Wi-Fi sync

Wi-Fi sync was always an option in iOS 5 beta 1 and iTunes 10.5 beta 1, but you couldn’t actually do anything with it. Now, once enabled, you can wirelessly sync with your computer, so long as both devices are on the same Wi-Fi network. This will probably be the feature that most benefits the average iOS device owner, possibly short of the new notifications system.

OTA updates

Apple has reportedly turned on the ability to update over the air with iOS 5. Updates will also apparently work over cellular data networks, although some major point releases will have to be done over Wi-Fi. Some are speculating the next beta may be made available as a wireless update now that the functionality is enabled, so we’ll have to wait and see how well it works.

Backup to iCloud as a setup option

You can now choose to backup your device to iCloud right from the initial on-device setup. Before, you had to enable this after the fact through your Settings app. It’s a small tweak, but it brings the promise of a post-PC future for iOS that much closer.

Gevey SIM unlock blocked

If you wanted to use the Gevey SIM card to unlock your factory-locked iPhone or iPad, it looks like Apple is finally closing that loophole. Users report that beta 2 disables the Gevey hardware unlock, which was initially left untouched in iOS 5 beta 1.

New lock screen Notification style

Notifications now appear in a larger font beside their relevant app icon on the lock screen, and somewhat resemble their predecessors. If you don’t respond to them, they join the other notifications, lining up in sequential order at the top of the lock screen. In my opinion, this looks like an improvement, since it gives primary focus to new alerts as they come in, while it also still keeps track of everything that you may have missed while your device is locked.

Apple has also made a number of smaller changes, like the replacement of the iCloud icon in the Settings app with the metallic one that it has used in promo materials. SMS messages also look just a tad bit different; there’s an option to Group By Album Artist (which can differ from Artist in iTunes metadata) in the Music app; swiping up in Messages will dismiss the keyboard; the Stocks widget is turned off by default, and if your Notification Center is empty, it will display “No New Notifications” instead of nothing.

Any other changes we may have missed that you’re aware of?

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Well, last night, Apple released version 1.1 of the Aluminum Keyboard Firmware via Software Update. And as a man almost ready to buy Energizer shares (anything to try to win back the cost of paying for high-performance batteries every week) its description sounded very promising.

“This firmware update improves battery performance of the 2007 aluminum Apple Wireless Keyboard when used in combination with other bluetooth devices (eg. Magic Mouse, some bluetooth headsets) and addresses an issue with the 2007 aluminum Apple Keyboard and the 2007 aluminum Apple Wireless Keyboard where a key may repeat unexpectedly while typing. The update also addresses other issues.”

Promises Promises; the Aluminum Keyboard Firmware Update

I can’t say I’ve ever experienced the “key repeat” problem but I most certainly have watched in dismay as my keyboard greedily depleted — in record time — every expensive battery I put in the thing. (Remember that scene in My Stepmother is an Alien when Celeste sucks the flashlight batteries dry? Exactly the same.)

Coincidence?

Not unexpectedly, the update required a restart — but that was a trifling inconvenience in return for longer battery life! In fact, it was only a few days ago I put in a fresh set of expensive Lithium batteries and I wasn’t eager to have to buy more any day soon. Imagine my surprise when the following message popped-up.

Shocking! Annoying, too. Prior to the update I could coax 9-14 days out of my batteries. The current batteries have been in for only three days and I’m being told they’re on the way out? Surely that’s no coincidence.

So what’s happening here? Bad batteries? Or could it be that Apple’s update has made things worse?

Mixed Results

I headed back to the Apple Support pages to see what was being said. The experience of other Magic Mouse / Wireless Keyboard owners is so far somewhat mixed. Here’s what Creator2456 reports:

Did the firmware update […] The keyboard also REFUSES to stay powered on after the update. Already tried several batteries so it is not a power problem. The LED will light when I press the power button and then turn off within 5 seconds without pairing or anything.

Conversely, here’s a more ebullient comment from Xorgoo:

It works ! My alu keyboard (3 batteries) is reborn! 1% lost during the night, compare to 10% before.

And then there’s this warning from Freekarrot:

This update won’t work on recent 2-cell AWKs, which are heavily affected by the bug as well. Letting out an update just for one of the affected devices is ridiculous. It means they know what the problem is and how it is solved, but they either don’t know or refuse to acknowledge that ALL AWKs are affected!

