We've gotten a bunch of emails and some tweets from readers experiencing problems trying to download content from iTunes in the Cloud -- Apple's service that lets you access previously purchased movies, TV shows, music, iBooks, and apps on iPhones, iPads, Apple TV, and iTunes on the desktop. According to Matthew Panzarino of The Next Web, Apple is aware of the problem and is working on a fix.

We contacted Apple Support on the phone and the support person acknowledged the issue, telling us that the first occurrence they had heard of the issue was about 3:30 PST, which is around when we first saw it as well. The support person said that the problem, as far as they know, has to do with the iTunes cloud or its servers and that there was currently no ETA for a fix.

According to Apple Discussions, the error message users are getting is along the lines of:

item cannot be downloaded on this network...must be connected to a wifi network or purchase on computer

Another tech support note pegs the problem as occurring on content over 15mb. Based on the emails we've received, people seem to be having the most problems with TV show streaming on the Apple TV in specific.

Since the problem sounds like it's on Apple's end, there nothing we can do but wait for them to get things running again. So as much as you may want to reboot, re-login, or keep hitting download just hoping the next time will be the charm, take a deep breath, play something else, and keep an eye out for updates.

If you're currently experiencing a problem with iTunes in the Clouds re-downloads or streams, let us know what type of media you're trying to re-download, and when. If it starts working for you again, let us know that as well.

Source: The Next Web, thanks @mjperljam

TechCrunch is helping shed light on an iMessage bug that's causing problems for iOS users trying to send SMS messages to ex-iPhone users who have switched to another platform, such as Android.

What happens is, the iPhone attempts to send the SMS to the ex-iPhone user as an iMessage -- just like it always did before the recipient switched devices. But since Android doesn't support iMessage, the text ultimately fails.

Simple, if naive solution:

1. Don't let your friends switch away from iPhones.

Complicated, if realistic solution:

1. Tell them to go to: https://supportprofile.apple.com/MySupportProfile.do
2. Log in with their Apple ID.
3. Click on “edit products”
4. Click on the “x” to the right of the product.
5. Click “unregister”

According to a tipster in Apple's support forums, this should resolve the issue entirely. Unfortunately, this is just one of several iMessage related bugs we've been tracking lately. New service or not, Apple needs to get on top of this so users don't have to go through steps they ought not have to go through.

Source: Apple Support Communities via TechCrunch

A newly discovered timestamp security bug may leave your iOS device photos exposed regardless of whether or not your device is passcode locked. Ade Barkah, a Canadian tech consultant, has figured out that changing the time on your device will leave any photo taken in the "future" accessible via the quick camera toggle on the home screen.

The quick toggle is a new feature in iOS 5 that allows you to double tap your home button to access your camera app. From there you can tap into your image gallery. If your device is passcode locked, you will receive a message asking you to unlock your device to view photos. Unless you change the time on your device. Anything taken after that time stamp will be viewable as the phone will assume nothing exists after that point in time.

Turns out Apple’s restriction is just a simple filter based on the timestamp when the Camera app was invoked. You’re allowed to see all images with a timestamp greater than this invocation time. Yet that leads to an immediate hole: if your iPhone’s clock ever rolls back, then all images with timestamps newer than your iPhone’s clock will be viewable from your locked phone.

This could be a potential issue for anyone that travels frequently or has a need to change timezones. You can test this by simply changing the time and popping into your quick toggle even when the device is locked. Better get to deleting those inappropriate pictures!

Source: Peekay.org via CNET

The other day I noticed an oddity on the Home screen of my iPad 2. One of the magazines that I'm subscribed to decided to jump out of the Newsstand folder and place itself on the Home screen.

I'm not exactly sure what caused this -- maybe it's the fact that I haven't updated this specific subscription since I first downloaded it -- but for whatever reason, after I performed a normal power cycle the magazine decided to randomly plop itself smack dab in the middle of my homescreen.

At first, I attempted to move the magazine icon back into the Newsstand folder, but that didn't work because the icon refused to enter jiggly-mode. In addition, I couldn't delete the subscription app because tap-and-hold wasn't working at all. Another aspect of the bug is that one of my favorite apps, Bloomberg TV+, had been removed from the Home screen completely (although it was still accesible via Spotlight search).

What's more, after performing a full restore of iOS 5.0.1, the same exact thing happened on my iPhone 4, removing the Settings app from my iPhone Home screen not allowing it to to enter jiggly-mode in order to delete the magazine download.

Keep in mind, this bug is not incapacitating, but it is frustrating to see a big fat rectangular icon on your Home screen.

Issue

• Magazine and newspaper subscriptions from Newsstand place themselves on the Home screen after reboot or restore
• Upon attempting to remove the magazine/newspaper download, tap-and-hold as well as app deletion no longer works
• Depending on how many subscriptions have this bug, you will lose the same amount of app icons from your Home screen once the problem arises

Possible causes

• Failure to update effected subscription(s) over a certain threshold of time (unconfirmed)

Fix

• Perform an additional power cycle after you notice the issue on your iPhone or iPad, then tap-and-hold to remove the effected subscription(s)

We've decided to cross-post this in the TiPb bugs forum to see if anyone else might be running into the same issue. If you know of a simpler fix -- or better yet, a confirmed explanation of what's going on here -- drop a comment in this post or jump into the forums to help other users who may be less fortunate if this specific fix doesn't work out for them.

SwitcherLyrics is a new jailbreak mod in Cydia that offers the ability to view lyrics for any most tracks stored in your iPod music library.

With SwitchLyrics you can have your song's lyrics and information right in your Multitasking bar. You just have to double tap the Home button to make it work. SwitcherLyrics takes the song's lyrics from the iPod.app library. If iPod.app doesn't have any lyrics, SwitcherLyrics will search it on the web automatically.

This is a great mod in theory and brings with it a lot of added value --when it actually works. I noticed a lot of bugs right out of the gate when playing around with it. For example, when I tried messing with the settings to reveal more information in the Fast-App Switcher tray, my phone locked up completely and required a reboot.

This is one of the reasons the video demonstration was short in duration. I didn't get into any of the additional settings for fear of locking up my iPhone again, but in any event, when I played a track without lyric support in the video it still ended up locking up on me.

It's a great idea, but I'm going to wait it gets some bug fix updates and runs more smoothly before trying it again.

• $.99 - Cydia Link

Curious how to set up a PIN code on your iPhone's SIM card to prevent things like the recent issue with iMessage not de-activating on stolen iPhones? If you're concerned about security, it's probably something you want to do sooner rather than later.

1. Launch the Settings app
2. Scroll down and tap on Phone settings
3. Scroll down to the very bottom and tap SIM PIN
4. Switch the SIM PIN option to 'ON'
5. Enter the default PIN set by your carrier (AT&T is 1111, if you're on a different carrier check with them, or Google it)
6. Now, tap Change PIN.
7. Enter the current (default) SIM PIN again
8. Enter your own unique 4-digit PIN code

That's it! Now, if your iPhone gets lost or stolen, your SIM card will remain safe and secure and the new "owner" will have zero ability to send or receive iMessages, or do anything else nefarious with your number.

NOTE: If your iPhone does get lost or stolen, PIN code lock or not, call your carrier immediately to report it stolen and get it deactivated. The PIN code is the temporary solution. The carrier raining down deactivation on their pilfering heads is the permanent one.

Daily Tips range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you’d like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to dailytips@tipb.com.

Today's Google Voice app update seems to have -- wait for it -- actually broken the ability for users to place calls with their Google Voice number.

When attempting to make a call it appears as though it is connecting like normal, but if you look at a caller ID it will show you your actual cell phone number, not your Google Voice number.

