Mouse steals cheese, iPhone 3.1 jailbreak released

Filed under: iPhone, iPod touch, Jailbreak/pwnage

The legendary Dev-Team has done it again. It just released the new version of the Pwnage Tool, a desktop application that's used to create custom firmware packages to jailbreak iPhones and iPod touches.

Jailbreaking is the act of modifying the official firmware in order to run applications not approved by Apple. Chief among those applications, at least for the iPhone crowd, is the SIM unlock that allows the phone to be used on unofficial cell phone service providers.

The Dev-Team has found holes in previous versions of the iPhone OS that allow this code modification and has developed tools to make exploitation easier for the average user to accomplish. Once implemented, the jailbreak process installs an app that acts an unofficial App Store of sorts. The iPhone or iPod touch user can browse and install games, utilities, themes, and general applications. Cydia, one of these installer apps, even has a store with applications for sale.

Traditionally, when Apple releases a new iPhone OS version, that software upgrade breaks any jailbreak and SIM unlock present on the device. And so, you end up with the cat-and-mouse game that Steve Jobs alluded to shortly after the first firmware loophole was exploited and the original iPhone was unlocked.

Well, the mouse has stolen the cheese once again, and the Pwnage Tool released today will jailbreak the latest firmware, version 3.1.*

The big asterisk at the end of that previous sentence is that the Tool will only work on about half of the devices that use the iPhone OS -- only the original iPhone, original iPod touch, and iPhone 3G. The iPod touch line just released, as well as the 2nd generation iPod touch and the iPhone 3GS, cannot be jailbroken at this time. That means if you've already upgraded to 3.1 on your 3GS, you still won't be able to SIM unlock it as of the time of this post.

So, if you want to SIM unlock your iPhone 3G or the original model, Pwnage Tool 3.1 should do the trick. On the 3G, you'll need to use Icy or Cydia to also install the ultrasn0w app that actually performs the software unlock; however the original iPhone should be unlocked without this additional step.

You will need a Mac to run Pwnage Tool 3.1, but a Windows version is expected in the near future. Also expected soon is redsn0w, for both Mac and Windows, that further simplifies the jailbreak process by avoiding the need to create a custom firmware package.

Keep in mind, if you've been waiting for a jailbreak solution before upgrading to the latest firmware, many users have had fairly substantial issues with iPhone 3.1. My fellow TUAW blogger, Josh Carr, has reported that lots of iPhones and iPod touches are working poorly after upgrading. You may wish to hold off and stick with 3.0 or 3.0.1 until a solution is found, either by Apple or some other group of smart people.

Mouse steals cheese, iPhone 3.1 jailbreak released originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 15 Sep 2009 23:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Mouse steals cheese, iPhone 3.1 jailbreak released originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 15 Sep 2009 23:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dev Team Releases PwnageTool 3.1 for Mac OS X

The Dev Team have updated their blog to let the jailbreakers of the world know how to go about jailbreaking iPhone 3.1. It seems as if Apple has really thrown a monkey wrench into jailbreaking the 3.1 software, however, so sit tight as this may be a bit confusing…

First and foremost they have released the PwnageTool 3.1 for Mac OS X that should only be used with the original iPhone and iPhone 3G. Sorry 3GS owners, you’ll have to wait. Be sure to heed some of the Dev Teams warnings before attempting to jailbreak your device.

• If you are using a 3G iPhone with ultrasn0w and rely on ultrasn0w to obtain cellular service, then you should only upgrade to 3.1 with a PwnageTool created .ipsw. – Stay away from Apple’s direct updates.
• If you have an original iPhone (1st generation) then 3.1 unlock works with this PwnageTool release. iPhone 3G users upgrading to 3.1 will need to continue using ultrasn0w with a PwnageTool created 3.1 .ipsw
• PwnageTool WILL work for Original iPhone (1st Generation), Original iPod touch (1st Generation) and the iPhone 3G.

For the full rundown please visit the Dev Teams blog and make sure you fully understand what you are getting yourself into before attempting to jailbreak iPhone 3.1.

