Following up on the information iMore received yesterday on potential ZFS hooks in iOS 5.1, a reliable source let us know that Apple has been investing heavily in ZFS appliances from Oracle. (Whether or not this will be made public is unknown; it doesn’t seem to be right now.)

Also, several of our readers familiar with ZFS wrote in to speculate as to why Apple may be exploring ZFS for use on iPhone and iPad. Broadly, it may have something to do with ZFS’ snapshot technology. ZFS snapshots can be easily compressed and encrypted, de-duplicated, and can transfer delta (bit differential) updates between cloud and device. The snapshots can also work like Time Machine, easily and efficiently providing incremental backup and restore capability from an hour ago, a day ago, a week ago, or more, asynchronously and block by block. Here’s what Wikipedia says about ZFS snapshots:

An advantage of copy-on-write is that when ZFS writes new data, the blocks containing the old data can be retained, allowing a snapshot version of the file system to be maintained. ZFS snapshots are created very quickly, since all the data composing the snapshot is already stored; they are also space efficient, since any unchanged data is shared among the file system and its snapshots.

Writeable snapshots (“clones”) can also be created, resulting in two independent file systems that share a set of blocks. As changes are made to any of the clone file systems, new data blocks are created to reflect those changes, but any unchanged blocks continue to be shared, no matter how many clones exist. This is an implementation of the Copy-on-write principle.

Snapshots is only one of the features of ZFS (Zettabyte Files System), the advanced file system created by Sun, now owned by Oracle. Apple included a partial port of ZFS in earlier versions of Mac OS X but pulled it before the official release. It’s a file system particularly well suited for cloud environments and storage pools, which might be why Apple is looking at it again in the post iCloud.

Apple is an incredibly private company that works hard behind the scenes in order to present a beautifully packaged, highly polished product to consumers. No doubt there is a lot of really cool, really geeky technology at the core of iCloud, for example, but all most of us see are elegant interface elements in Settings.app that, when tapped, all but transparently backup and restore our iPhones or iPads.

If indeed Apple is planning on using ZFS to make iCloud backups and restores better, it will probably be invisible to end users. One day, iCloud will simply work better, faster, and even more reliably.

More: Wikipedia

Interested in selling or giving away your old iPhone to pick up a nice new iPhone 4S but need to know how to make sure you’ve erased all your personal information from the device first? Luckily Apple makes it easy to securely wipe all your data. We’ll show you how after the break.

Although we highly suggest performing a full firmware restore and setting up your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad as “new”, if you’re not near your computer you can still get the job done:

1. Tap the ‘Settings’ icon
2. Tap ‘General’
3. Scroll down to the bottom and tap ‘Reset’
4. Tap ‘Erase All Content and Settings’

If you have a passcode setup, you’ll have to verify your credentials before being asked one last time that you’re positively sure you want to dispose of everything on your iPhone. The process can also take some time depending on how much music, video, apps, etc. you had stored on the iPhone, as Apple is writing over the data multiple times for security’s sake.

It’s also important to note that if you have a jailbroken iPhone, you’ll want to go through the full iTunes restore process due to permissions issues preventing the data from being fully erased from the device.

Once it’s done you’re good to give away or sell your old iPhone without having to worry about anyone getting into something you may have left behind. Let us know if you have any questions in the comments below!

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This tip will help you learn how to upgrade from an existing jailbreak. If you’re currently jailbroken on an older firmware version and want to update, it can sometimes be a bit trickier than just restoring in iTunes and backing up. In most cases, it’s always best to start with a clean slate and not restore from a jailbroken backup (with a few exceptions). Luckily there are a couple apps and tweaks out there that make the process not as daunting. Hit the break for some suggestions and a walk-through!

Starting fresh

Most jailbreakers will agree that not restoring from a previously jailbroken backup is the best way to upgrade. For the most part, I’d have to agree. The only exception I see to this rule is if you have to restore (not upgrade). For example, I recently had to swap my iPhone out. I was already running on iOS 4.3.3 jailbroken. After I swapped my phone, I just restored from a backup. I have never typically seen ill results from restoring on the same firmware version. It gets a bit more hairy when you are dealing with different firmware versions and different jailbreak utilities. Whenever you are upgrading to a newer firmware version, always start fresh if you can.

