IOS 6.0.1 released

IOS 6.0.1 was released today to address issues in IOS 6 relating to WiFi usage along with a few other bugs.

iOS 6 released

iOS 6 was released this morning.  The major new feature is replacement of Google Maps with a custom Navigation app developed internally by Apple.  In addition, more features added to Siri and Facebook more tightly integrated.

APN and MMS Settings for Straight Talk

While Straight Talk's documentation card does provide APN settings, there's a couple extra ones required to get an iPhone correctly supporting MMS and iMessage.  In particular, the MMS UA Prof URL should be set to this: 

http://www.apple.com/mms/uaprof.rdf

Without this setting, MultiMedia SMS (MMS) may not be supported, even when iMessage is disabled.  

Virgin Mobile USA soon to offer iPhone 4S

Slightly surprising announcement from Virgin Mobile that they will sell the iPhone 4S starting June 29th. Virgin Mobile USA is owned by Sprint, and as they replace AT&T as the "preferred" iPhone provider, the move isn't that shocking either.  

The phone must be purchased from Virgin / Sprint and the two options are a 16GB iPhone 4S for $650 or 8GB iPhone 4 for $550.

UltraSn0w now fully supports IOS 5.1

UltraSn0w has finally been updated to 2.7.  The good news is it Supports IOS 5.1 (and 5.1.1), so UltraSn0w Fixer is no longer needed.  The bad news is there's no changes in baseband support, so people waiting for 4.11.08 and 4.12.01 unlocks on the iPhone 4 are still without a solution, other than getting an IMEI unlock from their carrier.

Sn0wBreeze 2.9.5 supports unteathered IOS 5.1 Jailbreak for iPhone 4 (GSM)

Sn0wBreeze has been updated to support an unteathered 5.1 (and 5.1.1) jailbreak on the GSM iPhone 4 and 3GS.  iPhone 4S users will need to use RedSn0w.

It also contains a fix for 3GS users using the 6.15.00 baseband having trouble with location services.  So, if you've switched to the iPad baseband and are encountering issues with your GPS, download Sn0wBreeze and watch the problem disappear :-)

Absinthe 2.0 provides unteathered IOS 5.1 Jailbreak

Great news on the Jailbreak front - after nearly 3 months of waiting, we finally have a working unteathered IOS 5.1 (and 5.1.1) Jailbreak for all iPhone, iPad, and iPod devices via Absinthe 2.0.  The only non-working device is the Apple TV.

Expect new versions of RedSn0w and Sn0wbreeze to be released within a few days.

IOS 5.1 Unteathered Jailbreak Status

There's still no working unteathered Jailbreak for IOS 5.1, but a new exploit discovered yesterday makes it possible to downgrade to 5.0 (SHSH blobs required).  This is great news for the many people who mistakingly upgraded to 5.1 assuming a jailbreak would be released soon.

Here's a table with the current supported jailbreak status.

	4.0.1	4.1.0	4.2.1	4.2.8	4.3.2	4.3.3	4.3.5	5.0.1	5.1
iPhone 3G	U	U	U	N/A	U	U	U	U	U
iPhone 3GS (old bootrom)	U	U	U	U	U	U	U	U	U
iPhone 3GS (new bootrom)	U	U	U	U	U	U	U	U	T
IPhone 4 (GSM)	U	U	U	N/A	U	U	U	U	T
IPhone 4 (CDMA)	N/A	N/A	N/A	U	U	N/A	N/A	U	T
IPhone 4S	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	U	N/A	N/A	U	N
IPad 1								U	T
IPad 2								U	N
Ipad 3	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N

IOS 5.1.1 released

IOS 5.1.1 is now out to fix some reliability and security bugs in IOS 5.1.  The good news is you can upgrade to 5.1.1 safely, the re-jailbreak on 5.1.  The bad news is the jailbreak for 5.1 is still teathered, unless you have an older bootrom iPhone 3GS.

AT&T's Easter Present - Free iPhone Unlocking

Great news for AT&T customers wanting to unlock their iPhones.  Starting today, the company will give you a free IMEI unlock code straight from Apple.  This will work regardless of baseband, with no Jailbreak or SIM adapter required.

But there's one big catch to qualify - you have to be a current AT&T customer with a completed contract.  For example, you originally bought an iPhone 3GS in 2009 and upgraded to the 4 or 4S on your own without renewing your contract.


