Recently, one poster (Mike) brought it to my attention that he could not find the tutorial to jailbreak his iPod Touch. I’m guessing this happened during one of the design phases that MashingKeys went through earlier this year, but regardless – the articles have always been around and should be easy to find if you use the search function. I’m currently revising the original iPhone jailbreak post, but the instructions are still accessible to everyone on this site. To help our friend Mike out, if you still can’t find the iPod Touch article, it’s right here. Enjoy, and thanks for reading!

Remember when a train engineer was texting just before causing an accident that killed 25 innocent riders? Apparently, people didn’t get the memo; texting while driving (or doing just about anything else  that requires your focus) is flat out dumb. Seriously people, I haven’t been a regular driver for almost 3 years now, but in my 6 years behind the wheel I never ever typed a message while driving. Unlike 52% of drivers worldwide, according to a recent survey.

So is half the world absolutely insane or is this survey—done with just a 2,881 driver sample—inaccurate? It seems like an awfully high number, but knowing that everybody has a phone now, I’m not surprised. Sure, it’s easier now, and it’s become the new way to say just about anything (besides ‘tweeting’) to anyone.. but while driving? What could you possibly have to say that is worth your life or the lives of others? Oh right – nothing. If true, this is something a bill won’t fix. It seems more like a matter of education. And with education I mean “if you text while driving you may end up dead, you idiot.”

via [PR Newswire]

Mexico has decriminalized small amounts of marajuana, cocaine, LSD,  and heroin today, a move that prosecutors says is a step in the right direction. It is a known fact the Mexico’s government has also struggled in the war against drugs, with law enforcement so corrupt they’d slit your momma’s throat for a nickel.

The real problem are the police themselves. Prosecutors said the new law sets clear limits that keep Mexico’s corruption-prone police from extorting casual users and offers addicts free treatment to keep growing domestic drug use in check.

“This is not legalization, this is regulating the issue and giving citizens greater legal certainty,” said Bernardo Espino del Castillo of the attorney general’s office.

The new law sets out maximum “personal use” amounts for drugs, also including LSD and methamphetamine. People detained with those quantities no longer face criminal prosecution.

The maximum amount of marijuana for “personal use” under the new law is 5 grams — the equivalent of about four joints. The limit is a half gram for cocaine, the equivalent of about 4 “lines.” For other drugs, the limits are 50 milligrams of heroin, 40 milligrams for methamphetamine and 0.015 milligrams for LSD.

With the Cash for Clunkers scam incentive running on E for the second time, there are suddenly lots more commercials about how you should get a new “fly ride” immediately before the time runs out, how you’ll hate yourself for missing this second chance, and how in general everyone else has a new car.. so where’s yours?

Being a proud owner of a 1995 Mercury Villager, I can attest to the fact that yes, even I want a brand new ride to bump the newest lil Wayne bullcrap track while in deadstop cruise control on the Los Angele’s freeways. One of my first jobs out in this capitalist world was a car salesman. At the age of 18 I was blessed with a job to work for Larry Miller’s car groups. Larry Miller is the country’s 6th largest privately owned dealerships, he’s also owns a bunch of other things at the time, TV stations, Utah Jazz.. stuff like that. I’d have to say I didn’t do so bad, so of course I wanted to give this guy a little run for his money on a deal that’s already spectacular. There was nothing to lose, so why not? I am at work doing nothing finished with all my duties for the day anyway, and this deal is almost sweet enough for me to commit to 5 years of wonderful debt in this great economy. A little more detail about this deal, this is a 2005 v6 Honda Accord coupe. I know, it’s an accord, but considering you do the research and realize that a car with these specs and these miles is actually booked at Trade in Value of 13500 and can be retailed out at over 18k, you’d understand why this deal is so sweet already. The name of the dealership and our all smiles sales person is modified, otherwise you’re reading exactly how this deal went down. Keep reading after the conversation for my thoughts on the whole thing, and how it turned out.

