Roughly Drafted is claiming a source close to AT&T has spilled the beans on what’s really going on with the iPhone and its 3G connection problems, and what 2.0.2 did to fix it.
In a nutshell? An iPhone 3G running 2.0 or 2.0.1 tries to pull too much power from the network, so when multiple iPhones connect, a tower can actually run out of juice and start dropping calls and losing data.
Why hasn’t upgrading to 2.0.2 already fixed the problem? Simple: some people haven’t yet upgraded, so their 2.0 and 2.0.1 iPhones keep pulling too much power, causing the same problem even for people who have upgraded but are stuck on the same tower (or same high-density city like San Fran or NY). Only when most users have patched to 2.0.2 will people stuck on high-demand towers see improvements.
Earlier reports and theories have lain blame on everything from the 3G radio and antenna, to the Infineon chipset and Apple firmware, to the carriers themselves. We here at TiPb have long been saying the problems were likely a combination of factors, and firmware that pulls too hard on networks that aren’t that hardy seems a far better explanation than any one previously offered. It also goes a long way to explaining why Bluetest didn’t find any hardware issues, and why both Apple (via their website) and AT&T (via SMS) have really stepped up the push for this update.
So, do we finally have our answer, or is this just the next “shot in the dark”? Are you still having 3G problems? Is your neighbor still on 2.0 or 2.0.1? Tell them to upgrade now and then let us know if it helps!
Installer.app, the app store before that other app store, is coming back for firmware 2.0 and being re-fashioned as Installer 4. Currently, jailbroken 2.0 iPhones are using Cydia as their main app pipeline but when Installer 4 is released, well, they’ll likely play nice with one another and especially nice with that other app store.
The RiP Dev Blog has a lot of complicated, programmer’s type language describing the updates for Installer 4.0 so I’ll try to translate to more understandable, layman’s terms: It’s going to be faster, safer, and more integrated. Bang.
The release of Installer 4.0 seems to be imminent but well, really, there’s no rush, many of the apps that were available for 1.1.x aren’t quite ready for the big time yet. So take your time with Installer 4.0. We here at TiPb would almost always prefer a little delayed polished product over a rushed, rough, not as advertised..yeah, we’re looking at you MobileMe.
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UPDATE: Pawnage has been updated to address some of the problems users faced over the weekend, including better discovery of the boot loaders, creation of the devices folder, etc.
Original post:
Starting with the cryptic announcement “We love Sundays. We think you will too”, the iphone-dev-team followed up quickly with the words many (including all those with unsupported countries and carriers) have been waiting clamoring for:
We’ll be releasing a more official announcement soon, but we wanted to get the tool out there. We sincerely hope you enjoy using it as much as we enjoyed making it 
Of course, the site’s being hit so hard right now the links are down, if pwnage is what you seek, and you want to jailbreak and unlock 2.0 on your original iPhone 2G, or jailbreak your iPhone 3G (I don’t believe unlock is supported yet on the 3G but will be following soon), new mirrors, seeds, rapidshares, etc. should be popping up.
JAR!
We’ve been all over the jailbreak/unlock situation for both the iPhone 3G and the original iPhone 2G updated to 2.0, and here’s the latest.
The iphone-dev team’s pwnage hasn’t been released yet, but will be soon. According to their blog, Apple’s firmware update slowed them down a little, as has the 3G baseband, so what you’ll get short term is:
iPhone (1st Gen) with 2.0 - Activated, Unlocked & Jailbroken, (with support for third party applications). iPod Touch with 2.0 - Activated & Jailbroken, (with support for third party applications). iPhone (3G) with 2.0 - Activated, Jailbroken (with support for third party applications).
Can’t wait? Willing to risk mail order? Engadget Mobile says you can order a $1000 worth of unlocked iPhone 3G now:
According to the [Alibaba.com] wholesale goods supply site, you can just order up the “original” Apple device direct from a company called Union Camera and have them sent to whatever poorly lit dock, abandoned warehouse, or suburban safe-house you desire. The best part? They’re network unlocked.
Dunno if I’d risk it yet. How about you?
