Apple released the iTunes App Store on July 11, 2008. Now, 7 months later TUAW reports they’ve hit 20,000 apps. For those tracking the darn-near-exponential growth at home, it took 5 month to hit 10,000, so they’ve doubled again in less than half the time. Scary.

With Windows Mobile still in stasis, Android only sound and fury thus far, the Pre still pre-mature, and BlackBerry blocked by its small on-board memory, is there anything on the horizon that can slow this juggernaut down? (Aside from developer complaints and infinite fart apps, of course).

And how many of those 20,000 apps have you downloaded already? None? Nine screens full? All of them?! Let us know!

While this might be iPhone 101 to some, Apple pretty much snuck this feature into their 2.0 firmware, and while we’re now at 2.1, not everyone may yet know that they can capture their iPhone screen contents with just the touch of a button — well, two buttons actually.

To take a screenshot with your iPhone or iPod Touch, just press the Home and Sleep buttons at the same time. On 2.0, the screen will flash white, while with 2.1, you’ll also get the camera shutter sound, and your screen will be captured.

To access your screenshots go to Photos and on the iPhone, look in Camera Roll, while on the iPod Touch, check out Saved Photos. (see, poetically, screenshots after the jump!)

Roughly Drafted is claiming a source close to AT&T has spilled the beans on what’s really going on with the iPhone and its 3G connection problems, and what 2.0.2 did to fix it.

In a nutshell? An iPhone 3G running 2.0 or 2.0.1 tries to pull too much power from the network, so when multiple iPhones connect, a tower can actually run out of juice and start dropping calls and losing data.

Why hasn’t upgrading to 2.0.2 already fixed the problem? Simple: some people haven’t yet upgraded, so their 2.0 and 2.0.1 iPhones keep pulling too much power, causing the same problem even for people who have upgraded but are stuck on the same tower (or same high-density city like San Fran or NY). Only when most users have patched to 2.0.2 will people stuck on high-demand towers see improvements.

Earlier reports and theories have lain blame on everything from the 3G radio and antenna, to the Infineon chipset and Apple firmware, to the carriers themselves. We here at TiPb have long been saying the problems were likely a combination of factors, and firmware that pulls too hard on networks that aren’t that hardy seems a far better explanation than any one previously offered. It also goes a long way to explaining why Bluetest didn’t find any hardware issues, and why both Apple (via their website) and AT&T (via SMS) have really stepped up the push for this update.

So, do we finally have our answer, or is this just the next “shot in the dark”? Are you still having 3G problems? Is your neighbor still on 2.0 or 2.0.1? Tell them to upgrade now and then let us know if it helps!

Installer.app, the app store before that other app store, is coming back for firmware 2.0 and being re-fashioned as Installer 4. Currently, jailbroken 2.0 iPhones are using Cydia as their main app pipeline but when Installer 4 is released, well, they’ll likely play nice with one another and especially nice with that other app store.

The RiP Dev Blog has a lot of complicated, programmer’s type language describing the updates for Installer 4.0 so I’ll try to translate to more understandable, layman’s terms: It’s going to be faster, safer, and more integrated. Bang.

The release of Installer 4.0 seems to be imminent but well, really, there’s no rush, many of the apps that were available for 1.1.x aren’t quite ready for the big time yet. So take your time with Installer 4.0. We here at TiPb would almost always prefer a little delayed polished product over a rushed, rough, not as advertised..yeah, we’re looking at you MobileMe.

ReadVia

UPDATE: Pawnage has been updated to address some of the problems users faced over the weekend, including better discovery of the boot loaders, creation of the devices folder, etc.

Original post:

Starting with the cryptic announcement “We love Sundays. We think you will too”, the iphone-dev-team followed up quickly with the words many (including all those with unsupported countries and carriers) have been waiting clamoring for:

We’ll be releasing a more official announcement soon, but we wanted to get the tool out there. We sincerely hope you enjoy using it as much as we enjoyed making it

Of course, the site’s being hit so hard right now the links are down, if pwnage is what you seek, and you want to jailbreak and unlock 2.0 on your original iPhone 2G, or jailbreak your iPhone 3G (I don’t believe unlock is supported yet on the 3G but will be following soon), new mirrors, seeds, rapidshares, etc. should be popping up.

JAR!

We’ve been all over the jailbreak/unlock situation for both the iPhone 3G and the original iPhone 2G updated to 2.0, and here’s the latest.

The iphone-dev team’s pwnage hasn’t been released yet, but will be soon. According to their blog, Apple’s firmware update slowed them down a little, as has the 3G baseband, so what you’ll get short term is:

iPhone (1st Gen) with 2.0 – Activated, Unlocked & Jailbroken, (with support for third party applications). iPod Touch with 2.0 – Activated & Jailbroken, (with support for third party applications). iPhone (3G) with 2.0 – Activated, Jailbroken (with support for third party applications).

Can’t wait? Willing to risk mail order? Engadget Mobile says you can order a $1000 worth of unlocked iPhone 3G now:

According to the [Alibaba.com] wholesale goods supply site, you can just order up the “original” Apple device direct from a company called Union Camera and have them sent to whatever poorly lit dock, abandoned warehouse, or suburban safe-house you desire. The best part? They’re network unlocked.

Dunno if I’d risk it yet. How about you?

Could last Friday have been any more massive for Apple? Following on the heels of slew of preparatory updates including OS X 10.5.4 and iTunes 7.7, the transition from .Mac to Mobile Me, and — oh, yeah — the highly anticipated launch of the iPhone 3G hardware (see Dieter’s review), Apple also dropped a little something called the 2.0 firmware. Available pre-baked in the new iPhone 3G, Apple didn’t spare the love for owners of the original iPhone 2G who receive it as well as a FREE downloadable upgrade, as do owners of the iPod Touch (minus the phone, camera, SMS, and GPS functionality, and the FREE part — $10 please).

The 2.0 firmware was first demonstrated back at the Apple iPhone SDK Roadmap event in March 2008 and immediately went through a very long, very public beta process where almost anyone could sign up and download it. In spite of the NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement), during the 8 different betas released to developers, many new features that weren’t originally demonstrated still leaked out all of the interwebs. But did all of them?

Read on to find out!

What Hasn’t Changed

Before we dive in to all the new hotness, let’s just get some housekeeping out of the way. Some apps remain pretty much unchanged (at least to our eyes!) from the 1.4 firmware that immediately preceded this release. This includes:

• Home. 3G label replaced E(DGE) for the new hardware, and dock icons look to get a tad more translucent when they zoom out or back in, but otherwise its the same Springboard as before.
• Text. SMS messages tweaked to allow following or bookmarking of texted linls, but still no SMS forwarding. Still no MMS.
• YouTube. It’s your vidz, what else did you need? Oh… inline Flash…
• Stocks. Same old widgety goodness from the last gen.
• Weather. See stocks. No HTC Touch Diamond-style animated goodness here.
• Clock. What do you want, it’s timeless!
• Notes. Still no sync. Still no integration with the other PIM (Personal Information Management) apps. Still no landscape keyboard. Stevie, please!
• iTunes. Icon tweak aside, you can still buy songs over WiFi, and that’s still it. No media and nothing long-form.
• iPod. Gets some small tweaks like video rotation (you can watch portrait or landscape now), and video podcasts are gone from the audio section, so no more listening-only option (?!). But how about metadata? A2DP Stereo Bluetooth support ?

Sure, constraints on time and resources, not to mention battery life trade-offs mean we can’t have everything and all at once, so let’s see just what Apple did choose to update this time around…

Calendar

The most visible for every user in Calendar is color! No longer doomed to dull blue, the new Calendar 2.0 will retain your color settings when you sync from Outlook or iCal, and what’s more — will use transparency effects to visualize overlapping effects. Very sweet.

The biggest change overall, however, is integration with over-the-air, wireless syncing via “push”. For more details on these, see our already-posted reviews for both Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and Apple MobileMe “Exchange for the rest of us” service.

Camera

The Camera 2.0 software has also been tweaked to improve image quality but the big news is that it is now location aware, which means it will geo-tag your photos.

For more on how CoreLocation services work, including how to grant and reset permissions, check out the sections on Maps and Settings (below).

If Flickr popularity is any indicator, a lot of people will welcome these updates.

On the minus side, there’s still no ability to tweak basic camera settings, however, and no Mobile iPhoto-like post-processing options have been added. Apple may figure users will do this once they sync back to their computer, but if you want to take a shot and quickly email it upload it, the ability to do basic corrections on the iPhone itself would be more than handy.

Photos

Photos is mostly unchanged from 1.4. The only difference is that now, in addition to photographs taken with the iPhone’s built camera, the Camera Roll also store screenshots.

How do you take a screen-shot? Press the Home Button and Sleep/Wake button (on the top) at the same time.

For the iPod Touch, since it lacks a camera and hence a Camera Roll, screen caps are stored under Saved Photos.

An almost invisible addition if you don’t know about it, it’s still much appreciated (especially by reviewers, no doubt!)

Still no ability to tweak photos, Mobile iPhoto-like, but as a viewer — and a way to stun crowds with accelerometer spinning, finger-pinch zooming — it’s still a killer app.

Maps

Maps 2.0 gets a minor face lift, using the more literally page curl icon to activate — what else — the page curling to reveal the extra options added during the late 1.x era.

For iPhone 3G owners, however, Maps also adds the much more precise location functionality provided by the new aGPS functionality. Rather than just the large blue circle (sometimes encompassing entire city blocks) that Google cell tower mapping and Skyhook’s WiFi Router mapping provided previously, aGPS now gives a small blue dot within yards/meters, if not right at your exact current location. (Complete with eye-candy fading ripple effect).

Leveraging the cell and WiFi location services to handle some heavy lifting, the aGPS is remarkably snappy.

Moving? No problem, the blue dot will follow you.

From staying on route to keeping track of where you parked (via the pin drop), this functionality is huge, especially for people who have no inborn sense of direction… (present!)

Note: Like all location aware apps (including Camera and even 3rd party App Store apps like Twitteriffic), Maps will ask your permission to use your current location the first few times you launch it. Keep agreeing and it will stop bothering you. If you later have privacy concerns, you can revoke your permission in the Settings and force it to ask you again next time (see below). In the age-old battle between convenience and security (where the former often — and unfortunately — trumps the latter), this is an interesting and acceptable solution.

