, or more. Specs aside, what is the actual visual significance of the lower pixel count? Most consumers are unlikely to notice much of a visual difference in photos and videos because they are inherently fuzzy – it’s really only critical for providing visually sharp text.
The Surface RT uses Sub-Pixel Rendering (called ClearType in Microsoft’s implementation) that in our tests significantly improves the visual sharpness of text over standard Pixel Rendering that is used in most mobile displays. In our comparison tests, text on the Surface RT was significantly sharper than on the iPad 2 and all 1280x800 10 inch Android Tablets
The display on the Microsoft Surface RT outperforms all of the standard resolution full size 10 inch Tablets that we have tested in our Display Shoot-Out series. The Lab tests and measurements documented in the Shoot-Out Comparison Table below indicate that Microsoft has paid a lot of attention to display performance for the Surface RT. In particular, on-screen text is significantly sharper, it has a better factory display calibration, and also significantly lower screen Reflectance than the iPad 2 and all full size 1280x800 Android Tablets.
Microsoft has paid careful attention to factory display calibration unlike most other manufacturers – including most of the Android and Nexus devices that we have tested. The Surface RT has an accurate White Point and an accurate Intensity Scale, which are both very important for accurate image reproduction."
Re: Edon "@AC mea culpa. Apologies to RICTO ;-)"
Looks like your kind words persuaded him to de-cloak ;o)
Re: Win 8 RT rooted
A "love place" with cushioned walls?
...hmmm....
Me wants! >:)
...just nipping down to the basement with a big pile of crashmats and my nailgun dear. You might hear lots of banging and other strange noises but don't worry!
Re: Win 8 RT rooted
"The Surface might only have a 720p screen, but it is a 'better' screen than any android tablet to date"
Bad conclusion from what the Display Mate article actually says.
A better conclusion would be:
"The Surface might only have a 720p screen, but it is a 'better' screen than any 10" 1280x800 android tablet to date:"
Bizarre
Let me get this straight. the Surface is locked down, someone has released an exploit, and people are moving to rubbish the quality of the exploit as it must be run each reboot, but not one single whine about the fact the Surface is locked down to signed apps...?
You can tell this isn't about an iPad can't you.
Re: Bizarre
Not really. More importantly, you can tell that microsofts marketing strategy is working. After all they have 1 platform for people that want to get work done, and 1 platform for people that just want stuff to work while they're browsing the net, reading email, playing games, etc. and only occasionally need to do anything office productivity like.
I suspect that if windows 8 had only come out in RT flavour with no "pro" versions available people would have been more eager to break into it and bypass the security properly.
Re: Bizarre
You're new to Them Internets, aren't you? Please take a seat.
Re: Bizarre
MS are dammed if they do, dammed if they don't here:
1) They release an OS which is a target for viruses and malware, bad MS
2) They release a locked down OS which can't run anything that's not signed and obtained from a known source, bad MS.
Re: Bizarre
@AC 15:24
That's a false dichotomy - they could do what Linux / Android do - release an open OS that is secure. In the end, you can't protect against all trojans unless you do lock down a computer, but Android and Linux have the balance right between locked down and freedom.
MS is just locking everything down because that's what Apple do, and Apple make $$$. They are definitely locking everything down to try to prevent Linux being installed on kit.
Re: Bizarre
Correct on both counts. However, the second needs correction:
They release a locked down OS which can't run anything that's not signed and obtained from a known source, attempting thereby to create a monopoly on the distribution of software to run on the OS.
They are doing this in a somewhat mature market to which they are a newcomer (or failed entrant, if we consider the smartphone to be part of it), completely ignoring that they became big partly by providing an OS platform for which a large number of vendors could write and sell programs. I should have sold my MS shares years ago, but don't have a great deal and kept it, hoping they would manage to do something sensible.
Re: Bizarre
I should have sold my MS shares years ago, but don't have a great deal and kept it, hoping they would manage to do something sensible.
D'oh! You made it seem ironic that the "Darwin award" thing can't really be applied to pensions ;o)
The bootnote was in my opinion the most interesting part of the article
It clearly explains Microsoft's present difficulties with Windows8 in tablets and mobile market. It also explains why the PC as a computing device is in decline. The trouble is now Microsoft has lost its stranglehold like they had with PCs on hardware manufacturers. When PCs were the only computing device, not toeing the line and disobeying Microsoft's orders resulted in putting the insurgents out of business. Without Windows licenses, the whole inventory of PCs would become nothing but scraps of plastic and metal without any chance of ever hitting the retail stores. For the hardware manufacturers it was a "You will comply!" single alternative.
Now with tablets and smartphones and especially with that pesky free Android, OEMs can happily sell their kit and keep all the money for themselves. They are not stupid anymore to allow Microsoft to saddle them. It was an easy choice for Samsung to decline being chained at the rear of the Microsoft's wagon and instead chose to make mountains of cash selling Android devices.
Microsoft will not disappear but at least in the consumer space, they can safely kiss goodbye the market dominance. They will have to compete like everybody else, which after all is not that bad for us.
For the moment, I strongly believe Microsoft's next step will be to send their lawyers to serve Samsung with a patent infringement lawsuit. However, this will not be of any help since manufacturers and consumers now know there is life after Windows and only a few of them will be recaptured and brought back into Redmond camp.
