As you probably know, Apple released firmware updates today:

4.0.1 – iPhone 4, iPhone 3gs, iPhone 3g

3.2.1 – iPad.

iPod touches – nothing.

The firmware updates do very little. The update is cosmetic only. The download links to the firmware files are in the firmwares section here. They were to address the iphone 4 signal strength issue that the press is making a huge ridiculous fuss over. Anyway, this does not improve signal strength. If you are on an iPhone 4, I say go ahead and update since it cant be jailbroken today anyway. If you’re on an iPhone 3g/3gs, it’s a worthless update. The jailbreak chart is updated and there are unofficial ways to jailbreak your 3g and some 3gs on 4.0.1. See the chart.

The iPad got v3.2.1 which is the same signal strength fix and some rumored wifi fix, which probably is just another update to how the wifi bars are displayed. I doubt anything is improved, as always, with Apple. If you’re jailbroken or want to jailbreak your iPad before the iphone 4 jailbreak is released, don’t update your ipad.

The iPod touch got no update since the only change is the way signal bars are displayed, and it has no signal bars. (This further hints that the only ipad update was for the 3g version’s signal bars also).

12 July 2010 Fixed a number of orientation issues with Quick Compose and Quick Reply. Polished up the animations for Quick Compose and Quick Reply, such that these are now 100% complete in the lock screen mode. Unlock screen mode is still being worked on. Fixed up all known issues with the Apple passcode interaction [...]

1 July 2010 Lots of fixes in relation to the biteSMS conversation list and conversation contents now being consistent when opened after backgrounded via multi-tasking. Contact pics are now displayed much FASTER and are cropped and scaled correctly. Passcode feature in biteSMS now works correctly (except when using open from QC and QR). Some draft [...]

- Firewall iP, the first and only Firewall for the iPhone, has been updated to 1.45 and now supports iOS 4.0. YEAH! You are able to protect your device and your privacy right from the beginning of 4.0 :)! Changelog 1.45: – full support for iOS 4.0 – minor enhancements Firewall iP is the only [...]

22 June 2010 biteSMS now works on the recently released Apple iOS 4 Software Update!!! For existing users on OS 3, this release is functionally the same as biteSMS 4.8 apart from some minor bug fixes.  !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?’http’:'https’;if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+’://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js’;fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, ‘script’, ‘twitter-wjs’);lang: en_US

Update: 6/23 – I have discovered that the email issues is invalid. It was caused by the exchange unlock extension by Zataang. It turns out you must enter a passcode at least once before exchange unlock kicks in or the email issue below will occur. I have rewritten the exchange unlock extension and synced it into Cydia.

The memory issues also seem to be non-existent on the the 4.0 final. 4.0 is actually running very well jailbroken.

Update: 6/22 – After using 4.0 release version, the memory issue below (#6) seems to not be happening. I cant tell if it’s fixed or just hasnt happened yet. The mail issue did occur one more time (issue #5 below) but fixed itself. There may be indications of a real issue here. I will update if I find more. I have released “remove recents” for anyone else that thinks having recents in the task switcher is a bad idea. It’s in Cydia now for 4.0 jailbroken users.

iOS (iPhone OS) 4.0 is on its way out most likely Monday sometime. After using it a while as a developer, I suggest you hold off for a couple weeks and allow for a stable jailbreak before updating. Here is a comparison of my iPhone 3gs running iOS4 and iPhone OS3.0 (Yes, 3.0. Nothing Apple has released since original 3.0 has been worth the effort of updating). Yes, some of you Apple Lovers out there will probably hate me for what follows. But it’s the way it is.

Before I begin, I should make sure to note that iOS 4 is not yet out. There is no such thing as iOS4 GM. There is a “GM Seed”, which is fancy, lame, hype-talk for “Beta 5″. Yes that’s right. It’s just beta 5. It even says so in the file system. It will probably expire. There may be changes.  You should consider it more of a release candidate. It is not a gold master. Therefore, many of these issues may be solved in the final release Monday. I will update this post a couple days after release if I find this to be the case.

