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By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews
Today at Macworld, in his keynote, Steve Jobs announced a number of items, but this is what companies like Netflix were expecting - and fearing: iTunes Video Rentals. According to Jobs, they have every studio (he listed Touchstone, Miramax, MGM, New Line, Lion’s Gate, Fox, Warner Bros., Disney, Paramount, Universal and […]

By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews
This was previously announced in December, but now it has a real name: “Pepsi Stuff.”
Four billion (with a b!) specially marked packages of Pepsi products will have collectible points on them that can be “banked,” starting Feb. 1, on PepsiStuff.com - and later redeemed for purchases at Amazon MP3.
This was one […]

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

So while the iPhone and Apple TV got shiny new firmware updates and new features for free today, iPod touch owners will have to lay out $20 to get Mail, Weather, Stocks, Notes, and Maps — five apps the iPhone’s had since day one. That seems like a raw deal to us — but then again, we’re up to our necks in handheld devices that can check email and take notes. So what’s it going to be, iPod touch owners — will you be laying down a Jackson or what?

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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds, Portable Audio, Portable Video

So let’s just boil down the newly-available firmware 1.1.3 to the nitty gritty, shall we? Here’s what Apple’s latest juicy morsel is going to do to your iPhone (or iPod touch, if that’s how you roll and you have $19.99 to spare) once you can finally reliably get it from iTunes:

• Maps: New hybrid view, same as Google Maps. Satellite imagery and street mapping available on a single view.
• Maps: Location triangulation. Uses nearby WiFi access points and GSM towers (on the iPhone, anyway) to roughly guesstimate your current location.
• Web Clips: Web bookmarks can now be saved as home screen icons, including zoom and location information.
• Home screen: Icons on the home screen can now be rearranged.
• Home screen: Up to 9 home screens can now be created and “flicked” between.
• SMS: A single text message can now be sent to multiple recipients; groups can be recalled for future use.
• iTunes: Movie rentals are now supported.
• iTunes: Support for lyrics.
• iTunes: Option to “manually manage” music and videos instead of synchronizing. Thanks, Vlade D!

Additionally, the iPod touch now features Mail, Maps, Stocks, Weather, and Notes, all of which were previously exclusive to the iPhone. Cheers!

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By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews
If you were annoyed by the hoops Sony BMG said you had to jump through to get DRM-free downloads of their music, you can rejoice. In a major coup, Amazon.com announced Thursday that by the end of January you’ll be able to download MP3 versions of Sony BMG music from […]

In July, the Copyright Board of Canada approved a private copying levy on iPods and removable memory storage cards, that could have resulted in tariffs of up to $75 per device, depending on storage capacity. That levy has effectively been struck down by Canada’s Federal Court of Appeal, which took only 24 hours to decide that the Copyright Board had no legal authority to impose the levy. Copyright lawyer Howard Knopf, who represented the Retail…

Electric car manufacturer ZAP has announced plans to show a “Made for iPod” car next week at Macworld Expo in San Francisco. The company said it will be designing its cars to include a head unit made for the iPod that will play music through the car speaker system as well as recharge using the ZAP Recharge-It-All made for iPod battery system. The first cars equipped with this technology are expected to be available later this year, and…

By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews
To address charges by the European Union that different pricing in the U.K. violates E.U. rules, Apple has announced it will be lowering pricing in its U.K. iTunes Store to match the already standardized pricing in the rest of Europe, but … there’s that word “but” again.
The wording of the press […]

Filed under: CES, Misc. Gadgets

Apparently the Belkin folks are rolling out a little something for the podcasting community this CES season. The company’s Podcast Studio is a self-contained, iPod-interfacing podcast production device… and not much else. The unit features dual XLR and 1/4″ inputs, a built-in microphone up top, an embedded speaker, and the styling of some 1950’s-space-opera transmogrifier. You can slot your iPod in the top and record directly to the player, thus eliminating the need for a computer nearby — until you need to get it online, of course. The only thing it’s missing is your smarmy, high-falutin’ opinions about avant noise-rock.

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Filed under: CES, Displays, HDTV

Of all the things still lacking an iPod dock — La-Z-Boys, parkas, and the Foleo — you can cross off your flat-panel, as JVC has added an iPod dock to their P-Series line of LCD televisions. The iPod TeleDock sits at the bottom of the set, ready to accept your player for charging even when the set is turned off. Video and audio playback can be controlled with the clickwheel-esque TV remote and on-screen menus. The P-Series features 720p on the 32-inch LT-32P679, while the 42-inch LT-42P789, 47-inch LT-47P789, and 52-inch LT-52P789 sets bump the resolution up to 1080p, with availability starting in March.

