iPhone Firmware

Could it be that Apple plans to reveal iPhone OS 4.0 as early as March 14th? Multiple sources have received anonymous tips pointing towards a demo of the new OS by Apple next month. This date roughly coincides with the first iPad ship date, and has led to speculation that iPhone OS 4.0 may ship on the new device.

Apple has typically announced updates to its iPhone hardware in June. This year should be no different and the company is expected to reveal its fourth-generation iPhone on schedule. What has thrown industry watchers off track is that the iPad was announced in January running iPhone OS 3.2. This operating system is not yet available Apple's heralded smartphone.

Five days after Apple released the 3.1.3 iPhone OS update the Dev-Team has countered with PwnageTool version 3.1.5, making a jailbreak of the latest firmware possible. This software currently only runs on Mac OS X, and works by updating your firmware to 3.1.3 with a custom IPSW file.

If you are already running the official 3.1.3 firmware on your device the jailbreak will not work. Dev-Team also reports that unless you have a problem with the reporting of your battery percentage, there's probably no good reason to update. If you're already jailbroken/unlocked with 3.1.2 you can use PwnageTool to safely update to 3.1.3.

Apple has made the iPhone OS 3.1.3 update (7E18) available and as usual users can update their iPhones and iPod Touch devices via iTunes. The list of bug fixes and security improvements includes this item: Improves accuracy of reported battery level on iPhone 3GS.

Could this mean that users plagued with widely reported battery problems have finally received a fix from Apple? Ever since the 3.1 update, some users have complained of drastically shortened battery life on iPhone 3GS models. Maybe the meter is the problem- we will keep you posted.

Developers have already started digging into the iPhone OS 3.2 code now that Apple has released the latest SDK in connection with the iPad. There are several hints that increased functionality is on the way in future iterations of the iPhone.

Some of the highlights in the code include ways to accept and decline a video conference, switch a video feed from camera to camera (front and back?), and run a video call in full screen mode or in a window. Could it be that a front-facing camera is on its way to the 4G iPhone for video calling?