Orange has stated that it will start to sell iPhones in England. O2 is currently the only official carrier to support the iPhone in England, but that will change in early November. There are many other countries where the iPhone is not exclusive to one carrier, such as Germany. Many people in the U.S.A are hoping that AT&T’s contract to have sole selling rights of the iPhone will end some day, and other carriers will start to sell the phones. Right now, AT&T’s name hasn’t got such a good reputation. Things like no tetheing for the iPhone and delayed MMS support are amongth few things that are giving AT&T a bad name. Some people are already switching to different networks, with the help of software unlocks like Ultrasn0w from the iPhone Dev Team. Some are speculating that apple could start to sell iPhones to Verizon, the largest carrier in the U.S.A. For apple to do that and continue to support the networks it already has deals with, the phones radio would have to be changed because carriers like T-Mobile and Verizon use different frequencies to connect to mobile phones. Sprint also uses a different frequency.
AT&T has already stated that the iPhone exclusitivity will end, but they haven’t released when it will. Apple will eventually have to choose another carrier to support in America if AT&T continues to lower it’s reputation like this.
Many people are now speculating that Google may be developing its own GPS navigation application. This app will probably be seperate from the normal Google Maps application shipping with iPhones now. The GPS app will use offline maps, instead of downloading the map tiles when they are requested. This means that no data will be used by the application when it is in use. Currently, there are two main GPS navigation applications availble in the App Store. TomTom navigation and Sygic. The TomTom carkit was also recently released.
As with any rumour, this may not happen at all. I’m not promising anything. I wouldn’t be surprised if google did do this but apple didn’t allow it in the app store.
Apple has released the iTunes 9.0.2 update. The update apparently stops Palm Pre users from syncing content to their devices, as past updates have. For all you jailbreakers out there, this update is safe to download and install. Musclenerd has tweeter that it will not affect jailbreaks or unlocks. I have also confirmed this. I updated my iTunes version and everything still works. This update is not necessary, because it only includes small bug fixes and things like that so you don’t have to update iTunes if you don’t want.
Blackra1n is still compatable with this update, so if for some reason you have to restore and rejailbreak it will work.
Lastly for the Palm Pre users: If you wish to continue syncing your device with iTunes, do not download or install this new update. Palm will probably find another way to integrate iTunes syncing again, but that time is not now. Palm has already had to fix the iTunes syncing a couple of times, and Apple is completely against it, so treat all new iTunes updates as if they will stop Palm Pre syncing.
MeDevil, the developer of the iBluetooth project, has made some progress in porting the application to 3.x firmwares. The iBluetooth application allows users of jailbroken iDevices to send and recieve files to other Bluetooth equiped phones/devices. The application currently crashes for most people running the 3.x firmwares, and it doesn’t support the new devices released by apple. At the time of writing this article, all of the iPod touch’s/iPhones released had Bluetooth capabilities. The new iBluetooth will support the iPod touch 2G and 3G, and all of the currently released iPhones.
iBluetooth is a paid application available in Cydia, although MeDevil hasn’t given us a release date for the new update.
To all of you that bought iBluetooth in the past: your licences will still work for the new version.
Blackra1n RC2 has been released and is available download right now on the downloads page. This new version of Blackra1n now fully supports the iPhone 3G. A lot of people were having problems jailbreakig their iPhone 3G’s, because Geohot had not completely worked out all the bugs/glitches with the jailbreak for it. All should be fine now though.
iPod touch 2G (the new one) is now also supported, but it is a tethered jailbreak. The new iPhone 3GS’s with the patched bootrom are supported out of the box as well (tethered though).
Tethered Explanation:
A tethered jailbreak is one that requires a patch to be run each time a device wants to reboot. Old devices had a bootrom which was exploitable to the 24kpwn bug which allowed the loading of custom firmwares. Apple has since fixed this bug in more recent versions of the bootrom. The bootrom is a bit of code that runs when an iPhone/iPod touch is turned on, and it checks whether the loaded firmware has been signed and verified by apple. If the signature check fails, the device will simply refuse to boot up without a patch. Tethered jailbreaks cannot be made into untethered jailbreaks without a new bootrom exploit to allow the loading of custom firmwares.
Ripdev (Russian iPhone Development) has developed many applications over the past two years. Some of those projects were Installer, Icy, Kali Anti – Piracy and many other applications. Unfortunately, Ripdev has decided to shut down and stop developing. Installer, Icy and other applications will no longer be updated or supported, but the Ripdev repository will still remain open for people to download their applications. Ripdev has stated that the repo will stay open until at least next year.
Ripdev developed an Anti-piracy solution for App Store developers. Kali disallowed the ‘cracking’ method used by Crackulous, Installous and Appulous. Today, piracy for App Store applications is very high. The shutdown of Ripdev will relieve the Cracking community, and allow pirated apps to continue on.
Icy, a light version of Cydia, has been made open source by Ripdev. I am hoping that someone will carry on updating/developing Icy. It was always hady when I just wanted to uninstall something really quick. If you have bought a Ripdev product and want to use it on another device, I suggest you hurry and send them an email, because they have not disclosed how much longer they will answer emails for.
