The recently released application MiTime for the iPhone 4 fixes and activates FaceTime on unlocked iPhone 4s that run on T-Mobile USA or other unofficial unsupported carriers. According to the MiTime’s description, it should work with almost any carrier in the world. You should be able to receive international SMS messages to activate FaceTime via MiTime.

The application MiTime sends two international SMS messages for activation, so it can not be free. Thus, until there is no other way to activate FaceTime on unlocked iPhone 4s, this is the only way with an affordable price.

More information and tutorial is here.

Good news from DevTeam. They just announced via twitter that unlock for firmwares 3.1.3 and 4.0 is ready:

RT @MuscleNerd: ultrasn0w tips: 1) Works for all basebands since 3.0 FW 2) Remember to disable 3G on T-Mobile USA

ultrasn0w 0.93 released! Cydia repo is repo666.ultrasn0w.com. Works with basebands 04.26.08 thru 05.13.04

This means, that all users with basebands 04.26.08, 05.11.07, 05.12.01 and 05.13.04 can use ultrasn0w 0.93.

There is no jailbreak for just released iOS4, so you need to wait a bit. Firmware 3.1.3 who need unlock can update ultrasn0w and use their iPhones with any carrier.

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On June, 4 Apple sent a letter to the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) with request to keep new iPhone’s photos and any information about it in secret for forty five days.

Though this is a standard practice for Apple, the situation looks pretty strange as the device’s internals had been already revealed with numerous prototype leaks. But Patently Apple, the company that obtained and published the letter, found the explanation in the document itself:

“Although Apple has begun to market the device publicly, these documents reveal technical and design information that has not yet been publicly disclosed in such marketing and that is protected by Apple as confidential and proprietary secrets”.

AppleInsider created a list of new iPhone’s technical details and features that Apple may want to keep in secret for a while. It includes new features of A4 SoC, details of new frame antenna, new cellular radio support for pentaband UMTS (850/900/1700/1900/2100MHz) 3G bands, details related to possible support of T-Mobile (AWS UMTS IV band) and Verizon/Sprint (CDMA/EVDO) networks.

Recently Billboard published a report that reveals new information on Apple’s share on music sales market. When the first generation iPhone was presented, iTunes had only 12,7% of American music market. In 2008 Apple almost doubled it and made 21,4%. 2009 reveals five percentage points increase – now iTunes has 26,7% of music sales.

Such mobile providers as AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, and Verizon Wireless on the contrary lose their positions, downing from 6,6% to 4,9% in 2009. Partly it is explained by lower priced ringtones in iTunes and its free tools for making custom ringtones. Both of these factors eventually attracted more people.

Physical media music in turn loses its popularity from year to year. Numbers reveal its share fell from 57,5% in 2008 to 49,3% in 2009. That means that iTunes actually makes a half of all digital music downloads overall.

iTunes’ closest rival Amazon also increased its sales. But in digital MP3 sales the company’s share grew from 0,8% in 2008 to 1,3% in 2009, which is not even close to Apple’s 26,7% share. Such results, according to Billboard, were “still well short of where major labels had hoped Amazon’s download store would be by now, dimming earlier expectations that it will be able to significantly reduce the labels’ heavy dependence on iTunes for digital sales.”

It is interesting to look forward for Google which recently acquired Simplify Media to expectedly turn it into iTunes rival for Android users. But for now the company’s subsidiary AdMob reveals the amount of media bought or even downloaded by Android users is still so small that it cannot be compared with iTunes success.

This Wednesday HTC accused Apple in infringing of five their patents. The countersuit was filed with the International Trade Commission and now asks to halt the importation of the iPod touch, iPhone and iPad into America.

Vice President of HTC in North America Jason Mackenzie says the action was taken to protect its partners and customers.

“HTC believes the industry should be driven by healthy competition and innovation that offer consumers the best, most accessible mobile experiences possible”.

The press release given by HTC underlines that the company created the most advanced smartphones in the world for the last 10 years.

At this moment there are twelve HTC phones available in America, including the HTC HD2 for T-Mobile, the HTC EVO 4G for Sprint and the Droid Incredible for Verizon.

Still there is no information revealed about the patents that are involved in the suit.

NPD Group had recently revealed their new study, which shows that iPhone OS became the second most selling OS last quarter in US. To be precise 28% of all handsets sold were Android phones, and iPhones made only 21%. Research In Motion’s Blackberries hold 36 percent of market.
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Yesterday morning began with shocking news about lawsuit that was filed by Apple against HTC. As it turned out, Cupertino’s company is accusing smartphone manufacturer of infringing 20 Apple patents tied to the iPhone. Google Nexus One, Droid Eris, T-Mobile G1, Touch Pro2, Touch Diamond and the Imagio are listed as exhibits in the litigation.

Copies of the suit can be read here and here. Short list of patents at issue is under the cut.