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By Alice Hill
RealTechNews
OK - so it isn’t, but after all the ugly iPhone imitations, this is the first concept design that actually looks appealing. We hereby take quick a break from reality to bring you the following idea. A forum member on ZuneScene named Teccom747 dreamed up this concept phone. His specs:
The Zune 3 is […]

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Apple’s been hit with antitrust lawsuits over the dominance of the iPod / iTunes system before, but there’s a new case brewing down California way that argues not that Apple has illegally tied the iPod to iTunes, but that Apple has abused its dominant market position by not supporting WMA. That’s right, we’ve come full circle — Apple is now being accused of locking Microsoft out of the market. The case, brought by San Diego attorney Stacie Somers, claims that since Apple disables the WMA functionality of the PortalPlayer chip inside many iPods, it’s shipping “crippleware,” and that it’s doing so deliberately to abuse its position as the market leader. Of course, unprotected WMA files import into iTunes on Windows just fine, so this is really a DRM compatibility issue — and given Apple’s official position on DRM and the fact that Microsoft’s own Zunes don’t exactly play nice with all the flavors of WMA DRM, this suit could be over sooner than expected.

Disclaimer: Although this post was written by an attorney, it is not meant as legal advice or analysis, and should not be taken as such.

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Filed under: CES, Portable Audio

We’ve seen some fairly snazzy aftermarket iPod docks before, but Wadia Digital is hoping to lure a few C-notes from the wallets of bona fide audiophiles with its iTransport. This Made for iPod device reportedly bypasses the PMP’s “internal D/A conversion and output stage,” which enables the music to stream through “clean and unadulterated.” Hailed as the “market’s first digital player dock to retrieve a direct digital signal from an iPod,” it relies on a S/PDIF digital audio out (as well as analog outs) and even includes a set of component outputs for video. Notably, the iPhone and iPod touch will work here too, but unless you’ve got some mighty fine loudspeakers (or cans) that can take advantage of such clarity, we’d suggest holding tight to your $349 when it ships next month.

[Via AudioJunkies]

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Mac OS X only: Free application iTunesFS turns your iTunes library and iPod—including playlists—into browsable filesystems in the Finder. That means that you can use iTunesFS to do things like export full playlists, similarly to what iTunes Export does for Windows users. iTunesFS requires that you’ve installed previously mentioned MacFUSE, then just run the app whenever you want to browse and copy songs, albums, or playlists from your iTunes library or iPod (be sure you’ve enabled disk use). For a similar MacFUSE tool that works just with iPods, check out previously mentioned iPodDisk.

Last week we showed you how to install third party apps on your iPhone or iPod touch, and since then a new firmware preview has leaked its way to the ‘nets with saucy new features that—once released—may tempt you to abandon your jailbreak for the newly introduced features. Fact is, until the 1.1.3 firmware is successfully hacked by the resourceful iPhone hackers, you can still enjoy all of the features the update is bringing and more with your jailbroken iPhone. Today I’m taking a look at my 20 favorite (that’s right, 20) third-party iPhone and iPod touch apps.

NOTE: Apologies for the gallery format on the screenshots, but I wanted to provide full-size screenshots (sometimes more than one) for every app. All of the applications below are available through Installer.app, which can be installed by jailbreaking your iPhone. For more details on each app, click through to the gallery page (again, sorry). Some of the apps will work perfectly on both the iPhone and iPod touch, while others are obviously a bit more iPhone-oriented. I’ve only tested these apps on the iPhone. Want to learn more about all things iPhone? Check out How to Do Everything with your iPhone, written by me and my pal Jason Chen from Gizmodo.

Apps that Cover Rumored 1.1.3 Features

In case you haven’t seen it, here’s a video highlighting the upcoming features in the 1.1.3 firmware release.

First let’s tackle the hot apps of the moment—those apps that can already bring you the features rumored to be in the 1.1.3 update. The major new features appear to be the faux-GPS in Google Maps, multi-recipient SMS, and re-ordering apps on the home screen. Two of the apps above have been covering those features for quite some time (Navizon for GPS and Customize for re-ordering apps), and the third, iSMS for mutli-recipient SMS, is a bit newer, but in addition to multi-recipient SMS, it offers quick-reply templates, emoticons, and a much more robust SMS management system. It does not currently offer MMS messaging, though there is an iPhone app (called SwirlyMMS) that is attempting the MMS road, though it’s still a bit bumpy. MMS messages can be sent (though it requires a bit of setup), but so far not received.

The only major new feature that’s been discovered in the 1.1.3 update that isn’t easily available through Installer is the new web clip feature that allows the user to bookmark a web page directly on the home screen. There are hacks around that accomplish this, but they’re not the kind of no-brainer installations as the above three apps. The WebSearch app described below, however, is arguably a good deal more useful for what I need than the web clips, so I can happily do without for the time being.

Now that I’ve covered the 1.1.3 features (I’ll include in these apps in the sections below by category as well), lets move onto my twenty favorite iPhone apps.

Communication

Below we’ve got a more robust SMS client, a multi-protocol IM app, and a simple utility that adds push email capabilities to IMAP accounts—including Gmail.

