iPhone Dev-Team released RedSn0w 0.9.9b9 with full iOS 5.0.1 support (no need to point to iOS 5.0 any more). New version also features support for SHSH and APTickets:

• 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.  (Update: please wait for 0.9.9b9b for this!)
• 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 have a week 35 or later device if your serial # starts with xx135.

Update #17b: Version 0.9.9b9b enables the “Custom” button for Windows users, and make the 3GS week 35 warning a more explicit part of the process.

You can download RedSn0w 0.9.9b9b here.

UPDATE: redsn0w updated to redsn0w 0.9.9b9d.

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The Paradox iPod nano watch kit

Nick Bilton from The New York Times, who in October wrote that large parts of rumoured Apple’s television sets appeared in the company's supple chain, now reports that Apple may be researching and even prototyping new wearable devices.

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Right now popular games Asphalt 6: Adrenaline and Asphalt 6: Adrenaline HD developed by Gameloft are available for free for a limited time. Regular price is $4.99 for iPhone version and $6.99 for iPad version. So go ahead and download.

Asphalt 6 is a arcade racing game with superb enviorments and fast-paced racing, there's over 55 events, across 11 leagues. Drive cars such as Astion Martin, Ferrari, Lamborghini and even Ducati's. The single player campaign is quite long for being on the iOS, but that's not all, there's also multiplayer support via the Game Center.

Download Asphalt 6: Adrenaline
Download Asphalt 6: Adrenaline HD

Apple has included 4 new wallpapers to the iOS 5.1 beta. The new wallpapers are water crashing onto a sand beach, grass blades, and two ocean wallpapers.

Beta firmwares are for developers only, but new wallpapers are available for everyone. Apple did not include wallpapers for the iPhone, just iPad. But 9to5Mac shrunk them down to iPhone and iPod touch retina size. Check them out or download them below.

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Yesterday Russia had finally got official iPhone 4S.

iPhone 4S in Russia is sold unlocked. The prices vary from $1100-$1220 for 16G model up to $1350-$1450 for top 64G model. Interesting fact is that black models are $100 cheaper than white ones.

This is quite expensive compared to the US, where unlocked models without contract cost from $649 (16G) to $849 (64G) plus taxes.

The resent rumors suggesting that Apple may purchase Israeli firm Anobit, nudge that Apple plans to set up its first research and development center outside of its Cupertino headquarters.

Sources inform "Globes" that Apple Inc. has decided to open a development center in Israel focusing on semiconductors. The decision was taken even before the company entered into talks to acquire Herzliya-based flash storage solutions provider Anobit Ltd..

Apple has hired Aharon Aharon, a veteran player in Israel's high tech industry, to lead the new development center.

[...]

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According to a report from DigiTimes, Apple may be preparing to launch a high-resolution MacBook Pro as early as the second quarter of 2012. The report cites sources from supply chain which claim that Apple is going to double the display resolution of its new MacBook Pro to 2880x1800 pixels.

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Analyst Mark Moskowitz with J.P. Morgan expects that MacBook Air sales will reach an average of 1.6 million units per quarter over the next 12 months. In the third quarter of calendar 2011, Apple sold 923,000 units of the MacBook Air, representing 838.6 percent year-over-year growth. Comparing with the previous quarter MacBook Air sales grew by 43.8 percent, outpacing total Mac unit growth of 17.1 percent.

China is now becoming a strong driver for growth of MacBook Air sales. Last quarter, MacBook Air units grew 339 percent year over year in China, versus 76.5 percent for the rest of the Mac lineup. Moreover, notebooks based on Intel's Ultrabook specification are highly unlikely to be a significant threat to the MacBook Air.

"In general, we think that Ultrabooks are highly-discretionary devices, and pricing on competitive offerings must fall below $800 before posing a viable threat to Apple's MacBook Air," he wrote in a note to investors. "In our view, Apple's first mover advantage and optimized feature set and form factor command a higher price that early adopters, productivity users, and Apple enthusiasts are willing to absorb."

On Monday Apple revealed that over 100 million downloads were made via its Mac App Store in less than one year of availability.

"In just three years the App Store changed how people get mobile apps, and now the Mac App Store is changing the traditional PC software industry," said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "With more than 100 million downloads in less than a year, the Mac App Store is the largest and fastest growing PC software store in the world."

There are now more than 500,000 applications in App Stores for iOS and the Mac that were downloaded more than 18 billion times. More than one billion applications are downloaded per month there. Noteworthy, Apple Stores helped developers achieved success with their applications. Here some comments from the developers whose applications are now available in the Mac App Store.

"The Mac App Store has unparalleled reach and has completely transformed our distribution and development cycle," said Saulius Dailide of the Pixelmator Team. "Offering Pixelmator 2.0 exclusively on the Mac App Store allows us to streamline updates to our image editing software and stay ahead of the competition."

