The game of cat and mouse between Apple and Google continues. Meanwhile, the search engine behemoth plans to launch their Chrome browser as a probe into the iOS computing ecosystem, or at least this is what the latest tech rumors claim. According to some sources, Apple is perhaps already reviewing Google’s popular web browser for entry into the App Store. Why is this something Google wants besides claiming the superiority of their products like Android, Gmail, Chrome and so on? Well the reason is simple enough. Google is forced to share its annual advertising revenues, which is about $1 billion with Apple, because of the amount of web searches which are coming trough Apple’s own Safari web browser.

If more people were using Chrome as a web browsing platform, ad revenues would go only to Google, thus helping them allot and potentially harming Apple’s advertising revenues. Currently, not many iPhone and iPad users use other browsers which are already freely available in the App Store, like Opera and Dolphin. There are a number of issues encountered when users try to experiment with third party browsers on their iPhone or iPad. Apple isn’t making it easy for users to use such browsers. One of the problems is that if you make any kind of browser related action from some app, it will fire up Safari, so users will have to make additional efforts to use any other browser including Chrome.

Would you consider using Chrome? We think it could be a good alternative, especially given the large number of Google apps which are better integrated with Chrome like Gmail for example. Do you agree with us or are you an Apple purist?

Here is the tethered jailbreak for all A4 based iOS devices, we have been waiting for so long! We wrote earlier that the jailbreak is in the final phase and luckily for us and many other iPhone and iPad users, we now have a tethered jailbreak, courtesy of the iPhone Dev Team.

RedSn0w  0.9.11 beta4 is based on the previous jailbreak for 5.1. firmware and ads some new options like stitching the blobs and making custom firmware version. This is especially important as it allows users to upgrade without the baseband update. This is of critical importance for all unlockers: if you upgrade the baseband you could loose the carrier unlock, perhaps forever.

You can download RedSn0w 0.9.11 b4 for Mac here and for Windows PC here.

If you don’t know how to use RedSn0w you can check our RedSn0w guide here. The process is almost the same except the fact that you will use the latest version of RedSn0w and the 5.1.1 firmware file. Stay tuned as we guide you through all new jailbreak and unlock guides, tricks and customizations!

Here is another great tool for iPhone users. If you know anything about the iOS, iPhone and related terms, you will probably know how many users unintentionally upgrade their devices. While upgrading the iOS, is in most cases a good thing to do, if you really relay on your jailbreak and unlock, you will need to be real careful with those upgrades. Whenever you upgrade your device, you will loose booth your jailbreak and your carrier unlock. In some places this will make your device loose its connectivity altogether. A true nightmare, one which we have seen many times. The same thing has now happened to many iPhone 4S users which have mistakenly upgraded their devices. Luckily, the jailbreak community isn’t really willing to accept this.. Therefore they have again developed the technology which enables users to downgrade their iOS devices back to earlier version of the iOS. To remind you: iPhone 4S and iPad 2 can be jailbroken if on iOS 5.0.1.

The jailbreak for iOS 5.0.1 is a untethered one, meaning you are sparred from using your computer and RedSn0w every time you need to reboot your device for whatever reason.

Here are the steps you need to follow to revert back to iOS 5.0.1. Please note: it is always a good idea to backup your data before doing an firmware upgrade or downgrade. This will work only for users which have saved the SHSH blobs for iOS 5.0.1 with either Cydia or TinyUmbrella tools.

Here is what you’ll need to do:

1. Download RedSn0w 0.9.11b1 from here: Mac or Windows.

2. Get the necessary firmware files: 5.0.1 and 5.1.1.

3. You need to get your iPhone 4S (or iPad 2) into DFU (device firmware upgrade mode).

4. Start RedSn0w on your computer and check if it has recognized your iPhone 4S as a connected device which is in DFU. In RedSn0w go to Extras – Even More – Restore and choose the IPSW option. Browse to the 5.0.1 firmware file you have downloaded. After you have done this, RedSn0w will ask for the new, 5.1.1 IPSW firmware file.

 5. After both files are checked, you will need to point RedSn0w to the SHSH blobs. If the blobs are available with Cydia, choose Remote. If you have saved the blobs with TinyUmbrella on your computer, browse to the location where you have saved the SHSH blobs.

 6. After the blobs are checked, RedSn0w will continue doing its trick.

7. When the downgrade is successfully finished you will be notified. Check your iPhone and confirm that it is really downgraded back to 5.0.1.

