June 26th, 2009

Firmware update enables faster storage on new MacBook Pros (maybe)

Posted by David Morgenstern @ 10:48 am

Categories: Firmware, MacBook Pro, Software Update

Tags: Firmware Update, Apple MacBook, Firmware, Apple MacBook Pro, 3Gb/s Capability, Serial ATA, Storage, Hardware, David Morgenstern

Apple this week released an EFI Firmware update for the just-shipped MacBook Pro models that enable 3Gbps transfer rates with some third-party hard disks.

[Update: Please note that a number of sites report problems with this update, (and perhaps I didn't give enough cautionary notice about it). Accelerate Your Mac has a reader warning,  as does this Apple Support Discussions thread. So, it might be wise to wait a bit on this "speed gain."]

The MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.7 lets machines take advantage of SATA II drives that support 3Gbps data transter rates. The standard Apple MacBook Pro drive has a top transfer rate of 1.5Gbps.

Apple has not qualified or offered these drives for Mac portable computers, and their use remains unsupported. All previous and current Apple portables with a SATA drive interface include a SATA 1.5Gbps hard drive.

The page with detailed instructions on installing the updated firmware is here.

There has been confusion around what the various SATA revision levels mean in terms of specs and performance. For example, everyone thinks that SATA II means 3Gbps data transfers, but to be compliant a drive really doesn’t have to support it, although most do now. A few years ago, some didn’t.

The next revision in the SATA spec., SATA Revision 3.0, was decided about a month ago. The SATA Revision 3.0 Specification enhancements include:

Read the rest of this entry »

May 31st, 2009

Screenshot: Apple to charge for re-downloading apps

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 9:08 pm

Categories: Firmware, iPhone, iPhone 3.0

Tags: Apple iPhone, Apple Inc., Blogging, Productivity, Internet, Jason D. O'Grady

The iPhone Blog reports that the iPhone 3.0 beta firmware may close a loophole known as “account sharing.” The practice allows one App Store account holder to share their login information with another user so that the second user can freely re-download apps purchased by the original user to a second iPhone.

With the new 3.0 beta firmware installed, users get a new warning dialog (pictured, right) when they attempt to download an application over-the-air after the first time.

Apple does however allow you to re-download applications an unlimited number of times to a desktop computer - a definite inconvenience for account sharers. As can be seen in the warning dialog, your options are to re-download the app for free on your computer, or to buy it again.

Tip: The iPhone Blog

March 25th, 2009

Apple addresses MBP17 vertical lines with firmware update

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 6:42 pm

Categories: Defect, Firmware, MacBook Pro

Tags: Firmware Update, Apple Inc., Firmware, Graphics, Jason D. O'Grady

Apple today posted MacBook Pro Graphics Firmware Update 1.0 (770kb) which addresses the appearance of vertical lines or distorted graphics on the notebook display. According to the about page there are two parts to this process:

1. Installing the firmware update application onto your hard drive.
2. Using the firmware update application to update your graphics subsystem firmware.

A long thread in the Apple Discussions forums implies that the vertical line issue may be a result of defective Nvidia GeForce 9600 graphics processor chips. The issue doesn’t manifest itself when running on the less-powerful Nvidia 9400 GPU.

If you’ve experienced the issue, post your results after installing the firmware update in the TalkBack below.

Image: forcefedmedia

March 16th, 2009

Kevin Rose describes copy and paste in iPhone OS 3.0

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 7:07 am

Categories: Firmware, Operating System, Software, iPhone

Tags: Apple iPhone, Selection, MacRumors, Podcasts, Corporate Communications, Internet, Marketing, Jason D. O'Grady

According to Kevin Rose during a segment of Diggnation (video) the long-awaited copy and paste functionality will be demonstrated at tomorrow’s iPhone OS 3.0 media event in Cupertino.

The revelation occurred during Diggnation #194 which was recorded live at Stubbs in Austin, Texas, during SxSW Interactive 2009. In it Rose reveals that copy and paste will be invoked by double tapping on a word, and a magnifier bubble will appear with two quotes that you can drag around your selection. Once you make your selection, you will have options to cut, copy or paste.

