George Hotz (Geohot) has released the newest update of his jailbreaking tool blackra1n, version RC3. In addition, he has made public a true carrier unlock for the latest firmware iPhone OS 3.1.2 and baseband 05.11.07.
Geohot's blackra1n RC3 software jailbreaks any iPhone running 3.1 or later in seconds on both Mac and Windows platforms. A reboot is all that's needed.
The mobile version of Microsoft's Bing search engine has been revamped and now supports touch screen devices such as the iPhone. The touch-optimized interface (m.bing.com) is currently only available to users in the US.
Mobile phones that don't support the touch interface are forwarded to a simpler version of the site. Microsoft has also added additional features to the mobile search engine including a visual search movie finder and a real-time data search. Examples of real-time information available include airline flight delays and NFL scores and stats.
Fans of comic books who have iPhones and live in the US will soon see Marvel titles come to their mobile devices. Three different comic book readers, Comics, iVerse Comics and Panelfly Comics have struck a deal with Marvel to bring its content to their apps.
Over 80 percent of published comics are released by comics giants Marvel or DC. This is the first time one of the two has entered the digital comics market on the iPhone.
The Apple logo on the back of your iPhone now has competition. Next week it will be possible to carry around a mobile device with three corporate logos!
Verizon, Motorola and Google each get their own billboard space on the Droid, scheduled for release next week. In a brazen act of branding, two of these logos (Verizon and Motorola) actually appear on the front AND back of the Droid.
Add analyst Brian Marshall to the chorus of iPhone owners, CDMA fans, speculators, AT&T haters and Apple shareholders clamoring for an iPhone on the Verizon Wireless network. Marshall, who works for Broadpoint AmTech, has noticed that Apple is moving towards a multiple carrier business model in several countries.
His analysis? The company will do the same thing in the United States. Completely ignoring the Motorola Droid and its associated anti-iPhone campaign, Marshall believes the iPhone will come to Verizon in the second half of 2010.
Several new features and refinements have come to iTunes 9.0.2, now available from Apple as a free download. iPhone users will find improvements in app sorting and media syncing. Users can add or delete home screens and arrange apps directly in iTunes.
Apps purchased on your computer or iPhone will sync automatically. iTunes 9.0.2 will also provide options for syncing individual artists, genres, podcasts or television shows.
If your iPhone is jailbroken and/or unlocked, iTunes 9.0.2 will not interfere. However, users syncing to iTunes with a Palm Pre will find that Apple has disabled this functionality (again).
The deal was a long time coming but the iPhone has now officially been launched by Apple in China. By some estimates there are 2 million grey market iPhones in operation within the country already.
High prices and the lack of Wi-Fi on Chinese models may have shortened lines. The 32GB iPhone is retailing for the equivalent of $1,025 with no service contract.
Right now 93,395 iPhone applications are currently available on Apple's App Store, but there are almost 9,000 more that have already been approved. This means that any day now the App Store will surpass a magic number of 100,000 apps for sale.
Too bad only 0.176% of those can be installed on the iPhone at once. Just one month ago Apple announced that there were 85,000 applications available via iTunes. One year ago there were 10,000 apps available for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
After selling a record 7.4 million iPhones last quarter, Apple is setting up to meet high demand during the holiday season. Inventories have been low in many countries as the iPhone 3GS has been flying off the shelves.
Apple will also be selling the iPhone on several new carriers in the coming months which could further reduce supplies. Carriers that will carry the iPhone as early as next month include Orange and Vodafone in the UK, Telus and Bell in Canada, and China Unicom.
Now Nokia is taking Apple to court for patent infringement. Ten different patents, to be precise. Nokia claims Apple has neglected to license Nokia's technology including the GSM and UMTS communications standards the iPhone uses.
Nokia along with other companies such as Samsung and Ericsson have invested billions in the development of the two standards. Nokia alone claims to have invested $60 billion in the technology and has licensed the patents to 40 different wireless device manufacturers.