Before restoring

1. You’ll always want to make sure your contacts, calendars, and camera roll are backed up elsewhere. I use MobileMe so I already know my information will come down. Either store them to your Mac or PC, or use an online syncing service like Google Sync or MobileMe.
2. To save your Cydia packages and settings, check out XBackup. There are also other jailbreak utilities that perform similar functions, which one you choose to use, it completely up to you. I’ve had good experience with XBackup.
3. To save your in-app game data, you can use an app such as DataDeposit or appbackup. Both are free but DataDeposit may be a bit more convenient for some folks as it just saves your data to your DropBox account which is an added bonus.

Restoring

1. Next you’ll want to restore your device via iTunes. (If you are an unlocker, you should probably stray away from this process. You’ll almost always want to use custom firmware bundles to preserve your unlock with a jailbreak utility such as PwnageTool. You’ll want to make sure the firmware version you are upgrading to offers an unlock.)
2. Let your device restore in iTunes and then select “Set up as new device” as opposed to restoring from a backup.

Re-jailbreaking and restoring data

1. Once you have restored your device, you’ll need to re-jailbreak and re-install XBackup and DataDeposit (or whatever two apps you chose to use previously). These should bring down your jailbreak settings and app save data.
2. Now you’ll need to re-sync all of your content via iTunes. Just make sure you selected to set up as a new device.

Re-jailbreaking is definitely not the easiest process in the world but a clean start is always best. I’ve found bad jailbreak bits can come over when restoring from a previously jailbroken device. So doing it right the first time can save you a lot of headaches in the long run. If you’ve done this process or are just trying it for the first time, let us know your experiences in the comments. And if you have issues, let us know in our TiPb jailbreak forums!

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 news@tipb.com. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)

xBackup for iPhone is a new jailbreak tweak available in Cydia that allows you to easily create backups of all your jailbroken applications and tweaks. I have personally always dreaded restoring my iPhone and re-jailbreaking to a new firmware since the task has always been so daunting. This program sets out to make that task not so irritating anymore.

xBackup will simply save your backup as part of your iTunes backup. All you’ll need to do is open xBackup, tap Backup and it will create a backup of all your Cydia packages and settings. Then sync your iPhone with iTunes. After you’re done with that, upgrade or restore your iPhone like you normally would (or use PwnageTool or another custom upgrade method, however you prefer). After you are done jailbreaking again, instead of having to re-download and install all your jailbreak settings, simply download xBackup again from Cydia.

You’ll have to open xBackup and choose the restore tab this time. You should see your last backup. Just tap it and all your Cydia settings and apps will come back down. If you don’t see your backup, you’ll need to make sure that you chose to restore from your most recent iTunes backup.

You can also SSH into your iPhone and save your backup somewhere on your computer as well. I’d recommend this for safe keeping.

If you guys give this a try, let us know. xBackup is currently $1.50 in Cydia. Hit the jump for a few more screenshots of xBackup in action!

How to back up application data is a question I get asked almost on a daily basis. This question seems to get asked even more frequently every time a new jailbreak is released. I never recommend restoring from a jailbroken backup, ever. It can bring all kinds of problems with it and cause crashes and freezes. I always recommend a new restore.

But what about all your game save data and other app data? If you don’t restore from a backup, it’s gone right? Not exactly. There’s tons of reasons why you may need to completely restore your device. Whatever the reason is, appbackup is a huge aid that helps bring your application data with you.

Hit the jump for a walkthrough!

Cydia plays host to a wonderful little app called appbackup. It’s free and will back up and save application data for any App Store apps you choose. As a side note, it will not save jailbroken data. There is another app lurking in the Cydia store that will aid you in doing that called aptbackup. We will look at that in a future tutorial.

What you’ll need

• A currently jailbroken iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch
• appbackup
• iPhone explorer or an SSH client of your choice on your Mac or PC. I recommend iPhone Explorer as it is dead simple to use and it’s free.

Backing up App Store applications

1. Download appback for free via Cydia.

2. Launch appbackup. You’ll be presented with a huge list of all App Store applications currently installed on your device.

3. You have two options, you can save all application data or just choose certain application data to backup. I typically save only game data and data from apps that tend to be a pain when wiped clean. To save all, tap “All” in the bottom left hand corner. To selectively create backups, tap the name of the app you’d like to back up and click back up. Do this with all the apps you’d like to save your data from.