Hopefully Google will fix this will all due haste. In the meantime, let us know if you're experiencing the problem, and if anything has helped you remedy it.

Multiple users who've had their iPhones stolen are reporting that iMessage is still linked to their stolen device even after they've conducted a remote wipe, deactivated their iPhone with the carrier, and even changed their Apple ID password. This means that whomever steals or buys a stolen iPhone may have the ability to iMessage from the original owners account, pretty much impersonating them.

Although Apple has yet to comment on the situation, Ars Technica was able to get iOS security expert Jonathan Zdziarski to chime in on his thoughts of why this may be occurring.

"iMessage registers with the subscriber's phone number from the SIM, so let's say you restore the phone, it will still read the phone number from the SIM. I suppose if you change the SIM out after the phone has been configured, the old number might be cached somewhere either on the phone or on Apple's servers with the UDID of the phone."

In short, Apple needs to fix this, and quick.

Source: Ars Technica

After updating to iOS 5.0.1 via iTunes and rebooting, I found all the App Store apps installed on my iPhone were suddenly waiting to download and install. That's right. All of them. Just "Waiting". Unable to launch.

I tried force-quitting the App Store app. I tried rebooting. I tried resetting. I logged into and out of the App Store app. I checked if there were any iTunes Store downloads, like podcasts, that might have gotten "stuck" (there weren't). I checked if any large apps like Navigon were slowly -- very slowly -- downloading (they didn't appear to be.) I tried re-syncing with iTunes on my desktop (the apps came back, still waiting).

I could still download new apps and those worked fine. They actually downloaded quickly, installed completely, and launched properly.

With 5 pages of apps, it's going to be a pain to delete them all and re-download them all one by one, but it's about the only option I have left right now.

Problem

• All App Store apps show as "waiting" to download and install and can't be launched

Possible solutions

• Stop any iTunes Store downloads that might have gotten stuck
• Delete any big apps that might be clogging the install problem
• Manually delete and re-install all App Store apps.

Note: Like I said, the first two didn't work for me but they were offered as potential fixes on Apple's discussion forums, so if you have the same or a similar problem, give them a try before you escalate to the last one.

If anyone else has figured out a better solution, let me know in comments!

On the current version of Facebook for iPhone and iPad, whenever I tap on a picture someone uploaded, it either brings up a totally different picture, or when I flip over to comments, they don't match the comments that go with that specific picture. It's incredibly annoying if you want to comment on a picture and can't even get the correct one to pull up.

If you use Facebook for iPhone or iPad you're probably aware that it doesn't come without a bug or two. This one we've had several readers report and it's something I've experienced myself since the newer revamped version of Facebook was released.

The only workaround I've found is to actually go in and open the album the picture is in and click on the picture in the grid of photos. That typically tends to load the correct image and bypass the issue.

Problem

• Facebook shows the wrong picture
• Facebook shows the wrong comments for a picture

Workaround

• Go to the photo album and select the picture that way.

Hopefully Facebook fixes this asap. Any of you experiencing this bug as well? Any other Facebook bugs?

On some websites, like CNN shown in the video above, when I hit "back" to return to the previous page, instead of getting the previous page I get a version of the previous page that's from some time in the past, as much as a day or so. I've also had this happen on sites like Reddit. Unless Apple included highly advanced tachyon-based time travel functionality in iOS 5, there's some problem between the web server, the cache, mobile Safari, and my eyes that's conspiring to give me pages from the past.

Problem

• Go to a web page in Safari
• Tap a link
• Tap the "back" button

You get an older version of the web page you just left.

Work around

• Tap the "reload" button

That gets Safari to render the page again. You can also clear the cache. That seems to alleviate the problem, at least for a while.

• Launch Settings
• Tap on Safari
• Tap on Advanced
• Tap on Website Data
• Tap on Remove all Website Data

I haven't tried this in iOS 5.0.1 yet and it may well be fixed in that build, otherwise here's hoping Apple fixes it soon.

Google released their new Gmail for iPhone and iPad app today and due to some launch-time bugs involving push notifications, TiPb's getting a lot of questions about Notification Error "no valid 'aps-environment' entitlement string found for application, what it means, and what can be done about it.

Short answer: It means Google messed up Push Notifications and there's nothing you can do about it until Google fixes it and Apple pushes out that fix.

Long answer: We reached out to Paul Haddad of Tapbots and Tweetbot fame to get a better informed idea of what's going on, and this is what he was kind enough to share:

In the iOS Provisioning Portal you need to various different certificates. For all apps you'll normally generate a Development, AdHoc distribution and Store distribution certificates. For push enabled apps you also need to generate Development and Production Push certificates.

What I think happens is that most people start by generating and downloading the 3 standard certificates and at some later point generate the Push certificates. However when you create the Push certificates it modifies the standard certificates in some way that tells the OS that it can be used for push notifications. You'll often re-generate/download the Development and AdHoc certificates as you add new devices for testing, but you only have to re-genrate the Store certificates once a year when renewing with Apple.

So again what Google probably did is create the standard certificates, then create the Push certificates and didn't re-generate/download the Store certificate. It's a really easy mistake to make and there's no indication of a problem anywhere within the submission process to Apple. It's also a pretty trivial thing to fix and I'd expect Google to re-submit and Apple to expedite the release pretty quickly.

It does make me wonder why Apple didn't catch this issue, my guess is something about the way they run apps prevents this error from showing up.

As far as I know the only way to see if this is a problem or not is to run the following command

codesign -dvvvv --entitlements - .app

and look for the following two lines in the output

aps-environment production

Thanks Paul!

So you just updated to iOS 5 and you find you have a problem -- you go to use Wi-Fi Personal Hotspot feature and... it's gone?! Don't fret. Stop cursing. It's happened with previous upgrades too. Truth is, It's not really gone, it's just hiding, and here are a couple things you can do to coax it back.

Bug

• Personal Hotspot seems to have disappeared.

Solution 1

Look for it where it lives.

1. Launch the Settings app.
2. Tap General.
3. Tap Network.
4. Scroll down and look for Personal Hotspot.
5. If it somehow got turned off during the update, turn it back on.
6. Wait for it to activate.

Once it re-activates, you should find it back where it was before, on the first page of Settings.

Solution 2

If that doesn't work, it's time to escalate -- reset the Settings.

1. launch the Settings app.
2. Tap General.
3. Scroll all the way to the bottom.
4. Tap Reset Network Settings.

Wait for your iPhone to restart, and if you still don't see it, repeat Solution 1.

For extra help, jump into our iOS 5 Forums

Apple's servers seem to be buckling under the ridiculous load of iOS and Mac users trying to download the massive amount updates released today -- iOS 5, Cards, Find my Friends, Movie Trailers, AirPort Utility, iWork for iOS, Mac OS X 7.2, iPhoto, Aperture, iCloud for Windows, and the on, and on.

Readers are letting us know they're getting download times stretching towards the seemingly infinite, "internal errors" like the dreaded 3200 destroying their download hopes and dreams, and various other things that make them want to pull their hair out and dance whatever's the opposite of a snoopy dance. Worst are users trapped in some Schrodinger's paradox -- neither updated nor not, stuck in DFU or Restore mode hell.

It sucks. Literally. All the bandwidth out of the CDNs, the data centers, and likely the net itself. All we can say for now is take a break, catch you breadth, let the servers cool down a little and try again later. That or we can all pull over, get out, and offer to help them push?

Let us know how your updates are going, and if anything has helped, drop it in the comments below or jump over to our iOS 5 Forums and help us trouble shoot.