In the same segment Rose says that background apps and video didn’t make the cut for 3.0 but that the iPhone would catch up with all the features coming in the Palm Pre.

MacRumors adds that Copy and Paste will be arriving in 3.0 alongside a much improved homepage/springboard with the ability to organize in categories.

March 12th, 2009

It's official: iPhone OS 3 coming 17 March (updated 3x)

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 9:53 am

Categories: Announcement, Apple, Firmware, Hardware, Software

Tags: Apple iPhone, Operating Systems, Software, Jason D. O'Grady

The gang over at Engadget got invited to an Apple event to launch iPhone OS 3 on 17 March — a week from today:

We just got the announcement, iPhone OS 3.0 is coming. Set your clocks, mark your calendars. It’s going down March 17th. Apparently, we’ll get a sneak peak at the new OS, as well as a look at a brand new version of the SDK. Exciting stuff indeed, and we’ll be there live at 10am PST (1pm EST) with the liveblog.

Update: This is obviously much sooner than the May-June/WWDC time frame that I’ve been hearing for iPhone OS 3, but not entirely surprising. Apple appears to looking for feedback on the new OS well in advance of WWDC, so that changes could be implemented before it ships. New iPhone hardware is also rumored in the May-June time frame to coincide with WWDC.

Update 2: Hopefully iPhone OS 3.0 will include all the features mentioned in this rumor by Derek Underwood, i.e. concurrent apps and sandboxing shared-space.

Also, what do you think about Apple settling on “iPhone OS 3 Software?” Sounds kind of awkward, doesn’t it? I guess that “iPhone OS” will replace “iPhone firmware” moving forward…

Update 3: MacRumors notes that Apple previously hosted a media event in March 2008 to provide a “roadmap” for iPhone developers, and it appears that this upcoming event may follow a similar theme.

February 5th, 2009

Android chips away at iPhone with G1 firmware update

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 5:36 pm

Categories: Android, Android Market, Firmware, Google

Tags: Apple iPhone, Google Inc., T-Mobile G1, Firmware Update, Firmware, Chip, Jason D. O'Grady

T-Mobile G1 users are receiving notices that a new firmware update (version R33) is available to be pushed to their devices over-the-air. This is in contrast to Apple’s approach which requires firmware updates be applied while physically cabled to a computer.

As a point of reference, most G1s today ship with firmware RC30 and it was RC29 hilariously runs everything as root.

According to early reports the RC33 firmware includes:

- Google’s Voice search feature
- Google Latitude and Google Maps 3.0
- “Check for upgrades” support
- Spam reporting on offensive comments in Android Market
- Save picture from MMS

RC33 also reportedly fixes a number of bugs:

- G1 screen hanging fixed
- Fix for reminders in calendar
- Forced WiFi logout on quitting IM
- Messages Stability issue
- Failure to download more than one e-mail.

While it isn’t the on-screen keyboard everyone’s waiting for in Cupcake, it’s a nice update.

Update: Slashgear has more screenshots of the update.

If you’re a G1 user in the northeast and looking for someone to test Latitude with, get in touch.

January 29th, 2009

Signs of iPhone v3 in latest firmware (updated)

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 7:42 am

Categories: Firmware, Hardware, Rumor, iPhone

Tags: Apple iPhone, Apple Inc., Hardware, Firmware, MacRumors, Jason D. O'Grady

MacRumors has discovered that a file in Apple’s iPhone 2.x firmware (USBDeviceConfiguration.plist) contains evidence of the next generation iPhone which has been designated “iPhone2,1″.

Apple uses these models numbers to distinguish between different hardware models. The original iPhone carries the model number of “iPhone 1,1″ while the 3G iPhone is labeled “iPhone 1,2″. These numbers do not change for simple storage increases and instead represent functionally different devices. Similarly, the iPod Touch was originally introduced as the “iPod 1,1″ and the most recent hardware revision was labeled “iPod2,1″. The 2,1 iPod Touch added a speaker, volume controls, microphone support and a much faster processor than the 1st generation model.

