This is a minor update, even though iPad support sounds big. It's still more satisfying to use the mobile Web version of Google Plus on the iPad than it is to use an iPhone-sized app or a blurry 2x version, which you can't even use in landscape mode. The improvements to notifications are welcome, and improvements to Huddle might make the group messaging feature more useful to iPhone users. But we're still waiting for a full-featured app, especially one that runs on the iPad.

These jailbreaking tools were made possible by an exploit found by German security researcher Stefan Esser, who provided details regarding the exploit to the team.

Redsn0w or Pnwage Tool?

PwnageTool is the jailbreaking software that iPhone unlockers (those who run the phone on an unsupported mobile network) need to use. However, the Dev Team says that the accompanying software (ultrasn0w) is not yet ready for iOS 4.3.1. For now, unlockers need to hold off on using the new jailbreaking tools, or they will lose their unlock. When an updated version of ultrasn0w becomes available, unlockers will want to then use the PwnageTool app if on Mac, or Sn0wbreeze, the unofficial version of the tool for Windows.

For everyone just waiting to jailbreak, but not unlock, their mobile devices, redsn0w is ready now and is also much easier to use, says the Dev Team.

How to Jailbreak iOS 4.3.1 on Windows or Mac

1. Download the redsn0w software for Windows or Mac. (A list of unofficial mirrors is also available here).
2. Extract and run the executable (Windows) or the .app file (Mac) from the Zip file you downloaded.
3. Download the custom iOS 4.3.1 firmware (IPSW file) which you will use to restore your device using redsn0w. iClarified.com, which the Dev Team itself recommended, has a download available on this webpage. The direct link to the IPSW file from iClarified is available here. You can also download the IPSW file from iTunes itself, but be careful to "Download Only," not update. Note: RedmondPie, a go-to resource on jailbreaking, says only official firmware is supported.
4. Launch redsn0w and browse to the folder where you saved the custom firmware file you downloaded in step #3.

   

5. On the next screen, make sure "Install Cydia" is selected, then click "Next."

   

6. You will now need to turn your device off and plug it into your computer.
7. Once off, click "Next."
8. Follow the onscreen instructions that explain how to put your device into DFU mode. This involves a series of button pushes. Hold down power for 2 seconds, then press the Home button for 10 seconds. While still holding down the Home button, release the power button. Keep holding down Home for 15 more seconds.



9. Redsn0w will then detect your device, reboot your device and jailbreak it. When the process completes, click "Finish."
10. When your device reboots, it will be jailbroken.

The changes are pretty impressive, and if you're reliant on Evernote for your mobile device you'll find the app faster and the interface more intuitive - all making the app a lot easier for not just note-taking but for note retrieval.

The screen for creating a note has been updated as well. When you go to add a note, you'll see a split screen - with the top half for your data entry and the bottom half with options to attach images, audio, tags, and your location. You can now attach multiple items to a single note, which is hugely helpful if you're compiling various media - pictures, audio, and text - into a single note.

Tagging (including tagging with location data), browsing, and searching are all improved in this update as well.

Evernote releases updates to its mobile and desktop apps quite regularly, but these changes to the iPhone app are pretty significant (and I'd say, once again, puts the iPhone app ahead of the Android app, which saw huge improvements late last year). Evernote says that it has more changes in the works, including the ability to performed in-app editing of notes with styled text and multimedia. These and other changes will also make their way to a new iPad app as well.

The iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch app contains 36 chapters, 250 high-res photographs, the full text of over 200 speeches, 60-plus pages of bio, and 35 video clips.

App sections include:

• Childhood
• Harvard
• Europe
• Navy
• Marriage
• Daily Schedule of the President
• Bay of Pigs
• Crisis In Berlin
• Southeast Asia
• Economy
• Civil Rights
• Cuban Missile Crisis
• Assassination
• Legacy

Users can export all the video, text and photographs in the app, which makes sense given the New Rochelle, NY-based company's focus on education. The app requires iOS 3.1 or later and 464 MB.

