Mark Dalby

iPad users finally got their hands on a native Skype app today.

More than a month after it was expected to make its official debut, the iPad-optimized Skype client began appearing in Apple App Stores today. The new app takes advantage of the tablet’s larger screen real estate, making for crisp and clear video chat over Wi-Fi, and often less crisp chat over 3G.

However, not long after the app appeared, Skype pulled it, saying it was released prematurely. “To ensure your best Skype experience, we’ve temporarily removed Skype for iPad which went live prematurely today,” Skype said on its Twitter feed. “We know you’ve been eagerly awaiting Skype for iPad and apologize for the inconvenience.” Skype whetted iPad owners’ appetite in June when it posted a video of its not-yet-released iPad application to its YouTube channel before quickly setting it to private.

A man accused of hacking into AT&T Inc servers and stealing personal data belonging to 120,000 Apple Inc iPad users was indicted on Wednesday, two weeks after a co-defendant pleaded guilty.

Andrew Auernheimer was charged by a Newark, New Jersey grand jury with one count of conspiracy to gain unauthorized access to computers and one count of identity theft, the office of U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman in New Jersey said.

The indictment follows co-defendant Daniel Spitler’s guilty plea on June 23 to the same charges. Spitler could face a 12- to 18-month prison term at his sentencing, which is scheduled for September 28. Auernheimer is a resident of Fayetteville, Arkansas, and has been free on bail. The federal public defender’s office in Newark, which represents him, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

After weeks of anticipation, we knew that the release of JailbreakMe was imminent. The clues and hints that Comex had left behind were just too obvious. What we didn’t expect, though, was that one of the beta testers for JailbreakMe would leak it out to the world.

Links starting popping up on several websites this morning, and by simply opening a PDF document from your device (yes, including the iPad 2), you were able to install Cydia, much like you install an app from the App Store.

It seems the individual(s) responsible for the leak claim they did so to encourage Comex to hurry up and release a final version. But it looks like all the leak did was create more work for the jailbreak community. “Save your iOS 4.3.3 blobs” is probably nearing trending status as iDevice hackers and developers tweet and retweet the warning to followers. Apparently the PDF exploit Comex found can be patched rather quickly, so we are told we can expect iOS 4.3.4 fairly soon.

L33tdawg: It looks like an official release from comex is also available via http://www.jailbreakme.com which has since been updated from the image above to a message that now reads “it’s been too long”

Apple’s developer betas of future versions of iOS are just that, betas, which means that there’s all sorts of problems that can come up when you install one. Total device meltdown, though? That’s the sort of thing that ought to be ironed out in alpha, yet that’s just what at least one iOS 5 Beta user is reporting after installing the dev preview on his iPad: massive, device crippling overheating issues. And Apple says it’s a known issue.

PC Pro reports that after installing the beta on his iPad, one of their readers found that his iPad’s WiFi chip no longer worked, and the screen temperature reached a crispy 65 degrees celsius.

Taking his iPad into the Regent Street, London Apple Store, the afflicted iPad owner was initially denied compensation, but ultimately common sense prevailed, and he was offered a replacement iPad as well as £60 of App Store credit.