MacRumors also notes that some Web server have captured the “iPhone2,1″ user-agent in their logs. So, someone is either testing the handset or spoofing it.

It’s pretty obvious to me that “iPhone2,1″ is the next-gen Apple iPhone hardware and it’s most likely the elusive quad-core beast that I got wind of at Macworld Expo in San Francisco. The word on the new iPhone is that it will slaughter the PSP in terms of gaming benchmarks (fps, polygons and what have you) and that Sony is scrambling to release the PSP2 before Apple brings it to market.

The third generation iPhone hardware is also rumored to ship with a brand-spanking-new firmware, labeled 3.0, which will be the cat’s meow and will (supposedly) answer all the critics. Whether the new handset and firmware address the iPhone’s now cliché missing features (repeat after me: copy & paste, MMS, video recording, A2DP, iChat, camera improvements) remains to be seem, but Apple reads blogs and is all-too-keenly aware of the advancements being made by Google, RIM and yes, even Palm.

I could see Apple holding a lot of the iPhones “missing features” for firmware 3 in order to make a huge splash and then bask in the wave of new sales and good PR. The latest that I hear is that we could see the next-gen iPhone at WWDC 2009 in June.

Update: PinchMedia has posted some additional details on the usage of the “2,1″ device.

- 1st spotting of the “iPhone 2,1″ device occured in early October 2008
- Usage picked up in mid-December 2008
- A few dozen distinct “iPhone 2,1″ devices have been detected
- Almost exclusively located in south San Francisco Bay Area
- Both AT&T and Wi-Fi connections

January 27th, 2009

iPhone firmware 2.2.1 released, unlockers beware (updated 3x)

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 10:34 pm

Categories: Firmware, iPhone, iPod touch

Tags: Apple iPhone, Apple Inc., Firmware, Jason D. O'Grady

Apple released firmware v.2.2.1 (build 5H11a) for the iPhone and iPod touch at 11:00 am today, which provides “improved general stability of Safari” and fixes an issue where images saved from Mail do not display correctly in the Camera Roll, according to the release notes.

The 246MB file (direct link) can be downloaded in about 20 minutes by connecting your device to iTunes and clicking “check for update.”

Apples “hundredths” decimal place updates (like 2.2.x) are usually bug fix releases and thus relatively minor. Don’t get too excited, 2.2.1 doesn’t appear to contain anywhere near the amount of features (and hype) that the 2.2 update did (a “tenths” decimal place update).

But, as usual, there’s a lot more under the hood than Apple is letting on. According to reports from first installers Apple’s 2.2.1 firmware appears to break the iPhone Dev Team’s vaunted unlock, yellowsn0w:

Hold your horses!

There is an iPhone and iPod update available in iTunes - it is numbered 2.2.1 (5H11a).

Please DO NOT update. We will investigate and report back to you ASAP.

Then according to their tweets:

yellowsn0w WARNING -

there are early indications that today’s 3G firmware update (2.2.1_5H11) will break yellowsn0w — do not install it

only upgrade only through custom firmware that prevents the baseband update — NOT official firmware

Unfortunately, 2.2.1 doesn’t appear to include push notifications as had been rumored, or any of the other laundry list of cliche list of embarrassing iPhone omissions. (Sing it with me: No cut and paste. No push notifications (promised for Sept 08). No MMS. No A2DP.)

I wish that Apple would spend more time developing iPhone features instead of wasting time on stupid counter-measures designed to thwart the unlock/jailbreak community. Apple will never win that cat and mouse game and risks losing customers to Google, RIM and heck, even Palm.

Photo: Engadget

Update:

• Modem Firmware 02.30.03
• Emoji “hacks” still seem to work
• iPhone SDK 2.2.1 is available (all 1.75GB of it)
• Reports that Safari is “faster”
• Reports that it fails, “went into recovery mode right after update” and “had to restore”
  
• Rumored that 2.2.1 was released to support photo syncing from iPhoto ‘09
• Safari Now caches the last page in memory (yippe!) ★ ★ ★

My favorite comment:

iPhone 2.2.1 fixes that nasty little problem of actually liking your iPhone because its jailbroken

What have you found?