Conspiracy theories aside, I really don’t know what to make of this sort of incompatibility. (I’m not sure what else to call it — ‘Not Playing Nicely Together-ness” doesn’t sound very smart; perhaps “malfunction” is better?)  I understand Apple doesn’t develop its own Bluetooth drivers (that responsibility is left to Broadcomm, the manufacturers of all Bluetooth radios in Apple’s machines) but even so, for their own equipment to behave in such a flaky, unreliable manner really isn’t the ‘Apple Way’ to which I have become accustomed. It’s all supposed to ‘Just Work’, right?

Think about it; if Microsoft were to build a bluetooth keyboard and mouse that, individually, worked just fine but, together, played very silly games with battery-life, we would be so quick to tut-tut and shake our heads. We would chuckle, too, adding ever-so-smugly (in the manner many Mac-heads are wont to do when commenting on Windows-PC-based problems) “Well, what do you expect from Microsoft?”

Just prior to the Firmware update, the now-very-happy Xorgoo complained;

More Than 100 days, more than 300 posts, and… nothing.
Apple, you have to do something.
And you should at least give us some news.
Do you think time will cure the trouble ? It won’t…

Well, Apple has done something. We now we have an update, but judging from my own initial experience and fresh comments on the Apple support pages, problems remain. Of course, one is a poor sample — my batteries may have already been too far-gone to benefit from the updated firmware. Maybe.

So now it’s over to you. Have you tried updating your firmware? Has it made any sort of difference? Share your findings with me in the comments below. And please… no comments about how we should ditch our Apple keyboards. I don’t care how shiny your Logitech is.

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Many users are also reporting issues with cracked screens and yellow tinting on the displays, with a gradient from cool to warm as you move from top to bottom down the monitor. I had the latter issue on two replacement iPhone 3GSes, too, so I can’t help but wonder if Apple’s increased ability to move product isn’t affecting quality control.

Apple’s also passing the buck in the description of what the new fix for the software-based flicker problem actually does. To wit:

The 27-inch iMac Graphics Firmware Update applies to the graphics firmware on ATI Radeon HD 4670 and 4850 graphics cards to address issues that may cause image corruption or the display to flicker.

Elsewhere, the company notes that the firmware update isn’t a cure-all:

If your screen remains black after applying the updater or if you continue to experience image corruption or display flickering after successfully completing this update, contact AppleCare or an Apple Authorized Service Provider.

So not only does Cupertino seem to be blaming ATI for the issue, it’s not actually promising to necessarily fix anything with this update, either. Whether Apple goes with ATI or NVIDIA, it just can’t seem to avoid graphics card-related issues. At least this time around it didn’t take two or three years for Apple to acknowledge the problem. Still, sales of the 27-inch iMac have been halted, which probably isn’t making consumers or Apple very happy.

Let us know if you’ve tried out the update, and whether your problems have been resolved following its installation. I’ve heard from at least one or two people that they haven’t noticed any improvements. One thing’s for sure: Apple has to nip iMac-gate in the bud before further damaging its quality and reliability reputation.

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It seems inevitable that the new bonus material featured in LP and Extra releases, which includes things like photos, videos, mini-documentaries and commentary, would become accessible on Apple’s home theater device, but this is the first official confirmation that it is in fact on the way. It would seem to suggest that we’ll see the update sooner rather than later, too.

Both iTunes LP and iTunes Extras are based on the TuneKit JavaScript format, which uses HTML, CSS and other open web standards. It’s designed for a 1280×720 pixel resolution, which fits perfectly with HD TV sets and the HD output resolution of the Apple TV.

While it may not come as a surprise, a new major update for the Apple TV firmware would be the first big one since the “Take Two” 2.0 update that came at Macworld Expo in January 2008. Other things expected to arrive with it include Quicktime X and the HTTP Live Streaming protocol, both of which were recently introduced as features of OS X Snow Leopard.

It sounds like it’s shaping up to be a decent little upgrade for Apple’s main foray into the living room, but it doesn’t really sound like anything that’s going to turn heads among people who are on the fence about buying the device. Apple has recently taken some steps to increase Apple TV sales, including getting rid of the 40 GB model altogether and dropping the price of the 160 GB version. Which is great, but there’s still a lot more Apple should be doing to make the device viable.