Multimedia

The multimedia list is a big one, so I’ll just highlight a few. You’ve got a Last.fm client and scrobbler for your iPod, a feature-rich camera app, and a real-time lyrics app that automagically sucks lyrics for your music from the cloud.

Productivity

One of my favorites, the WebSearch app adds one-click search to any site, while Sketches is a great whiteboard tool and drawing pad.

Utilities

There are obviously quite a few great iPhone utilities, so to highlight just a few: OpenSSH is what I used to tether my iPhone data plan to my laptop; DropCopy is great for sharing files between your phone or iPod and your desktop; Installer, obviously, is the app that makes all of this third-party app business so easy; Navizon does the faux-GPS for Google Maps; and Customize covers app re-ordering and just about any other customization you’d want to make to your little iPod or iPhone.

Games

There are actually tons of games available on the iPhone at this point, but these three stand out as favorites because of their impressive use of the iPhone’s animation engine or for just being plain addictive.

Honorable Mention

For honorable mention purposes (I realize I already fudged a bit with 21 above), I wanted to point out FireflyMediaServer, an app that streams your iPod library to any iTunes library on a local network as a shared library (and which we showed you how to set up here). Dictionary is what it sounds like, a dictionary application that can search tons of installable dictionary databases (also available in Installer). Finally, for the students out there, iStudy is a simple flashcard app that also features downloadable content from Installer.

The obvious argument remains, though, that the 1.1.3 update provides a much better integration of the features listed in the 1.1.3, and that’s valid. Keep in mind, though, that you also sacrifice the wealth of great third-party apps, like push email for your IMAP account, when you upgrade to 1.1.3 before the jailbreak is a reality. That said, kudos to Apple for continuing to innovate the iPhone and iTouch, and I think we’re all eager to find out what kind of system they’re planning to work out once the SDK is official in February (as well as what other announcements regarding these two devices might pop up at MacWorld).

Got a favorite iPhone or iPod touch app I missed? Let’s hear it in the comments.

Adam Pash is a senior editor for Lifehacker who likes the iPhone so much he wrote the best iPhone book on the block about it. His special feature Hack Attack appears every Tuesday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Hack Attack RSS feed to get new installments in your newsreader.

Filed under: CES, Home Entertainment, Portable Video

Mark down “plays well with others” on Pinnacle’s report card, the company’s upcoming Pinnacle Video Transfer can take an analog video input and record the source to any USB 2.0 storage device, including an iPod. Video is recorded straight to the H.264 format, with user-selectable quality of Good, Better and Best. You can even charge the iPod you’re transferring to. Supported devices include the PSP, PSP Slim, USB flash drives, USB hard drives and the iPod video, iPod nano third-gen, and iPod classic. The Pinnacle Video Transfer should hit stores January 15th for $129.99.

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For the extreme tinkerer and iPod aficionado, we present to you what appears to be the first ever internal-Bluetooth enabled iPod. Using a flash-memory-modded 20GB 4G iPod, a Jabra A120S Bluetooth music adapter, some clever wiring, a little drilling, and some good old-fashioned elbow grease, one modder has taken things inside his DAP to dizzying heights which can only be referred to as “the next level.” The mod has its catches of course — first you’ll have to kick the hard drive to the curb in favor of the more space-conscious flash memory, and you’ll need to be pretty handy with a soldering iron and voltmeter, but if you’ve got the mettle (and this how-to guide), you should be rocking the new Mortiis album wirelessly very, very soon. Check the read link for all the step-by-step goodness.

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Filed under: Portable Audio, Transportation

Alpine’s cutting straight to the chase with its new iDA-X200 and iDA-X300 headunits. Forgoing a CD mechanism entirely, the two systems are designed primarily for use with an iPod, though they do pack a few extra goodies. The X200 works with Alpine’s Sound Imprint system for some fancy DSP, while the X300 has USB input for pulling media off of non-iPod sources. No word on price or availability.

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Read tomorrow when you’re nursing your hangover - it’ll certainly make more sense then.

Filed under Do As I Say, Not As I Do:

Filed under The Lord Works In Mysterious Ways:

Filed under The Bigger They Are, The Harder They Fall:

Filed under More Than You Bargained For:

and…

Filed under That Overpriced Conditioner Won’t Help:

Tagged: China, Google, housing, iPod, knots, Wordpress

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

As the unfortunate trend continues, yet another kiddo has found their Christmas PMP replaced with something that’s, well, not a PMP. In today’s episode, we find a Washington, D.C. girl that unwrapped an iPod earlier this week and discovered that the only Apple product tucked within was the inner packaging. Instead, a clever note was stashed inside (presumably with a paperweight of some sort) that read: “Reclaim your mind from the media shackles. Read a book and resurrect yourself. To claim your capitalistic garbage go to your nearest Apple store.” Oh, and just in case you really needed more than one guess as to where this thing came from, here’s a hint: it was sold by the same retailer who passed on Wii demo units due to “safety” concerns.

