The iPhone Dev-Team has updated RedSn0w for iOS 5.0.1 and added some new useful features.
What's New in RedSn0w 0.9.9b9:
● native support for 5.0.1 (no need to point redsn0w at 5.0 IPSW or use command-line args). Support automatically extends to all of redsn0w's various functions: "Jailbreak", "Just boot", "Fetch blobs", "Stitch blobs", "Recovery Fix"
● iBooks fixed in 5.0 and 5.0.1. This is a targeted fix that doesn't remove entire sandbox mechanism. 5.x users already using redsn0w "Just Boot" can just use the new version without redoing entire jailbreak again
● 3GS old-bootrom owners can now create custom IPSWs without blobs
● ultrasn0w compatability update (i.e. same baseband requirements) for 5.0.1 will be available on Cydia Monday
● support for newer 8GB iPhone4 (which until now had problems with "Fetch blobs"). Thanks to @JKjeepnJeff for loaning us one of these newer i4 units for testing!
● allows Windows users (not just OS X users) to use the "Custom" button to create IPSWs without baseband updates
● accommodates APTickets in 5.x (until next Apple countermove). APTickets are crypto-verified before submitting to Cydia, just like the main blobs. Cydia server support for sending back the APTickets is upcoming. For now, use stitched IPSWs for 5.x. Due to APTickets, stitched 5.x IPSWs now require user to start in "Pwned DFU" mode
● Support added for stitching 4.x blobs to iPad2-GSM IPSWs. Similar to @notcom's TinyCFW but doesn't require lots of RAM or a TSS-assisted restore. Won't work for iPad2 5.x blobs (or iPhone4S at all) until a bootrom-level exploit is out
● top line now shows whether (and where) a redsn0w update is available, or if the version being run is the latest. Uses DNS TXT record to alleviate any concerns about snooping
● no 5.1 beta support at this time (major apps like Cydia are not yet compatible)
● @pod2g has been doing a great job porting his 5.x untether…check his blog for updates!
● Owners of newer 3GS iPhones must not flash the iPad baseband. The iPad baseband will not work on 3GS iPhones built later than 2011 week 35.
You can download the new version of RedSn0w from
here.
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While hackers have already managed to figure out how to get a tethered jailbreak working for any iOS device released before the iPhone 4, and there’s even an untethered jailbreak on the horizon thanks to jailbreak master pod2g.
But what of the iPhone 4S and iPad 2? Thanks to security enhancements made to the A5 CPU, they are tougher nuts to crack. But hope is in sight, thanks to the efforts of pod2G, who thinks he’s almost managed to successfully jailbreak the iPhone 4S… except for one little hiccup.
The untether fails right now because I’m having processor cache issues.
I’m close, but I can’t figure out what happens. It certainly has something to do with the Cortex-A9 cache management.
pod2g promises that there’ll be another update tomorrow, but things sound like they are coming along nicely, and an untethered jailbreak may well be within reach. And if the iPhone 4S goes untethered, you can expect the iPad 2 under iOS 5.0.1 to come right after.
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Research in Motion's struggles in the smartphone market have driven its stock price so low that the company is worth less than the estimated value of just Apple's App Store.
At a price of $13.44, RIMM stock finished last week at a total value of just $7.04 billion. That's less than the $7.08 billion that Apple's App Store is estimated to be worth, as noted by author Brian S. Hall.
An analysis from Trefis places the value of the App Store at 2 percent of Apple's market cap. AAPL stock has a market cap of $354 billion, or more than 50 times greater than RIMM, and 2 percent of that means the App Store contributes $7.08 billion to Apple's market cap.
"The App Store is probably worth more than BlackBerry," Hall wrote. "All of BlackBerry. Just the App Store. Nothing else. Not the iPhone or iPod. Not Mac. Just the App Store."
RIM's stock has plummeted since the company announced last week that BlackBerry shipments saw a slight decline year over year while the company managed to sell just 150,000 PlayBook tablets last quarter. Meanwhile, Apple's iPad is likely to soon eclipse RIM's BlackBerry in total sales, with RIM guiding shipments of between 11 million and 12 million BlackBerry units next quarter, while Apple sold more than 11 million iPads last quarter.
RIM also announced last week that its forthcoming next-generation smartphone operating system, BlackBerry 10, has been delayed until the second half of 2012. That has prompted some analysts to wonder if the new platform will be too little, too late to the high-end smartphone market.
Apple's iOS App Store has been a key component in the company's continued success for the iPhone and iPad. One report last week indicated that iOS applications bring in 300 percent more revenue than their Android counterparts.
Apple's iTunes Store and App Store reportedly cost as much as $1.3 billion a year to operate. The company has maintained for years that makes little profit from the storefronts. Developers have received $2.5 billion in payments as a result of the App Store.
Oh how the mighty have fallen------
Whoa. Apple just won a big court victory against HTC that could force HTC to stop selling its Android phones in the United States. The United States International Trade Commission ruled that HTC was infringing on an Apple patent that effects HTC Android devices running Android 1.6 to 2.2.
The devices that may be banned from being sold in the US is basically a who's who list of Android phones: Droid Incredible, Evo 4G, T-Mobile G2, Nexus One and a bunch of older Android devices. The patent that the courts ruled HTC was infringing on (#5,946,647) is potentially a big one. According to Fortune, who took a deep look at the specific patent, it works like this:
When an iPhone receives a message that contains a phone number or an address — e-mail, Web or street — those bits of data are automatically highlighted, underlined and turned into clickable links.
Click on the phone number, and the iPhone asks if you want to dial it. Click on the Web address, and it opens in Safari. Click on the street address, and Maps will display it.
That's huge, not only because it's an important feature in smartphones but because it could mean Apple could go on to attack other Android phone makers because it's the OS that's infringing the patent, not the hardware. However, if HTC Android phones removed that feature (unlikely) or implement it in a different way (which we expect HTC to do), they could keep on selling. And that's pretty much what HTC expects to do, HTC, which has responded to this decision with rainbow colored unicorn tears, reached out to us with this statement:
This decision is a win for HTC and we are gratified that the commission affirmed the judge's determination on the ‘721 and ‘983 patents, and reversed its decision on the ‘263 patent and partially on the ‘647 patent. We are very pleased with the determination and we respect it. However, the ‘647 patent is a small UI experience and HTC will completely remove it from all of our phones soon.
Yes, the patent in question is a fixable problem but I'd hardly categorize the court's decision as a win for HTC. If HTC doesn't fix this issue however, the ban on HTC Android phones in the US is set to take into effect on April 19, 2012. That's not winning.
There are still some real moves left for HTC to make to avoid the import ban (a Presidential veto is an option) but this is sure setting up for a major stateside war (thermonuclear, even) between Apple and Android phone makers much like with what's happening with Apple and Samsung Tablets in Europe and Australia.