Dealership A: Thank you for choosing Dealership_A!
System: We have alerted the online representatives that you are waiting. Someone should be with you momentarily.
System: A representative has joined the conversation. Compose your message below and then click Send.
Smiles_01: Hello, How may I help you?
You: Hey Smiles, it’s me again
You: I just talked to you earlier,and you gave me a quote that’s just bit too high
You: did you get the number from selling the car at full price of 21995?
You: orry
You: sorry* 12995
Smiles_01: I thought so:-) I would take 21995:-)
You: hahah
Smiles_01: 12995 plus tax 9.25% plus lisc. 23.00 doc 50.00 smog 58.25 it comes out right.
You: I’m not so worried about the fees, we’ve gotta pay them
You: so i’m looking for your help on the price
You: can you drop the full price down a bit?
Smiles_01: Like I said the power that be just dropped the price down a thousand bucks. Its a very nice car. Everthing including leather!
You: oh yeah, i love the car, that’s why we’re even talking Bryan lol :) seriously though, any Joe can hop online right now and get that price, can you give me a good one for being a absolutely 100% serious buyer?
Smiles_01: I understand that you are serious however, we do advertise our prices as low as possible to get action on the cars we offer so there isn’t as much wiggle room. New car stores put cars like this on the lot for full retail and give you a huge discount making you feel like a negotiating hero. We are not that way. It’s more like the CarMax philosophy. I hope you can appreciate that. Most people don’t like the back and forth haggle. I don’t
Smiles_01: It’s a nice 2 ower 41K miles with a clean carfax. No accident history. It was a trade in for a BMW.
Smiles_01: I have 2 keys as well.
You: Ah I see, I’m not trying to play hero, i’m just watching my budget. this is a vehicle that’s not only going to stay with me for years, but it’s taken years for me to save up to get it, you have to understand that much since you put people in cars all day. I’m not going to haggle much, i don’t expect to reach some epic ending where i leave with a car at 10k or what not, i’m just looking at the bottom line. you said there’s isn’t as much wiggle room, that’s probably that room we need to make my dream come true
Smiles_01: Hold on a minute. Let me find my boss. I’ll be a minute or two.
Smiles_01: 14100.00 out the door is the very best I can do. He didn’t want to give me any more room but, I camped out in his office for a few minutes. :-) Let me know. To do this you will have to see either myself or my Finance manager <name omitted>. If I have to include a salesman in the mix, it’s not going to work. Thanks Smiles_01 800.555.5555
You: Smiles I hope Smiles is your real last name because i’m going to buy you steaks and stuff when i get my car, I saved your number, is there an extension?
Smiles_01: No, I’m the only Smiles here. I’m actually the Business Manager. If I’m on a line when you call just be patient. I have one pushy sales guy who tries to put himself into deals so please, <name omitted> or myself. I’m saving you money by saving the commission. I don’t do this much as my guys have to eat too.
You: i love you man, i’ll see you as early as tonight, depending on when they let leave from work.
You: thanks again so much Smiles, I”ll see you soon

Now, Smiles is an awesome guy, and he’s a professional. That’s why when I got the 200 deduction on an out the door cash price, I didn’t want the deal at all. So no, I’m not a proud owner of a freshly used 2005 Accord coupe, and sadly, we never visited Smiles lot to see him, and he’ll probably never get steak and such from us. Because let me ask you this, how often do you post an ad online hoping to make no money? As soon as he said that it was a trade in, I knew he had room to budge. you know why?  Because the one thing most people don’t know about trade-ins is that it could be whatever value you want it to be, provided the deal that is being made goes through and has enough gross to cover the difference. I’ve put $1 into people’s trade in value dozen of times and told them that they got 3-5k for it, hey, I was 18, and my special finance department head was and probably still is one of the most brutal young geniuses in the car business at the time, and I was in the company of great salesmen, peer pressure, my friends, is a bitch. You’d have to be when out of 3 sales men one of your friendly competition is capable of upping someone at the bus stop that’s minding their own business and sell them a car, and the other one closed someone with 17k down (cash) and financing 900 a month on a used Mitsubishi Montero, and a finance manager that can get that paper bought. you say unbelievable? I say that’s the stuff legends are made of.

Another thing that Smiles missed was he never had total control of the deal, but give him credit, it really is hard to have control over someone over the internet. What is this control thing? well, for example, every time the he told us to wait, we waited. That’s obvious right? Fact of the matter is, this is a form of sales control. You often hear these sales people telling you to do things, and they’re things you already are going to do. Things like “grab a seat, come with me, take this number down, give me a yes or no, come check this out, feel the wheel, grab this pen, sign here, press hard 3 copies.”  and over the phone you’d hear stuff like “go ahead and grab a pen and paper, I’ll wait.” or “let’s do this right, find your favorite spot and sit down and relax, put the TV on mute real fast this will just take a second” etc etc. The thing is, you can’t hate Smiles, this deal is by the book and already a great price. it’s just that.. I really did want to play the hero and walk out of the lot with a new v6 Accord at 10k. I’ve already committed to the fees, he should have just sold me on the price.

-image via flickr, not the car for sale.

GM is giving eBay motor’s a test drive, selling NEW cars!!