Incredible new functionality, though it is lacking in turn-by-turn

Calculator

Apple’s Vice President of Design, Jonathan Ive, loves him his mid-1900s Braun, and few places is that more obvious than the iPhone’s Calculator app. While the basic app itself remains unchanged from 1.x in its default, portrait mode, if you switch to landscape, Calculator 2.0 now switches with you, expanding to become a full-on scientific calculator.

While I have pretty much allowed myself to atrophy into a near math-lexic state, this had been a long requested feature and is a very welcome addition.

What would also have been a very welcome addition? The ability to backspace to precisely correct input errors. The ability to nuke the entire current display with the “C”-Clear button may be more in keeping with the 50 year old physical calculator from which the iPhone calculator was derived — and thus default behavior for those raised on said calc — it’s just not how modern computer input should work. Bad user experience.

Settings

While Settings is not the sexiest app in the bunch, it underpins pretty much everything else and has received quite a few updates in 2.0. Fire and foremost is a new “Fetch New Data” section, while “Mail” has been renamed the MobileMe- and ActiveSync-enabled “Mail, Contacts, Calendars”.

The Fetch New Data panel lets you globally toggle “Push” data syncing (for MobileMe and ActiveSync), schedule fetch/pull requests (e.g. for POP or IMAP email checking), and an Advanced panel to select Push or Manual (with the same type of scheduling set up in Fetch) for MobileMe.

Although a system-wide change, one thing is obvious in Settings that’s fantastic news for anyone that uses strong, even pseudo-random passwords (no, not cut, copy, and paste, don’t be silly!). Apple has changed the way password fields work, now leaving the last character you typed visible for a few seconds so you can minimize the chance of typos. Not perfect, but lightyears ahead of the old system which pretty much made everyone and their IT department shorter and simplify passwords, again trading security convenience. Good Job!

General Settings adds a new On/Off toggle for Location Services, to globally allow your iPhone to use the Google cell, Skyhook WiFi, and for iPhone 3G, aGPS technologies to keep track of where you are — or not.

A new section called Restrictions allows you to selectively disable (via a 4-digit Pin number), iPod content flagged as “explicit” (though sadly only for violence and adult subject matter, not explicitly poor taste or writing/production…), and potentially inappropriate Safari web pages and YouTube videos, as well as access to spend money on the iTunes WiFi Music and App Stores.

Good stuff there for parents, even if no toggles will prove perfect and parents will still need to monitor their young hax0rs lest they find a way around them.

The Keyboard and International sections have been beefed up in anticipation of Apple’s 70+ region eventual iPhone 3G rollout (and since the iPod Touch has already been available for almost a year in most areas, about time too!)

Yummy. Having done a couple of years of Mandarin, while I haven’t had the chance to try out the Chinese handwriting recognition yet, I’m eager to and will definitely report back in a future post.

Last in the General Settings, Reset has been updated to let you change your mind about previously allowing or disallowing location services (for the Camera, Maps, and some App Store Apps), and to go along with the new emphasis on enterprise features, Apple’s enabled Secure Erase, and warns it will take 2 hours just to prove it’s serious.

Given previous reports that AT&T refurb iPhones contained the data from previous users, this is an important addition to a device that can easily contain all your personal and business data. Hopefully — for Steve Gibson’s sake! — Secure Erase uses several passes of pseudo-random data writes, and not something patterned like zero-ing out, which can still be subtracted to reveal the underlying data — if you have the tech and the will to go to the trouble, of course!

For Mail, Contacts, Calendars, in the Mail, the only new addition is the ability to add Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and Apple MobileMe accounts (see our previous walkthroughs for more). Contacts and Calendars give similar options, allowing you to choose which account you want as default, how you want your information sorted and synced, and other bread-and-butter style management features. Newly added is the ability to Import SIM Contacts, which may be useful for people upgrading from GSM feature phones and who stores a lot of data on their SIM chips. For ActiveSync Calendar users, you can toggle New Invitation Alerts On/Off.

The last major change to settings is that now App Store apps, like AOL’s AIM, can add their own panels to Settings. Not all do, with others choosing to keep their own local settings within the apps. Daring Fireball, Ignore the Code, and others have commented on the relative merits and implications for Apple’s Mobile HIG (Human Interface Guidelines) for both approaches. I’d just add that Mac apps can have their own Preferences, or can add panels to the global Settings app. Perhaps the iPhone environment could likewise label local options as Preferences to avoid user confusion with the Mobile Settings app proper.

App Store

The only new icon on the first page of the 2.0 home screen, App Store is potentially the killer feature of 2.0, and one of the biggest ripples in the mobile market thus far. Check out our previous coverage in Brian’s How To review.

The core concept really is game changing, but even as some accuse Apple of being too controlling (and they are to the extent they will not allow certain classes of apps, nor the discussion of the SDK in public), they obviously weren’t controlling enough to keep out the silly, duplicative, buggy, ugly, and sleazy dev dwarves. But we’ll post more on that later.

Bottom-line for me? The cream of the crop put to shame any previous mobile development ecosystems. It really might be the next major computing platform…

Phone (and Contacts!)

Phone’s changes are primarily in the Contacts section, and as special bonus, Apple snuck the iPod Touch’s dedicated Contacts app into the 2.0 firmware for iPhone users as well (though the hid it on the second screen). What’s the point? Well, first its nice to have if you just want to access your Contacts in fewer taps. Second, unlike the Phone app’s contacts, Nate Bird points out that the Contact apps allows for you to add contacts while speaking on the phone. Nice bit of extra functionality there!

Rounding out the contacts goodness is the long awaited ability to search your contacts. If you’re at the top, you’ll see the search box ready to go. If you’ve already scrolled down, just tap the magnifying glass icon above the letter A on the alphabet running down the right side, and you’ll be whisked back up to it.

Drawbacks? It’s… not exactly zippy to bring it. We’re talking EDGE speed here, not 3G for the interface. But that problem plagues more than just contact search, so I’ll save it for the end.

For the rest of the enhanced contact functionality, see our previous reviews for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and Apple MobileMe.

Mail

At the risk of being repetitive, the major new feature in MobileMail 2.0 is the “push” integration of add Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and Apple MobileMe (see our previous reviews for the details).

Management gets a boost with multi-move and multi-delete functionality. Unlike 1.x, where you had to individually select and approve each message for deletion, in 2.0 you can select as many as you see and wipe them out all at once. Great for nuking “push”-spam according to Dieter!

Smaller, but also very nice new additions include, if you’ve setup multiple accounts, the ability to see which account your sending from, and change it on the fly if you want to.

Receive a picture in an email? Now with 2.0 you can hold your finger down on it for a second, and Mail will ask if you want to save the image. If you do, it will be filed in the Camera Roll, same as screen captures. (Or the Saved Images if you’re using the iPod Touch).

I also noticed (though haven’t been able to verify yet if this is new to 2.0) that when forwarding an email, I was prompted as to whether or not I wanted to include the attachments. If this isn’t new, d’oh! Where’ve I been? If it is, equally sweet.

Safari

Update: Safari did get much, much faster, especially in Javascript execution! Still, I’m waiting for a full MobileSafari update that brings in some of the new WebKit technology, like the lightning-quick SquirrelFish javascript engine, which should go a long way to speeding up and stabilizing some of the more script-intensive sites. HTML 5, CSS animation, audio and video tags, SQLite local storage, and all the rest as well…

Maybe in 2.4?

Right now we get the same image-saving ability built into Mail (see above), and according to Daring Fireball, a horizontal keyboard that’s roughly 30 pixels shorter, consuming less of the vital real estate than it’s 1.x counterpart. Personally, I didn’t notice. Confession: I don’t use it much. I’m fine with the vertical keyboard. Call me a mutant if you must, but I really like the keyboard. (But then, I never liked, and hated using, Treo and Blackberry hard keyboards, so maybe even more pariah than mutant, eh?)

For those who do prefer the landscape keyboard, Apple still hasn’t seen fit to enable it system-wide, like in Mail, Notes, or any other app in which it might prove beneficial.

3.0?

Sigh.

Conclusion

Overall, iPhone Firmware 2.0 is a stunning achievement that really puts the iPhone on par with the Apple II and Mac as one of the great revolutions in modern technology. It takes it beyond simple Phone + iPod, or even smartphone, and makes it the leading contender for the next great shift in computing.

That said, it’s still far from perfect, and more to the here and now, suffers from stability issues and overall sluggishness problems that make me think Apple was cramming until the very last minute to finish the 2.0 release. That some users have reportedly fixed their problems (including overly-yellow screens, App Store app crashes, etc.) by hooking up to iTunes and restoring to a 2.0 firmware 2 build numbers later than the one that shipped makes this seem even more likely. (And no doubt, Apple is already prepping a 2.0.1 or even 2.1 update to polish things up — hey, it happened with the original iPhone!).

If I had to give it a score right now, it would still be a 10, with the understanding that when it came to the 2.0 release, the bar was reset to 11 early on.

If you’re an iPhone 3G owner, you already have it. If you’re an original iPhone 2G owner, it’s a free — and therefore no-brainer — upgrade (now that Apple’s servers are working again!). If you rock an iPod Touch, and are worried about the $10 “non-subscription accounting mandated” charge, I would still recommend it. It’s almost the exact same price as Super Monkey Ball, which many of you will want to download immediately there after…

So there it is, my iPhone 2.0 review. Did I miss anything? Have you discovered any more hidden gems buried anywhere? Let us know!

This is it. We’re in the home stretch. 5th round, time’s almost up, and Steve Jobs is slapping on the arm bar. In 4 days we find out if Apple scores the submission, the two-peat for smartphone (even gadget) undisputed heavyweight title, or if they gas out with their mostly evolutionary, not so much revolutionary, next generation handset.

Saturday we mentioned one big change: the fast 3G data chip. Yesterday it was GPS. Today we’re tackling the 2.0 Firmware update.

What is this and why should you want it? Read on after the break!

The original iPhone shipped with firmware 1.0, but was rapidly updated a number of times, topping out at 1.1.4. Many times there were significant features added with these updates, such as customizable home pages, Google Maps location services, the WiFi Music Store, and many more.