Onto the comparison:

1) New in iOS4, Apple has a fancy task switcher that looks nice as the screen slides up letting you see the running tasks. On my 3.0 3gs, I had a nice, but not as fancy app called Circuitous that did something similar. The only difference: Apple adds all recent apps to the launcher. Yes, that’s right. You cannot tell the difference between which tasks are running and which ones aren’t. After launching a few things, the task switcher shows 10, 15 icons. You have no idea what’s running, whats not, where things are. It’s a horrible mess. (Note: I have solved this problem with my own extension which will be out by the time iOS 4 is actually released in Cydia for jailbreakers).

The task switcher is activated by double tap of home. At the same time, Circuitous on the 3.0 installed from Cydia also can be set to activate via double tap of home, and sit at the bottom of the screen so it works in a very similar fashion to Apple’s new task switcher. Circuitous does not keep all recent tasks in the bar, making it actually useful. Better yet, when paired with backgrounder app, Circuitous will actually background existing apps.  (More on this in #2).  Needless to say, Apple’s task switcher does not background existing apps. All apps built for 4.0 always partially stay running. Not so great for memory conservation or overall performance.

2) Multitasking. Everyone thinks that multitasking is now here and things will be different. “Finally” right? Well, not exactly. Unfortunately, there are only certain things that can be multitasked and most apps dont really multitask, unless you are one of the stock apple apps, then they continue to run until you are out of memory. That’s right. Every single one of apple’s apps stays running when you close it. Clock, Camera, Calendar, Stocks etc. So you load up stocks for a seconds to check something. Close it out and guess what? It’s still running.  To you purists out there (like me), this makes you having to open the task switcher every couple seconds and delete the extra running tasks. But you cant even tell what’s running and what’s recent. To make matters even worse, you have to hold an icon for a second to even get the delete button up. GAH! Unlike Circuitous, which shows all icons with the delete button immediately…. Finally, using backgrounder with Circuitous on a 3.0 provides a much better solution. You can background most apps and switch between them easily with a double tap home. 3.0 definitely for the win here.

Note: I am also solving the problem of: all Apple apps staying running when you dont want them to and plan to work with Backgrounder dev to solve the backgrounding issue so that we do have true multitasking in the task switcher.

3) Backgrounds. Excited to have backgrounds? Well of course we had this already with Winterboard or BossPaper.  The difference? Apple background gives you just one wallpaper from your photos. On 3.0, I have a rotating slide show via BossPaper and it takes up no more resources than apple’s static image.  Win to 3.0 here. (Note: BossPaper will be ready on iOS release for 4.0 release for jailbreakers).

4) Folders. Ok the Apple implementation of folders is about 10 times cooler than mine via Categories. Although, Apple’s has a severe limitation. You can only put 12 apps per folder. Categories, while a pain in the ass to use compared to Apple’s, allows you to put up to 500 apps in a folder. Imagine having 240 games installed. With Apple’s folders, that clutter is then cleaned up to “only” 20 folders. 20 folders! Plus, all the folders basically have the same looking icon. If you add ashikase’s categoriessb to categories, it loads instantly and keeps springboard’s feel nicely. Personally, I miss categories even when using Apple’s folders. Something will need to be done here.

Note: I cannot guarantee Categories will be available on iOS4 release. Categoriessb, I do not think is ready yet either. I hope to get Categories ready shortly after though.

5) Mail. Ok the mail app features sound pretty nice. I really enjoy the thread tracking feature. The consolidated inbox is nice also since I have 4 email accounts. However, the mail app has been extremely unstable. Not only that, it suddenly stopped working. It refused to connect to the mail server – all 4 accounts couldnt connect to any of their servers. My password was also deleted out of settings on all 4 accounts. While this was happening, safari was still working so the network was fine. Just the mail app couldnt connect. Reboots didnt solve it. I had to use “settings, general, reset” and reset all settings. Then I had to reconfigure all my mail accounts, passwords, passwords to wifi, springboard icons, etc. Was loads of fun.