If you don’t understand it, don’t do it, and TiPb takes no responsibility for the outcome either way. Need more? Check out TiPb’s Forums.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Dev Team Releases PwnageTool 3.1 for Mac OS X

How’s Your Battery Life with iPhone 3.1?

So, how’s your battery life doing under iPhone 3.1? If you jumped on it immediately last Wednesday, or had a few days to try it out at least, have you noticed any big changes? Much better? Much worse? Or is it pretty much the same?

Yeah, we ask this every time there’s a new firmware, but that’s just because Apple seems to be tweaking things every time there’s a new firmware.

So, win, lose, or draw, let us know how it’s working for you. And if you’re having battery problems, remember to check out TiPb’s How To: Troubleshoot iPhone Battery Life Problems guide.

How’s your iPhone 3.1 battery life?(poll)

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

How’s Your Battery Life with iPhone 3.1?

Novell MonoTouch Brings (Gulp!) .Net to the iPhone

Novell has announced MonoTouch, which will let developers write C#/.Net applications for the iPhone and iPod touch and compile them ahead of time, instead of the usual just-in-time method specifically prohibited by Apple’s SDK.

Now, I’ll state my bias at the outset — I’m no more a fan of .Net than I am Flash, Silverlight, or Java. Code interpreters are historically more taxing on hardware and are far, far greater security risks than true native applications (most exploits target code interpreters these days). However, Monotouch compiling these ahead of time likely mitigates most of those factors.

That said, when TiPb first spoke with developers after the App Store announcement, many of them told us that, not only did they enjoy learning variant languages like the iPhone’s native Objective-C/Cocoa, but didn’t seem to be having too much trouble picking them up.

That said, no doubt there is a large, maybe even huge pool of .Net developers with no interest in stretching their programming portfolio yet still want to take advantage of the huge mobile platform the iPhone provides.

Bottom line, if they make great apps, and those apps work great on the iPhone, then more power to MonoTouch. Hopefully it easily earns back the $999 per year Enterprise subscription.

[Via InfoWorld. Thanks Fassy for the tip!]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Novell MonoTouch Brings (Gulp!) .Net to the iPhone

Analyst: iMac and MacBook Updates Coming Within Weeks?

Tech Trader Daily reports on a note to clients from research firm Wedge Partners predicting the release of updated iMac and MacBook models within the next several weeks. The refresh is expected to bring a significant redesign to the iMac, while the ...

Quick Twitter Apps: qStatus and Echofon Twitter Clients for iPhone

qStatus is the App Store subset of the qTweeter Jailbreak app, and Echofon is the new name for Twitterfon. Confused yet? Don’t be, we’ve got the basics on both these iPhone and iPod touch Twitter clients!

qStatus [$0.99 - iTunes link] is designed to quickly let you update your Twitter (and/or Facebook status), either with text, or by sharing your current song, a photo from the camera or library, or a video from iPhone 3GS. There’s no reading functionality, but there is the typical Gx5 attention to awesome interface detail. Unlike qTweeter for Jailbreak, of course, there’s no multitasking “swipe-down-to-tweet-from-anywhere” functionality either.

Echofon [Free - iTunes link] or Pro [$4.99 - iTunes link] is, as mentioned, the new name for Twitterfon and the new Pro version includes Push Notifications (with optional “sleep” period so it doesn’t bother you when you’re trying to get some shuteye), sync with Echofon for Firefox on the desktop (formerly Twitterfox). Non-Pro users get bug fixes and the name change.

If you get your tweet on with either, let us know how they work for you (or help me test them via @reneritchie).

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Quick Twitter Apps: qStatus and Echofon Twitter Clients for iPhone

Gimme some sugar, baby: Army of Darkness sounds on the iPhone

Filed under: iPhone, App Store, iPod touch, App Review

Long before I was an Apple nerd, I was a horror nerd. More specifically, I was an Evil Dead/Sam Raimi/Bruce Campbell freak, and even maintained a website devoted to their 1993 masterpiece. I'm both surprised and excited to see my two obsessions collide in the form of an iPhone app devoted to Army of Darkness [iTunes link], the third of the Evil Dead series. Sure, some people use their iPhones to be more productive and create spreadsheets, but sometimes you just need a simple app that screams "shop smart, shop S-Mart!" or "see this? This is my BOOMSTICK!"