[Via TUAW]

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I’ve got a bad habit of losing or scratching up my optical media, which is why one of the first things I do when I buy a new operating system—like Leopard—is copy an image of the disc to my hard drive. Once it’s in the digital realm on my hard drive, I can rest assured that no carelessness on my part will result in a $100+ coaster. But how do you use that disk image now that it’s not in DVD form? Well, I use it to turn my old iPod into a Leopard installation beast.

In general a plain jane external hard drive should work fine, too, but I generally use my iPod when I’m doing this, so that’s what I’m covering. You can just as easily replace “iPod” with “external hard drive” for the rest of the guide if you want to use an external drive or large thumb drive.

First, assuming you’ve got a copy of Leopard, you’ll need to create a disk image of the installation DVD. (If you happened to download the disk image off BitTorrent or something less legal like that, that disk image would work and you can skip this step, but I’d recommend going legit.) To do so, insert the disc, fire up Disk Utility on your Mac, select the DVD image in the sidebar (probably ends in .dmg), and click the New Image button at the top of the window. Give it whatever name you want (like Leopard.dmg) and save it to your hard drive.

When it’s done, you should have that disk image file on your desktop. Now it’s time to restore that image to your iPod (or other external hard drive) so you can boot from it to install Leopard. Here’s how that’s done.

First, assuming your iPod is mounted, you want to erase it. To do so, go back to Disk Utility, click on your iPod in the sidebar, and go to the Erase tab. Then just choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled) from the drop-down and click the erase button. Disk Utility will ask for confirmation, you’ll confirm, and your iPod will be formatted and erased.

Now it’s time to restore the Leopard disk image to your iPod (or whatever external hard drive you’re using), and again you’ll be using Disk Utility. Make sure the iPod is selected in the sidebar, then go to the Restore tab. Drag the Leopard.dmg image into the Source box (or browse for it by clicking the Image button), drag the iPod into the destination, and click the Restore button. Now you’ll just have to site back and wait a few minutes while the disk image is restored to your iPod.

When it’s done, you’re ready to use that pod to install Leopard. Open the Startup Disk preference pane in your Preferences, choose Mac OS X, 10.5 on Your iPod, and click Restart.

From this point on, all you’ve got to do is follow our previous step-by-step guide to upgrading to Leopard. When all’s said and done, you’ve got the tools to update your computer to Leopard with nothing more than your trusty iPod.

I realize that this won’t be for everyone, but if you’ve ever wanted to know how to install OS X from an external drive or iPod (I chose my iPod because it’s older and perfect for this sort of thing, since it doesn’t have any really important data on it), now you know how.

By Alice Hill
RealTechNews
Having a New Year’s party or just want to have a little fun? The Tony-b Machine is an online synthesizer you play with your computer keyboard. Tons of beats and special effects and best of all, you can record your track and share them for free. Source: RedFerret
We Say: What else? Rock on!
Try […]

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Certain winners on Amazon’s “Best of 2007″ list of could’ve been seen coming a mile away, but in the top sales category we were just a little surprised to see the Canon PowerShot A570 IS topping the list of electronics, and Nokia’s Internet Tablet topping out computers (unclear if that counts as the N800 or N810 or both). The Wii naturally held top honors for video games. “Most-loved” included Garmin’s nuvi 350 under electronics, the MacBook Pro under computers, Leopard in software and Wii under video games. Wish lists were dominated by the 3rd-gen 4GB iPod nano, Asus EEE PC and the Wii, while top gifts included that same nano, as well as the MacBook and Super Mario Galaxy.

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There’s no better time to develop your scheduling habit than the start of a new year, and few tools are as easy to pick up and get productive with as Google Calendar. While you can quickly get from beginner to black belt scheduler with just the web interface, the real value in GCal is that it’s accessible no matter where you are—work, play, or the grocery store—and can help you decide what happens next.

Whether you’re a GCal newcomer or seasoned user, there are a ton of ways to further integrate your calendars into your routine, and I’ve rounded up Lifehacker’s wealth of GCal syncing guides, organizers, and other GCal tools for your desktop, mobile device, Firefox, and even iPod. Read on for advice on staying on top of your schedule this year.

Load up GCal with your existing calendar

First things first: If you’ve already got an Outlook, iCal, or even Yahoo Calendar already stuffed with events for the upcoming year(s), Google offers a few helpful guides for importing your events. Even if you plan on syncing your desktop calendars to GCal, it’s a handy first step.

All Platforms: Two-Way Sync with GCalDaemon, Thunderbird, Plaxo

If you’re willing to step into a little text file editing and run a simple server on your system, GCalDaemon is your best bet for setting up continuous two-way, online/offline access to Google Calendar. And with Gina’s easy walk-through, setting it up isn’t too much of a hassle. Once you’re set up, you can sync up GCal to Thunderbird/Lightning, Mac iCal or Rainlendar.

