If you own or know somebody that has an iPhone, the chances are you will have heard of the phrase “Jailbreaking”. Put simply, jailbreaking is a process used to remove restrictions within Apple’s iOS software, providing opportunities for casual smartphone users and developers to perform functions and run apps outside of Apple’s walled garden. Apple released the original iPhone in June 2007, the first jailbreak method (which was originally used to enable custom ringtones) came under two weeks later....

Despite seeing an early leak, today iOS developer and Jailbreak specialist Comex has releasedJailbreakMe 3.0, the latest edition of the popular jailbreak tool which can inject its payload without complex instructions or a connection to a computer. In August 2010 we reportednews of Comex’s original JailbreakMe exploit, which used a PDF exploit to jailbreak devices running Apple’s iOS 4 software directly from a browser. At the time, the site was so popular it crashed from the number of visitors trying to access the tool, leading to a number of prominent iOS-centric websites to mirror the tool on their own websites....

TheJapan Tourism Agencyis eyeing the potential of social media to help the country’s tourism industry regain visitors following the recent earthquake, tsunami and nuclear issues. The proposal would give 10,000 free round trip tickets to social media users to help promote the country as a safe and exciting holiday destination and create buzz online. Update below. Selected travellers would enjoy free flights, though they would need cover all other costs including accommodation and food....

Japan’s parliament enacted a legislation criminalizing the creation or distribution of computer viruses, and authorizes agencies to request communications logs from Internet service providers to crack down on the growing problem ofcyber-crimes. It is the Japanese government’s move to support the Convention on Cybercrime, a treaty ratified by 31 countries that stipulates international cooperation in investigating crimes in cyberspace. According to the report, the legislation makes the creation or distribution of a computer virus without a reasonable cause punishable by up to three years in prison or 500,000 yen in fines, and the acquisition or storage of one punishable by up to two years in prison or 300,000 yen in fines....

Finland has sent a strong delegation of mobile startups to Mobile World Congress this week. Among them isLucSens, a company working in the rapidly developing mobile translation space. I met founder Iulian Florea, who demoed the company’sJapan Gogglesapp for iPhone for me. Similar to Google Goggles and Word Lens, the app allows you to translate text captured by your phone’s camera into English. However, not only does this handle Japanese (unlike Google’s app), this works entirely without any need for an Internet connection....