Could last Friday have been any more massive for Apple? Following on the heels of slew of preparatory updates including OS X 10.5.4 and iTunes 7.7, the transition from .Mac to Mobile Me, and — oh, yeah — the highly anticipated launch of the iPhone 3G hardware (see Dieter’s review), Apple also dropped a little something called the 2.0 firmware. Available pre-baked in the new iPhone 3G, Apple didn’t spare the love for owners of the original iPhone 2G who receive it as well as a FREE downloadable upgrade, as do owners of the iPod Touch (minus the phone, camera, SMS, and GPS functionality, and the FREE part — $10 please).
The 2.0 firmware was first demonstrated back at the Apple iPhone SDK Roadmap event in March 2008 and immediately went through a very long, very public beta process where almost anyone could sign up and download it. In spite of the NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement), during the 8 different betas released to developers, many new features that weren’t originally demonstrated still leaked out all of the interwebs. But did all of them?
Read on to find out!
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This is it. We’re in the home stretch. 5th round, time’s almost up, and Steve Jobs is slapping on the arm bar. In 4 days we find out if Apple scores the submission, the two-peat for smartphone (even gadget) undisputed heavyweight title, or if they gas out with their mostly evolutionary, not so much revolutionary, next generation handset.
Saturday we mentioned one big change: the fast 3G data chip. Yesterday it was GPS. Today we’re tackling the 2.0 Firmware update.
What is this and why should you want it? Read on after the break!
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Out of the closest iPhone lover Paul Thurrott of the Supersite for Windows got his beige-boxy hands on pre-release version of the iPhone 2.0 software update and the pre-requisite iTunes 7.7 software, and ran the upgrade process through its paces.
His verdict?
[Installing the 2.0 upgrade] is a multi-step and time-consuming process but is largely hands-off. [...] There’s a new App Store icon on the home screen, for example, and the Mail application includes prominent links to Microsoft Exchange and MobileMe account types. [...] The old iPod Games entry in the Source list [of iTunes 7.7] has changed to App Store, for example, though selecting it now, before the July 11 launch, displays only whatever iPod Games you’ve purchased. [...] I’ll have a lot more to say about this impressive upgrade in the weeks ahead. So far, so good.
Check out his upgrade gallery, and massive iPhone 2.0 screenshot galleries.
Those lucky… bloggers over at Gizmodo have scored a video walkthrough of both the iPhone 2.0 software (build 5A345) and the matching iTunes 7.7 developers received last week. What say they?
As you can see in the video, the App Store is there—although it’s not active yet—along with the new Push data feature, the content restrictions, and the BCC field in Mail, among the rest of the new features.
Though they also say that the Gold Master didn’t drop last Friday due to some remaining glitches. However, the iPhone/iPod Touch Remote Control was already baked in!
Check out the video and then keep wiping the drool until the 11th!
The webs are a blogger over (some awesomely sarcastic) reports originating from iPhone Atlas that — wait for it — an internal AT&T memo has revealed that MMS (Multimedia Messaging Services) will be among the new features revealed with the immanent iPhone 2.0 firmware release.
MMS — a crusty old mobile-to-mobile technology that, once competing networks and technologies learned to play nice, let handset owners send photos, videos, and music to each other in the days when underpowered units were incapable — or diliberately walled-off from — established cross-platform file transfer standards — has been one of the top most griped about features “missing” from the original iPhone 1.x firmware.
Is it for realzy realz this time? No idea. AT&T has been silent on iPhone 3G SMS plans to data (which some take to mean there won’t be any other than the plans already available to every other smartphone), and yet Apple wouldn’t really be Apple unless they were deliberately leaving off some obvious feature or another for no apparent reason, now would they?
With more rumors saying 2.0 has gone Gold Master, we should find out one way or another soon enough!
Remember when AT&T was selling refurbished iPhone 2G’s at (what was then) ridiculously low prices? Remember how it turned out some of those units still contained the personal information of their previous owners? Apple seems to remember, and has reportedly taken steps to prevent it from happening again.
As with a computer, when you simply delete a file, the file typically remains but is marked as deleted by the file system and will eventually be over-written. To delete something and make sure it’s deleted, you need to over-write it, and not just with a single binary bit (zero’ing out). You have to over-write it with (pseudo) random data, and over-write several times.
Apple does something like this on the desktop with “Secure Empty Trash”, and now they’re bringing the same concept to the iPhone. The catch? Time. The new dialog for “Erase iPhone” now warns that “This will take about an hour.”
And let’s face it: what’s a little time if it prevents that eBay buyer from getting all your personal details, right?
Check the read link for the Settings screen shots…
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