Facebook for iPhone has been updated and brings a few new features and many improvements including the ability to tag friends and places in posts.

• Added the ability to tag friends and places in posts
• Added the ability to share external links from a web view
• Added new design for Profile and Group Walls
• Improved the sharing tool to add privacy controls on posts and match your settings on the web site.
• Improved Notifications Speed
• Fixed a number of Chat bugs
• Made it easier to select filters in News Feed
• Fixed a bug with the notifications bar disappearing
• Fixed a number of Photos bugs
• Improved performance and stability overall

Facebook for iPhone is available for free.

[App Store link]

Have an app you'd love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we'll take a look.

Let's be blunt -- if you're not in the TiPb Forums you're missing out on the best darn discussion in iPhone and iPad today, so head on over and register now!

• If the next iPhone does indeed land on Sprint will you leave your current carrier to make the switch?

• Report all bugs/issues on iOS 5 beta 7 here.

• With all of the recent reports of a possible Sprint and T-Mobile iPhone coming soon why not discuss them here?

• iPhone and iPad app reviews.

See you in the forums!

Whatever changes Apple has been making to the iTunes Store back end lately seems to have caused iTunes app on the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad to stream some podcasts as music samples, rather than handing them off to the built-in media player like they're supposed to.

We've tested and everything seems fine and working properly for all of our TiPb podcasts like iPhone Live or iPad Live, or ZENandTECH, Superfunctional, or Iterate, or any of the Mobile Nations podcasts for that matter.

However, shows on other networks like 5by5 and TWiT do seem to be experiencing the problem, and it's annoying to say the least. So what can be done?

First, huge props to Rene -- whatever he's doing to edit and upload our podcasts seems to be immune to this annoying iTunes bug. Second, iTunes on iPhone and iPad is an app wrapper around online content, so Apple can change things any time, without having to give you a new version of iOS to update to, or giving you a choice to update (yeah, pretty much my nightmare scenario). Fortunately, this also means they can fix bugs any time as well. So here's where we stand:

Bug symptoms

• You click on a podcast in the iTunes app on the iPhone, iPod touch or iPad
• Instead of the media player coming up and your podcast playing, the little square music sample player pops up
• This means you don't get full play/pause and other controls, you don't get the timeline, and you can't resume where you left off later

Bug fixes

• Download your podcasts instead of streaming them (you'll need to be on Wi-Fi if they're over 20 MB)
• Sync your podcasts over from iTunes desktop
• Get a podcatcher app from the App Store and use that to stream
• Wait for Apple to update

Seth and Rene have mentioned Instacast App Store link and Pocket Casts App Store link on past shows, but if you have a favorite podcatcher app you could recommend, please do so in the comments. Also, if you've found any other workaround, please let us know!

[Thanks Len!]

around with it -- like they have been recently for downloads and category pages -- y

From the Forums is a great way to see what all of the current hot topics are on the TiPb forums. In order to create any new threads of your own or reply to any of the existing threads, you must be a registered member. Becoming a member is a simple process that will only take a few minutes out of your day, so if you have not already already done so, head on over and register now!

• iOS 5 beta 5 bugs and issues.

• You have one new hardware feature you can choose to be included on the next generation iPhone, what would it be?

• Do you have iPhone obsession?

• What kind of case do you use to protect your iPhone? Or do you choose to roll naked?

• Yesterday Google released a major update for Google+ and we finally have a working version for iOS 5. What are your thoughts on Google+ so far and after this update will you be spending more time using the social network?

See you in the forums!

From the Forums is a great way to see what all of the current hot topics are on the TiPb forums. In order to create any new threads of your own or reply to any of the existing threads, you must be a registered member. Becoming a member is a simple process that will only take a few minutes out of your day, so if you have not already already done so, head on over and register now!

• How do you feel about this AT&T data throttling? Will it or will it not effect you?

• Here is a discussion of what the next iPhone will be called.

• Any bugs or issues you have run into on iOS beta 4 can be discussed in this thread.

• It looks like we will see another iPad released before the years end, what will it take to persuade you to make the purchase if you already own the second generation?

See you in the forums!

The TiPb forums are naturally a great place to talk, commiserate, celebrate, get help, and offer advice to your fellow iPhone users. In order to create a new thread of your own or reply to any of the existing threads, you must be a registered member. Becoming a member is easy and free so if you haven’t already, head on over and register now!

• Everything you need to know about migrating your MobileMe account to iCloud.

• Discuss iOS 5 bugs and other issues you have found while using the beta.

• Discuss all of the latest iPhone 5 rumors here.

• Many of you are upset Apple does not include a LED for notifications. What are your thoughts regarding this missing hardware feature?

See you in the forums!

Have a broken or buggy iPhone Home Button and curious how to work around it? When Apple released iOS 4.1 several of our readers reported a bug with their iPhone Home Button, and for some of us, performing a restore or waiting for Apple to fix it in a software update hasn't paid off.

If you aren't near an Apple Store to swap out your iPhone, or you're out of warranty, here's something you can do to help circumvent the problem using Activator gestures to simulate a Home Button click -- hit the jump to find out how it's done!

Activator is a well-known jailbreak extension that integrates gestures into your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch using a system-wide mobilesubstrate hook in iOS. You can designate a number of gestures to do things like launch apps, perform tasks, toggle WiFi on-the-fly and a lot more -- you can even map a gesture to the Home Button!

My personal iPhone 4 has had this issue for a while. Right now I just swipe up from the bottom of the screen in order to 'press' the Home Button, and swipe up from the bottom-right to call up the app switcher. It was a little awkward at first, but after a day or two my muscle-memory kicked in and I haven't been annoyed by the Home Button problem ever since -- simply because I never actually have to press it anymore.

If you haven't already jailbroken your iPhone then check out our jailbreak starters guide first. Then just follow these quick steps to get Activator set up to allow a custom Home Button gesture:

1. After installing Activator in Cydia (free) open the Settings app and select Activator from the settings menu.
2. Tap 'Anywhere'.
3. Now you'll have to select your desired gesture here. I chose the Slide In gesture but you can choose whatever you prefer.
4. Now swipe up to reveal the search bar and run a quick search for the Home Button.

You'll need to kill the Settings app for the gesture to kick in, and you can go through the same steps for setting up a gesture for the iOS app switcher as well.

That's it! Using a gesture to simulate the Home Button has taken away those random frustrating moments when my Home Button wouldn't respond, and we hope it helps you get around the problem too! Let us know what other suggestions and work-arounds you've come up with in the comments below!

Bonus Tip: @JBaby_9783 on Twitter suggested using rubbing alcohol to help clean dust and grit from areas around the Home Button. You'll need to wet a QTip with 91% rubbing alcohol and apply it on and around the Home Button after you've powered off your iPhone. Get the button area slightly wet (having a small puddle in the concave of the button is fine) and then press the Home Button multiple times while it's still wet, then let dry. You can quicken the drying process by applying a blow dryer to your iPhone for about a minute, but make sure it's fully dry before powering the iPhone back on. This should help address response issues with the Home Button but you won't see a change if your problem is bug-related.

Tips of the day will range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you’d like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to dailytips@tipb.com. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)

While iOS 4.3's Safari is roughly twice as fast as previous versions thanks to the newly ported Nitro JavaScript engine, asynchronous mode, and HTML 5 application cache, it looks like Web Clips (web pages saved to the home screen as icon bookmarks) and WebViews (web browsers embedded in apps) are still using the significantly slower iOS 4.2 tech.

