Appletell

If you have recently updated your iPhone to 1.1.3, and are experiencing some minor SMS issues, you are note alone. Apparently, many UK-based iPhone users are reporting on Apple’s own Discussion forums that SMS updates are appearing out of order. The topic has grown quite large with 200 responses and over 11 000 views. Most of the people that appear to be having the problem are O2, UK iPhone users. Apple has published a knowledge base article acknowledging this problem. They wrote:

When sending or receiving text messages on the iPhone, the SMS messages may be displayed out of sequence. This can occur if the iPhone is not displaying the same date and time setting as the carrier network time.“

A potential fix for the issue is to check in the iPhone Settings to see if the “Set Time Automatically” option is on. This may not be ideal for those in different time zones, and may not be accessible to everyone. Apple is clearly aware of the problem and is working on it. Most likely the bug will be addressed in the next iPhone firmware update.

Via [MacNN]

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We keep hearing about it, but it isn’t released yet. However, we can confirm from TUAW that it is coming very soon. The dev/elite team is working on it as we speak, and we are likely to see it released next week if all goes well. This jailbreak will work on both the iPhone and the iPod Touch. The jailbreak is based on a “soft update” which means that they have basically merged the files from 1.1.2 and 1.1.3. So you get the freedom of 1.1.2, and the cool new stuff introduced in 1.1.3. Sounds great.

This version of the jailbreak will have absolutely no disadvantages to it - unless, of course, Apple finds a way to brick it in a future update. But the hacking community is always working on ways around it - I’m sure they won’t give up. I think it’s time Apple gave in. Give the SDK free, open third party applications that don’t need to be authorized by Apple themselves, yet keep the security of it. The iPhone is based on Mac OS X - a secure operating system in the core - so there’s no reason for this to be a vulnerable device. Maybe someone could develop an iPhone firewall with the SDK - that would be cool. I’m sure Apple’s SDK will bring plenty more opportunities to developers in the sense that they will get full access to the development kit, meaning they will be able to embrace the true power of the OS - but at the same time, Apple will be choosing what apps go through and what apps don’t. So there won’t be any more multi-network hacks or compatibility with any sim card.

Via [TUAW]

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Nate True, iPhone hacker extraordinaire, has found that the iPhone 1.1.3 update shows signs of third-party app support. The update has prepared the iPhone and iPod Touch for native applications in many different ways.

First, the SpringBoard has been updated to show additional apps on additional home screens. Also, applications now share a decided “mobile” user account, and the preferences have been moved to a non-root directory. This hints that Apple will not be giving developers root access to the device, but instead will have a specialized account that allows for third-party apps. It is still to be seen how much access Apple will give developers with the SDK planned for a public release in February.

Via [Cre.ations.net]

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Because of the firmware leak of iPhone 1.1.3, hackers from the iPhone Dev Team and iPhone Atlas have hacked and jailbroken 1.1.3 already. They apparently have Installer.app working on the latest iPhone firmware, but will not be releasing the hack yet, because they don’t want Apple to patch it before the SDK comes out. At that point, it may be worth it to just wait for the official Apple solution to third-party apps. And I don’t know if you really want to hack your 1.1.3 iPhone. Apparently, it involves some sort of “hardware modification”. Doesn’t sound pretty. The hacked 1.1.3 youtube video is after the jump.

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Looks like hackers have finally figured out how to unlock your iPhone running 1.1.2 to run on other wireless carriers. Unfortunately, the hackers are just a little too late. Apple has just released 1.1.3 for the iPhone, and hackers have just broken in to 1.1.2. This really is a cat and mouse game.

Geoge Hotz, the original teen iPhone hacker, has posted on his blog that he has unlocked iPhone 1.1.2 and bootloader 4.6 iPhone. And apparently, a software unlock is right around the corner. So for all those wanting to run 1.1.2 on your unlocked iPhones, the solution is coming.

As for 1.1.3, well, that’s a whole other story.

