iOS 6

Unlike previous iOS releases, iOS 6 has been a tough nut to crack. However, pod2g has taken a break from developing apps to work on a solution with fellow iOS hacker planetbeing. This is great news since pod2g announced in September that he was not working on an iOS 6 jailbreak.

On Friday, planetbeing tweeted that the pair had made more progress:

Made some nice progress today with @pod2g. I think I'll try to reward myself with a nap. :)

— planetbeing (@planetbeing) January 19, 2013

Pod2g responded by announcing they had discovered two new vulnerabilities, but said they're still far away from a public release:

. @planetbeing oh yeah! 2 new vulnerabilities in a day, chance was with us. But we still miss that initial code execution for a public jb :/

— pod2g (@pod2g) January 19, 2013

If you've been having problems with the widely reported Do Not Disturb bug, rest assured it will self-fix on Monday January 7, 2013. Apple recommended a simple solution to temporarily fix the problem that has been keeping Do Not Disturb (DND) engaged past a scheduled time. iOS 6 users will have to manually toggle DND mode and disable Settings -> Notifications -> Do Not Disturb -> Scheduled until Monday.

So what caused this week of DND turmoil on iOS devices and prompted an Apple support document on the issue? Turns out that DND uses the ISO week date format, which wanted to compute the first day of the year as January 7. According to Ars Technica Apple even warns third-party developers of the problem, and steers them toward the Gregorian calendar instead.

Notice those Smart App Banners that appear when you're visiting a website in Safari on the iPhone? They can be convenient, reminding you that an app is available for download in iOS 6. If you already have the app installed, they will even prompt you to open the app.

Now it turns out a bug has been discovered, which according to AppleInsider will circumvent user-defined JavaScript settings. The strange behavior is only noticeable if you're in the habit of keeping Settings -> Safari -> JavaScript -> OFF. Once a Smart App Banner appears your JavaScript setting will automatically revert to ON.

Google has finally released a new Maps app for the iPhone after the Apple Maps fiasco.

iPhone users have been clamoring for the return of Google Maps since the release of the iPhone 5 and iOS 6, when Apple replaced the app with its own mapping software. Apple Maps has been widely ridiculed for giving inaccurate information, and has even become the butt of many jokes after Australian police claimed it was dangerous.

The new Google Maps features turn-by-turn navigation and the popular Street View and transit direction options missing from Apple Maps. David Pogue of The New York Times writes: "The brand-new, completely rethought design is slick, simple and coherent. Google admits that it’s even better than Google Maps for Android phones, which has accommodated its evolving feature set mainly by piling on menus."

A mysterious and unknown hacker calling himself (herself?) "Dream JB" is promising to release an untethered iOS 6 jailbreak for the iPad mini, latest iPad and iPhone 5 on December 22. Dream JB is not associated with any known dev team, and has said he will deliver video proof of the jailbreak via Twitter on Wednesday. If true, the new untethered jailbreak will support all current Apple devices running iOS 6.0.1. This includes the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPad 2 and beyond, iPad Mini, iPod Touch 4th generation and beyond.

Most jailbreakers only use jailbreaking tools from proven sources such as the iPhone DevTeam, or Absinthe creator pod2g. And not surprisingly, a large portion of the jailbreaking community is calling Dream JB's untethered jailbreak a scam. No one knows for sure if Dream JB will actually deliver a safe untethered iOS 6 jailbreak this December, but it will be interesting to see if his promised video actually materializes, and the jailbreaking community's reaction tomorrow.