Like the Mac mini, the Apple TV seems to be lagging behind other Apple offerings in terms of the tech behind it and its software capabilities. Many new TVs coming to market now offer built-in functionality comparable to a lot of what Apple TV brings to the table, beyond access to the iTunes Store and all of its associated content. And HD-capable nettops from companies like Asus offer a fully functional home theater PC at a comparable price, with better storage options and more.

A software update is great, but Apple needs to do more than just what’s expected to breathe some life back into its least exciting device.

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Apple has released what it calls “Performance Update 1.0,” an update to its Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) and 10.6 (Snow Leopard) operating systems for selected iMacs and MacBooks.

As Apple describes it — in typically brief fashion — in its Support pages, ”This update addresses intermittent hard drive related pauses reported by a small number of customers.”

Gotta love those detailed descriptions!

The update may be related to an EFI Firmware Update in June that some MacBook owners suspect was the cause of intermittent crashes and system freezes. This latest update may well put these problems to rest once and for all, except there’s something interesting about the name…that 1.0 suffix hints at the possibility of further revisions to come. A “Performance Update, Update” perhaps?

The update isn’t for everyone, however. It applies only to the following Mac models.

MacBook
MacBook (13-inch, Aluminum, Late 2008)
MacBook (13-inch, Early 2009)
MacBook (13-inch, Mid 2009)

MacBook Pro
MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2008)
MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2009)
MacBook Pro (17-inch, Mid 2009)
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2009)
MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2009)
MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2.53GHz, Mid 2009)

MacBook Air
MacBook Air (Late 2008)
MacBook Air (Mid 2009)

Mac Mini
Mac Mini (Early 2009)

iMac
iMac (24-inch, Early 2009)
iMac (20-inch, Early 2009)
iMac (20-inch, Mid 2009)

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Back in July, users started posting on support forums and message boards about audible clicking and beeping noises being made by the faster, optional 7200RM drives. While the update seems intended to fix these issues, reading Apple’s official blurb, it would seem like resting easy might actually be a tad premature. Apple Support claims that it “reduces certain infrequent noises.” Just “reduces?” We’ll have to wait and see what effect the update actually has, but it doesn’t sound to me like it will provide a total fix.

The other update released yesterday affects a wider selection of Mac owners. It’s a Bluetooth firmware update designed to eliminate connectivity issues with Apple-branded peripherals (didn’t 10.5.8 address the same issues?), including the Mighty Mouse and the Wireless Keyboard. It also includes bug fixes — standard practice for any Apple update. Mac owners who have computers that include Bluetooth on a built-in Broadcom chipset will be prompted to install this update.

So far, I’ve installed the Bluetooth update on my Mac mini, and it does indeed appear to lessen the frequency of “Connection Lost” messages related to my Apple Wireless Keyboard. I don’t use a Mighty mouse for reasons of extreme dislike, but if you’ve got one, let us know how performance is affected by the new update, if at all. Both fixes are available now via Software Update.

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I always upgrade all of my Apple firmware as soon as the updates become available. I’ve never had a problem with any of the new firmwares, and most of the time they improve whatever product I am upgrading. I’ve never had a problem, that is, until I upgraded my Time Capsule to the 7.4.1 firmware.

I use my Time Capsule as a NAS, not a router, so it stores all of my music, movies, documents and photos…all the important stuff. Since my Time Capsule is being used as an external hard drive for all the computers on the network, it is essential to have a fast connection. If you try to stream a movie or even music from a drive that you do not have a good connection to, the media will be choppy and could eventually stop streaming all together.

Quick tip: To ensure the fastest streaming speeds, if you are using your Time Capsule as a NAS, I would recommend connecting it via Ethernet to your router instead of using the wireless. I have found that the wireless connection is not the best method when using it as NAS.

A few weeks ago I upgraded my Time Capsule to the 7.4.1 software and did not really think much of it. A few days later, my roommate told me they were having trouble streaming music. I thought that was weird, but told them to restart the Time Capsule and the router and then try it again. They restarted both items and told me they were still having trouble.

At this point, I didn’t remember that I had recently upgraded the firmware and was thinking, “This is weird, we haven’t changed anything but my roommate is claiming the network is messed up.” Later that day when I got home I investigated, and sure enough, something wasn’t right. After about an hour of poking around on the network, it finally dawned on me that the only change I’d made was upgrading the firmware, so I decided to downgrade to the previous version, and voila, my problems were gone!