November 23rd, 2008

iPhone jailbreakers: Problems with QuickPwn?

Posted by David Morgenstern @ 5:57 pm

Categories: Firmware, Jailbreak, iPhone

Tags: Apple iPhone, Firmware, Apple iTunes, QuickPwn, 3G, Cellular Phones, Wireless, Digital Music, Digital Media, Consumer Electronics

On Friday, the word came out from iPhone jailbreaker community to avoid update to the iPhone 2.2 firmware. The next day, the team at blog.iphone-dev.org warned that use of QuickPwn could bring problems with Apple’s iPhone Firmware 2.2 update released on Friday.

Here is the note:

GOLDEN RULE: If you have a 3G iPhone and want potential soft unlock in the near future do NOT use QuickPwn, and do not use the official ipsw or the iTunes update process without using PwnageTool.

The previous note titled Sir, step away from the keyboard was posted on the “unofficial, official blog of the iphone-dev team” and told jailbreakers to avoid the firmware update.

If you want to keep that option of a ‘soft-unlock in the near future’ available but you want the new features of 2.2, you will be able to update to 2.2 using a PwnageTool created custom ipsw file that disables the baseband update. You will be able to do this using an updated version of PwnageTool.

Links to PwnageTool 2.2.1 and QuickPwn are available here.

The Friday post offers some interesting information on the differences between the iPod Touch and the iPhone 3G.

-The 2.2 firmware for 3G contains a baseband update for the 3G iPhone.
-The 2.2 firmware for 2G (1st gen iPhones) doesn’t contain a baseband update and the baseband is still at 04.05.04.
-We believe that our Pwnage technique (and therefore the Jailbreak) isn’t affected, but PwnageTool and QuickPwn do not support this release as yet, so DO NOT install 2.2 using iTunes as you will lose your jailbreak.
-If you apply this update and you previously relied on PwnageTool or QuickPwn to activate your phone, it may become temporarily deactivated and unusable (until we release the new version of PwnageTool or QuickPwn).
-2G (1st gen) iPhone users who cannot wait for the new PwnageTool or QuickPwn can safely “Update” to 2.2 using iTunes, this will preserve the existing activation. However “restoring” to 2.2 using iTunes will return the iPhone to the unactivated state. If you are in any doubt just wait. NB: This works for 2G ONLY.
-The use of SIM-Proxies (small circuit boards/chips that sit underneath the SIM card) to provide GSM/UMTS service on your locked iPhone 3G is a method that we have always advised against. Early reports suggest that the 2.2 update disables the functionality of these devices. The techniques used were always unreliable and we are surprised that they have lasted this long.

Note: I’m not a user of jailbreak applications and admit that I can live without them. But I was interested in the differences between the models and the confusion the firmware update may bring to jailbreaker community. If the guys at blog.iphone-dev.org are wrong, I am sorry for bringing even more confusion.

November 21st, 2008

iPhone 2.2 firmware released

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 9:56 am

Categories: Firmware, Software, Software Update, iPhone

Tags: Apple iPhone, Google Inc., Google Maps, Firmware, Podcasts, Internet, Jason D. O'Grady

As expected, Apple released iPhone firmware 2.2 today. The 246MB update includes the following published features:

• Enhancements to Maps
  • Google Street View
  • Public transit and walking directions
  • Display address of dropped pins
  • Share location via email
• Decrease in call setup failures and dropped calls
• Enhancements to Mail
  • Resolved isolated issues with scheduled fetching of email
  • Improved formatting of wide HTML email
• Podcasts are now available for download in iTunes application (over Wi-Fi and cellular network)
• Improved stability and performance of Safari
• Improved sound quality of Visual Voicemail messages
• Pressing Home button from any Home screen displays the first Home screen
• Preference to turn on/off auto-correction in Keyboard Settings

Other features include:

• Google search box moved next to the address bar in Safari
• Large category icons in the App Store
• New “Tell a Friend” and “Report a Problem” buttons in App Store
• Support for Japanese emoji icons
• Application rating on delete
• Multiple screen shots in the App Store (like iTunes)

What else have you noticed?