Through September 8th, hundreds of California based GM dealers will be “online” to talk to many car shoppers through eBay Motors.  This test drive of “innovative new partnership”  is taking place in California with  20,000 new cars and hundreds of California based dealers taking part in the program. GM will probably be utilizing the “buy it now” pricing and also letting people make offers on brand new cars.

GM also announced that they expect their new Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle, the Chevy Volt, to received a rating of 230 miles per gallon when it goes on sale in 2010.

Something dramatic is going on between Zynga CEO Mark Pincus and one of his old employees at Tribe.net, a company he cofounded in 2003. Pincus has obtained a temporary restraining order on Darren McKeeman, formerly the IT Director at Tribe. Cisco acquired the company in 2007.

Pinkus hasn’t returned a request for comment, but the TRO was filed in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco.

McKeeman is prohibited from contacting Pincus at all, and must stay at least 50 yards away from him. He is also explicitly prohibited from any of the following to Pincus: “harass, attack, strike, threaten, assault (sexually or otherwise), hit, follow, stalk, destroy personal property, keep under surveillance or block movements.” He is also restricted from purchasing guns or other firearms, and must sell or turn in any guns that he owns. Read the rest of this entry »

TMZ has posted the first picture of Steve Jobs taken since his leave in January due to medical reasons.

Jobs recently returned to work at Apple following a successful liver transplant.

The photo was taken at 3:00 pm today using an iPhone.

Read More

Well it looks like this story is about to wrap up for good. Foxconn has compensated the family of Sun Danyong, an iPhone worker who committed suicide after losing a prototype of the next generation iPhone, according to a NYTimes report.

The company declined to say how much was paid to Mr. Sun’s family; however, Mr. Sun’s brother cited a figure of 300,000 renminbi, or more than $44,000, and said that Mr. Sun’s girlfriend was also given an Apple notebook. I’m not sure if the notebook was necessary (as it was the loss of an Apple product that caused so much grief in the first place) but I will applaud Foxconn for their efforts.

Sun, a recent engineering graduate was working for Foxconn in Shenzhen. He was responsible for shipping iPhone prototypes from Foxconn to Apple. According to Chinese news reports he received 16 prototype phones from the assembly line at a Foxconn factory. After reporting that one prototype had gone missing he was questioned and possibly physically intimidated by Foxconn security. Unable to cope with the pressure, he jumped to his death from a twelfth story apartment.

The final messages of Sun Danyong, a Chinese iPhone factory worker who jumped out of his twelfth floor apartment after losing an iPhone prototype, have been posted online.

The New Yorker has translated the messages posted in the Chinese media.

Local newspapers have published SMS messages that Sun’s girlfriend says she received in the final hours before his death. The last message was received less than two hours before he died:

“My dear, I’m sorry, go back home tomorrow, something has happened to me, please don’t tell my family, don’t contact me, this is the first time that I have ever begged you, please agree to that! I am so sorry!”

In records of what may be his last online chat, Sun tells old college friends that he never stole the iPhone and thinks maybe someone stole it without his noticing or possibly removed it from the box after he had sent it.

Sun also implies that the security chief forcefully confined him:

“Even at a police station, the law says force must never be used, much less in a corporate office. I was just a suspect, my dear head of security, so what reason and right do you have to confine me and use force?”

His final message:

“Right now I am paying the interest on my student loan. I hope this will not affect the chances of younger people applying for loans. I am sorry for this. Bye, Gao Ge [a college friend], rest well. Thinking that I won’t be bullied tomorrow, won’t have to be the scapegoat, I feel much better.”

Read More [via Gizmodo]

About a week ago in Tennessee, a new guns-in-bars law took effect after a judge in Nashville refused to issue a temporary injunction blocking its implementation. Shortly after, Arizona followed suit – signing into law the same type of agreement, expanding “the rights of gun owners by allowing those with a concealed-carry permit to take their firearms into establishments that serve alcohol.” Guns-rights advocates say there are untold positives to having concealed weapons. In a report from Nikki Goeser, another guns-rights advocate, says she might have been able to prevent murder of her husband in a bar if she had a gun with her at the time.

However, this law is not as ostensibly ridiculous as it initially seems – the law says the armed patron must refrain from alcohol use while being in possession of a gun. What does this even mean? It means going out at night doesn’t just require a “designated driver” anymore, but a “designated shooter” as well. You can’t be seeing doubles when you’re shooting people – then you’d just be wasting bullets.

Will we be seeing this in other states? Realistically…probably not. Local bar owners in Tennessee and Arizona have objected the law, arguing that it is their choice who they want to let into a bar. According to the video report from a local News channel in Nashville, “Many bar and restaurant owners are already taking steps to prohibit the weapons by using a provision of the law that allows them to post signs saying guns are not allowed.”