6) Memory footprint: About every 2 days now, iOS4 has a couple runaway daemon processes (system services) that start leaking memory like a sieve.  Looking into it, one day, configd was using 50mb memory. Restarting the service fixed it for a while and it was back to its normal 1.5mb. (A reboot would be necessary for most users). The next day, Commcenter freaked out and was using 40mb memory. Later that day, APSD service was leaking more than 40mb memory. It’s a nightmare.

7) For you jailbreakers out there, most extensions that you like had to be rewritten to work on iOS4. Most of these are not yet ready.

The device not jailbroken does not compare to any 3.0 jailbroken. I suggest holding off a couple more weeks and waiting for a solid jailbreak before even trying iOS4.

If you are in America, please read this and go sign this form. It seems AT&T, Comcast, and the likes have paid off a lot of officials in congress.  This will impact everyone. With this bill, it may be in our future that google.com no longer works and is instead redirected to att.com’s own search engine. That sort of thing must be stopped.

Congress just sold you out to Comcast and AT&T. Seventy-four House Democrats and 37 Senate Republicans just signed their names to industry letters telling the FCC to halt efforts to protect Internet users and prevent phone and cable companies from blocking Internet traffic.

Almost every one of these elected officials has accepted massive contributions from the phone and cable lobby. In exchange, they are handing control of the Internet to companies that can’t be trusted to protect the public interest.

Speak out against this unethical behavior. Sign this letter to demand that Congress and the FCC stand with the people they represent and support an open and affordable Internet for everyone.

Please click here and sign the form.

A new update is available for Music Controls with two exciting features: -Swipe Gestures now work when the display is off. -Volume buttons can be swapped based on the device’s orientation. This feature is very useful for using the iPad while it’s upside down. These functions are disabled by default, so look into Music Controls’ [...]

from the makers of iRealSMS PwnTunes – iPhone Drag&Drop Music Import without iTunes – Home It’s a new way to sync your Music & More without the use of iTunes! As we all know there are many many different MP3 players out there but the Apple iPod Touch & iPhone have dominated the market as [...]

Edit for those having problems in windows with dl.exe. User DwghtClrk found that if you run spirit in windows 98 / ME mode it works fine. So try this. Also, if you get “You do not have the newest itunes 9.1″ type error and you do have itunes 9.1, it’s likely that you ran blackra1n rc2 and it renamed some of your dll files. Copy itunesmobiledevice.dll to itunesmobiledevice2.dll (so you have the file twice, with both names after). You can find it in C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Apple\Mobile Device Support on win64 or C:\Program Files\Common Files\Apple\Mobile Device Support on win32.

Note: Rumors also say spirit may delete your pictures. Make sure you backup your pictures in iTunes or sync them off the device before jailbreaking so you can sync them back on after in case this happens to you.

Spirit is now released. This jailbreaks your iPhone / iPod touch 3.1.2 / 3.1.3 and iPad on 3.2. Here is are the download links for Windows or OSX:

This site is an official host. Comex will update the files here directly for updates.

Note: I may make a guide to follow, but this is a very easy jailbreak. Here are the steps:
1) Must be run on clean restored firmware (not currently jailbroken firmware).
2) Hook up the device to the computer
3) Run spirit, click the button.

If you find success please donate something to Comex. (Note: the donations go directly to Comex. Bigboss does not accept donations).

Windows users run Spirit.exe in compatibility mode:

1) Right click on spirit.exe and select properties

2) Select the compatibility tab and select Windows 98 / ME and check “Run this program in compatibility mode for” box.

After this just click the button.

So many rumors, complaints, confused people. I want to help clarify a few things about the jailbreak community and upcoming releases.

First, I want to speak about the time it has taken for 3.1.3 to be jailbroken. Many think this indicates that Apple has won or that the jailbreak is just too hard. This is far from the truth. The fact is that 3.1.2 and 3.1.3 are really basically the same firmware. 3.1.3 was not “worth” doing a jailbreak for. Jailbreaks are done by finding a bug in Apple’s software and then exploiting it in some way that allows for the device to be compromised. At that point, the jailbreak software bundle is uploaded to the device and executed. When this completes, root access is achieved on the device.