4. You’ll see the app save your data before displaying that it was successful. It’s also worth noting you won’t see a restore option until you have a backup saved for a specific application.

Obtaining your backups and transferring them to your Mac or PC

1. Plug your device into your Mac or PC after you’ve created backups for all the apps you care to save.

2. This is where you’ll need to open either iPhone Explorer or SSH into your device. If you’re not sure how to SSH, check out the guide referenced above. I still recommend iPhone Explorer, which is what I’m using in all screenshots.
3. appbackup saves your backups in a specific file path. That path is as follows: /var/mobile/Library/Preferences/AppBackup

4. You will need to navigate to the above file path. After you’ve found the folder, you’ll need to make a copy of that folder on your Mac or PC. I typically keep them in a folder on my desktop called App Backups. However you choose to do it is fine as long as you save them in a location you’ll remember. After you’ve found the folder, all you need to do in order to copy it to your computer is drag it to whatever save location you choose.

5. You now have your backups saved in a secure location. Go ahead and restore your device as new and rejailbreak.

Restoring your application data to your device

1. After restoring your device and rejailbreaking, go back into Cydia and re-install appbackup.

2. Plug your device back into your computer and navigate back to /var/mobile/Library/Preferences/AppBackup

3. This time you will want to replace the AppBackup folder with the one you saved earlier. If iPhone Explorer or your SSH client prompts you, choose to overwrite or replace the file. Just make sure you are copying it in the correct directory.

4. Now launch appbackup on your device. In the bottom left hand corner, tap “All” and choose “Restore”. It will restore all your application save data from your backup.
5. You’re done! You can now enjoy playing Angry Birds and all your other games exactly where you left off!

If you guys try this, let us know how it works for you! If you run into issues, make sure to check out our TiPb Jailbreak Forums for answers to many common questions.

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 news@tipb.com. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)

iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad moving at a slow crawl or just feels laggy and buggy and trying to figure out how to get it back up to speed? There are few things that you can do try. Stay with us after the break to find out how to help your iPhone out.

1. KIll recent apps in your Fast App Switcher. There might be a rogue process eating up memory.
2. Restart your iPhone (soft or hard reset).
3. Delete and re-install any apps that repeatedly give you problems.
4. If you’re jailbroken and have a ton of tweaks running, try removing them and re-adding them one at a time and see if that helps identify any problems.
5. Update your iPhone to the latest firmware. (Unless you have an iPhone 3G, in which case you might want to stick with iOS 3.1.3)
6. Restore your iPhone as new. This is a last resort — you will have to reinstall everything on your iPhone after you do this. However, it can sometimes solve problems nothing else can, especially if you previously restored from a buggy or corrupt backup image.

If you have any other ideas on how to deal with a frozen or buggy iPhone, iPad or iPod, let me know in comments!

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…)

Switching from an AT&T iPhone to a Verizon iPhone, or switching from any old iPhone to a new one, and curious how to transfer all your information, apps, and data over? Luckily Apple makes this process almost painless thanks to iTunes iTunes. Click through for a couple easy steps that will ensure all your AT&T iPhone data and settings get transferred over to your new iPhone smoothly.

If you’ve ever had to swap an iPhone out at an Apple store, you’re probably already familiar with this process. If not, follow these easy steps to copy data to your new phone. This process will save all your contacts, camera roll photos, apps, and settings into an iTunes backup for you.

1. Plug your current iPhone into your computer and open iTunes.

2. If it doesn’t start to sync automatically, click the Sync button. (You can alternately right click your device name in the navigation bar and click back up as well. Either way will work just fine.)

3. Unplug your current iPhone and plug in your new iPhone.
4. You’ll be asked to register your iPhone if you haven’t already.
5. iTunes should prompt you to do one of two things, set up as a new iPhone or restore from a backup. Choose to restore from a backup and select the backup you just made.

6. Once the restore is done your iPhone will reboot. When iTunes detects it again it will start to sync back any apps and games your old iPhone had installed.
7. Let iTunes do its thing. When you come back, your new phone should have all the same settings and data as your old one!

If you guys are switching, let us know how transferring your data worked out! Any issues with things transferring or did everything go smoothly?

