With the iPhone 3.0 Firmware and the 3G S out and in full swing applications are starting to take advantage of the new performance of both these Apple releases.
One big update is the new Facebook app. It’s added some great features and redesigned the home screen in a new layout. There’s no push yet, but we hope to see that in the 3.1 firmware update. Supposedly coming soon.
Check out some of the new features with this update, available in the Apple iTunes store:
Respond to RSVP
Upload and create new photos
Photo tagging
Zooming on photos
Easy contact integration for texting and calling
New, better home screen
There’s a lot more in the update and if you’re a F-Book user, we highly recommend downloading this update and enjoying thoroughly.
Those of you who have been huffing and puffing for the last two weeks can finally calm down. It’s here! Jailbreak and Unlock for the iPhone 3G S, under the name purplera1n. It hasn’t come from the usual source of the Dev-Team however. It is being brought to us from one of the original iPhone geniuses, geohot.
At the moment there are just a few limitations:
Do not go near the 3.1 OS update. This apparently has fixed the hole that is being used for the 3.0 Jailbreak on the 3G S
It’s Windows only for the moment, but a Mac version is coming soon.
This is a beta version and like every other jailbreak out there, so ba USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!
The jailbreak uses a slightly different approach to more popular methods and does not require a full custom firmware upgrade and works with apparently more sneakier methods. It also jumps the gun on the Dev-Teams conservatism in that they were waiting for the 3.1 upgrade to get a full attack on Apple without revealing too many of their tricks.
Once the jailbreak is performed you will then have access to Cydia and can use the same ultrasn0w utility which unlocked the iPhone 3G.
This is one you have to see to believe! A user who is enjoying the video recording function on his new Apple iPhone 3G S is having some fun recording a little portion of his vacation. Then something happens which is usually the death sentence for any mobile device. He drops it into the pool.
But impressively enough we pulls the phone out of the pool and low and behold, it is still recording. We don’t have any confirmation of how far the phone made it after it’s dip, but it went long enough to at least upload the video to a computer.
This is all pretty amazing assuming that the video is legit. We’ve seen other stress tests on the phone which put the phone through similar conditions and it still worked. So we think that it is highly likely that the video is the real deal.
Here’s another thing that you don’t need, but damn do you ever want it! The Mili Pro is a projection system which will hook up to your iPhone or iPod Touch and project videos onto whatever surface you want.
The MiLi Pro is made by PhoneSuit which has also designed other handy accessories such as the battery life extender and Bluetooth headsets. It definitely has a sleek and cool design that iPhone owners come to expect and the specs seem to indicate it will perform well too.
The claim the MiLi pro can project at up to 40 inch screen and will display resolution at 640×480. So it’s perfect for close viewing and a comfortable size for something on your living room wall. There are also integrated speakers to rock the party when you need to.
The new toy is available in September and will be compatible with the whole iPhone family and also iPod Touches.
Samsung is still going strong! After there announcement of the Omnia II, the recent release of the i8910 Omnia HD and the rest of the Omnia family, they are now readying the M8910 Pixon 12. This is a follow up to the very successful M8800 Pixon which featured a very powerful 8 megapixel camera. However the little brother of the Pixon is packing even more heat with a 12 Megapixel camera. That’s right, a dozen!
The camera isn’t just all megapixels either. It comes with some great features such as the following:
Beauty shot
Image stabilization
Smart Auto Mode
28 mm wide angle lens
Xenon and Power LED Flash
Tracking touch autofocus
This baby is packing a punch and is due out in late summer. It looks like the 12 MP camera may be the new standard for power camera phones. The Sony Ericsson Satio (formerly the Idou) is another model which is jumping into that boat.
Even we are impressed with this! With the Apple iPhone 3G S’s new graphics chipped and beefier processor it does more than just increase loading time of web pages, it also opens up what can be done with gaming on the device.
The video below is from ZodTTD and it is the emulator psx4iphone of the classic Playstation 1 with the even more classic Final Fantasy VII running on the iPhone 3G S . They claim the game is running at full frame rate. We can’t get too excited yet though, as the emulator is in very early stages of development. The video isn’t on mute, the emulator just doesn’t have any sound yet. Also if you’re wanting to get access now you’ll have to contact ZodTTD directly for a custom build of the emulator as this is by no means an approved app and we still don’t have a jailbreak for the 3G S yet.
This isn’t something that will make it past the Gargoyles who guard the Apple iTunes store, so we’ll have to wait until those saints at the Dev-Team blog come up with a jailbreak for the 3G S, before we start getting our Final Fantasy VII or OG Tony Hawk Pro Skater on.
Is this a chance to re-waste those hundreds of hours I spent trying to boost my hit points and figure out the most badass names for my mages? With any luck, Yes!
Hours after the release, iSuppli ripped up the iPhone 3G S to take a look at what we were holding in our hands. Now they have come out with a bill of materials estimate detailing the approximate parts and manufacturing costs of the new Apple release.
