Apple posted the 2.0.1 iPhone firmware update last night. Improvements I’ve noticed:
- keyboard lag is gone
- much faster in general
- Contacts loads fast and scrolls smoothly in apps and in the standalone program
- iTunes sync seems much quicker- probably not backing up all apps anymore
Jailbreak is blocked.
Nice headline: “Telecoms fight for the right to party with iPhone 3G”
From AppleInsider
MacRumors is reporting that the NetShare iPhone Tethering App has reappeared in the App Store. Better snag that one fast! Direct link below:
The creator of this software, NullRiver, is also the creator of Installer.app.
Update: after spending a bit of testing time, I ran a DSLReports Speed Test on my MacBook Pro. My speed tests on 3G read:
Download: 700Kb/s
Upload: 160Kb/s
Latency: 246ms
Update 2: And now, it’s gone again.
A post by BigBoss detailing steps for a successful 2.0 to 1.1.4 downgrade for “those of you that updated to 2.0 and realized what a mistake it was.”
As much as I enjoy the iPhone 2.0 software, I’ve been shocked at how often it crashes, freezes and hangs. This simply wasn’t the case with 1.0.
When I first updated my original iPhone to 2.0, I chalked these problems up to the fact that I’d tweaked that iPhone in innumerable ways and probably needed to wipe it clean and start fresh.
But, having just started using a fresh out of the box 3G model, I’m seeing the same thing. Here’s the four crashes, freezes and hangs that I’ve seen most often and how I’m dealing with each-
Application crashes-
Many times an application will just bomb out and drop you to the home screen. This is likely due to bugs in the application. Most of the time the application can just be restarted and you can go about your business (or gaming).
Application fails to launch-
This one is a bit more frustrating and seems to be triggered more often with larger or more complex applications.
I had to smile when I bought a the $10 de Blob application and it wouldn’t start. When this happened a second time after I’d just finished installing Pinball RC, I though to myself: “What are less technically minded people doing? Throwing their iPhones out the window?”
The not-so-obvious solution is to reboot the phone. To reboot, hold down the Power button until the “slide to power off” option appears. If that doesn’t work, continue to hold the Power button with the Home button and it will trigger a forced reboot.
Phone OS crash and reboot-
This one is really fun and I trigger it at least twice a day when I launch Twinkle (my favorite Twitter client). Yes, you heard that right- tap and app icon and the whole iPhone OS crashes and reboots. Usually, the reboot clears up the trouble except for when this turns into the…
Apple logo and spinning wheel of death loop-
This misfortune has struck me twice so far. The first time, I had to restore the iPhone in iTunes to fix it (essentially reloading the OS). The second time, I was able to power off the phone and plug it into iTunes. Instead of the full restore, a backup began and soon I could hear the “bing” of the mail coming into the phone. I let the backup complete and the phone worked normally.
2.1 can’t come soon enough, but in the meantime Apple isn’t fooling anyone with the unobtrusive crash to the homescreen with no alert message.
MacNN has uncovered a new job listing: iPhone Security Engineer. Candidate will: “validate the security architecture for the iPhone,” and have a “major impact on Apple’s embedded operating system products.”
Frankly, I’m surprised they don’t have a whole team of these people already.
[via MacNN]
The folks over at Haklabs claim to have broken the Apple AppStore FairPlay protection. On a quick read, it sounds like you can manually copy applications to the iPhone if you’ve jailbroken and the applications will run properly.
If this is true, the only gatekeeper is the iTunes desktop application itself. This does sort of make sense because music works exactly the same way. You’re allowed to put DRM’d music on as many iPod/iPhones as you want.
Looks like this could be a real reason for many to jailbreak- too bad all the applications are digitally signed with an email address.
[via MacNN]
iPhone Dev Team just released Pwnage tool 2.0. This lets you Jailbreak (to add unofficial 3rd party applications) the iPhone 2.0 OS. Supported models include: original iPhone, iPod Touch and iPhone 3G.
SIM unlock (for non-AT&T carriers) works only with original iPhone, but 3G support is coming soon.
Apple has announced that it has racked up 1 million iPhone sales and 10 Million Apps in the very first weekend. Last time around, it took 74 days to sell that many phones.
“The App Store is a grand slam, with a staggering 10 million applications downloaded in just three days,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Developers have created some extraordinary applications, and the App Store can wirelessly deliver them to every iPhone and iPod touch user instantly.”
The Apple iPhone Configuration Web Utility 1.0 for Mac is written in Ruby on Rails. The web-based utility builds config files for enterprise deployment. How about that?