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 news@tipb.com. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)

Interested in Jailbreak or having trouble updating to the latest iOS release and need to put your iPhone or iPad into DFU (Device Firmware Update) mode? Some Jailbreaks don’t do this automatically, you’re often required to do it to downgrade your iOS, and sometimes iTunes gives your errors when trying to update from beta or GM firmware to final release. While DFU mode is straight forward it can also be a little tricky. We’ll go over the steps after the break.

(And yes, we really should have made this for Georgia before last week’s iPhone Live! podcast. Our bad…!)

DFU mode as opposed to Recovery Mode, requires a bit of timing and can take practice so if at first you don’t succeed, don’t be afraid to keep trying.

• Plug your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad into your Mac or Windows PC and make sure iTunes is running.
• Hold down both the Sleep Button (on top of your device) and the Home Button (on the front underneath the screen).
• Keep them both held down from about 10 seconds. (If you see the Apple logo, you’ve held them too long and will need to start again.)
• Let go of the Sleep Button but keep holding the Home Button for about 5 seconds. (If you see the “Plus into iTunes” screen than you held it too long and will need to start again.)
• If the screen stays black, that’s it! Your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad should now be in DFU mode.

At this point your Jailbreak should take over, or iTunes should be showing you an alert saying it’s detected your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad and it needs to be restored.

If you’re curious as to the difference between DFU mode and and Recovery Mode, our own Ally Kazmucha explains:

Recovery mode will implement iBoot (basically a portion of the bootloader than runs an integrity check) which will not allow you to downgrade your device. DFU mode will still talk to iTunes but it bypasses iBoot which will then allow you to downgrade firmware.

If you’re having trouble and need any extra help, check out our Jailbreak Forum.

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 news@tipb.com. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)

Curious how to restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch when it’s acting funny and nothing else will work?  Need to install a beta or custom firmware?  Whether you’re experiencing freezes, crashes, or your iPhone or iPad is just doing other crazy things – a restore will fix most of your woes.  Restores are also something developers need to know about to test beta firmware, and jailbreakers should become very familiar with, as sometimes it can make your phone a little less stable than it is stock.

To restore, whether on a Mac or PC:

• plug your iPhone, iPod, or iPad into your computer. 
• If iTunes doesn’t automatically launch, go ahead and launch it. 
• To the left, you’ll see a sidebar, click on your device.
• You’ll see a restore option. 
• (Make sure you backup your phone first. A sync can do this, or you can right click on your device name in the sidebar and select backup.)
• Then simply click that and let iTunes do it’s thing for a few minutes. 

When the restore has finished you’ll be asked to either set up as a new iPhone or restore from a backup.  If you choose to restore from a backup and your device still acts funny afterwards (i.e. the problem returned with the backup), I’d recommend doing the restore again and this time setting up as a new device. Then re-sync your content. 

To install different or custom firmware (say you need to test iOS 4.2 GM or say you’re on 4.0.2 and you don’t want 4.1 for some reason), hold down Option (Mac) or CTRL (Windows) while you click restore, then navigate to your then navigate to the firmware you want.

This is a pretty basic function of iTunes but one anyone that owns an iOS device should learn how to do.  Always make frequent backups and sync your phone regularly to ensure you won’t lose your content if something should go wrong with your device.

Let us know how it works for you and if you have any questions, ask in the comments!

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 news@tipb.com. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)

So today I had a bit of a scare. I went to sync my iPhone 3G with my Macbook and noticed when I’d plug in the phone it would say it is syncing while iTunes simply showed nothing — no kind of response whatsoever. Yes, everything is up to date on my Macbook so that was not the problem. After a few reboots of the Macbook and iPhone the same behavior still continued like clockwork.

Next step was to do some research online and send off an email to Rene for some more ideas. To our surprise this seems to be a bigger than we thought with many people seeing the same issue. I decided it could not hurt to give Apple a call about this and as I was on hold I figured I’d try one more time and shockingly it worked. I had to do a double take at my screens but it worked. To make sure it was not a fluke I unplugged everything and rebooted both Macbook and iPhone, still worked!

This issue seems to be completely random and Apple claims to be looking into it. So, if this happens to you, keep trying to sync, chances are you may get lucky. I’d say avoid doing a complete restore to your phone because if it does lock up during the restore you will be left with a empty iPhone. That’s not good.