 You can now continue and get yourself a untethered jailbreak with Absinthe or Corona jailbreak solutions.

If you are a happy iPad 3 owner, you’ll probably be glad to hear that the iPad 3 iOS 5.1 jailbreak has been demonstrated on a video. This probably means this solution will be widely available rather soon. The best thing is that the iPad 3 jailbreak we talk about is untethered! According to @Pod2g, his next goal is to find a way to jailbreak iOS 5.1.1, released by Apple only a couple of days ago.

Here are people which should be credited for this jailbreak version:

Jailbreak exploit – pod2g
ASLR exploit – pod2g
Sandbox hole – pod2g
Kernel security hole – westbaer
Jailbreak – pod2g

As you see, pod2g has done it almost single-handedly! Our congrats go to him and his crew!

You can see how this untethered jailbreak works in the video bellow.

Are you eager as we are to get this jailbreak for your new iPad 3? We are certainly more than keen to get it, as soon as possible! Any comments from iPad 3 users? Do let us know, as always your thoughts are welcomed in the comments section bellow.

It is now officially confirmed: iPhone 4S upgraded to iOS 5.1.1 can be unlocked with the help of the Gevey Sim interposer! If you have accidentally or on purpose upgraded your device to iOS 5.1.1 (released a couple of days ago, you can now unlock it for use on other networks. It will also work on brand new devices with already installed 5.1.1 firmware. This unlocking solution is perhaps the simplest so far: all you need to do is to insert your new Gevey Sim with your sim card into your iPhone and thats all! Your iPhone is on latest 5.1.1 firmware and carrier unlocked. You don’t even need to jailbreak first, although there are many positive sides to jailbreaking: free apps, tweaks, theme customizations and much more!

What is a Gevey Sim unlock? It’s actually a small chip which is being positioned between your original sim card and the iPhone baseband hardware. The price of this hardware unlock solution is $39. If you have a new iPhone 4S, there is no other way to unlock at the time being. Hopefully we will have a software based solution like UltraSn0w or similar which will be able to do the same.

Check out the unlocking process with Gevey Sim in the Youtube video bellow!

About a month ago several sites began offering permanent unlocks for all iPhone models in the shape of IMEI unlocks.
While first we were skeptical about these unlocks, the sounds that we heard about the  IMEI Unlock  iPhone services on several iPhone related forums were positive, so we decided to perform a test with an iPhone that we could only use as iPod ( iPhone  4 running iOS 5.1 and baseband 4.11.8). As most of you know the 4.11.8 baseband cannot be unlocked by Gevey sims or other SIM imposers, so we were using this iPhone as an iPod without phone functionality.

We contacted Unlockaniphone.org who previosly send us Gevey Sims for Review and now also offers IMEI Unlocks. They explained: IMEI unlocks are permanent (factory) unlocks that will work for any iPhone model ( iPhone 4S / 4 / 3GS / 3G) and all iOS versions and basebands. All you need to do is select your carrier in their list, submit your IMEI and wait a few days.  You will then receive an Email from them saying the iPhone is unlocked. Pretty amazing.

In our case we did not know what country our iPhone originally was from, nor the network where the iPhone was locked to. Since the unlocked cannot be performed without this information we decided to order the network check service first ( $12). Within a couple of hours we received an Email stating our iPhone was locked to T-mobile Germany. This is one of their  supported carriers, and we were lucky: the price was not to bad at all ( $50,- for a permanent unlock)

The network selection screen at Unlockaniphone.org: notice the price differences for the different network providers:

After submitting our IMEI and agreeing to their terms & conditions ( they offer a 100% refund if they cannot unlock within 30 days) we received an Email saying they were processing the IMEI.
Only 7 hours later we received another Email from them saying the iPhone was unlocked.
Looking at the iPhone there really was no difference, but there was one more step to complete for us: We had to connect the iPhone to the computer and startup iTunes.

We were pleasantly surprised when we saw this message pop-up in iTunes:

The unlocked definately worked, and it worked well: The iPhone now is factory unlocked and accepts all SIM cards from all carriers, and the best thing is: This unlock is permanent!
Meaning we will be able to update this iPhone whenever Apple releases a new iOS version, we can wipe and restore the iPhone without hassle, and use any simcard worldwide without ever having to worry that the iPhone will ever lock again.

