JailbreakMe makes the process of jailbreaking the Apple iPhone much simpler and less intimidating. Just visit a Web site on the iPhone, and voila! Jailbroken iPhone. Think about that for a minute, though. The simple act of visiting a Web site is able to fundamentally alter the core functionality of iOS. Since the dawn of the iPhone, hackers have developed various tools and processes to enable users to circumvent the controls and restrictions put in place by Apple. In the wake of the United States Copyright Office ruling that jailbreaking the iPhone is technically legal--at least from a copyright and DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) perspective--having a tool that can accomplish it simply by visiting a Web site is awesome for less technically savvy iPhone owners. However, if JailbreakMe is capable of unlocking the iPhone operating system by taking advantage of a flaw in the way the iPhone renders Adobe PDF files, then other applications can also exploit that same flaw for less-benevolent goals. What JailbreakMe illustrates is that the iPhone has a serious security issue that Apple needs to address.For companies that allow the iPhone to connect with network resources

News of a successful and easy-to-apply jailbreak for the iPhone 4 and other iOS devices lit up the Internet, followed quickly by news of patches for broken functionality, FaceTime calling over 3G, and a malicious exploit with an opponent named Warner. Kicking things off was the launch of JailbreakMe.com (via Engadget), a website that jailbreaks (unlocks root access) to your iDevice up to the iPhone 4 running the latest version of iOS. I don’t know exactly how it works, but it all happens through the Safari web browser, which means exploiting a security flaw to initiate the process. You do risk bricking your iDevice and/or voiding your warranty with a jailbreak, not to mention leaving your device vulnerable if you don’t change the root password. There’s no longer a law against jailbreaking your iPhone, but that doesn’t eliminate all the risks involved. If all that raises a red flag for you, good. I really don’t advocate any hacking that’s beyond your ability to understand, so just make sure you’re cool with everything good and bad before taking the plunge. On the good side of things, jailbreaking your iPhone 4 enables FaceTime calls over 3G using an app called My3G.

Facebook Inc. officially took the wraps off of its new question-and-answer feature Wednesday. Millions of people already ask their friends questions on the site each day. This way users can get “a broader set of answers and learn valuable information from people knowledgeable on a range of topics,” Black Ross, a director of product management at Facebook, wrote in a company blog post. The feature called Facebook Questions gives users a way to tap into the “collective knowledge” of more than 500 million people, Ross said. The questions, and the answers, will be public so anyone on the Internet can see them. The only way to ask a question privately is by posing it as a status update on your profile. That openness is reminiscent of other services that let people ask and answer questions. As we wrote earlier this week, major Internet players and start-ups are experimenting with how to quickly route people to the answers they want, some by connecting them with people with specific expertise or knowledge. Think of the effort as a way to give everyone their own personal search engine.

After it was spotted, Yeti-like, by a few eagle-eyed observers this spring, Facebook has officially launched its Facebook Questions product in a limited beta test--and it may have some big implications for the Web. "Millions of people ask their friends questions on Facebook every day. What new music should I listen to? Where's the best sushi place in town? How do I learn to play the piano?" a Facebook blog post announcing the new feature explained. "With this new application, you can get a broader set of answers and learn valuable information from people knowledgeable on a range of topics." About 1 percent of Facebook users will have early beta access to Facebook Questions, and it will be gradually rolled out to the rest of Facebook's 500-million-plus active users after that. Any Facebook user can ask a question from a new "question dashboard," the profile "publisher" that lets members update their statuses and add photos, or through the search box. They can tag their questions with category keywords, too, and those tags will eventually be used to fill up an aggregate "questions" tab on relevant Community Pages on Facebook.