But for iPhone jailbreakers, there's only one question that comes to mind when a new upgrade is released: can you jailbreak it?

Although the 4.2.1 software can be jailbroken using the iPhone Dev Team's redsn0w hacking tool, this time around it's what's known as a "tethered" jailbreak, at least on newer Apple devices. What that means is that if your phone ever loses power or you need to reboot your device, you have to connect it to your computer (i.e. "tether" it) in order to keep the device jailbroken. Failure to do so will result in the device resetting to an un-jailbroken state. If, for some reason, you aren't able to reboot the device while tethered, you can still recover your jailbreak by connecting it again to your computer and then booting it using redsn0w.

Simply put, it's a huge pain.

So unless you really need 4.2.1's AirPlay or AirPrint features, we would suggest iPhone users hold off on this one, as an untethered (read: "normal") jailbreak is in the works now. Being "tethered" is less of a hassle on iPod Touch and iPad, however, as maintaining a jailbreak isn't as mission-critical on these devices. Nor are these devices as likely to be completely drained of battery juice like the iPhone is, especially if you make a lot of phone calls. In other words, it's up to you on this one - jailbreak if you must or wait to upgrade.

The good news is that you can still upgrade your iPad to iOS 4.2.1 to take advantage of all the new features but not have to install the same software on your iPhone. iTunes will prompt you when you connect an iPad to your computer to upgrade and you can proceed normally. When you connect your iPhone, you can just say "no" to the same prompt with no harm done. You can continue using your iPhone as usual, syncing files, etc., while still maintaining the jailbreak you already have.

However, if you're determined to proceed with the jailbreak, despite our warnings, here's how you do it:

1. Download the redsn0w software: Mac or Windows version (more mirrors are listed on the Dev Team blog)
2. Upgrade to iTunes 10.1 if you haven't already.
3. Install the iOS 4.2.1 firmware via iTunes as usual.
4. Run the redsn0w software executable.
5. Redsn0w will ask you to select your IPSW file for your current firmware. Point it to one of the following, depending on your OS:
   • Mac OS X: /~/Library/iTunes/iPad Software Updates (or iPhone/iPod Software Updates, as the case may be)
   • Windows 7 or Vista: C:\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\iTunes\iPad Software Updates (or iPhone/iPod Software Updates)
   • Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes\iPad Software Updates (or iPhone/iPod Software Updates)

   

6. Redsn0w should now say that the IPSW file was successfully identified. On the following screen, check "Install Cydia" then click "Next."
7. With the iOS device powered off and plugged into the computer, click "Next" again.
8. Redsn0w will now provide instructions on how to put your device into DFU mode. This is a combination of key presses, that are as follows: Hold the Power button for 1 second, then without releasing it, hold the Home button for 10 seconds. Finally, release Power but keep holding Home for 15 seconds.
9. One in DFU mode, the jailbreak will proceed automatically.

Compatibility notes: This jailbreak works on all devices. On iPhone 4, iPod Touch 3 and 4, iPad and iPod Touch 2 (MC model) it will be tethered. On iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS (older bootroom), and iPod Touch 2 (older model) it's not tethered. iPhone unlockers should NOT jailbreak!

As always, please proceed with jailbreaking at your own risk. Although relatively easy, it is a form of hacking and things can go wrong, break, crash or just not work at all. Back up your iOS device before jailbreaking in case you need to restore and make sure that critical data (contacts, notes, etc.) is also safely stored elsewhere than on your PC.

This new version of iTunes also enables video streaming through AirPlay, which allows users to wirelessly stream videos, pictures and music from iTunes to the new Apple TV. Until now, AirPlay only worked for audio and photos. Besides this, there are no major new features in this new version of iTunes (the release notes also make no mention of AirPrint, by the way). If you are using iTunes to sync an iOS device, we recommend you update as soon as you can, especially if you plan to update to iOS 4.2 as soon as it is released.