The move makes business sense for AT&T.  With the 5-year deal signed with Apple expiring soon, the company is looking to differentiate itself from competitors.  Even though Verizon and Sprint carry the iPhone 4S, both still lock it to their network and charge roaming fees when travelling abroad.  Additionally, the iPhone does not support T-Mobile's 3G network, making it unlikely that unlocked customers will leave for that competitor.

Baseband 4.11.08 downgrade via Chinese SHSH server?

In the latest chapter of iPhone baseband 4.11.08 unlocking, Chinese Hackers have claimed to have created a SHSH server capable of letting users downgrade their IOS and thus also downgrade to the unlocked 4.10.01 baseband.

Will it work?  Hard to say.  Setting up the server is the easy part, since TinyUmbrella has been doing this for years.   The real trick will be creating fake SHSH blobs, which would require cracking Apple's code.

I'm very skeptical that this will be a working solution.  If cracking Apple's SHSH codes were so easy, it would have happened a while ago.

New iPad doubles as hot plate?

Last week, a co-worker pointed out that the A5X CPU on the new iPad was 10% larger than its counterpart on the iPad 2, however still uses the same 45 nm architecture as the iPad 2.

This raises a question - is the new iPad prone to turning uncomfortably warm or overheating?  Looks like the answer may be yes.  According to multiple sources, when holding the iPad upright, it gets warm in the lower left corner:

Huffington Post
Apple Support Communities
MacRumors Forums

Naturally there have been some "iPad Fire" jokes.  Ha, ha, ha. While this may remind many of the iPhone 4 antenna fiasco, keep in mind back in 2009 there were reports of the iPhone 3GS overheating that turned out to be unsubstantiated. So, we'll see.

New iPad - is it worth it?

The New iPad is on the market, and as expected it offers 2X the resolution of the iPad 2, along with faster CPU, more memory, better camera, and optional 4G LTE support (subscription from AT&T or Verizon required).  Here's a comparison of iPad models:

	iPad	iPad 2	New iPad (iPad 3)
CPU	A4, 1 GHz	Dual-Core A5, 1 GHz	Dual-Core A5X
GPU			Quad-Core
RAM	256 MB	512 MB	1 GB
Display	1024 x 768, 132 ppi	1024 x 768, 132 ppi	2048 x 1536, 264 ppi
Camera	None	0.7 MP, 720p	5 MP + flash, 1080p
Bluetooth	Bluetooth 2.1	Bluetooth 2.1	Bluetooth 4.0
Cell Network	3G	3G	3G + 4G LTE
Battery Life	10 hrs	10 hrs	10 hrs
Weight	1.5 lbs	1.3 lbs	1.4 lbs

Pricing for the New iPad starts at $499 US for the 16 GB WiFi model while the iPad 2 will drop to $399 for the same The original iPads can be found on eBay for roughly $250 US.

Given the price difference, it seems like going with the new iPad will be worth it, even if you don't need all the features.  Thus, it's no surprise they are selling well thus far. Additionally, this blog claims the new iPad will be less straining on eyes, making it a better choice for book reading than Amazon's kindle. On the downside, there's already reports of the new iPad being prone to heating issues

Let's talk '4G' on the iPhone 4S

The 5.1 software update has added something interesting on the iPhone 4S.  This is the '4G' indicator, which indicates AT&T HSPA+ service.  There's 3 requirements for the '4G' indicator to be active:

1. 1. Must have iPhone 4S
   2. Must be running software 5.1 or higher 
   3. Must have AT&T as carrier

What is HSPA+ you ask?  It's a newer data protocol that offers 14.4 Mb/s download, so roughly 2-3 times faster than 3G.  All iPhone 4S models support HSPA+ regardless of software version or carrier.  The '4G' text is just a cosmetic indicator and does not activate any new features.

The large misconception is the '4G' indicates LTE service.  None of the currently iPhone models support LTE.  If you want an iPhone with LTE support, wait until later this year when the new model is released!

Don't waste your time on IMEI unlocking services

If you've seen unlock services for baseband 4.11.08 costing $180 US, chances are they're referring to an IMEI unlock window that was recently offered.  On March 14th, the window closed, so this is no longer an option. Full details can be found in this article.