But we ain’t seen anything like 2.0. The big news?

Enterprise functionality, including Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, 802.1x secure WiFi networking, Cisco VPN, remote wipe, and other big business demanded features have been baked right in (which will also benefit other large institutions like Universities).

MobileMe integration across iPhone, Windows, and Mac, for “Exchange for the Rest of Us”.

New settings, like enabling/disabling 3G, choosing push vs. manual data sync, parental controls, secure erase, and others will increase the amount control we have over our devices.

The built-in applications are getting tweaked as well. Mail will be getting mass-move and mass-delete, and PowerPoint and iWork previews. You’ll be able to geo-tag your photos and save images from email and the web.

And last but the opposite of least: the App Store, where everything from games, to business productivity tools, to educational references, to even Jobs-doesn’t-know-what will be available right from the iPhone’s home screen (more on the App Store as we continue counting down).

And the best news? On July 11th, the 2.0 firmware will not only be available on the iPhone 3G, but as a free download to all original iPhone (2G) owners as well!

If you don’t mind getting your drool on, Apple has a Guided Tour flaunting showing off all the 2.0 “what’s new” goodness. Check it out!

I know I can’t wait. What new feature are you most looking forward to?

Out of the closest iPhone lover Paul Thurrott of the Supersite for Windows got his beige-boxy hands on pre-release version of the iPhone 2.0 software update and the pre-requisite iTunes 7.7 software, and ran the upgrade process through its paces.

His verdict?

[Installing the 2.0 upgrade] is a multi-step and time-consuming process but is largely hands-off. [...] There’s a new App Store icon on the home screen, for example, and the Mail application includes prominent links to Microsoft Exchange and MobileMe account types. [...] The old iPod Games entry in the Source list [of iTunes 7.7] has changed to App Store, for example, though selecting it now, before the July 11 launch, displays only whatever iPod Games you’ve purchased. [...] I’ll have a lot more to say about this impressive upgrade in the weeks ahead. So far, so good.

Check out his upgrade gallery, and massive iPhone 2.0 screenshot galleries.

Those lucky… bloggers over at Gizmodo have scored a video walkthrough of both the iPhone 2.0 software (build 5A345) and the matching iTunes 7.7 developers received last week. What say they?

As you can see in the video, the App Store is there—although it’s not active yet—along with the new Push data feature, the content restrictions, and the BCC field in Mail, among the rest of the new features.

Though they also say that the Gold Master didn’t drop last Friday due to some remaining glitches. However, the iPhone/iPod Touch Remote Control was already baked in!

Check out the video and then keep wiping the drool until the 11th!

The webs are a blogger over (some awesomely sarcastic) reports originating from iPhone Atlas that — wait for it — an internal AT&T memo has revealed that MMS (Multimedia Messaging Services) will be among the new features revealed with the immanent iPhone 2.0 firmware release.

MMS — a crusty old mobile-to-mobile technology that, once competing networks and technologies learned to play nice, let handset owners send photos, videos, and music to each other in the days when underpowered units were incapable — or diliberately walled-off from — established cross-platform file transfer standards — has been one of the top most griped about features “missing” from the original iPhone 1.x firmware.

Is it for realzy realz this time? No idea. AT&T has been silent on iPhone 3G SMS plans to data (which some take to mean there won’t be any other than the plans already available to every other smartphone), and yet Apple wouldn’t really be Apple unless they were deliberately leaving off some obvious feature or another for no apparent reason, now would they?

With more rumors saying 2.0 has gone Gold Master, we should find out one way or another soon enough!

Remember when AT&T was selling refurbished iPhone 2G‘s at (what was then) ridiculously low prices? Remember how it turned out some of those units still contained the personal information of their previous owners? Apple seems to remember, and has reportedly taken steps to prevent it from happening again.

As with a computer, when you simply delete a file, the file typically remains but is marked as deleted by the file system and will eventually be over-written. To delete something and make sure it’s deleted, you need to over-write it, and not just with a single binary bit (zero’ing out). You have to over-write it with (pseudo) random data, and over-write several times.

Apple does something like this on the desktop with “Secure Empty Trash”, and now they’re bringing the same concept to the iPhone. The catch? Time. The new dialog for “Erase iPhone” now warns that “This will take about an hour.”

And let’s face it: what’s a little time if it prevents that eBay buyer from getting all your personal details, right?

Check the read link for the Settings screen shots…

Read

Since Steve Jobs announced it back in March at the iPhone SDK Roadmap Event, the iPhone 2.0 firmware has seen 7 updates, some bringing with them interesting new features for consumers, others giving more tools to developers. Delivery date was said to be “late June” which for Apple typically means June 30th, 11:59pm, but is now expected to be closer to the July 11th iPhone 3G handset rollout.

One sign that they’re nearing the end of the long road to 2.0 comes from Gizmodo, via what they claim are sources inside Apple’s iPhone development group. What sign is it? A rumor that iPhone 2.0 will hit “gold master” this Friday, following the release of build 345.

Ladies and gentlemen, we may just have our FINAL version!

Will there be any more last minute feature enhancements? Daring Fireball says it’s all about Apple making trade offs. While I certainly understand and appreciate the desire to deliver a smaller set of more stable improvements, the desire for video recording, to-do’s, and cut and freaking paste is strong!

There’s been some chatter here, and in the blogsphere in general, that the iPhone 3G isn’t a compelling enough upgrade for current iPhone users. 3G speed is nice, but not everyone has it in their area. GPS rocks, but Google cell and Skyhook WiFi triangulation is good enough for a lot of location services. And the flush headset jack? Already bought an adapter. So aside from some internals, like rejiggered sensor arrays, better speaker quality, and more radio-friendly plastic back, some just don’t feel like the iPhone 3G brought enough new stuff!

But what if it had? What if it had brought the mother of all firmware updates?

Steve Jobs takes back the stage at WWDC 2008, thanks Scott Forstall and everyone, says how wonderful the SDK looks, goes over all the new features coming to the platform with 2.0, and then reaches into his pocket and says: “But there’s one more thing…” And pulls out something just a little sleeker and blacker backed. “All those 2.0 features, all the enterprise and SDK goodness…” He holds it up and the light flashes against its more tapered sliver bezel. “Are coming EXCLUSIVELY to the new iPhone 3G!”

Boom.

Crazy? Sure. It probably would have broken the internet in half and set off a mountain of protests that would have made the $200 price drop nonsense seem like a molehill. Arguments and counter-arguments would have raged, Apple fanboys would have been split, Apple-haters would have pounced…

But it would have made the iPhone 3G a much more compelling upgrade, wouldn’t it?

Sure, maybe the iPhone 3G we got was somewhere between tweak and evolution on the typical Apple product roadmap, but –

“iPhone 2.0, Available Exclusively on 3G…”

– Would anyone seriously have preferred that?

A New Version of the iPhone SDK is Now Available. Seventh beta version just posted.

So quoth developer.apple.com/iphone, continuing their breakneck, nigh-unprecedented release pace for the iPhone Software Developer Kit (SDK) and iPhone 2.0 beta firmware.

As always, enterprising developers will likely comb through every string and bit in the new release, looking for new features, and hoping strike gold as they have in the past. I’m still holding my breath for video recording and… cut and paste, but admittedly any new discovery will be welcome.

Meanwhile Apple Software Update is now delivering Quicktime 7.5, one of the core components of the Mac’s, and iTunes’ graphic layers. If you’re not prompted for it, and don’t want to trigger it via the utility proper, just surf on over to Apple and grab the direct download. (Note: Mac users will require a reboot — like we said, it’s core level. Windows users, please let us know if you’re likewise sent to the restart.).

Speaking of iTunes, iPhone 3G specs indicate iTunes 7.7 will be required to use Apple’s new handset, so expect another update sometime between now and the July 11th first release date. Other than iPhone 3G specific support and shifting activation to carrier stores, it’s unknown what else the update will bring.

Anyone want to guess? What’s hidden in 2.0 Beta 7, and iTunes 7.7? Give us your best shots!

You’ll probably hear from a lot of people who attended WWDC that the app demo section of the keynote was much too long and even :gasp: boring. But the games showcased at WWDC continue to prove that the iPhone is going to be a force in mobile gaming.

• Super Monkey Ball - First shown in the March Event, Sega has expanded on Super Monkey Ball including over a 100 levels and four classic Monkeys. The graphics in Super Monkey Ball for iPhone is on par with anything from the DS.
• Enigmo - A physics based game using reflectors to put water in a bucket. Ported in three days, looks like frustratingly mindless fun.
• Cro-Mag Rally - A racing game using the iPhone’s accelerometer as a steering wheel. Nine different tracks, 10 unique cars and looks really fun. That too was ported over in three days.
• Digital Legends Entertainment – They demoed a 3D fantasy game that displayed the graphical prowess of the iPhone. It probably didn’t reach the high end level of PSP but it only took two weeks to develop. Available sometime in September.

• iWork and Office document viewing
• Save images from E-Mail directly to photo library
• Contact Search
• E-Mail/SMS Bulk Delete & Move
• Scientific Calculator when switched to Landscape Mode in Calculator
• Support for a TON of languages including Chinese, Japanese

Firmware 2.0 will be available for iPhone users come ‘Early July’ for free and for iPod Touch users at a reduced fee (compared to the last update) of $9.95.

First up, Engadget reportedly got their techie mitts on a leaked version of the iPhone’s (final?) 2.0 firmware and are kind enough to share the following juice details:

Infineon PMB6952 / S-GOLD3 six-band UMTS / HSDPA transceiver (as we’d heard)

• Murata LMRX3JCA-479 tri-band amplifier (we’re assuming for the 3G)
• Sony SP9T antenna switch for GSM / UMTS dual mode
• ARM 1176JZF-S – Main CPU (same as in 1st gen iPhone)
• Skyworks 77427 chip – UMTS / HSDPA tx 1900MHz, rx 2100MHz
• Skyworks 77414 chip – UMTS / HSDPA 1900MHz
• Skyworks 77413 chip – UMTS / HSDPA 850MHz
• Internal build model number: n82ap (1st gen iPhone was model m68ap)
• UMTS Power Saving option – on or off
• Hooks for Global Locate Library (GLL), software that handles A-GPS related commands for the host processor

No processor speed bump is a downer, as everything from video size to MobileSafari rendering speeds are CPU bound tasks. Am I saying bye-bye to my 720p 480p dreams? And will Webkits spiffy new SquirrelFish Javascript engine make up for at least some of this (if it’s included, come showtime?)