The app is a simple soundboard app, consisting of 16 audio clips from the film that can be played at the touch of a button. There's also a "slideshow" mode where you can hear all the clips in a row accompanied by an image slideshow. It is definitely not the most full-featured iPhone app, but for the horror fans out there it will make a great addition to your iPhone dock.

The app is free and, as far as I'm concerned, essential to every iPhone. If you like it, be sure to check out the other MGM soundboard apps [iTunes link] with audio clips from Robocop, Silence of the Lambs, Fargo and Rocky (all free except for Rocky, which is $0.99).

[via iPhone Savior]

Thanks to Seth for the tip!

Gimme some sugar, baby: Army of Darkness sounds on the iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 15 Sep 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Gimme some sugar, baby: Army of Darkness sounds on the iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 15 Sep 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dev Team Release PwnageTool 3.1 to Jailbreak iPhone OS 3.1

iPhone 3.1 problems flood our tip box

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Bugs/Recalls, Bad Apple, iPhone

In the last week, we have had a constant barrage of iPhone issues break through the lines... so much so that we feel it is our duty to inform the two of you who haven't updated what you could experience by updating to version 3.1 of the iPhone OS. This is no small problem as you could read from the discussions on Apple's website here, here, here, and here. The first two links are where we're getting the majority of our tips -- random shutdowns and very poor battery life. The second two, bricked phones and general slowness are still worth a mention even prompting our own Erica Sadun to do a live walk-through for debrickifying iPhones. We received a lot of praise for her help in that session and we'd encourage you to go back and read through the chat if you're experiencing trouble with a bricked iPhone.

I've spent quite some time reading the hundreds of posts about the "mysterious random shutdowns" and have determined that it really is what it is. As of this writing, there have been 409 posts and 28 pages in that discussion -- I've seen very little repeats and no real solutions. Some people have said that they've gone to Apple and received replacement phones because of this issue but for those of us who have out-of-warranty phones, Apple has merely said "It's $199 for a replacement." I have to agree with our tipsters - this needs to be addressed. These people simply did not break their phones, it's a well-documented issue for which we - as consumers - shouldn't have to pay to fix.

Battery life is a completely different debacle. I cannot seem to find a trend in the discussions at all. Some people claim to have removed certain apps, some claim that MobileMe sync is the culprit -- all of them agree that there is an issue with 3.1 and that battery life shouldn't dramatically decrease overnight. I'd really love to get into one of these phones and replace the battery to see what happens because the hardware guy in me says that it's not impossible. However, deductive reasoning says that there's something in the software. Whether there's a memory leak in 3.1 itself, or some apps that we're running aren't as "compatible" as they should be... we need to see another update soon to help alleviate the issues with version 3.1 of the iPhone OS.

Please feel free to use our comment system to express your concern, anger, resentment... whatever. Try to be helpful if you've come across a solution and be nice if you're not having these problems. Until Apple issues a fix or acknowledges the problem at all, just hope that you're still in-warranty.

iPhone 3.1 problems flood our tip box originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 15 Sep 2009 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

iPhone 3.1 problems flood our tip box originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 15 Sep 2009 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dev Team: Re-Jailbreak iPhone 3GS After Accidentally Upgrading to iPhone OS 3.1

Review: Awesome Note for iPhone

This app goes beyond the iPhone's built-in Notes application to offer more power and features. But Awesome Note offers so many capabilities, it's a little overwhelming to use.

Is the future of Mac…the iPhone?

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, OS, Rumors, Leopard, Developer, iPhone, iPod touch, Snow Leopard

I was chatting with my TUAW colleagues this morning about Mac versus iPhone programming. And as per usual with these conversations, we veered in the direction of unfettered speculation. It's an occupational hazard.

As someone who regularly develops on both platforms, I declared that the iPhone represents the future of Mac programming. The iPhone, I posited, offers a great new platform without the need to be fully backwards compatible like the Mac. Our own Victor Agreda challenged me to back up that position. After a bit of time and thought, I decided to do so in this post.

