Playboy Posts Free, Unedited Searchable Web Archive

It's sex. It's free. What more could you want?

Admittedly, it's soft-core, but Playboy and parnter Bondi Digital Publishing have unveiled PlayboyArchive.com. It's a 53-year archive, with one issue from each year, completely digitized (including ads), viewable and searchable.

Did I mention free?

If you've managed to avoid Microsoft's Silverlight to this point, you're going to have to install it if you want to view the archive, though.

The issues cover the years 1954 through 2007, Bondi Digital Publishing, who developed the platform for The Complete New Yorker, scanned and re-typed each of the issue of Playboy.

In the press release announcing the site, Hugh Hefner, Playboy Founder, Editor-in-Chief and Chief Creative Officer (as if I had to tell you that) said:

"Playboy has an incredibly rich history and an intensely loyal readership. This is the perfect opportunity to offer them something they have always wanted and also a great way to allow a whole new generation to easily explore the magazine."

I tried the site out (well, I had to, right), and while you can't expand the pages to full screen, you can zoom in and pan around the images. You can search for specific text (like say, Bo Derek), and there's a table of contents you can click through.

It's unclear if the issues will be changed from time to time, but that would make sense. Playboy says the issues currently at the site encompass many classic issues, and they include the famous issue with the interview with Jimmy Carter.

Jailbreakers Begin Work on iPhone OS 3.0; OS is "Breakable"

With the announcement of the iPhone OS 3.0 on Tuesday came the obvious question for many: can the new OS be jailbroken?

Since developers could grab a beta version of the SDK right away, the iPhone Dev-Team jumped right on it and has already stated in a blog post that indeed the iPhone OS 3.0 can be jailbroken.

However, they warned that those using the yellowsn0w software unlock to unlock your iPhone for any carrier need to hold off on trying to update to 3.0 as that will modify the baseband radio and destroy the ability for yellowsn0w to unlock the phone.

I know of at least one person who was considering jailbreaking his iPhone prior to the iPhone OS 3.0 announcement, mostly because of missing apps. Of course, the new OS didn't add all those apps that are missing, but it filled in many gaps.

On the other hand, there are still a significant number of applications that are only available for jailbroken phones. So for those interested in access to those apps, this is great news. Of course, you can expect some period of time after the iPhone OS 3.0 launches before a successful jailbreak occurs.

New iPhone to Have Faster 3G?

A report in the Silicon Alley Insider cites a "plugged-in source in the mobile industry," and states that the next generation iPhone will have faster "Internet" access.

Rumors until now have centered on CPU and video procssing improvement.

Note that the report uses the term "Internet," not 3G or wi-fi. This leads to speculation as to what the source really meant (what, they didn't ask for clarification?).

AT&T's 4G (LTE) network won't be ready for a year or more, so that's out. It could mean 802.11n rather than the 802.11g that the current iPhone supports.

However, Electronista believes that the change could be in the 3G chipset for the iPhone, using the chipset Infineon introduced last year that supports HSPA rather than the older HSDPA hardware. This could mean download speeds as fast as 7.2Mbps while the current iPhone 3G is tops out at 3.6Mbps.

They add that AT&T has been trialling 7.2 Mbps and can make the change to its cell towers via software.

Here's my take: I prefer stability over speed. It was bad, really bad, when the iPhone 3G first came out. If this new chipset is going to lead to that sort of nightmare again, I'd rather not have it.

And hey, you would think Apple might rethink its decision to use Infineon chipsets after that last debacle.

Pic above from what is rumored to be a leaked photo of the new iPhone.