On Windows, Mac, or Linux, Lifehacker favorite email app Thunderbird can be made into a full-fledged GCal interface using two add-ons, Lightning and Provider for Google Calendar. Those who like to keep their email and scheduling separate can also check out the stand-alone Sunbird calendar app, which can also use the Provider add-on for GCal syncing.

Free web app aggregator Plaxo can also provide free synchronization between Google Calendar, Outlook, iCal, mobile devices and lots of other environments, but (usually) requires installation of extra toolbars and feeling comfortable with having all your data stashed at one site.

Windows

If you’re an Outlook 2007 user, you can already integrate Google Calendar events into your calendar, but you can’t publish back to it. For full syncing on 2007 and earlier versions, you’ve got a few choices in joining the two calendars, or simply keep one within easy reach:

• Show Google Calendar in Outlook’s “home page”
• Synchronize Outlook 2003 and later with gSyncit
• Add GCal to Outlook (recommended for those who use only one GCal for separate purposes)
• Two-way syncing with SyncMyCal (Limited free version, full version $25)
• For a robust solution that could sync up home and office Outlooks, Google Calendars, non-Touch iPods and cell phones, check out a detailed guide to using ScheduleWorld.

Not everybody wants to jump onto the behemoth that is Outlook to stay synced up, however. For a lightweight solution that integrates into your desktop, check out Rainlender, which—in the “Pro” version costing 15 EUR—can display GCal (and Outlook) events and to-dos in a handy widget display. There’s also free and paid versions for Linux.

Mac

OS X’s built-in iCal tool can already read from Google Calendar’s iCal feeds (more on that here), but achieving two-way sync takes a bit more work. The GCalDaemon method mentioned above does for free what Spanning Sync charges $25 per year or $65 for a permanent license to do, although having been a one-year Spanning Sync customer, the two-way hook-up is hidden, swift, and painless.

Linux

Your best bet in Linux remains the combination of Thunderbird/Lightning/Provider, although there are attractive alternatives for staying synced. Newer versions of Evolution, the personal information manager built into Ubuntu and other distros, can easily integrate Google calendars (here’s a quick guide to doing so) and get at-a-glance access using a one-line terminal commad. If you’re really friendly with the command line, you could set up gcalcli (which also works in OS X with a bit of tweaking) to have quick access to calendars, reminders, event additions and daily agendas

Firefox

Since Firefox is highly extensible and works on all three major platforms, it makes sense that Google Calendar extensions have steadily cropped up since GCal first launched. Those who spend a good deal of time inside a browser can display GCal in a sidebar, have any Gmail message added to a calendar, use an anywhere keyboard shortcut to make additions, and add a lot of useful tools using Lifehacker’s own Better GCal Greasemonkey extension.

Mobile phones

Any mobile phone that can send text messages can add calendar events and get agendas delivered to it. Register your phone number at Google Calendar’s “Settings”->”Mobile Setup” tab, add “GVENT” (48368) to your contacts and send it a standard “quick add” line (such as “7pm Saturday Dinner at Sara’s house”) or one of the following codes by text message:

• “next” (Receive your next scheduled event)
• “day” (Have today’s agenda sent)
• “nday” (Receive tomorrow’s events)

You can also add GCal events by voice with Jott or through micro-blogging tool Twitter if you prefer.

Those with browser access on their phone should check to see if GooSync or GCal Sync support their models. Both services can integrate GCal with your phone’s built-in calendar, although not without occasional hiccups. BlackBerry fans, Google’s got you covered with Google Sync.

iPods / iPhone

Owners of iPhones and iPod Touch models can get connected to Google Calendar with a simple two-step: Their devices easily sync with Outlook, iCal, or Entourage through iTunes, and all three of those applications can be synced or subscribed to Google Calendar. Unfortunately, those who don’t use any of those programs have to rely on Google Calendar’s mobile web interface for now, as there’s no way to force a calendar sync without jailbreaking, hacking into and generally running a whole lot of terminal commands—not that we might not cover how to do that at some point.

Those with non-touch iPods and Macs have an easy solution in iCal, which can subscribe to Google Calendars and sync through iTunes. Windows users with older iPods—the kind that still have “Enable Disk Use” as an option in iTunes—can sync through Outlook or try a stand-alone solution:

• GetCals, a tool that requires a bit of configuration
• iPodCALsync, an automatic tool that seems to work with most iPod models

What hacks have I missed? Which tools do you use to make Google Calendar your ultimate scheduling and reminder tool? Let us know in the comments.

Kevin Purdy is an associate editor for Lifehacker who adds just about everything, including reminders to relax, into Google Calendar. His weekly feature appears every Friday on Lifehacker.