Next is word from Ars Technica that Apple Stores have received “secret” shipments and new display signs under strict orders (and lock and key!) not to be opened until D… er… WWDC day. Whatever it is Apple’s announcing tomorrow, ladies and gentlemen, it just may be in the building…

Ubisoft, the publisher of game series such as Rainbow Six, Splinter Cell, Ghost Recon, and Prince of Persia, is reportedly very interested in developing games for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Pauline Jacquey, Executive Producer of Ubisoft’s “Games for Everyone” recently said,

“At the minute, we’re only showing DS and Wii games, but we’ll be working on all other platforms. We’ll be making games not only on PC, PS3 and 360, but on iPhone and iPod touch as well.”

Ubisoft may be waiting to see how well EA and Sega develop real games for the iPhone and what kind of market there will be for iPhone gaming before jumping in. But no worries Ubisoft, as we stated on TiPb many times before, we love iPhone gaming. And none of us ever want to go back to that mobile version junk.

Read

Monday we asked you “What’s the iPhone 3G Chip and When Will it Ship?“. Tuesday it was “What is the iPhone 3G Going to Look Like?“. Today we want to know what YOU think the iPhone 2.0 software and services are going to give us, and what surprises might they have in store?

Exchange ActiveSync and the AppStore are gimmes. Enterprise features are checked. Beta leaks are everywhere. And .Mac to Mobile Me — Don’t get us started! But what else will we get? MMS? Blogging? Mobile iChat? Universal home remote control? And what about the Holy Grail… cut and paste?! What do YOU think?

To give you some help, here’s a HUGE roundup of all the iPhone 2.0 software and services rumors. Epic-style. Because let’s face it, roughly 0.01 seconds after Steve Jobs pulled the first iPhone from his pocket back at Macworld 2007, and someone, somewhere, put aside their childlike sense of wonder long enough think: “Nice! What’s the next gen going to be like?”

Complementary, contradictory, obvious, confusing, all but confirmed or from left field via outer space, the rumors have flooded the internet ever since. It’s become almost impossible to keep track of them all.

Five days from today Steve Jobs takes Moscone Center stage for the sold-out WWDC keynote, and according to everyone and their newsfeed, announces the iPhone 3G. In eager anticipation, every day this week, TiPb wil be asking you to tell us what you think the next generation iPhone will be, from 3G to GPS, release dates to price points, colors to casings, 2.0 software to .Mac .Me services, and this weekend we’ll wrap it all up with a look into the WWDC/iPhone 3G Crystal Ball, and a roundup of the very best of YOUR predictions.

So come on, let’s get in on!

WWDC -5 and Counting: iPhone 2.0 Software & Services

The iPhone’s interface quite literally took the smartphone world’s breath away. Some of us watched the Macworld 2007 demo over and over again — watched as Jobs slid, flicked, pinched, spread, and otherwise touched his way around a set of mobile applications so good looking they were positively “lickable”. We got SMS, Calendar, Photos, Camera, YouTube(!), Stocks, Maps, Weather, Clock, Calculator, Notes, Phone, Mail, Web/Safari, and iPod/Media Player, and Settings for all of them. The wait for release day was torturously long.

Apple also showed an unprecedented ability to upgrade and add functionality via firmware updates handled by iTunes. Minor things included double-clicking the home button to bring up Phone Favorites or the Currently Playing controls on iTunes, and double spacing to add periods. On the major side, the iTunes WiFi Music Store made its debut in the fall alongside the introduction of the iPod Touch, CoreLocation made Google Maps so much more useful, and WebClips and “jigglies” allowed for custom SpringBoards (home screens). All in all, we got updated 1.1.1, 1.1.2, 1.1.3, and 1.1.4. And then came the Apple SDK Roadmap Event and the debut of 2.0 (Beta).

Let’s start there, at the beginning and work our way forward. Please note, 2.0 has been in beta since early March, and that beta has been updated 6 times already, so developers have had ample opportunity to dive into the code for hidden strings and other goodies, making many of these rumors as close to fact as possible:

March 6, 2008: Apple held their iPhone SDK Roadmap Event.

While this event was primarily focused on the SDK and 3rd party apps (which we’ll get to tomorrow!), it also unveiled firmware 1.2.0 (which soon after became 2.0). What did that mean for 1st party iPhone software and services? Phil Schiller, VP of Marketing announced Cisco IPsec VPN, authentication and certs, enterprise/University compatible WiFi (802.1x), security policies, enterprise configuration tools, and “remote wipe”. But none of that was the big news. The big news was that Apple had licensed Microsoft’s Exchange ActiveSync technology. Not any locked-in application, but the technology itself. And they were going to be integrating it into MobileMail, Mobile iCal, and the other built-in iPhone apps for “push” based enterprise support. What’s more, ActiveSync was given first-class status, even over Apple’s own .Mac and existing partners Yahoo! and Google.

In addition to the event proper, Apple snuck a few more goodies into the press release:

[T]he beta iPhone 2.0 software provides several new Mail features such as the ability to view PowerPoint attachments, in addition to Word and Excel, as well as the ability to mass delete and move email messages.

Eagle-eyed viewers, like our own Chad Garrett, also spotted icons that provided the first hints of Event Invitations and Contact Search.

March 17, 2008: Hax0rs extraordinaire, the unofficial iPhoneDevTeam found the Parental Controls settings when they managed to get their hands on a pre-release of the 2.0 software.

March 18, 2008: Apple released Safari 3.1 with built-in support for advanced CSS, including animation, and HTML 5.0, including video and audio tags, as well as key technologies for offline interactivity, including SQLite databases. Based on the same WebKit framework, and big brother to the MobileSafari browser, could the same feature set be making its way to the iPhone?

March 25, 2008: Though his predictions about the first generation iPhone proved completely wrong, on his monstrously popular Diggnation podcast Kevin Rose claimed that iPhone 2.0 would include iChat video conferencing.

Likewise one of the longest and most confusing debacles of the first generation came to a head with rumors that politics and positioning would make 1st party Flash support in the iPhone unlikely even for 2.0.

March 27, 2008: iPhone SDK Beta 2 is released by Apple, changing the release numbers from 1.2.0 to 2.0, superficially with a YouTube plugin for Safari, and VPN, mail, and ActiveSync tweaks and re-org’s.

Over at Apple Insider, a very interesting Apple DVR patent was uncovered. More than just a TiVo-style device, it suggested the iPhone could work as a remote manager, scheduling recordings while you’re out, and syncing them so you could take them with you on the go. Was Apple poised to free your TV, with the iPhone as its key?

March 28, 2008: iPhone Alley dug into the Beta 2 frameworks and found the first references to expanded .Mac services and syncing in 2.0:

Syncing with this Dot Mac account will turn off syncing for other Dot Mac accounts and delete any existing synced data.

March 30, 2008: Not tiring of the seemingly endless soap opera, Gizmodo brought word (again), that Flash would be coming to the iPhone with firmware 2.0. Unfortunately, they mistook embedded YouTube support in MobileSafari for Flash. More likely, it’s a mere extension of existing MP4 H.264 video support already found in the YouTube App proper.

April 8, 2008: Engadget leafed through their WWDC course program and found hints at a MobileSafari update bringing CSS transformations and animations. Could it be getting the same ultra-modern love desktop Safari 3.1 got?

April 9, 2008: iPhone SDK Beta 3 was dropped, with the before-rumored Contact Search and Event Invitations activated.

April 14, 2008: More from Beta 3, as Gizmodo’s anonymous tipster discovered the ability to save images directly from MobileSafari to the iPhone Photo Album.

Meanwhile, Roughly Drafted speculated that ActiveSync itself could be a trojan horse for more open, standards-based “push” protocols like IMAP IDLE and CalDAV. Could Apple get a gorgeous iPhone interface in front of users, while they worked behind the scenes on technologies already supported in Leopard Server as part of the .Mac revitalization for consumers?

April 17, 2008: Apple Insider shone the light on an Apple patent for an iTunes-like iCarrier store for selecting carriers based on up-to-second rate information. This would remove lock-ins to the extent where the big telcos would “bid” for users by offering the best price/performance deal in real time. Unlikely any time soon, given the existing carrier agreements already in place, but one day?

April 22, 2008: Ever watchful Apple Insider revealed a patent filing that held tantalizing potential for a Mobile iChat, and also much-improved MMS and SMS applications. Multi-tasking 3rd party app restrictions may one day have a 1st party solution?

April 24, 2008: iPhone 2.0 SDK Beta 4 hits, with mucho developer tool fixes, updates, and enhanced functionality.

April 27, 2008: Deep code diving on Beta 4 had TUAW bring word on iController, an Apple project that would allow the iPhone to connect to shared iTunes libraries to browse and play media, similar to how the Apple TV functions.

April 28, 2008: TUAW’s tipster returns to reveal that the Beta 4 holds evidence of Jabber/XMPP protocols for instant messaging. Mobile iChat again moves from future potential to present possibility.

May 5, 2008: MacRumors reported that Apple had quietly added Chinese “handwriting” support to 2.0. Not only the key to a massive Asian market, the idea of handwriting recognition itself was huge. Could non-ideographic language support follow?

May 7, 2008: iPhone 2.0 Beta 5 landed with not much new, it seemed, but dev tools and tweaks.

A TUAW tipster soon brought word of .Mac “push” Settings. The buzz of a .Mac ramp up continued, even if on the email-only side. Still, could this be an effort to deliver something akin to ActiveSync functionality to non-business users?

May 8, 2008: Following up on their .Mac “push” email story, TUAW reported that the entire .Mac service would be revamped along with the iPhone 2.0 release at WWDC. Full wireless (wifi + cell) calendar, contacts, and email sync for both Mac and Windows (?!) users.

May 12, 2008: Apple Insider brought word of developers discovering strings that indicated 3G data support. While some controversy surrounding fake/mocked-up screenshots distracted from the news, this was the first software confirmation of the much-anticipated iPhone 3G.