At the iPhone 3G release, the same website estimated the 8GB version to come in somewhere around $174.33 and the estimate for the 3G S clocks in at a total of $178.96, parts & labor.
This is definitely not a significant increase considering the new additions to the model. Such as the the improved camera with video recording, the beefed up processor and various other goodies that we’ve been blogging about over the past few days.
While this may seem like peanuts in comparison to the $199.95 retail price of the Apple iPhone 3G S 16Gb the carriers are still making hand over fist in what will be paid in contract commitments and fees. Just as the model was released the Bill Shrink estimated the total cost of what you will be putting into your iPhone 3G S with a 2 year contract to be around $3600.
Some food for thought for those of you considering investing in a new smartphone!
The iPhone 3G S has been making its way through all of your grubby hands and most people have been very impressed with the speed improvements. There are hundreds of time tables out their detailing how many tenths of a second faster the 3G S loads your favorite blog page than just the plain old iPhone 3G. We have to say ourselves that we definitely love saving that extra 1.7 seconds in loading up our page.
But is the 3G S all roses? We have to put on our Scrooge hat and say “NO!” It’s not that it isn’t a great phone, but there are a few things we need to see in some future models to totally please us (like that’s ever going to happen):
Camera
3.15 MP is fine and all, but with Samsung and Sony Ericsson soon to release 12 MP camera phones we think Apple could step up a little bit and at least put a 5 MP camera in there.
Memory Card Slot
32 GB is pretty good and it isn’t a big complaint, but a memory card slot would let us keep different packages of data organized and carry around really big files without compromising our media storage.
New Design
Aside from the hardware upgrades there isn’t much new or flashy to the 3G S and what will make us go nuts is a new design update that will make all of our friends jealous.
Better web browsing
While Safari is a strong browser on its own, it does have limitations. Apple needs to address these issues and make it a more full web browsing experience that will rival use on your home PC. Once that happens we’ll definitely be seeing some huge switchovers from other smartphones.
So we don’t mean to be too cranky, but we thought we’d give some balance to all of the 3G S speed drooling and let you know that as bloggers we will need to complain about what we aren’t getting.
iPhone 3.0 has a lot of things going for it. MMS, cut-copy-and-paste, Find My iPhone, so on and so forth. Another big addition is Push Notifications. This system will give you notice of email and IMs without having to have the app open on your screen.
With this ability only officially making it to the Apple iPhone last week, there are still few apps out there who are taking advantage of the new feature. One of the first however is the classic instant messenger Aol Instant Messenger. If you download the new version of AIM you will have the ability to set-up the app to notify you of any IM messages that you receive while you’re connected, even if you don’t have the app open on your home screen. It can buzz, ring, display an icon or any combination of those whenever you receive a message. So now you can be on a different screen and the app will automatically notify you when a message is received.
Initial tests indicate that the response time is very good. We still haven’t heard any word on how this Push notification affects battery time or data rates, but we’ll probably find that out soon.
Hopefully this means that other apps are working push notification and background capabilities into their options.
Check out the new feature by downloading the free version or the pay version (no advertisements) of AIM.
For those of you who got burned upgrading their firmware to the 2.2.1 version on their software unlocked iPhones, it is now time to rejoice. Those feisty and curious internet helpers, theiPhone Dev-Team, have released a solution for you.
The iPhone 3.0 OS was jailbroken by the Dev-Team before its official launch last week and they released the solution last weekend giving new users the ability to jailbreak first generation and 3G iPhones and unlock the former. Now there is a solution for all users (with the exception of 3G S users).
If you’re a iPhone 2G user or a 3G user who ISN’T already using the previous Dev-Team release yellowsn0w, then you can use the newly released redsn0w to free your iPhone completely. Jailbroken and unlocked in one fell swoop. However, if you are a 3G user who was using yellowsn0w, redsn0w will not unlock your phone, you’re not out of luck. You just need to use the Cydia/Icy release Ultrasn0w. Check out the steps below taken from the Dev-Team site:
1. Ensure you have upgraded to iPhone OS 3.0
2. Jailbreak your iPhone 3G using redsn0w or PwnageTool (this will also install Cydia/Icy)
3. Run Cydia or Icy
4. Please add the repo repo666.ultrasn0w.com to Cydia or Icy. That last “o” is actually the number zero “0”! If you use the letter “o” you’ll get an error.
5. Search for ‘ultrasn0w’ in cydia or icy and install ultrasn0w
6. Reboot your iPhone 3G
7. T-Mobile USA users should disable 3G before using ultrasn0w
8. Enjoy
What’s next is the Apple iPhone 3G S. Currently there is no jailbreaking solution for that model, but we imagine that it is currently in the works.
The Dev-Team has done it again. Let’s just wait and see how long it takes, before Apple releases a response to this unlock.
