iPhone hacker George “geohot” Hotz has released an update to his “blackra1n” jailbreak utility that should give new iPhone 3Gs owners reason to celebrate. The blackra1n RC2 update will jailbreak factory-fresh iPhone 3GS’s loaded with iPhone OS 3.1.2 by Apple (NSDQ: AAPL), but only through a “tethered jailbreak” method.

The latest iPhone OS 3.1.2 update was released by Apple not too long ago with a nasty little trick hidden up its sleeve. It turned out that new iPhone 3GS were loaded with a version of iPhone OS 3.1.2 that closed the “24kpwn” exploit used by iPhone jailbreak community to make the jailbreak easy and convenient. That basically killed hopes of jailbreaking any factory-fresh iPhone 3GS units already flashed with the new iPhone OS. But, all was not lost. The iPhone Dev Team came out shortly after iPhone OS 3.1.2’s release, saying that a “tethered jailbreak” was still possible.

While the initial release of the blackra1n utility was capable of jailbreaking iPhone OS 3.1.2 for iPhone 3GS hardware already in the wild, it was useless in jailbreaking newer iPhone 3GS units already rocking iPhone OS 3.1.2 from the factory. The same applies to the iPhone Dev Team’s PwnageTool 3.1.4 release. The updated blackra1n RC2 utility changes all that.

This is what to expect with the blackra1n RC2 release:

• Fixed 3G issues
• Tethered jailbreak for factory-fresh iPhone 3GS’s and new out-of-the-box iPod Touch 8GB
• Fixed Icy issues
• Both Windows and Mac

Download blackra1n RC here.

So what is this “tethered jailbreak” we keep mentioning? Simply put, it’s a less convenient jailbreak method that requires the user to keep their iPhone 3GS connected to their computer during the jailbreak process. Any subsequent reboots (resulting from power loss or a manual reboot) will require a computer to boot successfully. The jailbreak is possible (using blackra1n RC2), but it’s decidedly more of a hassle. But, then again, how many times do you reboot your iPhone?

Note: if you already jailbroke your iPhone 3GS using blackra1n RC1 (the initial release), there’s no need to run RC2. Also, if you would rather wait for the iPhone Dev Team to build the tethered jailbreak option into PwnageTool, sit tight, they’re working on it.

[Via: iphonejtag]

Soccer moms, move over, your time is over. It’s time to make room for the “iPhone Mom” – a relatively new demographic made up of female iPhone owners with children. A new survey from Greystripe indicates that the usually slow-to-adopt “mommy” segment has quickly become a significant consumer of mobile content and mobile applications. As a key purchase decision maker in most US households, sometimes the sole decision maker, the iPhone Mom could prove to be the most important demographic to advertisers.

Greystripe found that a typical iPhone Mom is 7% more likely to be African-American, but 5% less likely to be Hispanic, than the typical iPhone user in general. They wield a lot of purchasing-power in their homes – 96% are involved in purchase decisions, with 40% indicating that they alone decide what their family buys. And, these iPhone Moms use their iPhones for a variety of daily activities – 59% let their kids use their iPhone; 79% use their iPhone to keep their daily shopping duties organized, with 60% using it to locate a nearby store; and a healthy 42% of iPhone Moms use their iPhone at the grocery store. To top it all off, they’re an educated bunch – fully 80% of iPhone Moms have completed a an undergrad stint in college.

What do all these numbers mean for the typical iPhone user? Well, if advertisers take this iPhone market analysis to heart, you might soon see in-app and other types of mobile advertising catering to the iPhone Mom segment.

Check out Greystripe’s full report here [PDF link].

[Via: webwire]

A screenshot from "Women's Murder Club: Death in Scarlet"

I-play has announced Women’s Murder Club: Death in Scarlet is the first Women’s Murder Club game to be available for iPhone and iPod touch. The game puts players in the role of the Women’s Murder Club characters to study murder scenes, perform forensic analysis and find evidence to solve a series of ‘ghastly’ murders in San Francisco.

Based on James Patterson’s best-selling mystery novels, and created by award-winning game designer Jane Jensen, the Women’s Murder Club series translates perfectly to the iPhone with flawless touch screen controls, strikingly beautiful artwork and the option for players to listen to their own iTunes® library while playing.  Through 28 investigations and 15 unique locations, players will experience the thrill like never before, and can use the games integrated Facebook Connect feature to share game acheivements. As an exlusive bonus, players who purchase Women’s Murder Club: Death in Scarlet will receive and audiobook bonus that includes the first 10 chapters of The 8th Confession, James Patterson’s newest installment in the Women’s Murder Club series.

If you are wondering who James Patterson is, he has sold over 170 million books worldwide and has more New York Times #1 best sellers than any other author in history!

Women’s Murder Club: Death in Scarlet is now available in the Apple® App Store for $3.99/£2.39 here.

If that isn’t exciting enough already, check out the trailer for the game here.

Mobango, which calls itself “the first social mobile application store”, has announced that its global community (read: users) has reached over five million members – who, between them, have downloaded more than 550 million pieces of mobile content so far!