To Downgrade Your Time Capsule Firmware:

1. Open Airport Utility: Applications → Utilities → Airport Utility
2. Find your device in the left-hand column and select the “Manual Setup” button
3. In the “Summary” window that pops up click on the word “Version”
4. In the pop up box that comes up next to the “Upload Version” select “7.3.2″
5. Click “OK”
6. Your Time Capsule will restart and be as good as new!

Frankly, I’m shocked that Apple would release a firmware update that would cripple the hardware and am looking forward to the next revision, which will hopefully address this issue.

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Having a laptop battery that drains quickly is one of the most annoying things I can think of. I bought a laptop over a desktop so I could use my computer anywhere and expect the battery to last enough time to get a decent amount of work done. Whenever I find something that can increase my battery life, I get excited. I recently stumbled across a firmware patch for MacBooks that does just that.

The patch was released in March 2009, but I did not find it until just now. According to Apple: “This update improves the ability of MacBook batteries to maintain a charge when the system is shut down and not used for an extended period of time. For more information about this update, please visit this web site: About Battery Update 1.4.”

The products that were affected are as follows: MacBook (13-inch Late 2006), MacBook (13-inch Mid 2007), MacBook (13-inch), MacBook (13-inch Late 2007), MacBook (13-inch, Early 2008), MacBook (13-inch, Late 2008), MacBook (13-inch, Early 2009).

If you own one of the affected models and are interested in giving your MacBook’s battery life a boost, head over to the firmware update page and click the download link.

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Running a new beta on the iPhone is a little like being a kid with very loving but forgetful parents during Easter. You can bet that there are lots of eggs hidden around, but you’ll probably still be finding some long after the actual hunt is over. Since Apple doesn’t come right out and tell you what it is specifically that’s new about a new beta, features and improvements leak out slowly as developers actually use and poke around in the software.

The latest beta, dubbed 7a280f, is no exception. Lately, all kinds of neat new tricks have come to light, some of which are just nice conveniences, while others indicate a maturation of the platform ahead of the upcoming full release in June. I’ve been playing with it myself for a while, and a lot of these features escaped my notice.

One that I did run into is audio scrubbing in iTunes, which we noticed when it was introduced for podcasts. Now any iPod track can be scrubbed in the same way, by moving the track duration slider back and forth. Just like with podcast scrubbing, moving your finger up or down on the screen will adjust the scrub rate, making it faster or slower accordingly.

This is the extent of what I noticed myself, but AppleInsider has unearthed a few more new additions. First is the ability to close out all open windows in mobile Safari, something which I’ve always wanted to be able to do. Previously, you could close out all but one, but the last would remain open until you opened a new window. Now, closing the last window will automatically create a new blank one for you to start out in.

They also show a new settings screen for push notifications, which Apple is now actively encouraging developers to test out. This might just be my issue, but I have no such screen, and no such option in the settings page. The settings, if you do have them, allow you to turn on or off Badge, Sound, and Notification alerts, or turn them off altogether.

Data detectors have also been extended to other apps, like Notes. You can now enter info like emails and phone numbers, and your phone will recognize it as active data and automatically create an active link so you can use it to send a message, call someone, etc.

Finally, if you wish your battery indicator was more like the one on your MacBook, you might be in luck, because AppleInsider also seems to have uncovered graphic elements that suggest an option to view percentage or time remaining in addition to the existing battery indicator. The feature isn’t yet live, though, so we’ll see if it goes anywhere.

Can’t wait for the next build to see what else Apple has in store. If they stay true to form, I won’t have to wait long, either, since tomorrow will be two weeks since the last release, which has been the schedule to date for new updates.

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Apple released the second version of the iPhone 3.0 OS and SDK Beta today, bringing developers a number of feature improvements and stability fixes.

It’s good news for people like me who are using the beta on their primary phones — against their own good judgment and the advice of Apple and everyone else. The official build number is 7a259g, and this release marks only two weeks since the announcement and initial release of the iPhone 3.0 software.

I had a suspicion that this build’s release timing might have something to do with the recent discovery that if you’re using the brand-new Skype app with the 3.0 firmware installed, you can apparently make calls over your 3G connection instead of just on Wi-Fi. But, lo and behold, 3G voice calls still work with Skype using the new beta. In fact, a lot of the buggy issues I complained about earlier seem to have been resolved with the latest update, including the mic failure when used by third-party apps.