May 22, 2008: Apple Insider again delivers the goodies, this time from “private” updates to “select developers” that showed support for Geo-Tagging. Although not necessarily bound to GPS (Google cell tower and SkyHook Wi-Fi triangulation are already on the iPhone), Geo-Tagging is typically used to add location-based data to photographs.

May 28, 2008: Less than three months in, and Apple released iPhone 2.0 Beta 6! This could well be the final beta going in to WWDC. Any last minute surprises?

May 30, 2008: Coding Robots went through OS X 10.5.3 and found that .Mac was .missing. Seems the name had been replaced with a string variable that would allow Apple to change it. Could the rumored revamp include brand new branding as well?

At the same time, Apple Insider’s patent watchers found a filing for a system to warn users of impending system loss, and another to help locate missing Blue Tooth enabled or tagged items. While iPhone users had been hankering for better BT support, stereo headset and keyboard-style peripherals were no doubt higher on the list… Could they, at least, be headed for 2.0?

May 30, 2008:The missing .Mac mystery deepened as DaringFireball suggested an old Apple trademark may be the new online services marquee: Mobile Me. Howls of grief and confusion echoed through the interweb pipes for days.

June 1, 2008:Dot Mac-Gate continued when DaringFireball brought word that Apple might skip the Mobile and go straight to Me.com (later reports suggested even .Me with a newly established Top Level Domain scheduled). DNS listings, hosts, and domain name ownerships were transferring left and right. And we still weren’t happy with the branding…

June 3, 2008: Those of us who use it found the .Mac email service down. Was Apple shuffling things behind the scenes in preparation for WWDC?

June 4, 2008: TUAW continued their .Mac scoopage with word that the new “MobileMe” service would include all new, all snazzy web interfaces that better resembled the desktop iCal, Address Book, etc. (Even for Windows users?)

Also from TUAW came word that, due to carrier “first look” agreements, the 2.0 firmware gold master from this week would require 1-2 weeks of testing before it could be released to the public, pushing it back as far as end of June/early July.

UPDATED:

June 4, 2008: A Gizmodo reader found icons for the iPhone (and iPod Touch) in a place typically reserved for Bonjour-capable devices. Apple’s implementation of the zero config networking system, iPhone integration could allow for wireless syncing.

June 5, 2008: WWDC banners unfurl, highlight a branding change to iPhone OS X, the World’s Most Advanced Mobile Platform.

Your Turn!

So there you go. We already know what Casey’s top ten most wanted features are, now it’s your turn. Tell us what surprises YOU think the iPhone 2.0 software and services bundle will have for us. Tasks? Consumer-oriented “push” mail/contacts/calendars? Even more Google or Yahoo integration? Custom Widgets? MMS? iChat 3D? Photo Speed Dialing? … Cut and @#$% paste?!

And after you’re done telling us, don’t forget to head over to our iPhone Blog’s super Wait-a-Thon spectacular where you could win an iPhone 3G of your very own, whatever it looks like, on the very day it’s released!

Go back and read Part 1: What’s the iPhone’s 3G Chip and When Will it Ship?
Go back and read Part 2: What’s the iPhone 3G Going to Look Like?
Continue reading Part 4: What 3rd Party iPhone SDK Apps Will Be Available Launch Day?
Continue reading Part 5: What Will the iPhone 3G’s Hardware Features Be?

What’s going to power the next generation iPhone 3G? Infineon again? Insider Intel? A curveball from PA Semi? And more importantly — when are we getting our hands on one?! What do YOU think?

To give you some help, here’s a HUGE roundup of all the iPhone 3G chipset and ship date rumors. Epic-style. Because let’s face it, roughly 0.01 seconds after Steve Jobs pulled the first iPhone from his pocket back at Macworld 2007, and someone, somewhere, put aside their childlike sense of wonder long enough think: “Nice! What’s the next gen going to be like?”

Complementary, contradictory, obvious, confusing, all but confirmed or from left field via outer space, the rumors have flooded the internet ever since. It’s become almost impossible to keep track of them all. But we’re going to try!

One week from today Steve Jobs takes Moscone Center stage for the sold-out WWDC keynote, and according to everyone and their newsfeed, announces the iPhone 3G. In eager anticipation, every day this week, TiPb wil be rounding up a different set of next generation rumors, from 3G to GPS, release dates to price points, colors to casings, 2.0 software to .Mac .Me services, and this weekend we’ll wrap it all up with a look into the WWDC/iPhone 3G Crystal Balland a roundup of the very best of YOUR predictions.

So come on, let’s get in on!

[Digg it!]

WWDC -7 and Counting: Of Baseband Chips and Release Date Trips

Categorically unrelated much? Here’s the thing: the rumors swirling around the iPhone’s 3G chipset and the iPhone 3G’s release date, much like how the terms iPhone and 3G have become inextricably linked as the de facto name for the next generation Apple handset, always seem to show up together. So that’s how we’re going to tackle them.

Now, we don’t really know anything for certain. Not that Jobs is going to be announcing the iPhone 3G. Not that it’s going to be officially called the iPhone 3G. Or even that it’s even going to be 3G (though at this point it really has to be!). All we have is rumors. Tons of them. More of them than perhaps for any event in Apple’s history, and in the tech industry, that’s saying a lot. Enough rumors to stun a blogsphere.

The current iPhone operates on the GSM networks 2.5/2.75 G (Generation) technology known as EDGE, which provides for data speeds roughly analogous to the dial-up internet connections of yore. (We joke only slightly). 3G GSM cell networking uses the more broadband-like HSPA, and while I mentioned before that you can never say certain, it’s pretty much certain the next generation iPhone will support 3G. But which 3G chipset will it use exactly, and when will this iPhone 3G be released?

Let’s start at the beginning and work our way forward:

September 18, 2007: At the “Mum’s No Longer the Word” iPhone launch in the UK, Steve Jobs gave Apple’s first public comment on 3G and the iPhone:

I think we’ll see that hopefully late next year.

Boom. The 3G rumor mill was on!

September 20, 2007: Intel demonstrated a next generation MID (Mobile Internet Device) proof-of-concept that resembled what can only be termed an iPhone “Stretch” based on their then 45nm Silverthorne/Moorestown, now called Atom architecture, which could integrate functionality like 3G. The interwebs lit up, and Intel Inside looked like a possibility for iPhone 3G.

Nov 29, 2007: Once again proving they could make a leaky bucket seem airtight, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson confirmed Jobs “guesstimate” of an iPhone 3G in 2008, though without the “late” part:

You’ll have it next year.

February 28, 2008: Analysts and suppliers brought word from Asia that first generation iPhone 2.5 G baseband supplier Infineon was ramping down production of their S-Gold-2 chips in anticipation of a switch to 3G by mid-year.

That made it a two chipset rumor race, though this one seemed more credible than Intel’s from the get go.

March 6, 2008: This was SDK day. The big one. Steve Jobs and Co. officially announced iPhone 2.0, with immediate beta, and general release in “late June”, which in Apple parlance would roughly translate to June 30, 11:59 pm. But does 2.0 mean new hardware? Does it mean 3G?

March 13, 2008: Skipping right over the 2nd generation iPhone to the 3rd, the Inquirer went back to the Intel MID, predicting Apple would jump from ARM as they had PowerPC, and lent some more weight to the chip-now-known-as-Atom getting into the iPhone (at some point).

March 14, 2008: Pouring fuel on the fire of mid-year release rumors, Apple officially lit the June match by announcing their annual World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) would run from June 9 to 13, and prominently featuring the iPhone as the second bridge/track, next to the traditional Mac focus.

WWDC began to get more and more interesting…

March 25, 2008: Digg founder Kevin Rose used his massively popular Diggnation Podcast to say the 3G HSPA iPhone would arrive in a few months. Rose, of course, had been wrong in his predictions for the first iPhone…

March 26, 2008: More analysts, more Asia, led to reports that Apple may have already placed orders for up to 10 million iPhone 3G handsets from manufacturers. That meant things were moving quickly, and an introduction could be sooner rather than later.

March 29, 2008: And yet more! This time the rumors said 10 million iPhone 3G’s from longtime Apple supplier Hon Hai, some perhaps as early as May (probably test units for carriers), and release in June. Word also came that the New York Apple Store was sold out of current gen iPhones.

April 1, 2008: “Foolish” timing not withstanding, Apple Stores suffered the first in what became a series of current generation iPhone shortages, leading to increased order times and then reports of complete sell-outs.

April 3, 2008: Gizmodo “did lunch” with AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega, and when pressed about the release of the iPhone 3G, de la Vega leaked:

Let me repeat what I said: I think that you’re going to see our integrated devices be 3G devices in the not-too-distant future, and I mean months. That should be clear enough.

April 6, 2008: Apple’s go-to review guy, none other than Uncle Walt Mossberg, off-handedly quipped that the iPhone 3G would be released in less than 60 days (by June 6). Mossberg later retracted the quip, but the timeline, so close to WWDC’s keynote on June 9, seemed a little too convenient…

April 9, 2008: Jailbreaking wizards ZiPhone deep dove the iPhone 2.0 Beta 3 firmware and came up with strings referencing SGOLD3, which was immediately linked to Infineon’s S-Gold-3 chips, one of which supported 3G. Not conclusive, but inching closer…

April 10, 2008: TG Daily reported that the iPhone 3G would indeed debut at WWDC, and went so far as to offer price points at $399 for 8GB, $499 for 16GB, and potentially $599 for a huge 32GB model.

April 16, 2008: Deeply discounted iPhones began to appear in the UK via O2, mirroring discounts available from from T-Mobile in Germany, and followed by Orange in France as well. Euro-liquidation in preparation for the 3G onslaught?

April 18, 2008: Word came from Asia that Infineon would provide the 65nm 3G chipset for the next generation, to be manufactured by UMC. Seemed like a done deal, but then…

April 23, 2008: The interwebs woke to the shocking news that Apple had purchased Palo Alto Semiconductor (PA Semi) for $287 million. PA Semi, from the guys who spun us the DEC Alpha and StrongARM, focused on super efficient mobile chips, suddenly creating a potential 3G love triangle for the iPhone, and making Infineon less of a done deal than it had appeared. Or did it? 3G may never have been, or may never ever be, part of the PA Semi package, and other ideas rapidly surfaced for their potential in the iPhone, primarily as proprietary, special-purpose chips.