Re: The bootnote was in my opinion the most interesting part of the article
"The trouble is now Microsoft has lost its stranglehold like they had with PCs on hardware manufacturers."
Many have said this.
Regularly.
And yet in in 2013 what OS is running on most desktops in the world?
Re: The bootnote was in my opinion the most interesting part of the article
@John Smith 19 "And yet in in 2013 what OS is running on most desktops in the world"
--
However, Microsoft's market share and their absolute sales plus licence fees per machine are all falling.
MS used to have over 90% of the browser share. Now MS has 29% of the browser share and it is *still* dropping. The same is happening to Microsoft's desktop share, it will erode away in the same way that IE share has eroded.
Before long, Microsoft will lose it's power to dictate to OEM's what they can and cannot install (via the losing discounts blackmail trick). Already the OEM's are no doubt negotiating tougher deals with MS, particularly as an OS licence costs about as much as it costs to make the hardware at wholesale cost, and the desktop market is shrinking.
This is compounded by pressure from mobile computer competition.
And yet in in 2013 what OS is running on most desktops in the world?
The problem here is that the desktop is losing relevance in the world of 2013 and beyond.
Devices like the iPad, Surface, Asus Transformer, and internet connected TVs are already supplanting the desktop/laptop in the home, and making inroads into the business world too.
Far, far, too early to signal the death knell of the desktop as we know it, but I do think the traditional laptop is definitely on its way out, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if at the home/office, we all end up with smart docks which we can slip out phones into to provide a more "desktop" like environment, such as the one you can already get for the Galaxy Note II.
Re: The bootnote was in my opinion the most interesting part of the article
Microsoft don't make any money from browser share though. What you don't make clear is that Microsoft still have an over 90% share of the desktop market - which has not moved appreciably - and Microsoft have a growing share of the server market!
how dare they
how dare they
Tell us what we can or cant do on our computers that we pay for
Sheer arrogance. Seriously, they need to wise up to what users actually want
2 issues here.
Requiring crypto signature from reputable (uncompromised) source good.
Making source the only place you can get those apps (which have to paid for) bad.
Yes figuring out how how to safeguard your customers while granting access to all valid suppliers (IE potential competitors) in a fair way is a tough problem.
Isn't that what MS executives get paid humougous amounts of cash and stock options to solve?
Unless you run your slate permanently once broken this does not seem a practical jailbreak.
But this is Jailbreak 0.1. The goalposts have only started to move. Thumbs up for 1st effort.
Uhh, no, actually
Isn't that what MS executives get paid humougous amounts of cash and stock options to solve?
No. They get paid humongous amounts of cash and stock options to make Microsoft the dominant brand in whatever market they want to enter. Granting access to valid suppliers in a fair way (actually, doing anything in a fair way) is just plain not on the list. What may be on the list is allowing others beside themselves to punt software on their precious device, but if that might decrease their dominance, then guess which of these conflicting goals will be given the ol' heave-ho?
At some point
all this negativity towards MS will wind down.
MS is now one of the most ethical companies : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/17/microsoft-most-ethical-company_n_837003.html
And the make good kit like WP8 in the 920:http://conversations.nokia.com/2012/12/31/12-awards-the-nokia-lumia-920-won-in-2012/
and the surface / surface pro.
I don't like iPads but I don't run my mouth about how they suck because they are a well built device.
"The RT Jailbreak tool will not permanently alter the machine, but since it is only changing a kernel variable in RAM, it must be run after rebooting or powering up the tablet if one wishes to continue using any unauthorised software."
How long before the batch file is not put into a startup folder and doesn't even require the user to click or do anything?
Android, anyone
Anybody know how to load Android onto one of these things... JB or ICS???
Kindly respond here
Re: Android, anyone
Yes. Send your Surface back for a refund, and get a Nexus 10.
The other shoe dropping...
The article mentions that running to rooting script opens the OS to malware.
Duh - the malware authors could copy-and-paste the rooting script into the top of their malware. Does the user have to crank a handle for twenty seconds while the rooting script runs?
The duh-obvious implication here is that this OS is not as secure as they claimed, because arbitrary malware (written next month) can be executed on the stock OS - simply by incorporating the rooting script into the malware. Duh.
Re: The other shoe dropping...
but the malware can't run until the rooting script has been run...
Re: The other shoe dropping...
The malware can contain the rooting script ...
Re: The other shoe dropping...
But if you change the OS, it won't boot, and will ask you to run recovery. Nothing here allows malware to get around that...
Re: The other shoe dropping...
They (the malware authors) don't "change the OS", they append the Root Script + Malware to something just outside "the OS". The implications are huge, and are perfectly predictable.
Re: The other shoe dropping...
Poor RICHTO. Desperately flogging* the bloated stinking corpse of a dead horse again.
*Flogging in both senses of the word! ;o)
maybe
I'm sure the Surface RT could be a usable device ... if it were reloaded with Android ... and if its keyboard didn't suck ... and if it were a quarter of the price.
Re: maybe
The keyboards are both really good actually. Clearly you havnt used one to be saying that...
Now is the time
Now that the judicial system has ruled that jail-breaking of digital hardware is illegal, it's time to send all the perps to prison.
Re: Now is the time
>Where did you get that idea from ?
Page 1, M$ marketing manual of FUD
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