The Register suggests a conspiracy -- that Apple is deliberately throttling Web Clip and WebView performance so web apps can't compete with the App Store and cut into Apple's 30% share of revenues. Of course, many web apps are free and Apple's 30% share of similarly free App Store apps is exactly zero. Likewise, lack of WebView support hurts the performance of App Store apps, not web apps. (iTunes and App Store on iOS are native wrappers around a WebKit UI, after all.)

So, while such theories are dramatic and link baity, like with the just-improved AirPlay and still not-fixed AirPrint, sometimes Apple can only implement so much of a new feature in the first release cycle. Therefore, it's probably safer to assume it's a bug unless and until it remains unfixed in a subsequent update. At which point even TiPb will start sharpening the pitchforks and lighting up the torches, b'okay?

UPDATE: Looks like the reason is security.

[The Register]

Twitter for iPhone has been updated to 3.3 and includes a new Quick Bar to show trends without leaving your timeline.

• Quick Bar, shows trends and other important things without leaving your timeline! Swipe the Quick Bar left/right to cycle through trends
• Trends based on your location
• Cleaner, redesigned Tweet compose screen.
• Autocomplete @usernames and hashtags
• Easier photo uploading
• Find friends using your phone's contacts
• Improved DM conversation view, now works similar to SMS/Chat
• Cleaned up preferences
• Bug fixes

The mystery is knowing which bugs are fixed. One of the biggest bugs I've experienced and seen others complain about is the incorrect badge count - the notification badge always says "1" regardless of how many new mentions or DMs you have. The other big one is that DM's show up as new even though they have been read. Hopefully these bugs have been fixed.

If you pick this one up, let us know what you think!

[Free - iTunes link]

Greenpois0n RC5, the latest Jailbreak for iOS 4.2.1 iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, has been updated to version 2, which should fix some of the issues users have been experiencing. Mainly the issue where your jailbreak will just sit at "Greenpois0n Initialized". Hopefully this version will take care of that bug. I know a few people have been having issues even loading Greenpois0n.com. There are also several mirrors available, so keep checking the comments for the latest on those.

Also, some users have been noting that their Cydia icon is completely missing or they can't get Cydia to install. You can alternately use redsn0w RC8 to install Cydia. Basically use Greenpois0n to jailbreak untethered and then run redsn0w just to install Cydia.

Let us know in the comments if the second version of Greenpois0n is working any better for you! If you need instructions on jailbreaking under iOS 4.2.1, check out our how to jailbreak via Greenpois0n walkthrough and if you need more help, our Jailbreak Forum.

[greenpois0n.com via (iPhone Download Blog - they also have a list of mirrors]

Some Facebook for iPhone users are experiencing two rather annoying bugs -- Facebook does not send their status updates to their friends' live feeds, and Facebook for iPhone seems to be missing from all users' privacy settings. Details after the break!

Facebook for iPhone status update bug

When a use who is experiencing this bug updates their status with the Facebook for iPhone app, the status only appears on their wall and not on their friends' live feeds. Meaning, in order for one of the user's friends to see the status, they must go directly to the user's wall - which most people don't do. An irritating bug to say the least.

Workaround

• Facebook's mobile site and touch site work just fine. So you can use them until Facebook fixes this problem.
• Use a different app to post Facebook status updates

Facebook for iPhone missing privacy settings

The other issue with the Facebook for iPhone app has to do with privacy. When you add an app to your Facebook account, it gets added to the list of apps you use in your privacy settings. It is here that you can see what information any given app has access to, as well as remove any ability that you do not approve of. The problem is that the Facebook for iPhone app is not included in the list. This means that no one knows for certain what permissions Facebook for iPhone has.

Workaround

• Stop using Facebook for iPhone (not an acceptable solution, Facebook needs to fix this!)

Are you experiencing either of these bugs? If so, have you discovered any other fixes or workarounds? Are you using the mobile or touch site, or have you installed a different app to post status updates? What are your thoughts on Facebook for iPhone being non-existent in your privacy settings? Sound off below!

[Facebook discussions, thanks Bob for sending this in!]

Cydia has been showing up empty, with no files today, due to a source file corruption. If you're experiencing the problem on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad we are going to walk you through how to fix it.

The fix is fairly simple as long as you know how to SSH into your iPhone. If you don't know how to do so check out our SSH Guide and follow the instructions to get you started.

Once you get into your iPhone as navigating to a few menus and then renaming a file. What you want to do is navigate to:

/etc/apt/sources.list.d/

Once you get there you will see a source titled zodttd.list and you will want to rename it so zodttd.list.old. Once you do this go ahead and respring your iPhone or iPad and relaunch Cydia. Now you will have everything back to normal (minus the ZodTTD source for now.

Cydia's creator, Saurik, has Tweeted to try to go to "Changes" inside of Cydia and hit refresh and let it reload and all will be fine as well. I personally tried this several times to no avail. So go ahead and try either method and let us know what works for you.

If you have any other issues check out the thread dedicated to this issue in our Jailbreak Froums.

If you've ever picked up your iPhone, seen 4 or 5 bars, then tried to go on the web or check mail only to get the popup "Could not activate cellular data network" you've been bitten by this bug.

Sometimes the cell network really is down but sometimes it isn't and that's what makes this such a frustrating issue to trouble shoot. Details after the break.

Data and voice are separate services on your iPhone so you might easily be able to make phone calls and send/receive SMS but when it comes to using anything like Safari, Mail, or apps that need the internet -- you're dead. (And seeing those full bars and being dead is especially frustrating, like when you're Wi-Fi router is working but your internet connection is down!)

Symptoms

This one is easy!

• You can't access the internet: no Safari, no Mail, etc.

Fixes

Here's how you can try and fix it, least painful methods first:

• Check to see if your carrier is having a data outage. If so, wait until it's resolved. (Carriers will often lie, so check TiPb, Twitter, etc. and see if anyone else is complaining about an outage.)

If you're sure it's not your carrier:

• Tap Settings, toggle Airplane Mode off, wait 5 seconds, toggle it back on
• Do a soft reset
• Do a hard reset
• Tap Settings, tap General, scroll down to Reset, tap Reset Network Settings (you'll have to re-enter all Wi-Fi passwords, etc. after this)

• Restore your iPhone from backup
• Restore your iPhone as new iPhone
• Make an appointment at the Apple Store

Also frustrating is that this problem can be temporary -- carrier outage, too many people on the tower, error on your iPhone -- and it can fix itself on its own after a little while. It can also be a problem on your iPhone that doesn't fix itself and drives you crazy. Those are the fixes we've tried, if you're experiencing the problem let us know, and let us know what fixes have worked for you!

It appears for some strange reason that the App Store ratings seem to be missing as of this morning. On the featured page all of the ratings are gone and show each app has no ratings. Once you click on the app the rating seems to be back but for some reason on the main page the rating is no where to be found.

Also when I was trying to update a few apps this morning the download began to hang taking much longer than usual. I also had two Game Center requests which took ages to accept and register on the server. Maybe something strange is going on with Apple servers this morning and hopefully these strange issues go away quickly.

What do you think is causing these anomalies?

[ Thanks to TiPb reader Edwin for sending this in! ]

Well it's January 3 and some iPhone alarms are still not going off at their correct times. We first told you about the alarm bug on Friday as Australia hit the new year and started noticing the issue. Apple promised us over the weekend that on January 3rd things would fix themselves and users would wake up on time.

Well it appears as if this did not happen for everyone as complaints have been going wild on the internet that users were woken up late for their first day back to school or work after their holiday vacations. Personally my iPhone 4 woke me up right on time this morning but it sounds like I got lucky. How about you? Did your alarm wake you up on time or after the last alarm bug did you lose faith in the native alarm and use a different alarm for waking yourself up?