April 28, 2008: More for the heap, as Engadget reported that Foxxcon (aka Hon Hai), manufacturer of the first generation iPhone, was ramping up the 3G assembly line for the end of May, with production of 3 million units expected for June, and 25 million during product lifetime.

April 29, 2008: Rogers’ announced the iPhone will be coming to Canada “sometime later” in the year. This began a tsunami of similarly short and vague iPhone announcements across Europe and for the first time in Asia, Latin America, Australia, and Africa. Most significantly, many of these were countries where 3G not only made sense but verged on being a deal-breaker.

May 5, 2008: derStandard.at reported that Austria(!) would shortly be serving as the testing ground for the iPhone 3G.

May 6, 2008: Amid rumors galore, a leaked memo from AT&T revealed that once again employees were instructed not to take vacation between June 15 and July 12 due to an expected big bump in traffic from a new promotion… Hmmm…

May 12, 2008: AT&T’s website suddenly showed an “iPhone Black”. They later claimed it was an error, but the reasons given were nonsensical.

May 13, 2008: Surprising absolutely no one, Apple announced that Steve Jobs, joined by a team of execs, would be keynoting WWDC on June 9. More and more, all rumors led back to that date.

May 15, 2008: Fed up with AT&T hogging all the leaky glory, Intel Germany Geschäftsführer Hannes Schwaderer let slip that:

There is an iPhone with Intel’s new Atom chip. The device is slightly larger than the current version. That is not, however, because of the Intel chip, but because of the larger display used in the new iPhone.

Intel tried to claim it never happened, but others in attendance’s take on the comment was:

The Intel CEO mentioned furthermore, that the display on iPhone 2 would be bigger than on iPhone 1 (although it is already quite big). iPhone 2 is also thinner than iPhone 1.

Was Intel still in the running?

The same day, banking on a Jobsnote announcement of the iPhone 3G to make history, WWDC sold out for the first time in history.

May 20, 2008: Gizmodo reported that “people in the know” said the iPhone 3G would be announced on June 9, day and date of Steve Jobs’ WWDC keynote.

May 21, 2008: InfoSync claimed confirmation that the iPhone 3G would be announced June 9, and further added that AT&T would have it available for sale roughly 10 days later — June 19 or 20.

May 23, 2008: Import Genius analyzed data from thousands of U.S. customs declarations for Apple, Inc. and found 188 “electric computer” containers of a product never before imported by the company. What could that be…?

May 26, 2008: In a move eerily reminiscent of last years original iPhone launch, AT&T is reported to be hiring temps to bolster their ranks from June 16 – August 16, under code-name “Summer Project Pro”.

May 28, 2008: Though everyone expected an iPhone 3G announcement by WWDC, based in part from leaks by Ma Bell herself, AT&T CFO Rick Lindner decided to play coy about pricing details, telling the media:

There’s not been a product announcement. There hasn’t been any pricing decisions made. That’s yet to come.

June 1, 2008: In a move amazingly reminiscent of last year’s pre-original iPhone “Fine Edge” project, which boosted 2.5 G speeds, AT&T began an upgrade to boost the speed of their 3G HSPA network. Coincidence? Not.

UPDATED:

June 5, 2008: Fortune’s Brian Caulfield (via Apple Insider) had word of yet more mysterious boxes, this time at supposed current iPhone manufacturer Quanta. While some were labeled “iMac”, 20 others were in plain brown wrappers, with employees either unavailable or unwilling to elaborate.

June 6, 2008: Apple Insider kept up with the box news, and showed packages arriving in Australia with ominous “under NDA” and “do not open until June 10″ warnings.

Your Turn!

So there you go, now it’s your turn. Tell us what YOU think will power the iPhone 3G. Current supplier Infineon? Powerhouse Intel? Recent acquisition PA Semi? And when will we be getting an iPhone with that chip? WWDC like everyone expects? Late June? July? Sometime before the holidays?!

And after you’re done telling us, don’t forget to head over to our iPhone Blog’s super Wait-a-Thon spectacular where you could win an iPhone 3G of your very own, with whatever chip’s in it, on the very day it’s released!

Continue reading Part 2: What’s the iPhone 3G Going to Look Like?
Continue reading Part 3: What Surprises Will Be in iPhone 2.0 Software & Services?
Continue reading Part 4: What 3rd Party iPhone SDK Apps Will Be Available Launch Day?
Continue reading Part 5: What Will the iPhone 3G’s Hardware Features Be?

Apple has just dropped the sixth (6th!) update to their iPhone SDK and 2.0 beta firmware. Pre-req is Apple’s almost simultaneously dropped OS X Leopard update, 10.5.3, so developers are forewarned to get that first before beginning the SDK install.

No word yet on what new treasures may be hiding in this version, but if past betas are any indication, there’ll no doubt be something hidden in them there strings

According to TUAW, however, Apple is now carding. Yup, they’re checking Application IDs at the door, so make sure you’re registered before you try to install apps on a test iPhone.

Head on over to Apple’s iPhone DevCenter to get yours now!

A New Version of the iPhone SDK is Now Available Sixth beta version just posted.

Via

WinPwn, the Pwnage tool for Windows, has finally left beta and is now available for official release. WinPwn 1.0 claims to be much more stable than previous beta releases and includes many bug fixes and new features. WinPwn is an incredibly safe and powerful way of jailbreaking your iPhone. It can jailbreak any firmware and the folks over at Pwnage believe that it will eventually replace the likes of iLiberty+ and ZiPhone.

At its most basic level, WinPwn allows you to install custom firmware on your iPhone and restore with custom firmware through iTunes. Though there isn’t a true need for WinPwn and Pwnage for 1.1.4, it is the only current option to jailbreak 2.0. Also, the Pwnage tool is for those who like to dabble with new firmware, so those wary of more sophisticated measures of jailbreaking might want to stick with the other options for the time being.

We haven’t gotten our hands on WinPwn or the Pwnage tool here at TiPb just yet, but we’ll be sure to update you guys about the entire process when we do.

Read

A lot of people look at the iPhone, in its current iteration, and complain that while it looks good, it lacks customization and is in dire need of native applications. And there’s a lot of truth to that, Apple has restricted much of the features on the iPhone and has limited what you can and cannot do. As much as it falls in line with keeping the user interface clear and intuitive, making users become passive to development prevents Apple from fully realizing the iPhone’s potential.

You want to run 3^rd party apps? Safari and Web Apps is the only ‘official’ way. Granted that Web Apps have come a long way, it doesn’t give justice to the true power of the iPhone as much as it shows off the versatility of Safari.

Currently, the only answer to this dilemma is jailbreaking. After having mulled the jailbreaking option a few times before, I made the switch only a couple months ago. And my, if you want to get a true glimpse of what the iPhone can do, Jailbreaking is currently the only way to go. In this article, I’ll show you why you should strongly consider jailbreaking and what it offers for iPhone users.

Read On For The Reasons to Jailbreak!

Previous jailbreaking options left the users with complicated options, you could either rig your iPhone in terminal or jump through a bunch of hoops to reach the desired jailbreak. Though ‘bricking’ your iPhone used to be an issue, current jailbreaking programs almost eliminate that pitfall completely.

With jailbreaking programs like iLiberty+ and ZiPhone*, the process is essentially invisible. You connect the iPhone to your Computer (Mac+PC) and then run the program ZiPhone and it does all the tasks it needs to do behind the scenes. Well a lot of script is run on the iPhone’s screen but other than that, it’s as hands off as syncing your iPhone to iTunes. After a few clicks, you are ready to roll worry-free and don’t have to jailbreak again.

After running iLiberty+ or ZiPhone, the Insaller.app is brought to your Home Screen and that is where the beauty of jailbreaking lies. As mentioned before, the Installer.app is as polished a program as any on the iPhone and you are a mere few clicks away from natively running any third party app imaginable.

If you do happen to run into issues, a quick restore should do the trick. And when 2.0 is released, the jailbreakers will already be prepared. You can access the updates and sync your iPhone with no hitches.

The community nature of Installer.app allows an advantage that other phone ‘stores’ simply cannot offer. Any and every app is essentially available through the outlet of Installer.app and the apps are constantly being updated and getting better (not to even mention the improvements of Installer.app itself). Unlike 3^rd party apps for other phones where there are a gluttony of choices on how to install, everything in Installer.app is seamless and typically, error-free. Search for a program in Installer.app’s integrated search and immediately install the program. Lather, Rinse, Repeat.

With jailbreaking, anything in your wildest dreams is theoretically possible. Do you want to make your iPhone into a graphing calculator? There’s iPlot. You want to have a ‘today’ screen that notifies you of appointments, emails and messages akin to something from WinMob and Blackberry? Well, there’s an app for that too. Even enhancing existing features on the iPhone such as the camera is possible. Snapture and Camera Pro add features such as digital zoom and a camera timer, among others.

Sure, apps like Pocket Guitar and Drummer don’t do much other than give you an excuse to start an iBand. In fact even one of my favorite apps, Sketches, is theoretically a gimmick program that lets you draw chicken scratch on photos. But claiming that it doesn’t increase the fun-factor of the iPhone by about a billion is short sighted.

There are games that the Web Apps try to emulate, but simply cannot be matched without jailbreaking. iPhysics is a great platform that serves as a blackboard for developers, there is an endless supply of level packs to ensure you’ll never get bored. You get to take advantage of multi-touch and the accelerometer to beat the game. Also, emulators for the NES and GBA are also available, sure you won’t break any records, but quickly firing up Super Mario while you wait for an appointment is a great way to pass the time.

What’s better is that almost all the programs I’ve used are free! Installer.app is a community that wishes to unleash the capabilities of the iPhone without charging you a dime. So the arguments against jailbreaking are dwindling—it increases the power, adds fun-factor, and is free!

One of the best aspects of jailbreaking the iPhone is that it gives you a crystal ball to see what apps could possibly be available in the upcoming App Store. Many of the developers who develop jailbroken programs are also planning to release programs in 2.0. So becoming familiar with programs in the jailbroken iPhone gives you the framework for learning what to expect in 2.0.