My key point is this: Apple's engineers have learned a lot of important design lessons during the history of OS X. When the iPhone debuted, it gave those engineers the chance to rebuild an OS and an API from the ground up. Those engineers could craft a platform and its libraries that built on the Mac's successes without dragging along its less fortunate design decisions. Yes, there were some lemon frameworks that initially made the grade, but over time, Apple has reduced their number.

Even now, Apple continues its iPhone design process, adding new frameworks and APIs at a prodigious rate. The iPhone OS remains a work in progress, developing in ways and directions that the initial release two years ago could not have anticipated. And Apple does this, knowing fully that the closed platform allows them a great deal of design freedom that would not have been possible on the open Macintosh.

In contrast, consider in how many ways the Mac's successful history drags the platform down. A commitment to existing APIs and historical design practices show up in nearly every Mac development project. The simple elegance of the iPhone's built-from-the-start-as-Objective-C 2.0-based API is largely missing from Cocoa libraries.

Whether you're working with buttons, menus or simple text views, the iPhone development approach simply works better: beautiful 2.0-style properties, consistent API design, better-thought-out object inheritance trees, and so forth. With the iPhone, you see a great new platform evolving without the need to be fully backwards compatible

Snow Leopard, with its minimal API changes has bought the Macintosh a few years of stability. But I think it's time for Apple to rethink the platform as a whole, re-imagining its API through the lens of current iPhone OS development. While Snow Leopard offers Apple the room to stay still for now, I can see Apple moving forward in a separate engineering effort to CocoaTouch Mac, a hypothetical cross-platform OS that supports general development on iPhone and future Mac devices like my imaginary snow-princess-rainbow-pony-iTablet.

The ghost of NeXT-past, as TUAW-colleague Joachim Bean puts it, still haunts us. It's time to exorcise the unhelpful bits of that pervasive spirit and usher in the new age of the iPhone and its API design examples. Mac OS X is, and has been, a superb development platform. What I'm suggesting is that iPhone OS might just be a better one.

Is the future of Mac...the iPhone? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Is the future of Mac...the iPhone? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPod Touch Speed Tests Confirm Apple’s Claims of ‘Up to 50% Faster Performance’

At Apple's "It's Only Rock and Roll" media event last week, the company introduced new iPod touch models with 32 GB and 64 GB capacities, advertising the devices as offering "up to 50 percent faster performance". Macworld has performed speed tests c...

WSJ to start charging for iPhone content

Filed under: iPhone, iPod touch

Say farewell to the free Wall Street Journal on the iPhone.

According to Paid Content, News Corp's Rupert Murdoch announced that readers of the WSJ on the Blackberry and iPhone will be charged $2 per week for the privilege of reading news through the respective apps. Online and print subscribers of the WSJ will only pay $1 a week. No time limit has been set yet, but Murdoch says it will be within the next few months.

There's bad news for Hulu lovers as well. Murdoch also said News Corp is considering either a pay-per-view or subscription model for Hulu. "No final decision has been made," Murdoch said via Webcast at an investor conference today. The WSJ itself reports that subscription offerings will roll out for media content before the end of the year, though it was made in a different context from the Hulu statement.

WSJ to start charging for iPhone content originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

WSJ to start charging for iPhone content originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Opinion: Apple betrays the iPhone’s business hopes

Apple's fix of a security hole reveals a long-simmering flaw and makes many iPhones suddenly incompatible with Exchange

The Competition: Microsoft Releases the Zune HD

So, today’s the day. Everyone who works for Microsoft is up bright and early, on their way to lineup at their local Microsoft Store for a chance to scoop up a brand new, shiny Zune HD before they sell out. If you’re in line, shoot our sibling site WMExperts a pic and let them know if you manage to snag one of Ballmer’s new beauties.

Speaking of sarcasm, for an even harsher look at the Zune HD, check out AppleInsider, who we’re not sure have had a hands on yet, but certainly give it a pounding. (Even we said, “ouch!”)

And then join us back here tomorrow night at 8pm ET for iPhone Live! where WMExperts own news editor, Phil Nickinson will be joining us for a special edition smackdown, Zune HD vs. iPod touch G3.