This leaves most of us stuck waiting for a software unlock for 4.11.08.  When will that happen?  Nobody really knows.  Supposedly it's "being worked on" and should be released with the next version of UltraSn0w, but there is no real timeline.

IOS 5.1 Update Released

IOS 5.1 was released today, and installing the upgrade will take the baseband to 4.12.01 (iPhone 4) or 2.0.10  (iPhone 4S).  Neither baseband version is currently unlockable nor will they be anytime soon.

Downgrading to IOS 5.0.1 and thus downgrading the baseband is currently possible.  Just hit the "Shift" key while clicking "Restore" in iTunes and select the 5.0.1 firmware (ipsw) file.  By default, iTunes downloads firmware files to C:\users\X\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\iTunes\iPhone Software Updates

If the files are not there, they may be manually downloaded from www.limera1n.cc

As always, if you want to downgrade to IOS 4.X, you'll need an SHSH blob for your phone created with TinyUmbrella

'Patch' that unlocks baseband 4.11.08 is actually a virus

I came across this YouTube video showing an iPhone running baseband 4.11.08 being "unlocked".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJaxIiYKaa8&feature=related

The author claims that by running a patch to RedSn0w, it does a special jailbreak that automatically unlocks IOS 5.0.1 devices with 4.11.08 basebands.  No mention of UltraSn0w or Gevey Sim.

If this sounds too good to be true, it is.  Here's 3 reasons why

1. RedSn0w does not unlock phones, so patching it would be useless.  RedSn0w only jailbreaks.
2. The patch file does not change the size of modification times of the RedSn0w binary.   
3. The iPhone in the video is model MD128TU.  This particular model is not Sim-locked.

Not surprisingly, 'patch.exe' is a trojan horse and running it will infect your computer.

When I see a proven unlock of an locked iPhone 4 (i.e. model MC319LL) with a 4.11.08 baseband, I'll test it personally and post it here.

Virgin Mobile to start throttling high-bandwidth customers

There's the old adage - "if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is".

Well, I was recently shopping for a new cell phone provider and took a good look at Virgin Mobile, which is owned by Sprint and thus has coverage just as good, if not better than AT&T here in the Bay Area.  Best of all, they offer unlimited data and texting for $35 / month on a 300 minute talk plan or $45 / month for 1200 minutes.

They do not offer 4G and only have a limited phone selection, but still this is a pretty sweet deal.  Unlimited data on a good 3G network for $35 / month?  Whoot!  However, today I stumbled across this blog highlighting Virgin's announcement that starting this month, they will throttle down customers going over 2.5 GB per month.

I've never gone for 1 GB / month in data usage so I'm not too concerned about this policy affecting me.  However, it may indicate that between Virgin Mobile and new iPhone users, Sprint's 3G network could be having the same problem AT&T's did starting in July of 2008 when the iPhone 3G was released.

iPhone Stuck in a Restore Loop? Maybe it's your battery

This one was a real doozy.  So I was playing with a new iPhone 4 I got off eBay, seeing if I could downgrade the IOS from version 5.0.1 to 4.3.5.  Somewhere along the line, the phone went to restore mode and was completely stuck there, commonly known as a "restore loop".  I tried everything possible to get the software restored - loading both stock and custom IPSW files in iTunes, re-jailbreaking with redsn0w, but nothing worked.  iTunes would give errors 3194, 21, or -1.  RedSn0w would exploit with GreenPois0n and start the jailbreak process, but midway through, the phone would just reboot and I'd be back to the recovery screen.

It really looked like I had bricked it.  In desperation, I looked to a program called iRecovery, which is designed to get the phone out of recovery mode without doing a restore.  That didn't exactly match my problem, but figured it was worth a shot.  Getting iRecovery working in Windows 7 seemed impossible, so I just installed it on an old laptop running Windows XP.  Running iRecovery in shell mode, I see lots of error / warning messages, notably this:

gas gauge read timed out

Hmm.   Googling this error message indicated and issue with the battery.  I found a new battery for $7 off eBay, and sure enough, was then able to restore IOS and get the phone back up and running.

This was a good 3-4 days of frustration.  Would have nice if iTunes (or RedSn0w) indicated a battery or hardware issue, but both kept pointing towards software as the problem.  Anyway, thanks iRecovery - without you, I would have never figured this out.