So far, most of the changes I’ve noticed have been improvements to overall performance, less freezing, and generally fewer bugs. Spotlight loads up a lot quicker, and returns results faster, too. Battery life seems to be better, or at least it hasn’t drained completely while streaming Internet radio over 3G. Using the first beta, I could literally watch it die none too slowly when doing this. The real test will be seeing how long the phone can go without a power cycle, since gradual OS slowdown and eventual failure was my biggest problem before. There’s also a weird “Store” menu in the iPhone’s Settings whose purpose isn’t yet clear.

If you were hesitant about using a pre-release build on your primary device, 7a259g may be reason enough to take the plunge. I’ll let you know if any major issues crop up with extended use.

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New iPhone SDK

But that’s just a taste of what was revealed at Cupertino today. Developers will probably be a very happy crowd, since the new developer’s SDK gives them access to over 1,000 new APIs.

Push Notification

That includes the above mentioned push notification API, which allows developers to provide audio, text or badge icon notifications for their apps. Just to be clear, the apps aren’t actually running in the background, which Apple says is too costly in terms of battery life. Instead, updates are pushed from the developers server using Apple’s own notification system.

Google Maps

Other highlights for developers include Google Maps integration, so that maps will open right in the apps, instead of redirecting users outside to the official app. Some apps have tried to get around this by using their own maps, or maps from Yahoo, but the result has been clumsy at best.

Peripheral Support

Also noteworthy is hardware-specific app integration, which allows apps to be designed to work with different peripherals, connected to the iPhone via either the proprietary dock connector or Bluetooth. Demos of how this might work included using the iPhone as an equalizer for a stereo dock, and as a blood glucose monitor with a blood-testing device for diabetics.

P2P

Bluetooth can also now be used for peer-to-peer support, allowing iPhones to communicate with each other for multiplayer gaming, and other applications. App developer Smule showed off using this to perform a musical duet with their new Leaf Trombone instrument application.

Turn-by-Turn Navigation

The iPhone will also be able to support turn-by-turn navigation when 3.0 is released, although developers will have to provide their own maps due to licensing issues. Still, expect to see Garmin or some of the other big names jump on this bandwagon early.

Business Models/Payment Schemes

Last but not least, apps will be able to offer paid content, upgrades, and subscriptions from within, sidestepping the App Store altogether. This means the doors are open to a whole host of new business models, which could decrease a lot of the current clutter with regards to different versions of apps depending on price, and the litany of stand-alone book and comic apps. EA demoed the Sims 3 to show how this system can be used in terms of additional downloadable content in games.

iPhone 3.0 for End-Users

Copy/Cut/Paste

Developers aside, iPhone end-users will be pleased to find that many of their prayers have been answered. A full, cross-app, platform-wide Copy/Paste solution is present in 3.0, and it works exactly like Kevin Rose described yesterday. HTML copy is supported, as is image cutting, copying, and pasting, and you can now paste multiple images into an email as attachments.

Landscape Typing

The landscape keyboard can now be used in Mail, Notes and the new Messaging app, which replaces SMS. Good news for the chubby-fingered, like myself. This is a huge plus, since it’ll decrease some app store clutter and free up some space on my home screen.

MMS and A2DP

Messaging now supports MMS (iPhone 3G only), including picture, audio, contact and location messages. A2DP stereo support is also now present for owners of the 3G model iPhone, so you can break out those neglected Bluetooth headphones and enjoy being wire-free.

Voice Memo

A new Voice Memo app takes the place of the many third-party recorder apps currently available, allowing you to record, save, and email audio files natively.

Spotlight

Also completely new is Spotlight, and iPhone version of the Mac’s integrated search. Accessible by swiping left from your home screen, it gives you one-stop searching across your phone. Search is now present in Mail, SMS and basically every default Apple application. Spotlight will also search the names of third-party apps, so you can use it as a launcher if you have lots of pages on your springboard.

Overall, iPhone 3.0 seems like a long overdue correction of a number of oversights, with some exciting development tools thrown in. Don’t get too excited yet, though, since most of us will still have to wait for summer to take advantage of the new features. Developers can get their hands on a development beta right now, though. When it does drop, the update will be free for iPhone users, but iPod touch owner (both generations) will have to pay $9.95 for the update.