When the company submitted the app in early September, they called it a "test of whether Jobs' 'thoughts on Flash' ban is actually political rather than technical". Today, it looks like the ban has fallen on the side of reason.

According to an article on CNNMoney.com, Skyfire "isn't a standalone application, but rather a tool that works on top of Apple's Safari Web browser. As a result, the company said the app was given a rather rigorous review from Apple."

The app will only work for Flash video and not games, as it works by downloading Flash content to a server and translating it to HTML5, before sending it to the user.

This latest version of VLC works on the iPhone 4 and 3GS, as well as the iPod Touch 3rd and 4th generation. This version of VLC allows users a greater flexibility by providing support for more file types as well as allowing them to delete files directly from the app, rather than resorting to using iTunes on their computer.

The app first broke onto iOS in late September with an iPad app, surprising many. As we mentioned when the iPad app was approved, it seems that after Apple clarified its App Store guidelines, it moved to a more liberal policy.

9 to 5 Mac took a look at the app and offered up an early review of the features, which you can see below.

VLC 1.1.0 is available in the App Store.

For those of you hoping for a mobile version of Firefox on the iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, we say don't hold your breath, but this app will help you bring much of what you do on your home computer on the go.

The latest version of the app brings "worldwide" support with 15 languages, the ability to search for URLs that you can't find in your bookmarks or history, and custom server support for those who want to setup Firefox Home to connect with their own custom Firefox Sync servers. We're guessing that this feature is best for those of you who don't trust the cloud for storage of your browsing activities.

While we like Firefox Home for what it is, for those of you who need to use different browsers for different things, we strongly suggest giving Xmarks a shot. Xmarks not only offers similar synching capabilities, but it works on multiple browsers and devices. While it doesn't have an iPhone app, the mobile website works quite well. If you're a diehard Firefox user with an iPhone, however, Firefox Home surely seems like a can't-miss.

Mozilla offers a video walk-through of the newest features on its blog.

Jailbreaking, for those unaware, is the term that refers to a particular hack that permits the installation of unapproved, third-party applications to an Apple mobile device, such as the iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad. There are several grey-market application stores now available to those in the jailbreak community where you can download everything from the raunchier, rejected apps to incredibly useful paid applications like MyWi, which turns an iPhone into an Wi-Fi hotspot.

However, once a phone is jailbroken, there are ways to install pirated (aka "cracked") applications, too. These apps are hacked versions of paid applications available for sale in the iTunes App Store, but are completely free to download through the use of specialized apps and tools.

Jailbreakers aren't always app pirates, mind you - there are plenty of good reasons to jailbreak besides stealing apps -  but app pirates have always been jailbreakers, out of necessity. A tool like "iPA God," assuming it works as advertised, would make iPhone app piracy even more accessible to end users, as anyone would be able to steal applications without having to go through the sometimes complex iPhone jailbreaking procedures.

About iPA God

The news about "iPA God" and its capabilities started making the rounds last week when a video demonstration of the application in action was posted to YouTube. According to the developers, the application works by using an unpatched exploit found in iOS versions 4.1 and 4.2. In the video, the app is demonstrated on an iOS 4.2, which has yet to be jailbroken.

Now, according to this post on an Internet forum, iPA God, its Twitter account, the source code and usage instructions are up for sale in an auction that ends Tuesday at 12 PM EST.

One of the application's developers, who goes by the name "Jmiz9000," says the team is selling the app because they cannot afford to maintain it. Although there are obviously legal concerns here in the U.S., as forum posters responding to the offer point out , these can be avoided by hosting the app's servers overseas. Notes one user, for instance, "our server is located in China...we host a lot of cracked ipas and cracked Cydia apps for years, so we have no problem about copyright since it's not existing in China!"

Should Developers be Concerned?