[ Engadget ]

That pesky iPhone bug that caused one-time alarms not to go off in 2011 has been confirmed by Apple (phew!), as has the "fix" -- either set a recurring alarm or wait, as it corrects itself on January 3rd and works properly thereafter.

We're aware of an issue related to non repeating alarms set for January 1 or 2. Customers can set recurring alarms for those dates and all alarms will work properly beginning January 3.

But were they aware of it prior to New Year, i.e. could they have had time to release an iOS 4.2.2 bug fix and spared users the inconvenience? If not, given this is the second major bug in the iOS 4 alarm system, hopefully they're redoubling their QA efforts in that area so we aren't hit again this spring. Either way, are you happy with the statement? Should Apple have given greater assurance they're looking into it or maybe even expressed a little empathy for affected users?

[Engadget]

One of our Australian forum members, TrAJik let us know that his iPhone alarm failed to wake him up this morning, January 1, 2011 (Australia time) and doing a quick look around the web it seems like he is not alone.

The iPhone had trouble with repeating alarms back during the change to Standard Time so this could be the same bug rearing its ugly head again.

UPDATE: According to comments below, this affects ONE TIME ALARMS rather than recurring ones, so the opposite fix should work:

• Tap Clock
• Tap Edit
• Tap your alarm
• Tap Repeat
• Set a repeat interval
• Tap Save

iOS 4.2 fixed that bug. Will we have to wait for an iOS 4.3 this time? If you're experiencing the problem and if you've found any other fixes, let us know in the comments below or help trouble shoot in our iPhone Forums.

UDPATE 2: Engadget confirms it's one time alarms that are causing the problem, not repeats.

UPDATE 3: 9to5Mac says the bug fixes itself on January 3.

Problem with iBooks disappearing from your iBookshelf, or getting a configuration error telling you have to restore your iPhone or iPad and reinstall iBooks? You're not alone. We'll go over the bug and try to troubleshoot after the break!

Disappearing iBooks

iBooks seems to be... well, a little quirkier when it comes to errors than its older iTunes and App Store cousins. Sometimes when it launches you can watch your iBookshelf populate with titles only to see one or more disappear right before your eyes. (We've had readers report a dozen or more disappearing). Luckily, you can redownload your previously purchased iBooks:

1. Tap Store, top right
2. Tap Purchases, bottom left
3. Tap redownload for any iBooks that have disappeared

It's a pain but it's better than music, movies, or TV Shows where there are no re-downloads.

If you're near your Mac or Windows PC, you can also just re-sync and that might fix it, though I've had to redownload some even after sync.

iBooks configuration error

This one is even more galling. You tap to open a book and start reading but instead get an error messages saying "There is a problem with the configuration of your iPhone [or iPad]. Please restore with iTunes and reinstall iBooks."

Restoring in iTunes is a nuclear option and Apple shouldn't be so quick to recommend it. In my experience, the following work in most cases:

1. Exit iBooks
2. Double click the Home Button
3. Tap and hold iBooks in the Fast App Switcher dock to put it into Jiggly Mode
4. Tap the X in the corner to Force Quit iBooks
5. Click the Home to exit back to the Home Screen
6. Relaunch iBooks

Others have recommended restarting your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad, or syncing to iTunes on your Mac or Windows PC. Restoring your device should be a last resort.

We've gotten some comments that this only affects devices with multiple iTunes accounts on them, or Jailbroken devices, but there's no clear pattern we can determine so I think it's most likely just a bug. Hopefully Apple fixes it soon. They invented iTunes, dagnabit. Managing digital downloads should be a cakewalk for them by now.

If you've had this problem, let us know what you've experienced and if these tips help fix it. If you've got more or better fixed, leave them in the comments!

If you go to check your email in the iPhone's Mail app only to see a blank -- either literally a blank space between messages or a place-holder that says (No Sender) (No Subject) -- you may have this bug. If you do we'll tell you how to work around it, after the break.

I experienced the blank email issue frequently under iOS 4.1, as does Andrew, but I haven't seen it (yet) under iOS 4.2. Ally has seen it over multiple iOS versions. (Ironically Ally captured this screenshot when she got a blank during an email exchange about blanks!) Whenever or wherever you have this problem, the only solution we've found so far is to restart the Mail app:

• Click the Home Button to exit Mail
• Double click the Home Button to open the Fast App Switcher
• Hold your finger down on Mail to put it into jiggly mode
• Tap the X at the top right of Mail to kill the app

Mail will auto-restart so you won't miss any messages, but when you go back in your blank(s) should be gone.

Let us know if you're experiencing this bug and, if so, whether or not this workaround works for you!

Skype, the most popular VoIP (Voice over IP) service on the planet, has been down for many users for almost a day now. Users either can't log into Skype or if they can, when they try to place a Skype call they're told they're offline. It's the same if you're on the desktop or using the iPhone app. You just can't connect.

We typically use Skype to record our iPhone Live! and iPad Live! podcasts, so last night we had to scramble to find an alternative (we ended up using iChat voice) but for businesses that have come to rely on Skype for critical communications, it was a cold reminder that no service is immune to outages.

Do you use Skype? How has the service worked for you over the last 24 hours? What alternatives have you come up with in the meanwhile?

TiPb's gotten lots of reports from iPhone, iPad and Apple TV users concerning super slow iTunes rentals and downloads -- we're talking hours and hours! -- and it looks like Google DNS (and OpenDNS) could be part of the problem. According to Joe Mailer:

This totally makes sense. iTunes’ video content is delivered by Akamai who has distributed massive datastores around the world so those large files originate from nearby servers and spend less time getting switched around the network. Akamai somehow uses our DNS routing to determine our location. If Google DNS or OpenDNS routes everyone to Akamai the same way, then those Akamai nodes and the pipes leading to them get overwhelmed.

So if your iPhone, iPod touch, iPad or Apple TV tells you there are 2+ hours to go before you can start watching check to see if you're using Google DNS or OpenDNS and try switching to your IPs DNS instead. It could cut your wait times down to seconds!

[Joe Mailer]

We've gotten emails, comments, even angry ALL CAPS shouts during iPhone Live's chat, that some users aren't able to install today's iTunes 10.1.1 update through Software Update, while others who are able to install can't launch it without it crashing.

For both bugs try going to apple.com/itunes and download the latest version directly.

If you're having any problems or issues with iTunes 10.1.1 let us know, along with any solutions that help you through.

Turn on Apple TV, click through to Netflix, find what you want to watch, press play and -- "Sorry we could not reach the Netflix service. Please try again later. If the problem persists please visit the Netflix website. (112)" I've been getting that error consistently lately and the weird part is Netflix on my iPhone and iPad -- on the same Wi-Fi network! -- work fine. It's only Apple TV that has the problem.

And apparently I'm not alone.

In my case I couldn't watch anything. A simple power cycle fixed it but some of the folks we've heard from still suffer the bug intermittently no matter what they do. Have you had Netflix refuse to perform on your Apple TV? Let us know what happened, and what if any fixes have worked for you.

Have you ever been on a call on your iPhone when an SMS or email or push notification came in only to experience a terrible vibration right in your ear? iPhone has a setting to enable and disable vibrate both for silent mode (ringer switch off) and in general so you can set it up to ring, ring and vibrate, or just vibrate. What you can't seem to do is set it up not to vibrate when you're already on a call.

What's curious is that not everyone seems to complain about this, and some people seem to only notice it after a firmware update. Forum member iErick as well as others have all been experiencing this issue ever since they made the upgrade to iOS 4.2.1.