Hope Apple updates iTunes fast to prevent this from happening to any of our readers. In the meantime, have any of you had this misfortune?

Let us know!

[Thanks to @Rene for the backup!]

Welcome to iPhone 101, our helpful new how-to series for new iPhone users (or experienced users who want a handy link to send to their new-user friends and family!). Previously, we’ve shown you how to Force Quit applications to free up memory if things seem a little stuck or stalled. But what happens when your iPhone is completely non-responsive, even when connected to iTunes via the USB cable? Don’t worry, it’s not a time to panic, just time to put your iPhone into Recovery Mode. We’ll show you how… after the break!

1. Make sure you have the latest version of iTunes (8.0.2)

2. Plug your USB cable into your computer.

3. Turn your iPhone off by holding the power button down until you see “slide to power off”. Do as instructed.

4. Now press and hold the Home button while reconnecting the USB cable to your iPhone. After iPhone is connected it should power on the device.

5. Continue holding the Home button, you will see the Apple logo appear and then finally a “Connect to iTunes” will be displayed, now is the time to release the Home button. You will then see the following image:

You have successfully put iPhone into Recovery Mode. Now you will have to restore from a backup file or setup as a new iPhone.

So you are having issues with your iPhone? Maybe you jailbroke it and things did not go as well as you planned? Perhaps you have to take your iPhone back to an Apple Store because of a hardware related issue and you are jailbroken? Well I will tell you how to restore you iPhone back to it’s factory settings in a few simple steps.

Word of warning before you begin:

Restoring your device will erase all data from your iPhone or iPod Touch, including songs, videos, contacts, photos, calendar information, and any other data. All iPhone or iPod Touch settings are restored to their factory condition.

More after the jump!

Step 1.

Step 2.

Step 3.

Step 4.

Step 5.

Step 6.

*If you are jailbroken, it is my personal opinion never to use a backup when restoring. Some may disagree, but in the end it is up to you.

Step 7.

Step 8.

Step 9.

Step 10.

*Jailbreakers – If you want to play it safe this is where you would like to set you iPhone up as new.

Confession: I had to restore my iPhone 3G yesterday. No, I didn’t want to jump on the trend-wagon just to get a build number ending in 7. No, the buggy, sluggy transitions didn’t finally get to me. What happened? A huge chunk — fully 1/4 — of my 16GB storage was eaten up by what iTunes helpfully classified as “Other” files.

I didn’t restore immediately, of course. Since “Other” data doesn’t include music, video, or photos (which are each classified separately in iTunes), and most “other” data, like contacts, OS, settings, etc. is far too small to explain 4.3GB, I considered 3rd party apps (which Apple should really break out in their own color in iTunes as well). Maybe they weren’t being properly uninstalled and removed from the device?

First I removed all 3rd party apps via iTunes 7.7. That got me down to 4.3GB. Then I tried removing them via the home screen’s wiggly jiggly delete, just in case. Same result. Round about that time Apple released iTunes 7.7.1, and just in case this was a known — and hopefully patched — bug, I installed, rinsed, and repeated. And got not a step further.

That’s when I decided the only way to catch this data-hostage taker was to nuke the city. That’s right: full, clean re-install.

I was on the original, out-of-the-box firmware build (5A345) and iTunes restored to an incrementally later version (5A347), but it worked. Storage reclaimed. (And, as some other reports have indicated, this build in general when combined with a clean (not from backup) setup has made the more annoying sluggishness issues disappear).

Anyone else experience any mysterious “other” files taking up all their precious space? Any other/different solutions to my scorched earth approach? (Hey, I was a Windows user in a previous life, and re-install is etched into the final line of my trouble-shooting check list!)

Please let me know!

• On a mac, hold down the “option” key while clicking on the “restore” button. Then you can select the firmware file you want, just look for the file named iPhone1,11.0.21C28_Restore.ipsw, it should be in your home folder under Library/iTunes/iPhone Software Update.
• On a Windows PC, hold down the “shift” key while clicking on the “restore” button. Then select the firmware version you want — you should be able to find it if you’ve restored 1.0.2 before by searching for all files and folders and looking for *restore.ipsw