Jailbreaking also gives you a great look at what the iPhone can do. It makes your iPhone even more than the versatile device it already is, it offers a platform where developers can truly go wild over. Like I mentioned before, the world is truly your oyster—what you want, you can probably always get.

To fully take advantage and enhance the iPhone’s features, jailbreaking is a no brainer. Personally, I can no longer imagine using a non-jailbroken iPhone. Even when 2.0 and the App Store is released to the public, I’ll still be excited to see what the community of jailbreakers can offer me. Sure, Apple-approved apps are going to be fun to use but for everything Apple doesn’t want you to do, jailbreaking offers you the key.

The best analogy I can offer is that jailbreaking an iPhone is like completing a full course meal. The iPhone is a great dish in itself, but jailbreaking adds appetizers, desserts, sides, and a fine brew to make the dinner even more delicious. The iPhone is a great little device without jailbreaking, and I won’t deter you from keeping it the way Apple envisioned. But if you demand more from your devices, jailbreaking is the best option that offers much too many benefits without any obvious harm.

Hopefully you’ll consider the jailbreak option because here at TiPb we’ll constantly give you updates on the jailbreaking scene and continue to offer you guys weekly jailbreak app reviews even after the 2.0 update. Stay tuned to jailbreaking because when the update is finally released, it’ll demand the jailbreaking community to step it up another notch. We’re excited to see what’s in store.

*After initially recommending ZiPhone for our iPhone jailbreaks we are now supporting the use of iLiberty+. One of our astute readers, Bad Ash, has shown that while ZiPhone is the easiest way, iLiberty+ is the safer route to jailbreak and nearly foolproof. It uses a more sophisticated jailbreaking process that while takes a bit longer, is most certainly worth it in the end.

Ask and ye shall receive, dig deep into the code and ye shall find fresh-baked Apple-y goodness.

No sooner did Apple drop iPhone 2.0 SDK Beta 5, than the developers began scouring it for any hint of what’s to come, and as usually TUAW serves up what they found:

A certain, unnamed individual sent us some pictures of the latest build of the iPhone firmware showing .Mac push e-mail. The picture shows the main Settings page with a new button: “Fetch new data.” When you click the button, you are taken to a list of your mail accounts, where you can choose between either “fetch” or “push.” According to Mr. Anonymous, while .Mac is offering push e-mail, you are currently not able to do contact or calendar syncing.

Check out TUAW’s gallery for the pics.

Boy, Apple is pushing the features fast and furiously. We already knew about “push” via the Microsoft licensed ActiveSync, which offers full Exchange support, but complementing that with .Mac for non-Exchange users? Very nice!

(Of course, much as I love Back-to-My-Mac, iSync, iDisk, and other .Mac features, it really needs a more competitive feature-set upgrade — Imagine Google-like offerings and capacities with Apple’s ease of use and integration! — especially for the rather steep $100 a year.)

June really can’t come fast enough!

TUAW and iPhone dev extraordinaire Erica Sadun reports that Apple has dropped the svelte-ish 1GB iPhone 2.0 SDK Beta 5 and accompanying firmware:

The fifth beta version of the iPhone SDK is now available. Log in to the iPhone Dev Center and take advantage of all the development resources available to you—a new version of the iPhone SDK, updated documentation, the latest release notes, and more.

No word yet on what secrets deep delving this latest code may reveal, but if past discoveries are any indication, literally anything is possible (except for cut and paste, of course).

Any guesses?

Thanks to iPhone developer, forum regular, and troll-slayer extraordinaire cmaier for passing along this gem from McRumors:

Apple has quietly included handwriting recognition for Chinese (Traditional and Simplified) into the latest iPhone Firmware 2.0 beta. When you select Chinese input, you are given the option to use handwriting recognition allowing you to draw characters on the screen with your finger. As you write the character, four possibilities appear on the right side of the screen.

Simplified characters, the official version in Mainland China, is the key to one massive market. Traditional characters, used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, regaining popularity in the South of China, and adapted to form parts of the Japanese and some South East Asian regional/cultural groups, is key to a second.

(Not to mention what implications, if any, this has for on-again/off-again China Mobile discussions…)

Having studied Chinese for a few years, and not having found any handset character recognition I’ve been particularly fond of yet, I’m likewise eager to see what Apple can bring to the table.

What do you think?

Can’t wait any longer for Native Apps? Me neither. (Late) June seems too far away? I’m with you. So why wait, when you can jailbreak! Over the next couple months before 2.0 is released, I’ll give you guys a glimpse into the jailbroken world of native apps every week. If we don’t find anything life-changing, hopefully we’ll learn a few things along the way. Plus: let’s face it, Jailbreaking isn’t going anywhere. The SDK is awesome, but some people won’t settle for anything less than full-on access to all the hidden bits of the iPhone.

Today, we start with another look at the ever-evolving program that is Installer.app. Developed by the guys at Nullriver, Installer.app is the first app you see after jailbreaking. Its main goal is to serve as an outlet for all the rest of the iPhone’s native apps and it has come a long way since we first showed you how to use it. Does it succeed? Is it effective? Can Apple learn something from Installer.app?

Read on for the rest of the review! (and remember you’ll need a Jailbroken iPhone to take advantage of this native app)

One of the biggest arguments against the iPhone is the lack of native apps available for it. Because of the closed nature of the iPhone, many people argued that it can’t truly be considered a smartphone. To many, a smartphone isn’t a smartphone until you have apps that can make that phone, well, smarter. Which makes sense, why have a tool as powerful as the iPhone if you can’t really utilize it? That’s where jailbreaking steps in. After jailbreaking, the Installer.app is displayed on your Home Screen and with just one touch, your iPhone gets even smarter.

Purpose

In short, Installer.app is a program manager, software updater, and downloader in one piece of software. You download programs, install programs, update programs, and uninstall programs in a one-stop shop. It’s like combining the best parts of Finder, iTunes, and VersionTracker into one. The embedded tabbed nature of the program allows one to fluidly jump from one task to another without any hiccups.

Design & Layout

I’m a sucker for well-designed icons on my iPhone. It annoys me to no end when a site’s web clip is poorly constructed or even worse, non-existent. I know, we can design our own, but I would still much rather have those developers create a good-looking icon for me. Good icons = more clicking. Luckily, the Installer.app icon is a thing of beauty. With a Safari-esque blue, the icon looks very much a part of the Apple family.

The layout of the program is simplistically and stylishly designed and creates a streamline look with the rest of the iPhone’s pre-installed programs (iPod, iTunes Store, etc). The folks at Nullriver did a great job in creating Installer to look as if Apple had created it themselves. From the spacing to the tab structure, Installer.app is as clean and easy to use as any program on the iPhone.

In the latest iteration, the Installer.app opens with a list of Featured programs, similar to how the iTunes Wi-Fi store opens with Featured Songs. There is a black row of tabs, again taking obvious design cues from the iTunes Wi-Fi Store, that displays buttons for: Featured, Install, Update, Uninstall, and Sources.

Usage

The whole user experience of Installer is very straightforward and extremely easy-to-use. Even for the unsavviest of iPhone owners, finding apps should be a cinch because of the great categorization of the apps. Clicking on the Install tab would provide categories that apps will be in such as:

• Recent Packages
• Games
• Multimedia
• Network
• Productivity
• System
• Themes
• Utilities
• Wallpaper

..and many more. From my personal experience, carrier app stores like those in other phones are extremely cumbersome and slow, the Installer.app is quick to use, easy to learn, and very, very fluid. I have had no issues of crashing, freezing, or anything of that sort. From the looks of it, Installer.app is as stable as they come.

Once you find a program that piques your interest, all it takes is one click and it’ll automatically download and install to your iPhone. Installer.app warns you if some programs are not from ‘trusted sources’, but from my experience, those prompts are not as serious as it sounds. Installer.app also provides short descriptions on native apps that give you a better idea on what the app offers.

If you can’t find the program you want, you might have to add sources. I’ll provide you with a rough analogy to explain what that means, so bear with me here, if Installer.app was a Mall, Sources would be the stores that fill up that Mall, and Apps would be the items that make up that Store. All across the web there are great Sources that could be added to Installer.app which leads to many more native apps that can be downloaded to your iPhone.

The great thing about sources is that you can personalize the Installer.app to consist of what you want it to consist of. Using the same analogy, Installer.app is your personal Mall for iPhone. Once you click on the Sources button, you can Add and Delete Sources for the Installer.app to check for their programs. Thus, if you find a few developers that make great programs, you can add them and if you find some developers you never download from, you can delete them. This personalization is very useful in keeping the junk away from your Installer.app and bringing the best programs to the forefront.

Uninstalling is just as easy as Installing. You tap the Uninstall tab, and find the native app you don’t want anymore, and tap Uninstall on the screen.

Installer.app’s speed on Wi-Fi is expectedly, incredibly fast. Programs download in mere seconds and sources are updated just as fast. EDGE does well considering most native app sizes are measured in the KB’s, but you might want to stay away from larger sized files until you have a Wi-Fi connection.

Criticism

An annoyance I found in Installer.app is that once you have downloaded new programs and exit Installer, it’ll hesitate a little on your Home Screen and then bring you back to your unlock screen. This is probably because it has to re-set your Home Screen in order to load the new apps but it is an annoyance nonetheless. If Installer.app could ever figure out a way to integrate programs as seamlessly as web clips, who would even need an App Store!

Also, I found that like all the other iPhone programs pre-installed, the Installer.app has a definite need for integrated search. In the days of Google and Spotlight, search has re-defined the way we find things and open programs. With a search engine, it’d be much easier to more efficiently find programs than having to peruse the categories for that one single app.

Final Thoughts

When the App Store in 2.0 is released, it will already need to catch up to Installer.app because Installer.app is just that good. As if it was made from the folks from Cupertino themselves, the Installer.app’s design and user interface is streamline with the rest of the iPhone’s first-party applications.

I loved the ease of use and overall design, anyone who opens up Installer.app can more or less figure out how to work with it. I can’t imagine what the future App Store will look like because it’s difficult to imagine it any different from what Installer.app already is.

Though the Installer.app has come a long way, adding features like search and finding a better solution in loading programs to your Home Screen are all issues that should be fixed in the next couple of iterations. Having just taken the first steps into the jailbreaking world, I am convinced that the Installer.app is a good enough reason to jump over. There are few apps as polished and even fewer that provide the type of user-interface the iPhone was created for.