Before developers get too worked up over this potential threat to their livelihoods, it's important to note that this "iPA God" tool may or may not be legit. Although the video appears undoctored and the exploit the app uses is also known to work, the actual source code for the app has not been made available to the wider developer community for testing purposes. How functional an application iPA God is, for now, is undetermined.

That said, the jailbreaking community has been growing in numbers over the years. When two of the top "jailbreak apps stores," Cyida and Rock, announced a merger earlier this month, there were some surprising statistics about jailbreaking usage numbers revealed. Rock said it has been installed on 4.6 million unique iOS devices from 220 countries and/or territories to date, has 2 million registered users and sales of more than $3.3 million. Cydia, meanwhile, had 1.6 million installations as of last spring.

The announcement is part of a larger upgrade for Parallels which now supports enhanced speed, performance and graphics, including Direct X 9. Mac users - as well as iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users - can now access Windows applications, file formats and even games from their various devices.

"With the popularity of mobile devices skyrocketing, our customers overwhelmingly desire the ability to do more from anywhere without the restrictions that usually come from working remotely," said Parallels CEO Serguei Beloussov.

As long as an instance of Parallels is open on your Mac, just fire up the app on your mobile device and your windows environment is instantly synced in real-time to your iPad, iPod or iPhone. This could be great for the iPad owner who wants to use the device to show a PowerPoint presentation without having to first convert it to an iPad-friendly format.

Part of making the mobile experience smooth for Parallels included boosting speed of the app to make it launch and run apps faster. Parallels says it can now boot up into a Windows application 41% faster than the previous version.

The application can now fully virtualize and leverage 64-bit apps and can reproduce 5.1 digital surround sound. Enhanced 3D capabilities mean gamers can better enjoy PC games on their Mac, though virtualizing games on the iPad probably won't work too well with the touch-screen interface (unless Monkey Island is your kind of game!)

So if you've always wanted to run Internet Explorer (or Firefox, for that matter) on your iOS device, Parallels Desktop 6 is probably the app for you. Check out a free trial at the Parallels homepage and give the free iOS app a whirl.

As it turns out, it was not. Going mobile has long been part of the company's strategy, although it often hesitated to admit to that. In fact, in January of this year, only a few months prior to the iPad app's launch, CEO Reed Hastings claimed building an iPhone app was "not a huge priority for us because we are so focused on the larger screen," meaning, the TV.

Either he was diverting attention from the company's actual plans or things rapidly changed over the course of the following months, because in April, Netflix announced plans to release an iPhone/iPod Touch app. (Today's company blog post says this news was merely a "hint," - which is funny, considering the actual April announcement states clearly: "we're working on it.") In June, the company again confirmed the iPhone app's arrival, saying: "get ready to watch instantly on it this summer!"

And now, just before summer officially ends, here it is.

So, Is It Any Good?

The new app is in many ways an improvement over its iPad counterpart which often feels more like the desktop-sized website crammed into an iPad wrapper. The iPhone app, however, looks more custom-built. There are buttons for "Home," "Genres," "Search" and "Instant Queue," although it's sadly lacking queue management tools.

For those who have extra-long queues, the choice to display only 3 movies per screen (and the third, just barely) means there's a lot of scrolling ahead of you if you need to reach the queue's end. You may be better off searching for the movie instead of trying to scroll down to find it!

But it's a start, at least. And it does the most important thing: stream Netflix movies to your iPhone, without requiring a jailbreak and hack.

Now, there's only one thing left to wonder about - where's the Android version?

Jailbreaking allows for a plethora of new features, including turning the phone into a Wi-Fi hotspot, being able to fully customize the phone down to its icons and forcing Wi-Fi only apps to run over 3G. For those whose older devices don't support all of iOS 4's new features, jailbreaking offers some viable alternatives. 