Every time a jailbreak is released, Apple analyzes how it was accomplished and fixes the bug that was used to jailbreak the device. Quite simply, 3.1.3 was not worth giving this bug to Apple to fix it.  However, Apple has since released the iPad. This has become worth using up an exploit to jailbreak the iPad. As of today, the main iPad world wide release has not yet occurred. Spirit should be close to ready when it does.

At this point, there are *at least* two known exploits that have been used to provide jailbreaks. The first one we will see is from Comex and is called Spirit.  The next one is either from Geohot and is called LimeRa1n or Chronic dev called Greenpois0n.  Here are some infos on these jailbreaks:

Spirit - There is no current release date (no, it will not be Friday as rumors say). This will work on all device to date and will not be tethered. This will jailbreak 3.1.3 and 3.2 (iPad) devices.  This jailbreak will require that your device is activated. That means, if your device says only “slide for emergency” you cannot use this jailbreak until you insert a valid sim card and activate the device. After that, you can jailbreak. Therefore, there will be no unlocking on Spirit. For those running 3.1.2 that wish to update to 3.1.3 and use Spirit, you cannot do so if you require an unlock. It is also unclear if a 3.1.2 version will be released to simply untether those of you that are on 3.1.2 (spirit currently requires a stock unjailbroken device to work). Spirit is real and it works very well. The current version is command line and a GUI is being written for it for both Windows and OSX.

Spirit, while originally found and done by Comex alone, is being made into a product using the cooperation of many teams (iphone dev team, chronic dev team, as well as Comex).  As we should all understand, getting a jailbreak from exploit to usable tool is quite a bit of work. Especially on a new device like iPad where many tools have to be rewritten or updated (like Cydia).

LimeRa1n - This is what Geohot is calling his jailbreak. Originally it was going to be released for iPad first, but instead Geohot got busy and is holding it for 4.0 (possibly to be completed by Chronic dev team). There may be an unlock planned by Geohot after 4.0 is released but its not clear yet. This jailbreak will not require an activated device and works differently than Spirit in that sense. In addition, there is a tethered and non-tethered version of this. It is not totally clear yet, but it may be possible to stretch this into two jailbreaks, one tethered and one not.

Greenpois0n - This uses the same exploit that Geohot found and was being worked on by posixninja of the Chronic Dev Team. Greenpois0n is more of a toolset that can be used to find other jailbreaks, firmware decryption keys, and may be useful in the future. When it will be released is also unclear.

How does this affect you?

Here will be your options when Spirit is released shortly:

1) You are on iPhone 3gs and are a subscriber to a contract carrier like AT&T. You will be able to update to 3.1.3 and jailbreak your device non-tethered.

2) You are on iPhone pre-3gs – you can update to 3.1.3 and jailbreak today with redsn0w.

3) You have a device that is not an iPhone (its an ipod touch any generation or an ipad) – you can update to 3.1.3 and use Spirit to jailbreak.

4) You have an iPhone unlocked and on 3.1.2 tethered. You will have to wait. Spirit will probably not work for you. If you update to 3.1.3, your baseband will be updated and you will not be able to unlock again.

5) You are on 3.1.2 and happy. Just install “3.1.3 firmware app”, click “3.1.3″ then “reboot” and you are as good as anyone that restored to 3.1.3 and jailbroke. Everything in appstore that requires 3.1.3 will work now.

In any case, you guys will want to keep your shsh stored in Cydia. 3.1.3 shsh’s will become valuable soon.

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Firewall iP, the first and only Firewall for the iPhone, got an update to 1.40 A lot of stuff has been improved. Changelog 1.40: port blocking: now you can extend rules to only block for a specific port. Simply by adding “:portnumber” to the hostname or by using the selector in the popup (example: facebook.com:80). [...]

We can only say that we are sorry it has taken so long. This release fixes most if not all the bugs found in previous versions. Make sure to check out our hilarious video collection of prank calls in the app. As before, the app is free to download, and the service is free to [...]

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