Pros

• Great User Interface
• Streamline Design
• Ability to Personalize Installer
• Easy to Learn
• Native Apps Galore!

Cons

• Awkward Refresh of Home Screen After Installing Programs
• Could Use a Search Feature

Overall: 4.9/5

TUAW’s code-scouring tipster is back with rumors on what could be found in an Apple iChatMobile app, and it’s set to jibber with some Jabber:

[a] new XMPP framework has been spotten in the latest iPhone firmware. XMPP refers to the open source standard developed by the Jabber community for instant messaging. Remember back in March when Apple announced it would support native instant messaging? In a nutshell, it looks like Apple’s new iPhone-based chat will be built on Jabber/XMPP. [...] Unfortunately, we’re told that this XMPP support remains in a private framework and will not be available to 3rd party SDK developers.

How (and if) this fits in with the recently discovered Apple chat-related patent filing, and/or (double if) the AOL concept demo from the SDK event, is anyone’s guess at this point, but one thing’s for certain: it’s getting interesting in iPhone IM land!

One of the features I most want for the iPhone is the ability to use it as a Wi-Fi remote for iTunes (and related services like Front Row or the Apple TV). Sitting back, multi-touch flicking through lists of content, finding something interesting, tapping, and — boom — having it “just work” on my TV or Mac would be Jobsian perfection.

Well, if TUAW’s latest rumor pans out, Apple may be about to deliver, well… not exactly that, but something just as cool:

Apple is working on a new iPhone application called iControl. Like Apple TV and other remote controllers, it would allow the iPhone to connect wirelessly to local iTunes libraries and browse through and play media from those sources. TUAW is told that a media navigator will allow you to view videos, play podcasts, listen to music and even support shuffle playback.

As is increasingly the case, the rumor comes via deep delving into the latest firmware and discovering all sorts of interesting localization strings. Whether this means we’ll just be able to play iTunes content on the iPhone as though it were a mobile Apple TV, or if I’ll be getting my dream iTunes/Front Row/Apple TV remote control via the iPhone as well, we’ll have to wait and see.

And I really am finding it harder and harder to wait. How about you?

No reports of Pink Screens of Death this time, but Apple has released the fourth version of their SDK (5A258f), which weighs in at a beefy 1.15GB (200+MB for firmware) and according to TAUW (via Apple Developer Connection) sports:

Xcode IDE, iPhone simulator with Open GL ES support, Interface Builder, Instruments, frameworks and samples, compilers, and Shark analysis tool.

In addition, code-signing is now enforced, Audio Toolbox was big-upped, NSXML parser was introduced, fonts were given some pro love, and — teasingly — the UIApplication delegate class is now rumored to have Springboard Icon badging and some way to get and release “active status”. TAUW speculates this may allow some form of background functionality for Apps! (Wishful thinking?)

Go get ‘em developers. Especially you deep-code-digging developers who find all sorts of goodies hidden in the strings.

Have you ever been surfing the real internet on your iPhone, discovered and amazing picture, and wished you could save it to your photo album?

Well, now you can.

Here’s how: Touch the image you want to save, hold your finger there for a very long time, and — boom! — iPhone will ask you if you want to Save Photo, Go To URL, or Cancel.

It’s that easy.

For more information, visit Gizmodo’s anonymous tipsters who just love them some digging around in Apple’s iPhone 2.0 Beta 3 software.

According to Engadget, Apple is serving up (yet another?) new beta firmware, this one doing away with the (confusing?) 1.2.0 designation and lining up squarely behind Steve Jobs’ announced 2.0 labeling.

Aside from some VPN, mail, and ActiveSync tweaks and re-org’s, Engadget can’t find much else aside from the shiny new version release, but as June gets closer, no doubt Apple’s engineers will get busier!

JAR! The “Cat and Mouse Game” between the nasty pirates and the royal Cupertino navy seems to have shifted decidedly in the pirates favor, or so says Engadget:

Those crafty kids on the iPhone Dev Team have already hacked the 2.0 firmware, but now they’re getting ready to release the oh-so-creatively-named PWNED tool, which takes iPhone hacking to the next level by patching the bootloader to let you load any firmware image you want — even images not signed by Apple. That means custom patched firmware can now be loaded directly from iTunes, which simplifies the jailbreaking / unlocking process tremendously, and also means that a patched version of the 2.0 firmware is coming soon.

Video after the break!

Looks like the most dastardly of jailbreaks/unlocks yet. Can Apple check the move and raise the stakes, or is the iPhone DevTeam to be believed and it’s the yard-arm for El Jobso’s lock-down? What do you think?

No sooner did our own Chad Garette lay out the case for .Mac syncing via the iPhone, then iPhone Alley, (via TUAW), brings word that El Jobso might be doing just that:

In the just released SDK beta 2, iPhone Alley found a string within a preference bundle that reads: “Syncing with this Dot Mac account will turn off syncing for other Dot Mac accounts and delete any existing synced data.” This suggests the possibility of wireless syncing for non-Exchange users.

This would be awesome additional functionality for both the iPhone and for .Mac. 2.0 really can’t come fast enough.

And note to Chad: How about an article on why the iPhone really needs immediate release in Canada? Please?

Engadget honcho Ryan Block got his techie mitts on a pre-release version of the iPhone 2.0 firmware, and here are the highlights (and lowlights!):

Exchange over Wi-Fi is not instantaneous (!). No contact search he could find. New button in Calendar don’t do nothing for him yet. App Store error’s out. Cisco branded VPN screen. Parental controls are good-to-go. Wi-Fi order can be specified in prefs. Calc has new widescreen scientific mode and icon. And his favorite new feature — Multi-Select in Mail!

Head on over for a full rundown and gallery o’ pics!

Apple pre-announces new iPhone firmware. Apple releases new fimware beta. New firmware beta leaks to pirates (JAR!). It’s a familiar story (except for the Apple pre-announcing twist — that almost never happens), and this time brings us details on the upcoming “Parental Controls” feature. (Apple Insider via iPhoneDevTeam)

A General Preference pane, iPhone’s Parental Controls can be enabled or disabled, with individual options for allowing/disallowing “explicit” iPod content, and/or use of Safari, YouTube, iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store, and App Store.

Of course, since iPhoneDevTeam probably has several l33t hax0r members around the age of 10, figure the next-gen jailbreak/unlock will also remove any such parental oversight (FTW!).

Gizmodo raises the Jolly Roger this morning with news that the scurvy Pwned Project DevTeam has forced the iPhone SDK beta firmware to walk the plank:

• Jailbreak? Aye.
• Unlock? Aye Aye.
• Unsigned Apps? JAR!

Old Install.app applications will need to be updated to the new APIs, but by using a firmware patch rather than hack, DevTeam believes this Jailbreak will be hard for Apple to counter. Prepare to be boarded!

Has the DevTeam got Apple’s treasure for good this time or is Cap’n Jobs already coming around, cannons primed? The cat and mouse game continues!

UPDATE: Ars Technica explains:

The new exploit works by taking advantage of the boot loading process on the iPhone, using the AppleImage2NorAccess extension to load a custom firmware to the device in the same way that the standard restore process works. After the patched firmware has been written to the device and restarted, any unsigned app can be loaded and run.

Catch the video after the break!

When the iPhone and iPod Touch first shipped, many eager big business users and university students snapped up the “breakthrough internet devices” only to find that, because the iPhone and iPod Touch didn’t support the 802.1x protocol, they couldn’t connect to some very large Wi-Fi networks.

Posts piled up on Apple’s Discussion Boards, feature requests and bug reports flooded in (I know I sent one!), and, as of the SDK Roadmap event on Thursday, Apple has listened! 802.1x has been announced for firmware 2.0!

But what is it and why’s is it so important?

Let’s say you bring home a Wi-Fi router and plug it in, then find out that, because you didn’t put any type of security password on it, your neighbor has been stealing your bandwidth.

So you try WEP (wire equivalent privacy), but since it was designed by engineers and not cryptographers, your rascally neighbor can just download a little utility from the web, crack your security in under a minute, and start torrent’ing away again on your dime.

Finally, you switch to robust WPA(2) (Wi-Fi protected access) along with a monster 64 character Gibson-certified pseudo-random password and, d’oh, your neighbors locked out and the cheapskate has to pony up for his own broadband.

Now let’s say instead of your home, you’re running a business or academic institution with thousands or tens of thousands of users. You can’t just slap on a password (even a secure one), because you’d have to give it to each of those users, who could then just tell their friends, and there goes security. Worse, from an administrative perspective, anytime someone left your business or institution, you’d have to change the password and get the new one to tens of thousands of users. Nightmare.

That’s where 802.1x comes in. Rather than the router using a single ID with a single, common password, 802.1x allows for an authentication server to be running, and thus enables more powerful, flexible, and manageable Wi-Fi for very large networks.

With 802.1x any one of tens of thousands of users can connect to the authentication server, pass along a set of credentials, and be allowed onto the network (or rejected if the credentials fail).

And with late June’s 2.0 firmware update, tens of thousands of users will be doing just that, at long last, on the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Apple’s Thursday press release (via Ars Technica), while big on Enterprise and chock-full of SDK goodness, also snuck in some new, long sought-after features for one of the built-in apps: MobileMail (Mail Touch?).

In addition to these new iPhone network and security features, the beta iPhone 2.0 software provides several new Mail features such as the ability to view PowerPoint attachments, in addition to Word and Excel, as well as the ability to mass delete and move email messages.

But what about the other built-in apps like Calendar and Contacts?

Our own eagle-eyed Chad Garrett has already spotted a mysterious new icon on Calendar, and predicted we may indeed see Task integration (GTD’ers, put it on your to do’s!).

Now BlargKABOOM (via TUAW) has hauled out the iMicroscope and discovered yet another tantalizing new icon, this time in Contacts:

It is a little spotlight icon right above the A on the alphabet.

Does this mean we may just be getting search as well? If so, how will it be implemented, and will it be limited to contacts or (dare we hope?) system wide, SDK-level CoreSearch?

iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store, YouTube, the Weather, Stock and other widgets, and MobileSafari Touch have all had search for a while now. C’mon Apple, share the love!