Jailbreaking and unlocking the iPhone are two different hacks which allow you to take control of your mobile device in different ways. Jailbreaking is a type of hack that lets you install unapproved third-party applications on your iPhone or iPod Touch from searchable repositories provided by apps like Cydia and Icy. Unlocking, on the other hand, is a hack that lets you use your iPhone on another cellular network. Here in the U.S., that means you can use the iPhone on T-Mobile instead of AT&T. You have to first jailbreak your phone before you can unlock it, but you don't have to unlock a phone in order to jailbreak it.

How to Jailbreak the 4.0 Software for the iPhone 3G and iPod Touch Second Generation

The "Redsn0w" jailbreak software has been updated to support iOS 4.0 on both Mac and Windows and works for iPhone 3G and the iPod Touch, second generation. This jailbreak is especially helpful for for iPhone 3G owners as the new OS won't offer the much sought-after multitasking feature on their devices. A jailbreak application called multifl0w will, however, provide an alternative. Another jailbreak app called WinterBoard offers a way to customize the iPhone's background even though that too is disabled for 3G owners running the latest OS 4.0 update.

This jailbreak guide assumes you've already downloaded and updated your phone or iPod Touch to the latest software, iOS 4.0, and have backed up your device.

If you are looking to unlock your phone in order to run it on a network belonging to another carrier, this is not the guide for you.

How to Jailbreak iOS 4 on Non-iPhone 4 Devices

1. Download Redsn0w, version 0.9.5b5-3 (Links: Mac OSX (x86), Windows Updated file locations: Mac, Windows)
2. Extract the files and run the Redsn0w executable. (Windows users should run it as Administrator)
3. When prompted, point it to the original iOS 4 firmware file (in Windows, browse to C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\iTunes\iPod Software Updates and look for the .ipsw file; on Mac, the file will be here: ~/Library/iTunes/iPhone Software Updates/)
4. On the following screen, make sure "Install Cydia" is selected. You can check or uncheck the other options as desired.



5. If you phone isn't already off, turn it off now. (Press and hold the power button at the top until the "Slide to turn off" message appears, then shut the phone down).
6. Plug the phone into your computer via the USB cable, if you haven't done so already.



7. Here it gets a little tricky. The following screen instructs you on a combination of button presses that will force the phone into a special mode called "DFU" mode. You don't need to know what that means, but you need to follow the instructions precisely. If you mess up, it's OK. You'll just get an error message and can then go back and try it again.



8. After successfully entering DFU mode, the jailbreaking processing will begin. You'll see file copying procedures taking place, but there's nothing else you really need to do except for hitting the "Finish" button when the computer portion of the jailbreak ends. (The rest of the jailbreak happens on your phone).



9. When your phone reboots, look for the new Cydia icon on your homescreen. From this jailbreak App Store, you can download all the applications that aren't allowed into Apple's curated and approved collection.

Keep in mind that if you have a jailbroken phone, you can't get support from Apple for any issues you may have. However, jailbreaking isn't permanent. You can revert your phone to its factory settings at any time via iTunes with no one the wiser.

"Opera Mini has been approved for iPhone and iPod touch on the App Store," the company announced. "Opera Mini will be available as a free download within 24 hours, depending on market."

Prior to this, as ReadWriteWeb has noted, the iPhone has remained off-limits for any browser besides Apple's own Safari. Their early February notice that they would be developing for the iPhone was thought possibly be primarily a public relations act. Not so.

Features include the following.

• Easy to sync phone with computer
• Speed Dial gets user to a website with a single tap
• Address field with auto-completion
• Tabs allow for multitasking with several Web pages
• Bookmarks \easily managed and accessed

If Opera sells, and works well, for iPhone and iPod Touch users, perhaps other browsers will make their way into the orchard.

Jobs also announced that Apple has already sold 450,000 iPads.

Note: This is a breaking news story. We will update this story throughout the morning as more news becomes available from the iPhone OS 4 event. Just reload this page to see the updates.

iPhone OS 4

In total, Apple has now sold close to 85 million devices that run the iPhone OS.

