iPad security broken in less than 24 hours

Apple's iPad has already been jailbroken, using a variation of the iPhone method and demonstrating just how much the two devices have in common.

The hack was completed in less than 24 hours. In theory it enables the owner to install everything from Wi-Fi scanners to pornography - applications Apple disapproves of - though for the moment it just allows a remote terminal connection.

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The hack potentially even allows Palm OS applications to run on the iPad, thanks to jailbreaking.

But amidst all this excitement over the hack, it seems few iPad customers are rushing out to buy newspaper subscriptions. PaidContent reports that the newspaper and magazine subscriptions through which the iPad was supposed to change the world, are curiously absent from the lists of most popular paid applications. That could be bad news for the media, but we suspect it's attributable to the early adopters being used to getting stuff for free, so we'll withhold judgement until Cupertino ships a few more pads.

Apple reckons it's already shipped 300,000 iPads, but that includes stocking shops and it would be interesting to know how many are still knocking around on the shelves. Gizmodo wandered around some local Apple stores and was surprised to find them well stocked for the revolution, so if you've not got your iPad yet (and happen to be in America) then you should be able to pick one up easily enough.

But the kind of buyers interested in newspaper subscriptions won't be buying an iPad in the first week. They'll be waiting to see how it develops, unlike the early adopters rushing to jailbreak the device as a techie's toy. It will be a while before we can say if Apple really has created a new computing paradigm. ®