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Rose described the upcoming feature, which he claims is definitely in iPhone 3.0, in his Diggnation podcast this past Sunday. The implementation sounds similar to the copy and paste we’ve already seen from MagicPad, which, you may recall, was the first individual, official app to bring copy and paste to the iPhone, though it was not platform-wide. Cutting, copying, and pasting will occur when you double-tap an insertion or selection point in text, which will bring up a magnified area. From there, you can drag to select an area to copy or cut, and choose from three buttons (Cut, Copy, Paste) to perform each action.

While Rose doesn’t go into detail about what other features will be included, a quick glance at the Pre’s specs can give us some clues. Looking at Gizmodo’s comparison, I find it hard to see what else Rose could be referring to with regards to other features Apple can introduce to bring the two devices more in line. Maybe tethering and stereo Bluetooth support, both of which would also be long overdue, and built-in multi-network instant messaging support?

What I’m more concerned with are the features he claims will be left out this time around. Aside from copy and paste, the three things he mentions as not being made available in iPhone 3.0 are arguably three of the most desired functions on anyone’s list. First, no background apps, which obviously doesn’t fit with the overall goal of beefing up the iPhone’s software to match the Pre, since this is one of the Pre’s biggest advantages. Also getting a miss this time around, according to Rose, are video recording and MMS. The latter is supported by the Palm Pre, though whether or not the forthcoming device will be able to handle video is not yet known.

I was very much looking forward to tomorrow, and I’m still interested, but Rose’s claims have taken the edge off of my excitement. If Apple shows up tomorrow with little else in hand besides copy and paste, which it should have included at the iPhone’s launch, then Palm’s upcoming device is going to look that much more fetching.

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The event next week will mark a little over a year since the reveal of the original iPhone SDK, and the timing is probably not coincidental, since part of the 3.0 announcement will include the revelation of a new SDK for developers to work with. And considering the wording of the invitation, 3.0 will likely mirror 2.0 in that the firmware won’t be immediately available. “Get an advance preview of what we’re building” definitely suggests that Apple isn’t ready for a public release just yet. We might see a timeline similar to last year, with the actual release being timed to coincide with the introduction of new iPhone hardware in June.

A key feature promised early but still missing from the iPhone firmware is support for third party background notification. Recent rumors speculated that Apple might be opting to instead allow one or two applications to actually run in the background, which would probably tax the existing iPhone’s processor. Likely we’ll find out which solution Apple is going to choose at next week’s event.

Turn-by-turn navigation was another feature floated early that has yet to appear, and there’s a long laundry list of user complaints that Apple still hasn’t addressed, like the lack of copy and paste, and MMS. We’ll see Tuesday just how deaf they really are to customer feedback.

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So you’ve just jailbroken your iPhone. Congratulations! Your iPhone life is about to improve in so many ways. Be sure to follow our Jailbreak series to get the most out of jailbreaking your iPhone. Going forward, here are some tips to bear in mind.

1. Never upgrade firmware directly via iTunes

In the process of jailbreaking the iPhone OS, a partition inside the iPhone OS is created specially to store the files and data necessary for jailbreaking to work. This partition is typically 500MB. If you look at the storage bar of your device in its iTunes page, you’ll see this 500MB partition marked as “Others”, since, naturally, iTunes does not recognize this third-party addition.

When a user attempts to upgrade the iPhone firmware by clicking on the ‘Upgrade’ button in iTunes, it will not count the 500MB into the storage space available to install new firmware. The result is that these 500MBs are effectively “lost.” For example, if you directly upgrade your jailbroken iPhone — running, say, 2.2 — to 2.2.1, you’ll find that you now have 1GB of used space in “Others”.

If you wish to upgrade the firmware of your iPhone, always restore to the default firmware first. After you’ve done so, you can safely click that ‘Upgrade’ button in iTunes.

2. You can be a law-abiding customer

Jailbreaking and unlocking are, to the uninitiated, one and the same thing. Do know, they’re not. Jailbreaking frees your iPhone to run applications and code that are not signed by Apple, while unlocking frees the device from the carrier that it is bound to as part of the service contract you’ve signed with your carrier of choice.