The Mobango community is primarily made up of the important and hard to reach, ‘young’ (18-25) and ‘young adult’ (26-34) demographic. Around the world very strong local communities of these age ranges have been built up –the largest currently being in the US, India, UK and Italy, but with Germany and Spain coming up fast. Mobango’s unique strength lies in not only being a mobile site to just download apps, but also being somewhere that members can share apps and personal content with their friends – and interact via their phones.

Either way round, those are extremely impressive stats – not quite in the league of the App store, but certainly well on the way!

You can read more about Mobango here.

Looks like my days of ‘Storm Chasing’ are coming to an end… at least until the Storm3 rumors start brewing! Verizon (NYSE: VZ) and RIM have officially announced the BlackBerry Storm2 (press release after the jump). It’ll be available for general consumption on Wednesday, October 28th for $179.99 on a 2-year contract (after mail-in rebate). We suspected this… but now, we have the official word.

There, that’s it. Finally, an official Verizon word on the matter Mark October 28th on your calendar. And, if you’re all pumped for the Storm2, be sure to hit up our extensive BlackBerry Storm2 Review. It’ll get your juices flowing.

Read the full article »

SendMe Mobile has today announced a partnership with Sony Music Entertainment to offer mobile users access to Sony Music’s roster through SendMeMobile.com.

As part of the agreement, SendMe will offer users a comprehensive selection of Sony Music ringtones, videos and wallpaper images of artists such as Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Franz Ferdinand, T-Pain, Wyclef Jean and more. In addition, SendMe will deliver additional ringtones, images and video content from Sony Music’s extensive catalog never available before to mobile users.

Subscribers can download media directly onto their mobile devices at SendMeMobile.com or through one of SendMe’s distribution channels, such as imeem, Eventful and Univision. In addition, SendMe and Sony Music will unveil special co-branded sweepstakes to promote Sony Music’s hottest artists.

With this latest partnership, it means SendMe now offers content from all four major U.S. music labels – quite a statement in itself – but it has also in place agreements with emerging labels, top game publishers, movie studios and other leading content providers.

In simple terms, these guys have got the market really well covered in the US!

Over the past few years, we’ve seen HTC outgrow their britches. Once a small(ish) Taiwanese smartphone ODM, High Tech Computer Corp. has become grown to become something of a household name in certain (geeky) circles – the third largest smartphone maker in North America. With many of the coolest smartphones on Planet Earth bearing the HTC brand, HTC is launching a new marketing campaign to make sure everyone knows the company behind the hardware. They recently changed their slogan to “quietly brilliant,” but there’s nothing quiet about this upcoming advertising blitz.

HTC will kick things off by splashing their hottest wares on billboards, bus wraps, online banners, and television commercials in the UK. The campaign will expand to Asia and North America later this week. If you don’t spend your day cooped up in a cave somewhere, chances are good you’ll soon run into one of HTC’s new ads. In fact, you may have already seen HTC’s “You” billboards – the prelude to HTC’s “You don’t need to get a phone, you need a phone that gets you” campaign. That’s apparently just the beginning.

Who knows, the next time you mention “HTC” to your friends, they won’t shame you with looks of confusion.

[Update]
Here are some of  the commercials:

If you’re thinking your HTC Magic could use a bit of the HTC Hero’s Sense UI, you’re not alone – HTC apparently thinks so too. They’ve released a new ROM update for the Magic, and it’s packing the Sense UI! Finally, Magic owners don’t have to put up with a stock Android homescreen anymore.

You’ll have to provide your Magic’s serial number before HTC will let you download the ROM, so this is definitely a “your mileage may vary” sort of situation. Unwired View says the update is limited to Taiwan handsets for now, so your best bet is to try your luck with the serial number. That also means the T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) myTouch3G in your pocket won’t be getting Sense anytime soon. Sorry, them’s the breaks.

HTC Magic ROM update page

[Via: UnwiredView]

It was long time ago when we reported that ACCESS (the owner of the original Palm (NSDQ: PALM) OS which it re-christened to Garnet OS) is working with Emblaze and Sharp to create “revolutionary mobile device.” It seems they finally managed to bring their project close to the end, and voila – a press release has been issued, announcing the new mobile OS called ELSE INTUITION. It’s all about user interface these days and these folks know that. Hence the mentioned release adds the good ol’ “revolutionary” adjective before the phrase.

Unfortunately, we don’t have screenshots to prove the claim, but a single image above shows some merit. Still, until we test this for ourselves, we’ll keep a dose of skepticism, as we’ve heard similar claims in the past.

Finally, it’s worth pointing out this isn’t ACCESS’ first mobile Linux project. Their earlier efforts proved as a total failure as they struggled to convince anyone to jump on board. This time, however, they seem to have a better product. The only problem is the over-crowded mobile Linux market, which seems unready for another player. We’ll see…

[Via: Engadget Mobile]

Orange France is the latest carrier to jump on the Nokia (NYSE: NOK) Messaging scheme. The France Telecom-owned operator will offer the service with its Origami Plus and Origami Jet monthly plans, as well as with the Orange email option. Following devices will be offered in the time of launch: Nokia 5230, Nokia E71, Nokia N97 and the Nokia N97 mini.

And as you know, using Nokia Messaging you can access thousands of webmail services from your mobile phone — including the most popular ones such as Gmail, Yahoo! Mail and Hotmail.

[Via: Nokia PR]