Will OLED blind our iSight, or will 64GB prove size does matter? Get to the chat room early tomorrow, the place might just burn down!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

The Competition: Microsoft Releases the Zune HD

iPod touch Speed Test: How Much Faster is 50%?

In typical Apple fashion, they announced the new third generation iPod touch 32GB and 64GB as being 50% faster than the previous generation (the 8GB is the same old bag as last year), with nary a word on what chipsets made it so.

Well, some digging has been done, and some benches have been marked, and the early word is… zoom zoom.

Macworld’s tests show some impressive gains. Boot went down from 31 to 19 seconds. Launching apps went from 12, 20, and 10 seconds to 7, 15, and 5 for Peggle, HR Battle, and Rolando 2 respectively. Web page rendering for the NYT site was down from 34 to 15 seconds, and the Sunspider JS test went from 34.2 to 15.6 seconds.

So, yeah, about 50%.

TAUW, meanwhile, went to the heart of the matter, and discovered that the new iPod touch shares similar, if slightly incremented internals over this year’s iPhone 3GS. More plainly, same Samsung ARM Cortex A8 processor (S5L8922X, however, as opposed to the iPhone 3GS S5L8920X). No word yet on what may be different, if anything about the PowerVR SGX graphic core, but as we heard already, the 802.11n potential is in the WiFi chip.

The second generation iPod touch was faster than the iPhone 3G, so it’s not hard to imagine lack of cell-radio concerns and slightly new components could push the third generation iPod touch across the finish line before the iPhone 3GS as well.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPod touch Speed Test: How Much Faster is 50%?

HP makes nice with Apple users, intros two new MediaSmart Servers

Filed under: Hardware, Multimedia, Peripherals, Software, Video, Odds and ends, iPhone, iPod touch, Music

While there are still some Snow Leopard users who are cursing HP and Apple for incompatible or nonexistent drivers for a variety of printers that worked well under Leopard, HP has made an announcement that shows that they really do love all things Apple.

HP today announced two new MediaSmart servers, the US$549 HP MediaSmart Server EX490 (1 TB of storage) and the US$699 HP MediaSmart Server EX495 (1.5 TB of storage). Like their predecessors, the two new servers are based on Microsoft Windows Home Server.

HP obviously listened to the concerns of Mac users while designing the new servers, since a Windows PC is no longer required in order for administration. Instead, Mac owners can use Microsoft's new Remote Desktop Connection for Mac 2.0 to log in and make changes. The servers are also Time Machine friendly, and include a new HP utility that allows bare metal recovery of machines backed up onto the server.

Also new to the servers is the HP Media Collector, which automatically collects and organizes media files from Macs or PCs on a network, and then makes the data available for streaming over the Internet. There's also a new HP Video Converter utility for automatically converting unprotected DVDs into a format that can played at home or remotely.

For iPod touch or iPhone users, HP has made the free MediaSmart Server iStream app [iTunes link] available in the App Store. Using this app, Apple fans can view their pictures, watch their videos, and listen to music, all streamed from their HP MediaSmart server.

Intriguing? Take a look at more information on HP's Web site.

HP makes nice with Apple users, intros two new MediaSmart Servers originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 15 Sep 2009 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

HP makes nice with Apple users, intros two new MediaSmart Servers originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 15 Sep 2009 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Proposed T-Mobile/Sprint merger could change the landscape for the iPhone later on

Deutsche Telekom, the owners of T-Mobile in the U.S., are reportedly looking into acquiring competitor Sprint. Together, the two companies would have a customer base that rivals AT&T. According to The Daily Telegraph, Detsche Telekom is prepping a multi-billion dollar offer for Sprint Nextel, which is the third-largest wireless carrier in America. Together, the two companies [...]

WSJ reporting that Apple in talks with China Mobile for iPhone

The Wall Street Journal reports that China Mobile chairman Wang Jianzhou has confirmed that the company is still involved in talks with Apple to bring the iPhone to the carrier’s network. The iPhone would have to be modified in order to operate on China Mobile’s proprietary 3G network, or would be relegated to the company’s [...]