Ripdev has been a well known name since the start of the jailbreaking commmunity. Thanks Ripdev for some awesome applications : )
Rockband for iPhone and iPod touch has been released. If you have absolutely no idea what rockband is, here is a brief explanation:
Rockband is essentially, Guitar Hero or Tap Tap Revenge. Notes scroll down the screen and the user must tap on the screen at the correct time. The notes come down the screen in time with the music. Guitar Hero and Tap Tap Revenge will only allow you to play one instrument for a song, and this is where Rockband differs. Rockband will allow you to choose from multiple instruments to play the song with. Drums, Bass, Guitar or Vocals. Each of these instruments has the same style, but the beats and timing will obviously be different depending on what instrument is selected.
The other cool thing in this application is that full multiplayer is provided built in to this application. You can play against other iPod touch or iPhone users over bluetooth. The multiplayer function will also allow you to play with up to 3 other players, with different instruments.
This app is available in the App Store right now for $10. Go and buy it now, because I highly recommend this application.
A new package has been released in Cydia called Orbit, and it allows users to have an ‘Expose’ like feature added to their iDevice. This package mimics the Mac OSX Leopard feature that allows the user to view all of the open windows and select the one that they want to open. The Orbit package will add an icon to the home screen, and when the icon is tapped on, the screen zooms out and displays all of the home screens that their iPhone/iPod touch has. This can be extremely useful when you have a lot of applications installed (like me). If you download this application, I recommend putting the icon for it on the dock so that it is always there, and you don’t have to change pages to use the feature. Orbit is only available to jailbroken iDevice users. The package can be downloaded from the Cydia store, and it costs $2.99. Please do buy this application/package if you plan on getting it, and don’t download it for free. This developer has given the Cydia community a lot of handy and neat packages and without funds, one day he may not be able to continue. This new package is also made by the same developer that made such packages like Stack. Stack is also a very useful modification, and it mimics the Mac OSX Leopard feature ‘Stacks’.
Pwnage Tool 3.1.4 has been released, and adds support for jailbreaking an iPhone or iPod touch running the 3.1.2 firmware. As always, Pwnage Tool is for Mac computers only because the iPhone Dev Team does not code their program for Windows – based computers.
Quote from the iPhone Dev Team Blog:
Here are some details on our latest version of PwnageTool 3.1.4 for Mac OS X which supports the 3.1.2 release of the iPhone software for iPhone 2G/3G/3GS and iPod Touch 1G/2G.
If you’re already jailbroken (by whatever means), you don’t need to mess around with DFU mode at all. Just create (or get from a friend) your custom IPSW and Option-Restore (Shift-Restore on Windows) to it via iTunes. Don’t enter DFU mode at all. Please make sure you are restoring to the custom IPSW, not the stock one from Apple! For best results, use the latest iTunes (9.0.1) — which includes a nice new application organizer.
This release allows your baseband to remain unlocked at 3.1.2, but it does not unlock a new baseband put there by restoring to official 3.1.x. It is super important that people who need the unlock to understand they can keep it only by starting at 3.0 (or earlier) and updating solely to custom IPSWs that don’t update the baseband. For those who have been onboard the “unlock train”, simply install ultrasn0w via Cydia once you’ve restored to your custom IPSW. Don’t forget to turn off the “3G” setting in Settings->General->Network if you use T-Mobile in the U.S.A.
Note for 3GS users not already jailbroken and stuck at 3.1.x: this version of PwnageTool has a side feature to jailbreak your 3GS. It uses a simple implementation of the usb control msg hole found by chronicdev, geohot, and our very own gray. Now that the hole is public and in use, we expect Apple to close it by the next major firmware update. That’s why 3GS users need to get their ECID hashes for 3.1.x now, and need to stay onboard the “jailbreak train” in all future updates.
For the early adopters who ran blackra1n and are having problems with mobilesubstrate, winterboard, diskaid, or ifunbox, you can install a custom .ipsw from PwnageTool to fix these issues. That’s because all jailbroken devices accept a custom .ipsw created by PwnageTool. (However, if you ran blackra1n on a 3G or 3GS that means you updated to stock 3.1.x, and the carrier unlock is now out of reach. We’ll continue to work on a carrier unlock for the latest basebands, but the timeframe for such an unlock is unknowable.)
Note: If you use internet tethering on a carrier that doesn’t officially support it, you’ll lose it by going to 3.1.x. Stay back at 3.0 until a hack for that is developed.
Bad news for people planning to jailbreak a new iPhone 3GS. Apple is now shipping a new version of iBoot with the iPhone 3HS now, and it isn’t vulnerable to the 24kpwn exploit. That exploit is the same exploit that is used by Blackra1n. There won’t be any jailbreaks for the new iPhone 3GS’s for a while, or at least until Geohot or the iPhone Dev Team find a new explain. The other thing that will probably not be compatable with the new iPhone 3GS is the Ultrasn0w unlock. Apple’s biggest reason for stopping jailbreaks is the App Piracy. Some App Store application developers are reporting that over half of the users of their applications downloaded the application illegally. App store developers will not be able to continue if people download apps like this. If you really like an application, go and buy it from the App Store and support further development! The authors of Appulo.us, a well known cracked applications site, have stated that the site is meant to be used as a try before you by sort of thing, so that if you like the application you can go and buy it legally from the App Store. For a lot of people out there, this is not the case. People will download the app, use it and never buy it. Cracked applications are also more likely to crash, as they are not original code. But that is still very unlikely.