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Apple iPad edition with 3G uses Micro-SIM standart. Steve Jobs never said a word about this feature on iPad presentation, which seems pretty strange. Micro-SIM, also known as 3FF or 3^rd generation SIM card, isn’t supported yet by any iPhone or other popular devices.

3FF SIMs were developed to fit into devices that are too small for a regular SIM. Regular SIM-card has a 15 mm x 25 mm size, while Micro-SIM measures 12 mm x 15 mm. It is still not presented in North America, but T-Mobile and AT&T inform that negotiations to get them are on their way since these companies support the iPad with different data plans.

But what is the reason of making Micro-SIM support in iPad? Maybe it is necessitated because of a lack of space in the device that already has a double size of an iPhone? Also it is very likely that Micro-SIM will be integrated into the 4^th generation iPhone, and then what would Apple do with all that extra space?

According to a (now deleted) tweet by major German electronics retailer Media Markt, the Apple iPad will go on sale March 1st at a price of 499 Euros (~$700) with T-Mobile contract or 899 Euros (~$1200) without. In the US prices would likely be around $500-$600 with contract and $999 without. These numbers were calculated comparing Apple items sold in Euros and USD (Mac Mini: 549 Euros / $599 USD, MacBook 899 Euros / $999 USD).

The company, however, quickly deleted the tweet but not before it was retweeted a number of times.

Google today announced the launch of its Nexus One smartphone. It is based on the Android 2.1 operating system and offers 800×480 screen, 5 megapixel camera with flash,  Qualcomm’s 1 GHz Snapdragon processor. The Nexus One offers 512 MB of Flash and 512 MB of RAM, and ships with a 4 GB Micro SD card with support for cards up to 32 GB.

Nexus One is initially available from the Google web store in the US without service for $529 or starting at $179 with a two-year contract from T-Mobile USA. In the near future, Verizon Wireless in the US and Vodafone in Europe plan to offer similar service plans.

Here is the full list of hardware and software features:

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Google has announced an Android-related press conference for January 5th, and all indications point to a launch of the Nexus One at the event.

Rumors say that the Nexus One will be offered at an unsubsidized price of $529.99, or at $179.99 with a two-year agreement on T-Mobile. There will be only one rate plan avaliable for the Nexus One – unlimited talk, text and web for $79.99 per month.

A second iPhone worm virus has been found by security company F-Secure. It is specifically targeting people in the Netherlands who are using their iPhones for internet banking with Dutch online bank ING.

It redirects the bank’s customers to a site with a log-in screen (phishing). The worm attacks “jailbroken” phones – a modification which enables the user to run non-Apple approved software on their handset. Only handsets with installed SSH (secure shell) are at risk. SSH is a file-transfer program that enables users to remotely connect to their phones. It comes with a default password, ‘alpine’ which should be changed.

Here is a tutorial how to change the default SSH password and minimize the risk.

Here is a nice video where CNet editors compare T-Mobile MyTouch 3G vs Palm Pre. Guess who is the winner?

The Environmental Working Group (ewg.com) analyzed the radiation emissions from 1,268 cellphones.

Apple’s iPhone 3G has a maximum SAR of 1.39 W/kg when held at the ear. You can compare that to the 1.19 W/kg SAR for the iPhone 3GS. The lower the SAR the safer the phone is. The best phone was the Samsung Impression which had a max radiation of just 0.35 W/kg.

“The FCC limit for the head (SAR of 1.6 W/kg) is just two-and-a-half times lower than the level that caused behavioral changes in animals (SAR of 4 W/kg),” says the representative. “Thus, the brain receives a high exposure, even though the brain may well be one of the most sensitive parts of human body … and should have more protection.”

Here is a list of EWG’s top 10 phones, based on low and high emissions:

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Geohot, the creator of purplera1n, has just released his own iPhone 3GS software unlock and named it purplesn0w. Who is purplesn0w for? If you own a jailbroken iPhone 3GS running firmware 3.0 and you want to unlock it to use it with another carrier (T-Mobile only in the USA), then purplesn0w is for you. Are you experiencing wifi/battery/other unlocking problems after using ultrasn0w? Then I highly recommend you try purplesn0w. Geohot says that it’s the best unlock out there.

purplesn0w doesn’t run any deamon (resident app) on the iPhone, it just patches three files: CommCenter, lockdownd, and wildcard. You need an activated device in order to use purplesn0w, this is a minus.

Here is how to install purplesn0w:

• Make sure you have an activated iPhone 3GS. If you have T-Mobile make sure you disable 3G in the settings.
• Open Cydia, and add http://apt.geohot.com to your sources
• Install the com.geohot.purplesn0w package
• Watch for the success output in Cydia
• Reboot your iPhone 3GS

Once you have followed the steps above, your iPhone 3GS should be unlocked.

Update: Geohot has also posted technical details of purplesn0w here along with the source code of purplesn0w. He plans to release an updated version of purplesn0w with hactivation support.

via quickpwn