Definitive Designs

Dev Team has once again came through with their promises. Tonight, about 12 hours away from iPhone’s 3.0 software release they have demonstrated a working jailbreak and unlocking work-around. They have not released the applications to patch iPhone’s software yet because they don’t want Apple to fix it at the last minute before the official 3.0 release, but have promised that it will be out shortly after 3.0 is out. If you want more information, visit Dev Team’s blog website, but remember – jailbreaking and/or unlocking your phone voids the iPhone’s warranty.

The next iPhone is finally here! Apple has announced its third generation iPhone 3GS. The phone is available in black or white color as either 16GB or 32GB. The new version of iPhone 3.0 software will be included with the phone, adding such features as copy, paste, search across platform, MMS, horizontal keyboard layout for typing, push notification, tethering with your computer, turn by turn navigation, better language support and more. Safari with Java also gets a speed boost under OS 3.0 – up to 3x compared to the previous version. There is also a new feature called Find Me which is a service offered to MobileMe users which helps users track their lost or stolen iPhone over Google Maps. You can send a command to the phone which will cause it to emit a sound even if the phone has its sound turned off. Additionally you can send a wipe command to the phone which will erase contacts, and other personal data. In App Purchase allows you to buy content inside an App Store bought applications.

On the hardware side of things there are improvements to bluetooth and how it interacts with other software and hardware. The phone will have a faster processor and graphics, a higher resolution camera (3MP) with auto focus, 30fps video recording, voice controls, Nike+ support, 7.2Mbps HSDPA, a digital compass, increase of system RAM, encryption, better batery life (3G is 5 hours, while WiFi is 9 hours), and more. There will also be updates to iTunes which deal with parental controls, movies, tv shows, music and audio books. The pricing for the new phones is $199 for 16GB, and $299 for 32GB (both versions come in either black or white color) and it will be available on sale on June 19th. This price is available with a new two-year contract with AT&T. The current 8GB 3G will be lowered in price to $99. Official photos and information is available on Apple’s website.

Additionally to announcing the new iPhone, Apple has also announced the next operating system named Snow Leopard, version 10.6. Some new features present in the new operating system are integrated Expose into the dock. Up to 45% faster install, with 6GB space recovered after upgrading over Leopard. Mail is 2.3x faster, and Safari 4 Final will be released today. Preview is 2x faster with better PDF support. Also a new version of QuickTime called QuickTimeX has been demoed which has been completel redisigned. Upgrade to Leopard 10.5 will cost $29, while Family Pack will be $49 on sale in September. The official site contains more information about the features and updates to the software.

Announced at WWDC 2009 are updates to the MacBook Pro line. The notebooks get up to 3.06GHz Core 2 Duo CPU’s, up to 500GB 7200RPM hard drives (or 256GB SSD hard drives), an improved screen, a SD memory card slot, a longer lasting battery, backlit keyboard, and firewire 800. Starting price is $1,699, and it goes on sale today. MacBook Pro’s (13″ alunimum MacBook now renamed to MacBook Pro) also get similar updates to hard drive, SD memory slot and improved screen start at $1,199. MacBook Air gets these updates as well. All of the new laptops meet the EP Gold and Energy Star v5 standards.