So, the fact is, yes, you have to jailbreak before you can unlock your iPhone, but unlocking is not a necessary step in jailbreaking. While tools such as QuickPwn and Pwnage include unlocking as part of their procedure, it is equally easy to skip that step. You are certainly not obligated to unlock if you choose to not violate the terms of service set by your carrier.

3. There is more than meets the eye in Cydia

Cydia, the jailbreak equivalent of Apple’s App Store, is, on the whole, well-designed and easy to navigate. But, being a community, pro bono effort, it is ad-supported. If you are new to jailbreaking, here is how you separate the wheat from the chaff.

This is what you’d immediately see when you click on an item listed in Cydia. Of most interest to you is perhaps the ‘More Information’ link. But before you tap on it, wait a couple of seconds (or more, if your data connection is slow).

What just happened? Ads have loaded and the ‘More Information’ link has been pushed down, out of sight. If you’d tapped before the ads could load, you’d have most likely tapped on the ad instead of the link you intended to visit. So, when browsing in Cydia, patience will go a long way in making your shopping experience a more pleasant one.

While we’re still on the subject, the only page links in Cydia that matter to the typical user are listed below.

More Information — Tapping on this takes you to a sub page where you can usually find a detailed write-up of what you are about to install. But sometimes, a More Information link can take you to an external site. This varies from developer to developer.

Changelog — Some developers offer a list of the changes the latest version of his or her application contains. Reading the changelog gives you a better idea of what to expect, and whether the app is worth upgrading.

Screenshots — Most of the hacks available in Cydia are visual ones. This is especially true of custom themes. Most developers will include screenshots — “Screenies” as they are commonly called in the jailbreak community — accessible thru the ‘Screenshots’ link.

But remember that every page in Cydia contains ads. So wait a while and let those screenshots load.

4. Secure your iPhone

Being an operating system with UNIX components, iPhone OS has a root account. The default root password has already been made widely-known on the Internet, so any one with some knowledge in SSH can easily access the contents of your iPhone wirelessly. Be sure to change the password after you jailbreak your phone.

1. Fire up Cydia on your iPhone.
2. Browse or search for an application called MobileTerminal and install that.
3. Open MobileTerminal and type ‘passwd’ (without the quotes).
4. You will be prompted for the old password; for iPhone OS 2.2.x, the password is ‘alpine’.
5. Hit the Return key. You’ll be asked to input a new password.

As an extra security measure, you can install utilities such as BossPrefs or SBSettings and turn off SSH.

5. If your device is getting sluggish, uninstall WinterBoard

“Jailbreaking slows down your iPhone.”

“Your device will become unstable.”

I often hear these two comments about jailbreaking. To be fair, there is some truth in them. If you think the performance of your iPhone is beginning to feel really sluggish, chances are you have installed too many WinterBoard themes and hacks.

WinterBoard is a well-known feature of the jailbroken iPhone. The most visible part of WinterBoard that you see is as an application that lets you apply themes to the user interface of iPhone OS.

The invisible part of WinterBoard is a platform for system hacks to run, injecting code into iPhone OS while it is running on your device. In an over-simplification, it does this via a system process called the Mobile Substrate. Mobile Substrate runs beneath SpringBoard, Apple’s name for the home screen of your iPhone. You can think of SpringBoard to the iPhone what the Desktop is to Mac OS. Some system hacks are dependent on WinterBoard, ‘piggy-backing’ on it and running in the background.

An iPhone freshly rebooted typically has about 30—50MB of free memory out of the total 128MB available to iPhone OS. Running in the background, WinterBoard typically takes up 11MB or so. Add a theme and some hacks, and it adds up quickly. Remove WinterBoard, and you will see a dramatic improvement in the responsiveness of your iPhone. But you’d lose what many users consider as the most compelling reason to jailbreak the iPhone, so it’s really your call.

If you really must keep WinterBoard, go easy on the number of themes and WinterBoard-dependent hacks you install. Also, uninstall the themes and hacks that aren’t in use; you can certainly claim some speed and memory back this way.

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Airport Firmware 7.4.1 enables the Back to my Mac disk sharing feature announced this week for previous generation Airport Extreme and Time Capsule devices. This release also updates the brand new Airport Extreme and Time Capsule devices with dual-band networking to fix a few bugs that were not caught in the initial release. It does not, however, enable dual-band networking or guest networking on older devices as that feature relies on the new hardware found in the Early 2009 versions of the Airport Extreme and Time Capsule. Airport Express users get no love (beyond bug fixes) as Air Disk sharing is not supported on those devices.