Every since updating to iOS 4.2.1, when I am on a call and have the phone held up to my ear...the phone vibrates for SMS notifications and such.

This occurs if the phone is on the silent setting and when the phone is set to ring and vibrate.

I recently Updated to iOS 4.2.1 on my iPhone 4 and while on a call I received 6 emails and every single time it not only made the tone but it vibrated right into my ear. It is quite annoying and my phone wasn't even on vibrate. It is set for vibrate and ring.

Some members have never seen this issue until now and other have said they have seen this issue with other iOS firmwares. CrackBerry Kevin has been complaining about it since iOS 2 or 3.

Is this is a bug? Is this the way Apple thinks vibration mode should work? Why can't they use the same motion and proximity sensor that turns off the screen when you're on a call to turn off the vibration? If you've experienced the vibration in the ear let us know your thoughts in the comments.

iPhone Forums and let others know your experiences.

Since the iPad doesn't have a USB port or SSD card slot (can I say "grrrr!' again?) Apple sells a Camera Kit that's supposed to let you plug in your camera or card and transfer your pictures and video -- but also used to work for low power USB keyboards and Skype/VoIP headsets. I say "used to" because with iOS 4.2 that no longer seems to be the case.

Mark Gurman from 9to5mac has done some tests:

The essence of the issue with the connection kit and iOS 4.2 is that connected devices that require power of more than 20mA will no longer work. That means that many USB keyboards (Apple’s included) will no longer work with the iPad, as well as USB flash drives. When the user connects a device that is not self-powered and requires more than 20mA of power from the iPad they get the following alert: “The connected USB device requires too much power.”

Support for those devices was unofficial but it was useful. Worse news for photographers, power-hungry cameras seem to be having issues as well. And really, what good is a Camera Kit if your camera won't work as you've come to expect? Hopefully this is a bug and Apple will fix it in iOS 4.3 (I'm adding it to my list!)

We spoke about this on the last iPad Live podcast, and we've gotten some angry emails and tweets about it already but if you're having any issues with your iPad Camera Kit, give us the details in comments.

[9to5mac]

It appears as if Apple is looking into an issue between the iPhone/iPod and Monster brand headphones. According to an anonymous tipster who contacted Engadget, Apple has informed their customer service workers of issues that are occurring between Monster headphones that utilize integrated microphones and controls.

The rumored memo to employees reads as follow:

Several Monster headphone models using Apple's Remote and Mic technology do not meet Apple's technical specifications. These headphones use conductive flanges, which can result in electrical shorts that can cause an iPod or iPhone to pause and play erratically. Customers may not be aware that the issue is caused by the headphones and may believe that the iPod or iPhone is defective instead. There are no known safety concerns and no known risk of damage to the iPod/iPhone or headphones.

Are you having this issue with your Monster headphones? Let us know your take on this apparent problem in the comments below.

[ Engadget ]

Back in late June/early July, I reviewed an app called Wi-Fi Sync for jailbroken iPhones. You can find my revised version of the review here. Originally this seemed like a pretty neat app. It's a bit pricey for what it does, but it did it well.

Now I've been having several issues with iTunes over the past 2 months. I couldn't restore or upgrade firmware (it would hang up at the very end and leave all my devices in never ending recovery loops). To my dismay, it also broke backups within iTunes. I found this out after I wiped one of my devices and then noticed my last backup had been 2 months earlier. In frustration, a buddy on Twitter (@snoslicer8) asked if I by chance had Wi-Fi Sync installed. And without a doubt, that was the problem.

Needless to say, click along to see how to fix these issues if you're having problems with iTunes and you've previously downloaded W-Fi Sync. Odds are, it's the culprit.

You'll need to complete these steps exactly in order. If you have already uninstalled Wi-Fi Sync and that didn't seem to solve the problem, re-install it and do these steps completely in order. Odds are you didn't complete the first step before uninstalling and that can cause your backups to still epically fail. So after you re-install, reboot your Mac before continuing.

*Side note: I am on Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6.4). I do not know if this effects previous versions of Mac or PC. If you know or have any input, please feel free to leave it in the comments for future users who may have the issue.

Re-enable backups via Wi-Fi Sync

This is why I said to re-install if you had already uninstalled. You'll see the icon for Wi-Fi Sync in your top taskbar, it looks like a tiny iPhone like below.

Click that icon to get a drop down menu, you'll see one like the one below. If disable device backups is checked, UNCHECK it. For me, device backups were disabled by default. If you don't do this before uninstalling, you will still have issues with backups even after uninstalling.

Only after you've done this, will you be good to uninstall.

Uninstall Wi-Fi Sync

A lot of users were wondering how to uninstall Wi-Fi Sync. I'm not quite sure why the developer did not include the uninstaller in the bundle, but you'll have to go here to download the uninstaller for Mac. Download that and run the terminal app. It may prompt you to enter your admin password.

Reboot your Mac

After you reboot, your problems should be solved. To make sure, simply open iTunes, connect one of your iDevices and sync it. It should saying backing up, which it didn't say before. Or another way to know is after you sync, go to iTunes ---> Preferences --> Devices and look to see if you have a new backup. If you do, you should be good to go. If you are still having issues, leave a comment below and we'll try and help you out.

Thanks to @snoslicer8 for helping me out with this one! And as my revised review states, I can't recommend this app until the developer does something about this. This is app is not worth paying for when it breaks core functionality in iTunes. So until it's resolved, I can't recommend anyone pay money for this application. I tried contacting the developer over 2 weeks ago to no response. I attempted to contact him on Twitter as well, to no avail. I can't seem to find a workaround other that completely uninstalling the app, and the issue seems pretty prevalent in several forums and boards. If anyone else found another solution, let us know!

If you read the comments on our Facebook 3.2 and Facebook 3.2.1 posts, you might see that the latest version(s) of the uber-popular social networking app is having a little trouble on Jailbroken iPhones. Looks like Facebook is aware of the problems and working on a fix:

If you have a jailbroken device, you may have experienced problems with our latest updates. We've identified the issue and have an update with a fix coming soon. Thank you for your patience.

BiteSMS for Jailbreak is often mentioned as a source of conflict. Until the fix is pushed out, you can uninstall it to get Facebook working, or just use touch.facebook.com to get your social on.

[Facebook, thanks Robert!]

The TiPb forums are naturally a great place to talk, commiserate, celebrate, get help, and offer advice to your fellow iPhone users. In order to create a new thread of your own or reply to any of the existing threads, you must be a registered member. Becoming a member is easy and free so if you haven’t already head on over and register now!

• The iPhone 4's proximity sensor seems to be causing some of you grief, how many of you are actually being effected by this issue?

• iOS 4 has now been out for a weeks and in that time a lot of us have noticed some bugs that will hopefully be corrected in the next software update. To see the issues others have had or maybe you've spotted a unique issue stop by this thread: iOS 4 Issues and Bugs.

• The list of apps updated for iOS 4 continues to grow! To see the full list or add others that have been missed be sure to visit the following thread: Official TiPb apps updated to iOS 4.

• Want to talk iPod, iPhone, and iPad accessories? This is the place to do it: iPhone, iPad, iPod touch Accessories

See you in the forums!

The TiPb forums are naturally a great place to talk, commiserate, celebrate, get help, and offer advice to your fellow iPhone users. In order to create a new thread of your own or reply to any of the existing threads, you must be a registered member. Becoming a member is easy and free so if you haven’t already head on over and register now!

• One of the most important aspects of any smartphone is battery life, how is the battery life with a iPhone 3GS running iOS 4 holding up for you?