If a new iPhone or iPod touch found its way under your tree and you just can’t wait until Apple officially supports third-party application development to extend its functionality (who can wait until February?), it’s time you jailbreak your favorite new portable device. We’ve covered two methods for doing so already, but that feisty Apple keeps on changing things up, and the latest firmware (which all of you new owners are likely running) requires a bit more finesse before you gain access to the throng of great apps that have already been developed for the iPhone. So today we’re jailbreaking that iPhone or iTouch of yours to open it up to the wonderful world of third-party software.

NOTE: I’ve only tested these instructions on my iPhone using a Mac, so I can’t absolutely guarantee the same level of success on the iPod touch or Windows computers. However, the software was made to jailbreak either the iPod touch or the iPhone on either Windows or Macs, so it should work fine on either. That said, I’ll be referring to the iPhone through the rest of these instructions. If you’re looking to install apps without activating your iPhone with AT&T, our pals over at Gizmodo have covered that.

UPDATE: It seems that there have been mixed results for some users attempting to downgrade from the 1.1.2 firmware. The downgrade appears to be working for some, not for others. If you have trouble downgrading to 1.1.1, you can simply restore the current 1.1.2 firmware and everything should be back to normal, but unfortunately you won’t be able to install any third-party apps. I’m very curious to hear what kind of luck others are having with this, so if you give it a try, let’s hear your experience in the comments.

Check Your Firmware Version

First thing’s first: Dock your iPhone, open up iTunes, and find out what version of the iPhone firmware you’re running by clicking on the Summary tab when your device is docked and seeing what it says after Software Version. If for some reason you’re running one of the early 1.0 firmwares (1.0.0, 1.0.1, 1.0.2), we’ve already covered how to jailbreak those phones here. Instead, though, I’d recommend jailbreaking your phone using the following method, since you’ll get new and improved features from the newer firmware. If you’re currently running the 1.1.1 firmware, skip straight to the Jailbreak Your 1.1.1 iPhone or iPod touch section.

Downgrade or Upgrade to the 1.1.1 Firmware

Whether you’re running 1.1.2 (the latest firmware) or one of the early 1.0 versions, you want to install the 1.1.1 firmware on your iPhone if it’s not the firmware you’re currently running. The reason is that the 1.1.1 firmware features a one-click jailbreak through mobile Safari, which makes the process incredibly simple and is a necessary step in jailbreaking the latest 1.1.2 version. So how do you successfully downgrade/upgrade to 1.1.1 since it’s not the latest firmware?

Well, first you need to download the 1.1.1 firmware, which you can do here for the iPhone and here for the iPod touch. Make sure that the file ends in _Restore.ipsw, which it should by default. While it’s downloading, go ahead and reboot your iPhone into recovery mode. To do so, plug in your iPhone, hold down the power and home buttons at the same time until your iPhone restarts (don’t slide to power off), and then release the power button. Continue holding the home button until your device enters recovery mode (as indicated in the screenshot).

Since your firmware is probably still downloading, go ahead and download the 1.1.2 jailbreak files here and unzip the contents on your desktop.

When the firmware completes downloading (which—at a whopping 152 MB—can take a little time), make sure you know where you’ve saved it and fire up iTunes if it isn’t already open. Again go to the same Summary tab where you found your current firmware version. This time, though, you’re going to restore the firmware to the 1.1.1 version you just downloaded. To do this, Shift-Click the Restore button in Windows or Option-Click on a Mac and browse to where you saved the 1.1.1 firmware, select it, and restore. When the restore process completes, it will end with an error. Don’t worry if this happens, as the jailbreak software is made to overcome the error.

Once you get to this point, close out of iTunes completely and then run either the windows.bat file if you’re a Windows user or the jailbreak.jar user if you’re on a Mac to get your phone past this error and booting into the 1.1.1 firmware. If you’re running jailbreak.jar, all you need to do is click the Boot from Recovery button.

Jailbreak Your 1.1.1 iPhone or iPod touch

Now it’s time to perform the first portion of the jailbreak with the 1.1.1 firmware, which—as I said above—is extremely easy. We’ve covered this in detail before, but here’s a quick refresher:

Point mobile Safari to http://jailbreakme.com/ and tap the Install AppSnapp link. Safari will close after a bit and eventually your phone will return to the Slide to unlock screen. After your unlock the phone, you should see Installer.app on your home screen, meaning it worked. When I used this method my iPhone froze the first time I tried unlocking it, so I restarted my phone and sure enough, there was Installer.app. That’s really all there is to it.

Jailbreak and Upgrade to 1.1.2

At this point you could just rest comfortably in the knowledge that you’re running nearly the latest firmware and it really doesn’t have that many differences from the latest version, but if you want to take advantage of the latest ringtone improvements and you want to be sure you’ve got all the latest and greatest bug fixes and features available, you may want to upgrade to 1.1.2. I did, and here’s how it works.