Via [Engadget]

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Apple’s iPhone Firmware 1.1.1 was the big iPhone fiasco last year- it caused tons of reports of “bricked” or unusable iPhones. Anyone who had hacked their iPhone to use another network was at a high risk of having their iPhone rendered unusable. At the time Apple said that the bricking was not intentional, but was a side effect of the update on top of unsupported hacks. They also rightly said that they had no responsibility to fix it, but it seems that they may have gone out of their way to do just that.

iPhone Firmware 1.1.3 gives hope to all with bricked iPhones sitting on their mantles. Gizmodo was able to regain their jailbroken iPhone’s purity with only a few snags. The iPhone was previously hacked with AnySIM and they were able to restore it to AT&T and use the phone and data transfers.

The biggest snag Gizmodo ran into was that they had to restart the iPhone and re-register in order to get the registration to work.

Firmware 1.1.3 is free and available when starting up iTunes.

Read [Gizmodo]

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Don’t get too excited just yet - 1.1.3 has not been jailbroken yet. But for unknown reasons, the 1.1.3 frameworks documentation is live and available on Erica Sadun’s website. She has declined to say where she got the frameworks documentation from at the point in time. But this is definitely one step closer to jailbreaking 1.1.3 - even if we’re not that close to a working one yet.

TUAW claims that Erica is has been silent for the past 36 hours, working at a furious pace to check the revised frameworks on the iPhone. I have two opinions to this. I do want a jailbreak available if Apple is only going to allow certain applications to be developed, and if those apps cost money - which is the most likely scenario. However, if Apple allows all third party applications, as long as they pass their security test - then I’ll be happy to use Apple’s system - but that’s unlikely to happen. It seems the only way is to use the jailbreak, even if it means a security risk. Paying $20 to get third party apps on my iPod Touch is also ridiculous. I’d rather go for the free jailbreak, with hundreds of free apps any day.

Via [TUAW]

• Apple releases list of most downloaded iPhone games of 2008
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• Apple releases the top 10 applications downloaded at the iTunes Store for 2008

Apparently, the latest iPhone & iPod Touch update isn’t fixing problems reported from the last version. Instead, it’s causing more problems. Some of the problems which have been reported in 1.1.3 include:

• Error message during/after install of iTunes 7.6 and firmware 1.1.3
• Loss of sound output from the iPhone’s built-in speakers
• Bluetooth devices that worked with 1.1.2 no longer work
• Mail problems

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Cory Bohon at TUAW has found footage on YouTube of what seems to be an iPhone with software version 1.1.3 - but jailbroken. As posted earlier - we are getting closer and closer to a 1.1.3 jailbreak. It will happen, and hopefully soon. I’m still not going to risk putting this on my iPod Touch when it comes out - until Apple releases their SDK - which could be equally as good, if not better than the jailbreak itself. iPhone Atlas is reporting that the jailbreak requires a hardware modification of some sort - which indicates the process probably isn’t as easy as previous jailbreaks, where you could simply use an app like iJailbreak. See the video here.

Via [TUAW]

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Everyone knows the flagship features of iPhone v1.1.3: the little jiggling icons, web clips on the home screen, and multiple SMS messages. But more has been added to the iPhone than meets the eye. To begin with, SMS limit upped from 1000 to 75,000. If you are writing more than 75,000 SMS messages in a month, you really need some help. The keyboard also allows multiple inputs now. So for example, you can hold Shift + a letter to make it a capital. And for all those Gmail iPhone users, be sure to note that Gmail is now set to IMAP by default, so if you delete something from you phone, it will be deleted everywhere across your Gmail account. Something that other iPods have been able to do for awhile is manually manage their content. You can now manually manage music and videos on your iPhone as well, as long as you have iTunes 7.6. Finally, music lyrics and movie chapter and subtitle support has been added. Most likely, these won’t be the things that cause you to upgrade to the new release, but they are nice things to have.

• Apple releases the top 10 applications downloaded at the iTunes Store for 2008
• Apple releases list of most downloaded iPhone games of 2008
• What is going to happen at Macworld 2009?