• It's safe to say most of you have been running iOS 4 on your iPhone for about a week now - if you have bugs or issues you want to report or see what others are reporting, this is the place to do it!

• Curious to know what App Store apps have been updated for iOS 4? Then check out the following thread - Official TiPb apps updated to iOS 4

• iPad cases - Whether you are in need of a case or what to tell us about a great case you may have found, this is the thread for you.

• iOS 4.01 - Will we see this update this week to fix the mysterious reception issues a lot of users are reporting? Be sure to vote!

See you in the forums!

The forums are a great place to talk, commiserate, celebrate, get help, and offer advice to your fellow iPhone and iPad users. In order to create a new thread of your own or reply to any of the existing threads, you must be a registered member. Becoming a member is easy and free so if you haven’t already head on over and register now!

• Well as you may or may not know, Apple released iOS 4 to the masses earlier today and we want to know about all of the bugs or issues you've encountered so far. So sound off in this thread!

• The release of iPhone 4 is just days away, if you have ordered via AT&T have you received your tracking number yet?

• So you didn't place an order with AT&T but rather Apple, if so have you received your tracking number yet? Sound off!

Want to talk about anything else? Everything else? Get in the forums, it's the best iOS community on the planet -- if we do say so ourselves -- and we're waiting for you!

As if Facebook 3.1 for iPhone and iPod touch didn't have enough problems, dmackdaddy let us know this potentially embarrassing problem he's experiencing with the new contact picture syncing functionality:

Beware of your profile pics, or your boss might get one of you doing something you don't want them to see! What happens is, [Facebook 3.1] takes [all] the emails and phone numbers on your iPhone and sends them to Facebook. It then cross-checks and syncs them back to your iPhone. That's a major security flaw right there! It should only sync the ones you're friends with.

So for an example I have my coworker's email and cell but I am not her Facebook friend. All of a sudden when I got a call from my coworker I saw a picture of her in a bikini because that was her [Facebook] profile pic!

I'm using Outlook 2010 and it has a new feature called Suggested Contacts where it keeps all your emails you been using. Those sync to my iPhone via exchange 2007. So now I have Facebook profile pics in Outlook 2010 for a bunch of folks that I don't even really know just because I have emailed them.

Given the more casual (read: sometimes drunken and debauched) profile pictures that appear on Facebook, and the potential from cross-contamination between trusted friends and respected colleagues, if this is widespread the potential for embarrassment is high. Even if this is an isolated or semi-isolated incident, as more and more social network contact pools are integrated together, its worth remembering that anything -- and everything -- you put on the internet will eventually be seen by those people you least want to see it.

Remember, if though Facebook thinks privacy is dead, it may still be important to you and yours. So think twice and practice safe pics!

[Image above is a mockup based on the story -- no real coworkers were embarrassed in the making of this post]

Facebook 3.1 brought the much-in-demand push notification service to the iPhone's most popular social networking app, but no good deed goes unpunished, and along with broken push, it also brought a host of problems. Now, not everyone is having the same problem, but a lot of you have told us about one or more of the following:

• No push notifications: Seriously. Facebook updates their application to included push notifications and it doesn't work most of the time.
• No alert sound to push notifications: Is sound turned on? Yes. So where is it?
• Commenting on photos: If you go to post a comment on a picture one of your friend's posts you are greeted with a nice little "error" on a blank screen.
• Force closes: Now perhaps this is just a issue I am having but it seems as if the application loves to close on it's own since the last update. Usually this is a sign of poor memory management.

We realize Joe Hewitt leaving left you in the lurch, but come on Facebook, you have Microsoft money and one of the most consistently popular apps in the app store! A 1.0 app from a startup we understand, but 3.1 from the social networking giant? It's never a wise idea to use the general public as your beta testers. If the application is not ready for prime time, don't release a sub-par application. Wait. You'll have more time and we'll get a better app. Now that you've released it, however, we're all stuck, and you need to get it fixed and yesterday.

Did we miss any other major issues going on within this application? Feel free to vent in the comments below!

Now please excuse me while I go dust off Boxcar and put it back into action...

Ars Technica puts font to screen explaining how, even after the jump to version 10.6 Snow Leopard (and several updates), Apple's own Mac OS X Server still fails to integrate push notification and other compatibility for the iPhone:

The iPhone's e-mail, contact, and calendar features integrate poorly into a Mac OS X Server environment, and even after Snow Leopard Server's (SLS) release, they continue to lack instant push delivery capabilities for e-mail, contacts, and calendars to an iPhone from a Mac server. Irony of ironies, the iPhone works better in a Microsoft Exchange world than with Apple’s own server.

Mind boggling. Read the whole article for the technical details and if you're Apple, let's get that fixed, shall we?

There appears to be a bug on Apple's iTunes App Store that's causing apps to show up as having updates available even after they've been downloaded over and over again. We've gotten quiet a few readers writing in about it now, and there's the usual huge thread up on Apple's discussion boards.

Here's what it looks like -- the App Store on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iTunes on your PC tells you you have an update for an app. You tap or click to update, enter your iTunes password, and the app downloads -- but it still shows the app in the update list. You tap or click update again, it downloads again, but again still shows the app in the update list. Or worse (as happened to me a few weeks ago), iTunes pops up a Checking for Available Downloads dialog then proceeds to try, over and over again, for days, to download 1.3GB of turn-by-turn navigation app update.

Of course, the problem seems intermittent and random -- different users experiencing the it with different apps at different times. It's also unclear if everyone is having the same problem. For some, Apple's iTunes app servers may not be properly providing the updated app file and so the new version is not successfully getting installed on the device. For others, the file might be getting installed but iTunes doesn't recognize or register it so keeps offering the same update.

Possible solutions include rebooting your iPhone or restarting iTunes on your PC, or just waiting and trying again in a day or so. On rare occasions it looks like it takes a few days to sort itself out, which for small apps isn't a show-stopper for those 1GB apps (or large games), it can be untenable, especially for people in countries with tight data caps on their home internet.

Some developers are hearing enough feedback on this that they're contacting Apple in hopes of some server-side fixing (see image of Twitter conversation above). We're hoping for some as well.

If you're having this problem, let us know in the comments, and let us know what (if anything) is fixing it for you.

Swing by the iTunes App Store, pick a category, and get/go to the Sort by: Release Date listing and it may look like Apple hasn't added any new iPhone and iPod touch apps since November 19 -- only they have, and it's just the iTunes listings that are broken.

Rewind: We started getting questions from users who thought no new apps were being released, or that Apple had somehow frozen the App Store. Then we got reports from developers saying their apps weren't showing up in the release date listings even though they'd been approved and put into the store. Finally, we got reports of the release date listings being flat out busted, and that's what looks to be the case.

What does this mean? For users looking to find new apps in iTunes, good luck with that. Absent sort by release date, you'll have to hit up third party tracking sites like AppShopper until Apple fixes the App Store proper. For developers who were hoping for the brief spotlight that listing provides for those users, well you're out some primo free marketing. And for many, that's going to hurt.

So, to sum up, yes Apple is still posting new apps, but no they're not updating the release date lists, and yes this sucks for both user discovery and developer exposure.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in -- in all forms!]

A few days ago we mentioned issues users were reporting about iPhone Sync being busted on Windows 7 with Intel P55 express chipset. Microsoft said they were looking into it, but now Intel has issued a statement. CNet has the quote and the background:

"Our leading theory is a BIOS or system configuration issue, but we are still investigating," Intel said Monday. The BIOS, or basic input/output system, is the initial code that runs when a PC is powered on. The BIOS identifies and initializes system devices such as the chipset, graphics card, and hard disk drive. Makers of PC circuit boards, aka motherboards, typically offer their own BIOS.