Verdict: This is a PERFECT unlock solution for iPhone 4 users on 4.11.8 baseband, and for all others who simply want to unlock their iPhone without any hassle or without having to worry about the iPhone re-locking after an iOS update.
Prices vary very much from network provider to network provider, and certainly not all networks can be unlocked yet.  Turnaround time also varies from network to network ( from less then 4 hours to unlock to 15 days or more – AT&T USA)

iPhone Dev Team member known as @MuscleNerd has publicly announced that the next version of RedSn0w, which is probably the best jailbreak tool available, will be able to help you to restore your iPhone or iPad back to previous iOS versions. The condition is of course that you have saved the SHSH blobs previously.

This approach will be different than the process used by another famous jailbreak developer @iH8Sn0w, in his Sn0wBreeze jailbreaking tool. What is best, is that it avoids using Apple’s proprietary code and thus removes the danger of potential legal problems with copyright charges. So again: if you have saved the SHSH blobs of your device, you will be able to easily restore or downgrade your iPhone 4S, iPad 2 and iPad 3. This is important as you can go back to iOS 5.0.1 and thus get an untethered jailbreak!

We will let you know more as soon as the new RedSn0w jailbreak becomes available. If you follow our blog you will get all the best and latest informations from the world of iPhone and iPad jailbreaking and unlocking. Feel free to subscribe to our RSS feed or follow us on Twitter!

Apple has just released the latest version of iOS numbered iOS 5.1.1. This is basically an incremental operative system update as it basically only improves on variety of small issues, bugs and security holes discovered in March released iOS 5.1.

Here are some of the improvements coming with Apple iOS 5.1.1:

Better HDR functionality, especially for images taken within the LockScreen shortcut.
iPad only bug which prevented connecting to 2G or 3G network resolved.
Solved so called AirPlay bug.
More stable bookmarks syncing and reading lists.
Solution for “Unable to purchase“ error notification.

You can get more in depth informations on Apple’s official update website. You can download and run iOS 5.1.1 on your iPad (all versions), iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S. Please note: if you relay on your jailbreak and unlock, be advised to stay away from this update until jailbreak developers confirm it is safe to do so. iPhone 4S and iPad 3 users should be especially careful regarding this. We hope we will have some good news about a new, iOS 5.1.1 friendly jailbreak tool soon enough!

Due to fast change of production lines in Apple’s manufacturing plants, iPhone 4 became a device increasingly harder to find. This is probably the only reason Apple is pushing iPhone 4S as a replacement device for somewhat inferior iPhone 4 models. Earlier this year, White iPhone 4 devices have been replaced in a such manner, now it’s the same situation with iPhone 4 Black 16 GB and 32GB.

To avoid customer complaints, Cupertino company  has decided to order all Apple Stores to follow the same replacement protocol, if they don’t have enough iPhone 4 devices. Keep in mind that not all Apple Stores have the same problem with iPhone 4 availability, despite the fact that most of them have experienced this situation. However, according to various sources, this wont last for too long. So if you need to repair your iPhone 4 or need to replace it, you could do it now and perhaps get a new iPhone 4S instead! In any case we would love to hear if you had such a luck! You can leave your comments in the comments section bellow.

Jailbreak is something every iPhone should consider to do. It is simple, fast and safe. And what is most important: when you jailbreak your iPhone or iPad you will be able to get the best apps and tweaks available out there. Your friends will adore you and wonder how exactly did you achieve some cool tweak or customization on your iPhone. Your iPhone will be uniquely customized to you particular lifestyle!

And how can you do that? Well it is easy as we already said. RedSn0w is one among a number of jailbreak tools. And it is one which is time tested and failsafe. It is made and constantly upgraded by the iPhone Dev Team, the most famous jailbreaking team in the world. After every iOS update by Apple, Dev Team works around the clock to provide us with a working jailbreak tool. So far, they have been more than able to do this in time and every new iOS release was quickly jailbroken.

So as today, RedSn0w has been again updated. But as already seen in earlier occasions, this upgrade doesn’t introduce anything really important but its rather a small upgrade which solves some minor bugs and issues. Windows version of RedSn0w 0.9.10b8b solves the Windows Explorer compatibility issue while the Mac version stays the same, meaning nothing visible has changed with this edition of the jailbreak tool.

If you are a first time jailbreaker please make sure to read our detailed instructions for jailbreaking with RedSn0w!

You can download RedSn0w for Windows here and the Mac version of RedSn0w here.