Apple’s attempt at changing the high school and college textbook landscape is gaining steam already with 350,000 textbooks downloaded in the past three days through iBooks.

Global Equities Research (GER) came up with the 350,000 textbooks sold using the companies proprietary tracking software as Apple tends not to release sales figures outside of official announcements and earnings reports. GER claims 90,000 users downloaded Apple’s iBook Author textbook creation tool during the same period.

After more than twenty years leading Canadian communications giant RIM Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis step down.

RIM’s co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis (founder of RIM) announced yesterday that they would be stepping down from their respective positions marking the first change in the company’s leadership since 1984.

Both Balsillie and Lazaridis will remain on RIM’s board of directors, but will vacate their co-chair positions with Lazaridis becoming the vice-chair and Balsillie becoming a normal director. Former COO Thorsten Heins will assume the role of RIM CEO, not exactly the most desirable job in the tech world right now.

And the Siri tweaks continue rolling in…

If you remember our review of VoiceUtils yesterday, then you already know that because of the jailbreak for the iPhone 4S that the Siri-based jailbreak tweaks are going to start rolling in. Any other iDevice users shouldn’t feel left out either. These Siri tweaks appear to work just fine with the free Spire Siri port that was released by iOS developers and hackers Grant Paul and Ryan Petrich. Yes, it will require a Siri server if

Apple and their overseas production operations have come under considerable heat in the last few years. However, a new article in the New York Times brings to light why Apple, more or less, is forced to manufacture their products in China and other countries. The piece is nothing short of enlightening, but trying to summarize the seven-page opus would be a disservice to Charles Duhigg and Keith Bradsher’s reporting efforts. However, the big take aways are: The only place Apple could manufacture products is China, and it isn’t just because of the cost. The Chinese governement subisidized the building of factory cities where companies and manufactures could hire legions of workers (3,000) and engineers (8,700) to live in dorms in a day. This same process would take nearly nine-months in the U.S. The most prescient example of this given in the article is Steve Job’s order to make the iPhone’s screen unscatchable. Jobs refused to sell a phone that people would carry in their pocket under the constant fear of having the screen scratch. So six weeks before the devices release he ordered his “lieutenants” into in office and told them to figure out to make the glass scratch proof, and have it ready in a month. This scale of manufacturing simply wouldn’t be possible in the U.S. under those time constraints.

iPhone 4S and iPad 2 users have reason to rejoice today – you can finally untethered jailbreak! They stated earlier today the jailbreak was almost complete and ready for release. It didn’t take very long as the tool is already available.

As a note – this jailbreak will support iOS 5.0 and iOS 5.0.1. Here are the requirements for each device –

• iPhone 4S – iOS 5.0 or iOS 5.0.1
• iPad 2 and all GSM and CDMA wifi only devices – iOS 5.0.1

iPhone 4S users that would like a software unlock should stay on iOS 5.0 for now. The Mac version is available now with Windows and Linux to follow.

Source: Greenpois0n.com

(UPDATE) How to Jailbreak your iPhone 4(s) & iPad 2 Tutorial updated Click here

• Download Greenpois0n Absinthe – Mac (updated 1.2.2 version)
• Download Greenpois0n Absinthe – Windows (updated 1.2.2 version)

Pod2g stated some important information on his Twitter this morning.

As we are waiting for the A5 jailbreak to become a reality, many were upset when pod2g announced that an A5 jailbreak is currently not possible. It seems that when he said that, he was simply explaining why there wasn’t one yet. The hacker and his dream team continue to barrel forward with progress. MuscleNerd earlier retweeted pod2g on Twitter in that saurik helped contribute with the A5 jailbreak’s progress. So far this is saurik’s second time helping with the A5 untether and we appreciate his efforts. The hope is that the already untethered A4 jailbreak that pod2g released at the end of last year will be ported to the A5 processors.

You’ll soon be able to run Linux on a select few iOS devices via a jailbreak hack. The port is being worked on by German iOS developer Patrick Wildt, and while it’s not entirely clear when Linux for iOS will be released, he is expected to unveil it publicly at MyGreatFest, a jailbreaking convention that is being held on September 17th.

Supported hardware is said to include the original iPad, iPhone 4, and iPod touch 4th generation, but the iPad 2 with it’s A5 CPU is currently left out due to complications with the hardware.

Apple has begun to crack down on registered iOS developers who are selling UDID activation slots for iOS 5 betas to other users, in some cases sending email warnings to devs, but also deactivating other developer accounts completely. Apple is even flagging some individual UDID’s and making the devices unusable, forcing users to downgrade from iOS 5, in an effort to prevent non-developers from using the beta software.

We don’t usually believe in rewarding negative attention seekers, but boy did this iPhone 5 website faker put some time into this almost-certainly-a-hoax video. (After the break.)

The Tribune Company, who owns a number of newspapers like the LA Times, Chicago Tribune and Baltimore Sun, is exploring the idea of producing a subsidized Android tablet, built by Samsung, to compete with Apple’s iPad and other tablets.

Lately in the world of politics and business and life in general, a lot of important and powerful people have been making some amazingly stupid decisions. Newspaper execs may be taking the crown of “horrible last ditch effort to save a dying industry” with them this week.