Here is the list of updates…

For AirPort Extreme (Early 2009) and Time Capsule (Early 2009) that ship with firmware 7.4, the firmware 7.4.1 update:

• Resolves an issue in which a client computer may be disconnected when waking from sleep
• Addresses an issue in which redirecting SMTP port services may disable IP-layer networking
• Improves the reliability of Back to My Mac-based disk sharing
• Includes recent AirPort security updates

For AirPort Extreme with 802.11n (Fast Ethernet), AirPort Extreme with 802.11n (Gigabit Ethernet), AirPort Express with 802.11n, and original Time Capsule models, the firmware 7.4.1 update:

• Enables remote administration and remote access to compatible USB connected drives via Back to My Mac (except on AirPort Express)
• Improves reliability when backing up to a Time Capsule via Time Machine
• Includes recent AirPort security updates

The Mobile Me features allow you to access files that are stored on a USB drive attached to your base station. I tested this earlier this morning with a spare USB drive. It could not be simpler to turn on the Back to my Mac feature in Airport Utility — you literally just type in your username and password. I then tried to hop on my neighbor’s Wi-Fi to see if I could see my drive. Unfortunately, my neighbor’s router does not support UPnP or NAT-PMP so I could not see my shared drive through Back to my Mac. I assume that if you are on two networks that support Back to my Mac, you would be able to see your shared drive just fine. Maybe I’ll wrap up my Airport instead of See’s Candies for them next Christmas.

You can still enable drive sharing over the WAN port as well, but this is a little different than the Back to my Mac sharing. Sharing over the WAN port just means filesharing via AFP or SMB, only enabled on the WAN ethernet port in addition to the LAN ports. The only disadvantage that this method has is that you have to know the IP address of your Airport base station to connect to it from a remote network. Back to my Mac gets around this by having the computer or Airport Extreme register their current IP address with the Mobile Me service. Your computer just checks in with Mobile Me to get the address of your Airport Extreme and then opens a connection to it.

The other advantage of Back to my Mac is that ISP’s often lease out IP addresses for a limited period of time, after which they may change. Back to my Mac will update the IP address automatically on any change. If you do not have the Mobile Me service, you can accomplish the same result by registering your Airport’s public IP address with DynDNS or a similar service. If the Airport is providing NAT services to your local network, you could even set up a computer behind your Airport to automatically update this entry if the public IP address were to change.

Beyond the cool new features, I am glad to see that Time Machine reliability has been addressed for the Time Capsule. I have one client that was never able to get Time Machine to backup reliably to their Time Capsule. I am looking forward to trying this new firmware release, and I will let you all know if this firmware update fixes their situation in the comments below. If you have your own stories with Firmware 2.4.1, be sure to share them here.

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Once again, the future is being told in code. Firmware code, specifically. MacRumors has discovered evidence that suggests a major hardware revision is in the works for the iPhone line.

They arrived at this conclusion after finding a section of code in the latest iPhone firmware that makes reference to an “iPhone 2,1″ model. Apple uses this kind of naming to identify their hardware in code. The iPhone 3G is identified by the tag “iPhone 1,2″, while the original is dubbed “iPhone 1,1″. The numbers don’t change at all for storage bumps, so a new number means a significantly updated device.

Before you go thinking that this is just a case of a site that deals in speculation chasing ghosts in the code, consider that the iPod touch, originally referred to as the “iPod 1,1″ in iPhone firmware code, became the “iPod 2,1″ when it received its recent major update. Considering the iPod got a built-in speaker, volume controls, a faster processor, microphone support, and a built-in Nike+ receiver, it seems like a good bet that the “iPhone 2,1″ will boast a number of improvements. If I were a betting man, I’d put my money on the processor boost for sure, and there are rumors of a multicore processor in the works, and possibly Nike+ integration if that many transmitters in one device doesn’t cause some kind of trouble.

Backing up the evidence found in the firmware are ad serving reports from Pinch Media, which now sometimes list an “iPhone 2,1″ model in addition to those devices previously included. The numbers are still small, but it looks like Apple is at least live testing the device in-house. Might they be prepping for a June release, to mark the one year anniversary of the iPhone 3G?

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