Developers, who will get access to the new OS today, will be able to access over 1,500 new APIs, including better APIs for in-app SMS, smarter ways to access the accelerometer and access to new users features like 5x digital zoom, home screen wallpapers, and access to Bluetooth keyboards.

iPhone OS 4 will also finally include support for multitasking. Jobs noted that Apple isn't the first company to bring this feature to the market, but wants "to be the best." A simple double-click on the home button will bring up a task menu at the bottom of the screen. This, however, is just a way to quickly switch between apps.

No Multitasking for iPhone 3G

Most of these newly announced features will run on the iPhone 3GS and third generation iPod touch, but users with an iPhone 3G or second generation iPod touch will not get access to the new multitasking features. Apple plans to release iPhone OS 4 for the iPad in the fall.

Background Apps

To run services in the background, as Apple's SVP of iPhone software Scott Forstall noted, apps will have to access a new set of APIs. Music apps like Pandora will be able to stream their music in the background and use the iPod controls in the lock screen to control the playback. Until now, exiting an app like Pandora would stop the music playback. According to Pandora's developers, making the app background aware only took one day.

VoIP services like Skype will now also be able to run in the background.

Apple will now allow location services to run in the background. This will be a major boon for turn-by-turn direction services like Tom Tom and location-based social networks like Loopt, which Apple specifically mentioned during the event.

In addition, apps will also be able to send local push notifications and apps will be able to complete tasks like photo uploads in the background.

Folders

With iPhone OS 4, Apple is also introducing a new way to organize applications - something that those of us who have installed way too many apps on our phones will appreciate. Now, users will be able to organize apps into folders. To do this, you simply drag and drop apps on top of each other. The OS automatically creates a name for these folders (presumably based on the apps' categories in the App Store), but you can also edit the name yourself. Folders can also live in the dock. This will come in handy if you want to have all your games or news apps available at a moment's notice.

Enhanced Mail App

iPhone OS 4 will also bring an enhanced mail app with a unified inbox and the ability to organize emails by thread. In addition, users will finally be able to open attachments with apps.

Game Center

For gamers, Apple is introducing the Game Center, which is basically a social gaming network that will feature automatic matchmaking for multiplayer games, leaderboards and achievements.

iBooks Comes to the iPhone

After Apple introduced iBooks for the iPad, it was only a matter of time before the company would introduce iBooks for the iPhone. Just like the Kindle app, iBooks will sync pages and bookmarks between the iPad and iPhone. iPhone users will also be able to access the iBookstore right from their device.

iPhone in the Enterprise

For enterprise users, Apple is introducing a number of new features, including improved security courtesy of support for SLL VPN. Enterprises will now also be able to distribute apps wirelessly.

iAd

Unsurprisngly, Apple also announced its new iAd mobile advertising platform. According to Jobs, "most of this mobile advertising really sucks." According to Jobs, the best way to deliver mobile ads in not through search ads but inside mobile apps.

Jobs noted that Apple wants ads in apps to be even more interactive than on the Web. Currently, according to Jobs, people don't click on ads because it takes them out of the app. Given that iAd is a built-in OS-wide feature, however, Apple thinks that it can deliver a better experience for users. Jobs also took a swipe at Adobe and noted that these interactive ads will be developed in HTML5. Judging from Apple's demos during the event, these ads can be highly interactive and many of them resembled mini-games more than traditional display ads.

Apple will sell, host and deliver the ads and share 60% of the revenue with developers.

Update on the iPad: 450,000 Sold

At the beginning of his presentation, Jobs also recapped last week's launch of the iPad. According to Jobs, the company managed to sell 450,000 iPads since the device went on sale on Saturday. iPad users have downloaded over 600,000 books from the iBookstore and 3.5 million iPad apps from the App Store. It's not clear how many of these books were free books, however.

Jobs also announced that the App Store has now delivered over 4 billion apps to iPhone, iPod touch and iPad users, and that there are close to 3,500 iPad apps in the store already.