First, fire up Installer.app on your iPhone, find the Tweaks (1.1.1) section of the Install tab, and install an application called OktoPrep. Nothing special will show up on your phone after you install it, but it will have made a few tweaks on your device making it possible to jailbreak 1.1.2 after you upgrade.

Now you just upgrade your iPhone the normal way—by connecting your device to iTunes and selecting Update from the Summary tab. iTunes will go through the long download and upgrade process and when it’s done, you’ll be updated to 1.1.2 but not jailbroken. To complete the jailbreak, close iTunes, make sure your device is connected, then head back to the 1.1.2-jailbreak Folder you downloaded earlier and re-run either windows.bat (if you’re a Windows user) or jailbreak.jar (if you’re on a Mac).

Follow the instructions each app offers, and when they finish, you should see Installer.app on your home screen and be completely updated to the latest firmware and jailbroken. That means it’s time to start installing those apps!

My current favorites—for those of you new to third-party iPhone or iPod touch apps—include:

• iFlix, and incredible Netflix account management tool
• iMapIdle, an app that works in conjunction with IMAP email (including Gmail) to enable real-time, push-like email notification
• iPhoneHome, an app that lets you change the default double-click behavior for the home button
• Navizon, a pseudo-GPS locator that determines your location in Google Maps using cell towers your phone communicates with (iPhone only, obviously)
• Apollo, the native IM app
• MobileScrobbler, which uploads everything you play on your iPod to your Last.fm account
• WebSearch, a web search tool for quickly performing a search on any web site without going through the rigmarole of loading a site, finding the search box, and then entering your search terms
• HuaRongDao and iSolitaire, a couple of really nice looking and addictive games for your device.

Now you’re probably thinking, Great, my iPhone’s all jailbroken, but I sure wish I knew all the ins and outs of this beast, including how I can squeeze the most productivity from this little gem of a device. Lucky for you, the best iPhone book I’ve ever written (with Jason Chen of Gizmodo) is both in stores and shipping right now!

Finally, if you’re looking for more to do with your iPhone, here’s how you can:

• Use Your iPhone’s Internet Connection On Your Laptop
• Stream Music from Your iPod touch or iPhone to Any iTunes Library
• Set Up Gmail with IMAP
• Remote Control Your Computer with Your iPhone

Adam Pash is a senior editor for Lifehacker who hacks his iPhone for business and pleasure. His special feature Hack Attack appears every Tuesday on Lifehacker, and his book, How to Do Everything with Your iPhone, is in stores now. Subscribe to the Hack Attack RSS feed to get new installments in your newsreader.

A new Apple patent application suggests that the company may be working on an iPod with automatic volume control. The patent describes a system that automatically calculates how long a person has been listening, and at what volume, determining when to begin reducing the sound level. It would also calculate how much “quiet time” the person received in between the iPod being turned off and restarted, which determines how much to increase…

By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews
iTunes, Wal-Mart, and Amazon’s “Amazon MP3” service sell DRM-free music downloads, but so far only from EMI (along with a “test” by Universal Music Group). Today Amazon.com announced it has beaten Apple (!) to the punch; it’s signed a deal with Warner Music Group to sell MP3 downloads, giving customers […]

Filed under: Portable Audio

Apple’s already given self-controlling individuals the option to limit their iPod’s maximum volume level, but if a newly surfaced patent application is any indication of the future, your next PMP from the Cupertino powerhouse could actually tone things down for you. Reportedly, the app explains that software could eventually keep track of how long — and at what volume level — you’ve been listening, and if it determines that you could be damaging your ears, the volume could be automatically adjusted down for your own safety. Granted, there’s no way to definitively tell whether Apple will or won’t implement such a change, nor if owners will be allowed to disable the feature, but really, who could argue with software retarding the rate at which you go deaf?

[Image courtesy of Apple]

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By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews
When I wrote about the closure of Think Secret, I wondered what the next rumor site that Big Brother, I mean Apple, would target was. I certainly didn’t think they would go after Fake Steve, or Daniel Lyons, and his “Secret Diary of Steve Jobs” satire blog. And honestly, […]

By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews
Think Secret, a popular Apple rumor site, has been shut down as part of a settlement over a lawsuit filed by Apple in 2005. The lawsuit was filed after Think Secret published details of the Mac Mini, the iPod Shuffle, and the iWork productivity suite two weeks before the products […]

A new firmware hack for fifth-generation iPods aims to bring an iPod touch-like interface to the player. The hack, which works on both 5 and 5.5G iPods, is unsupported by Apple, but the developers claim the firmware “cannot, and will not, brick your iPod.” Installation of the firmware requires iPodWizard 1.3.0.7, a Windows-only iPod utility. The hack adds icons from the iPod touch’s home menu to the main menu of the iPod, along with…

Best known to fans of Nintendo and NEC game consoles from the 1980s, Hudson Soft’s Bomberman has been released as a downloadable iPod game. The $4.99 title—third on today’s list of brand-new iPod games—places you in control of a robot who uses bombs to make his way through mazes full of enemies and obstacles. Bomberman includes 20 levels, an iPod-exclusive boss challenge, and three mini games: Bomb Rollin’, Bomb Buster,…