Again, we're guessing users are less interested in what's to blame, and more interested in getting things working again. So, while everyone investigates, check out the link at the top for some potential work-arounds, and let us know if you get up and running or are still having problems.

[CNet via iLounge]

According to The Register, if you're running Microsoft's latest OS, Windows 7, and your PC has an Intel P55 Express chipset, you're in for a world of iPhone sync hurt:

For the past six weeks, complaints from users running this trifecta of pain have been clogging a thread on Apple's discussion board. The posts report that - in most cases - iTunes 9 for Windows will recognize the iPhone, but when a sync is attempted, users are greeted with a cryptic "error 0xE8000065" - an iPhone-connection failure notification.

While not the oldest or most common chipset, and thus not likely to affect a huge swathe of users, those with problems just want them fixed. Microsoft is doing their... um... investigating:

Microsoft has not seen this particular question posed in the Microsoft Answers for Windows 7 community forum, nor in any of our call centers. We reviewed the issue raised on the Apple Discussion Board and are currently investigating. If we determine this to be a problem specific to Windows 7, we will post an update on the Microsoft Answers site."

In the mean time, here's what's worked for some:

• A USB port on a USB card not part of the P55
• deleting the iPodDevices.xml file from C:\Users username\AppData\Local\Apple Computer\iTunes
• disabling Bonjour
• turning on C-state capability in BIOS

If you're having this problem, and if any of these or other fixes work for you, let us know!

[Register via Engadget]

Bla1ze brought this to our attention and while we're likely not the first to notice this, we haven't found or figured a good answer for it either. If you have a low data usage on your iPhone (in the MBs rather than GBs) and you do a reboot, when your iPhone comes back up, the Cellular Network Data meter will be lower.

Above are two screen shots taken right before and right after a reboot, which show the difference.

We've heard before that the usage meter isn't accurate, can be gamed, and shouldn't be used in place of your carrier's official record (especially if you're concerned about data charges), but if anyone has any insight into what's going on (or not going on) with regards to the iPhone's inner metering, drop us a comment and let us know.

Reader Karl writes in to let us know his twelve year old son discovered a glitch in SMS security:

Being security conscious he turned on the passcode lock and disabled SMS Preview. [...] If a message is received during the passcode entry or while the screen is locked, a generic message of “New Text Message” appears, to prevent viewing of messages without unlocking the phone. [...] If however the phone is placed in emergency call mode, any incoming SMS messages are previewed instead of presented as the generic messages.

Next comes two issues concerning the implementation choices Apple made in the iPhone Mobile Mail client. According to Ars Technica, as disclosed by Aviv Raff, the first involves the way Mail truncates URLs for display on the iPhone. If a malicious URL is properly crafted by an attacker, the truncation can cause a fake URL to be non-obvious to the users, and thus more likely to result in phishing.

The second results from the lack of an option to display images in the full HTML Mobile Mail client. Since images are automatically displayed, spammers can gain confirmation that the email account that received it is active and ripe for spam attack.

As always, malicious attacks evolve and propagate at an alarming rate, and while we hope Apple fixes these immediately if not sooner, the onus is ultimately and always on we end users to pay attention and do everything we can to avoid them.

tsopanos emails in and points us to this iPhone Hellas story. Yes, it is literally Greek to us (groan), so here's a Google Translation.

Here's the scoop: the Data Meter on the iPhone is very helpful for letting you know how much data you've used, as Rene pointed out a few weeks ago. Sadly: it's not a "Cellular Network Data" meter proper, apparently. Tsopanos has figured out that if you play around with the Access Point Name (that's APN to the rest of us, and no, AT&T owners won't see that setting under General -> Network), you can get that meter to return false information on 2.0.2.

More specifically, if you 'break' your APN by changing or screwing around with those settings and then go back and browse any data you have cached on your browser, email, or maps, the iPhone believes all that is more data that's been downloaded over the cellular network. What this means is that the Cellular Data Meter might actually be double-dipping when your APN is right, i.e. counting locally cached data as cellular data. We're not sure yet as we don't have an iPhone with editable-APN sitting around -- browsing cached data while in Airplane mode doesn't seem to register.

Yeah, it's a esoteric bug and yeah, at least that bug errs on the side of caution by showing you potentially more data than you've actually downloaded. Still, something we're hoping will get a fix.

Thanks, Tsopanos!

So Dieter wrote up a review of Google Translate's shiny new, iPhone optimized WebApp, and it intrigued me enough to check it out. Since I live in Montreal, French was the first language I decided to try out. Since I'm damaged and have issues that would make Lucy jack her price up to 50 cents, the very first thing I tried to translate was: "leave me alone."

And what did Google Translate's WebApp say "leave me alone" was in French? "leave me alone". Oui-mais-wha?

Curious, I went from MobileSafari to desktop Safari, and what did translate.google.com tell me? "leave me alone". German didn't work either. Spanish and Dutch, however, did.

Kicker: "me dejen solo" from Spanish to French? You guessed it! "leave me alone".

Well, if I ever get pounced on by our local language police, I can always try to tell them Google says "leave me alone" is perfectly acceptable French!

(For the record, Yahoo! Babel Fish actually offers a translation, if somewhat formally: "laissez-moi seul")

Is this a known bug? I silent plea for help from an overworked Googler? A strange Babylonian plot? Or just one of many glitches in the system?

Have you run into any crazy Google mistranslations?

So it's been a day since 2.0.1 was made available and we at TiPb would like to know how it's been running on your iPhone. Did this bug-fixer of an update actually fix any bugs? Or are we all getting suckered into believing that the update has made things snappier? Pains in the update process? Backups faster? Apps Crashing? Or are things just less sucky? Maybe you completely avoided the update..anything and everything, we want to know!

Personally, things have "felt" a little bit smoother. Contacts load noticeably quicker but my SMS is still a good couple of seconds too long. No crashes to report yet but I did have one ginormously big hiccup after updating: the mail app crashed on launch. I had to completely restore and set up my iPhone as a new iPhone which was more than mildly annoying, to put it lightly. So other than that, YAY 2.0.1. Woot.

So TiPb faithful, how is 2.0.1 treating you?

Here at TiPb, we've all had bugs with the leaked 2.0 update and, like the rest of the interw00ts, we're also not getting Mobile Me working reliably since it went live yesterday. Thankfully, Apple has fessed up and admitted that the transition from .Mac has "taken longer than expected" (per Engadget).

The Mobile Me desktop login just worked for me for the first time just now, this morning. I'm successfully pushing data out, but I'm not about to start depending on it for real work. Is it working for you?

So we know that jailbreaking 1.1.3 is possible (but a bit of a pain), but now we're also hearing that the pain doesn't necessarily stop once you've finished the jailbreak. Gizmodo is reporting on various issues including the breakage of Google Location and of various native apps. The latter isn't too surprising, as there are lots of internal changes in 1.1.3 that seem to be getting the iPhone ready for official apps. How's that? Well most applications don't run as root and there's even a hidden application key that programs will need to run. (That last means that hackers might someday be able to provide native apps without resorting it iTunes)

If all that doesn't scare you and you haven't updated to 1.1.3 yet, a couple of 13-year-olds have released an over-the-air solution for you over at http://ijailbreak.com/. 1.1.3 folks will need to downgrade to take advantage of it, though.

Sadly,the issues don't appear to be limited to just people who are hacking away at their iPhones. Folks are noticing that 1.1.3 seems to be dropping calls and handing Bluetooth poorly (though there are some ugly fixes for that).

You? How's 1.1.3 been treating ya?