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Many Apple fans are interested in discovering hints of Apple's future iOS devices in various configuration files in each beta and public version of iOS. Such references provide essentially no information on the new devices themselves. Most of them simply appear in the form of "iPhone4,1" that meant the iPhone 4S as one example, but they are carefully watched as hints of what devices Apple is likely to be testing with the software at the moment and perhaps how many variations of an upcoming device there might be.

But today Apple has tried to obscure that information having released 5.1 beta 2 with numerous fake references within configuration files. For example, USBDeviceConfiguration.plist has listed about two dozen different device variants.

As discovered by 9to5Mac's Mark Gurman, that list has now ballooned to well over 100 such entries as Apple has seeded it with dozens of new fake references to such future products as "iPad10,1", "iPhone11,3", "iPod11,1", and "AppleTV8,3".

Apple has made more difficult to identify new product, though the change does not shut out examination of the evidence entirely, as unaltered listings are still visible in other locations.

Today market research company Strategy Analytics reported on its research which covers «connected TV players», such as Ruku and Apple TV. The report shows that Apple is expected to reach sales of 4 million Apple TV boxes for 2011, leading the growing market with a 32 percent share.

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Apple suppliers now claim that the next generation of iPads will arrive on the market in the next 3-4 months. Manufacturing partners of the company have reportedly begun delivering parts and components for the third-generation iPad while reducing the iPad 2 production, through it is expected to remain steady at 14-15 million units in the December quarter, before declining to 4-5 million units in the first quarter of 2012. The same sources said that production of the iPad 3 will reach 9.5-9.8 million units next quarter.

China's Commercial Times has reported that Apple will begin producing the device in January ahead of large-scale production in February. Moreover, analysts suggest that there left no significant technical hurdles for the device.

The iPad 3 is expected to include a high resolution Retina Display. Last month we reported that Apple invested in a Sharp factory for production of LCD panels for the next iPad that will be utilize IGZO (indium, gallium, zinc) technology to provide a thinner design and improve battery life. However, the recent report from Japanese source claims that iPad 3 will be little thicker that the current-generation Apple’s tablet because of unknown reasons.

The new report claims that Apple has transferred several patents to the patent-licensing firm Digitude Innovations and accuses the company of aiding a so-called "patent troll." Digitude Innovations filed suit against tech giants this week, including Research in Motion, HTC, LG, Motorola, Samsung, Sony, Amazon and Nokia. Having investigating the lawsuit, TechCrunch found out that two of the patents mentioned in the lawsuit had belonged to Apple earlier this year.

Apple is claimed to transfer a dozen of patents to the company called Cliff Island LLC earlier this year. Noteworthy, the company's address is the same as Digitude investor Altitude Capital. Cliff Island apparently transferred the patents to Digitude.

In June Forbes reported that Digitude Innovations was established by Altitude founder Robert Kramer. Digitude is in the business of acquiring patents to sue others, the company has been labeled a "patent troll." The company is utilizing a new investment strategy of allowing investors to contribute patents instead of money. Participating companies would then receive a license for all of the firm's patents.

It is not clear whether Apple entered into an agreement with Digitude, but Apple may use the company as a "hired gun" in its patent battles.

"The idea that the company didn’t have any options other than handing over valuable patents to a patent troll — knowing full well that it would then use those patents to sue other tech companies — seems ludicrous."

UPDATE: ultrasn0w for iOS 5.0.1 released.

This tutorial is for those users of locked iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4, who updated to iOS 5.0.1 and realized that ultrasn0w unlock doesn't work there.

Indeed DevTeam have not updated software unlock utility ultrasn0w to work with the latest iOS 5.0.1. There are two workarounds, that will make ultrasn0w work on 5.0.1.

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According to Japanese blog Macotakara, Apple held a MFI Conference for iPod / iPhone / iPad for accessory manufacturers in Shenzen, China this past week.  During the conference Apple reported that the company was going to introduce a new chip for MFI program ("MFI" means Apple's Made iPod / iPhone / iPad certification program) in order to encourage manufactures to produce more iOS-compatible accessories. The rumored chip will provide access to devices running iOS via AirPlay, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. The current program for iOS devices is limited to physical dock accessories.

TouchArcade has confirmed these rumors by its recent article telling us about iOS gaming accessories. TouchArcade explains that the reason why all the current gaming accessories rely on Bluetooth keyboard emulation is due to the restrictions Apple has placed over bluetooth connections and with the new chip such restrictions seems to be loosed opening the way to analog control sticks for iOS devices.

Moreover, Apple has recently revealed that the company would be adding support for AirPlay over Bluetooth. It is unclear what advantages this will offer.