A recent teardown of the iPod touch by research firm iSuppli suggests that the total cost of components for the 8GB model is $147, or around half of the device’s $299 retail price. iSuppli’s Andrew Rassweiler believes that the iPod touch will likely serve as a blueprint for future iPods, saying, “We expect the click-wheel versions of the iPod to wane in favor of touch-screen-based models.” Inside the 8GB iPod touch, iSuppli…

Apple has released two new iPod games, Sonic The Hedgehog and Peggle, along with new versions of The Sims Bowling, The Sims Pool, and Pac-Man, updated for compatibility with the iPod classic and iPod nano (with video). Sonic The Hedgehog from Sega was originally released in 1991, and more than 45 million copies of the game have been sold worldwide. “Sonic The Hedgehog is one of the most beloved video game characters of all time,” said Simon…

Old school and new school clash as Sega announces the original Sonic the Hedgehog now available for play on the latest batch of iPods. For $4.99 on the iTunes Store you can download and play the classic platformer on your iPod Nano with video, iPod Classic, or fifth generation iPod. What, no iPhone?

“Sonic The Hedgehog is one of the most beloved video game characters of all time,” said Simon Jeffery, President and COO of SEGA of America, “And with the installed base that iPod enjoys Sonic now becomes available to a whole new group of casual and hardcore gamers just in the time for the holidays.”

Unfortunately I only have a crappy little white 2GB Nano, so I’ll just have to rely on one of the 20,000 other things I have laying around my house that are capable of playing the game. *sigh*

Sonic The Hedgehog Comes to the iPod

Fan-favorite Sonic The Hedgehog Now Available for Purchase or Gifting on the iTunes Store

SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–SEGA of America, Inc. today announced that Sonic The Hedgehog is now available for play on the new iPod nano with video, the iPod classic and the fifth generation iPod. Sonic The Hedgehog was originally introduced in 1991 and has become one of the most popular video game franchises in history, selling well over 45 million copies. Sonic fans can purchase and download the game from the iTunes Store for $4.99 (www.itunes.com). Sonic has been designed specifically for the iPod and is available on the 22 iTunes Stores around the world.

“Sonic The Hedgehog is one of the most beloved video game characters of all time,” said Simon Jeffery, President and COO of SEGA of America, “And with the installed base that iPod enjoys Sonic now becomes available to a whole new group of casual and hardcore gamers just in the time for the holidays.”

iTunes customers can buy the game for themselves, or easily give the gift of Sonic The Hedgehog. Similar to music and video content on the iTunes Store, customers simply find the game on iTunes and click the “Gift This Game” button.

By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews
A speaker system for the iPod that doubles as a fish tank is flying off the shelves in Australia. It’s also drawing the attention of animal rights activists and aquarists.
The device, called an iPond, sells for $70. It’s being sold at two retail chains, Pets Paradise and Pet […]

Windows only: Convert Ebooks (in virtually any common format) to portable-friendly images with freeware application Ebook to Images. After you import an Ebook into the program, you can customize the image size and other output options, making it perfect for converting Ebooks for any portable device that can display images, from your smartphone to your MP3 player. In fact, converting an Ebook for my iPhone that I can flip through with iPhone gestures all page-like sounds like an Ebook experience that couldn’t get all that much better (unless I could convert my iPhone book with this app, which would be delightfully meta). Ebook to Images is freeware, Windows only. Now go find some free Ebooks and get reading.

Speaking at the 2007 Captains of Industry Conference in Singapore, a Google executive speculated that at current rates of storage growth, an iPod capable of holding all the world’s content could be a reality as soon as 2020. Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, vice president of Google’s Asia Pacific and Latin America Operations, said that since 1982, the price of data storage has fallen by a factor of 3.6 million. “To put that in context for…

In my opinion, TiVoToGo is a great alternative to the iTunes store especially if you don’t mind waiting for a show to air on cable TV. Also, compared to iTunes, TiVoToGo is a lot cheaper. One movie on iTunes will cost you $9.99 - $14.99 whereas TiVoToGo is free once you’ve paid your monthly TiVo subscription ($6.95 - ~$12.95).

What do you think? Is TiVoToGo a viable alternative to the iTunes store when it comes to movies and TV shows?

Both Slingbox and TiVoToGo are great for whenever I have to travel. Right now I’m sitting in the Syracuse airport waiting for my plane to arrive. Thanks to my Slingbox, I am able to access my Series 3 TiVo and catch up on a couple of shows that I wasn’t able to watch last week. While in the air, I plan on watching one or two movies that I’ve transferred from my Series 3 TiVo and onto my iPod using TiVoToGo.

Do you use a Slingbox and or TiVoToGo when you travel?