If you’ve been using your jailbroken and modified iPhone 3G/3GS as a tethered 3G modem and you’ve updated to the latest iPhone 3.1.2 OS, you’re probably well aware that Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) has killed the iPhone tethering hack. Even if you updated to iPhone 3.1.2 OS through the Dev Team’s PwnageTool 3.1.4, iPhone tethering is a no-go. Fortunately, that’s something the iPhone Dev Team won’t stand for. EngadgetMobile has posted a tweet from Dev Team developer musclenerd which links to a workaround/patch that should allow advanced users (seriously, don’t mess around if you don’t know what you’re doing) to get iPhone tethering back in working order.

The advanced iPhone tethering workaround probably won’t do most users any good at the moment. It’s all very technical and involves changes to the baseband – something we’re too scared to touch ourselves. But, there’s still hope that the iPhone Dev Team can bake the workaround into future PwnageTool releases so that lay iPhone users like us can get iPhone tethering back online.

There’s also mention of a new workaround that will enable MMS on the original iPhone (iPhone 2G) – do with that as you will, but remember it’s at your own risk.

iPhone tether workaround and tutorial
Original iPhone MMS hack

[Via: EngadgetMobile]

Famed iPhone hacker George Hotz is at it again, and this time he’s making it (black)ra1n! Following on his “purplera1n” iPhone jailbreak utility, Geohot has released his “blackra1n” to jailbreak Apple (NSDQ: AAPL)’s latest iPhone OS 3.1.2 for iPhones everywhere. The utility is fairly self-explanatory (it takes just 30 seconds to use), but we’d still recommend you know what you’re doing before diving in.

Also, we should not that the iPhone Dev Team advises against using blackra1n for now. Especially if you want to preserve your iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS carrier unlock. Even if you don’t need to keep your iPhone unlocked for any GSM network, Geohot’s blackra1n utility might make future PwnageTool jailbreaks more difficult.

Find blackra1n here. You can just ignore Geohot’s not-so-subtle blackra1n banner.

iPhone users have it good when it comes to mobile apps and games. The AppStore is filled with hoards of iPhone apps and games that cost $1.99, $0.99 or nothing at all. Compared to prices on traditional apps and games, the AppStore is largely a bargain for software hunters out here (nevermind that there’s a lot of free, or 99¢, crap in the AppStore). So, it’s inevitable that a $2.99 iPhone game is going to draw complaints from cheapskates. That’s what Schiau Studios has been dealing with. In response to customer complaints that the game is too pricey, Schiau Studios raised the price of their Alchemize game to $39.99, making it the most expensive game in the AppStore.

The increased price is meant to prove a point. The $39.99 price point is totally in line with other software out there, which should show that the $3 app is more than worth it. While the lesson may not go over too well with penny-pinchers, Schiau Studios says that the price increase in temporary and that all proceeds from the boosted price will go to charity.

If anything, this novel move from Schiau Studios might very well give AppStore AppStore “>cheapskates some perspective on AppStore prices. Developers aren’t just coding their wares for AppStore glory in and of itself, they’re there to make money. If a couple bucks stands between you and an app purchase, maybe that shiny new iPhone wasn’t for you after all.

If you feel like donating to charity, go download Alchemize (iTunes link). Of course, you can wait until it’s back to $2.99.

[Via: NetworkWorld]

The Motorola MOTOBLUR service/UI is about to give HTC G1 fans a taste what Motorola (NYSE: MOT) is cooking up for their Android-powered CLIQ. Thanks to a clever Android hacker with access to the CLIQ’s firmware, the MOTOBLUR UI has been ported to the G1- the CLIQ’s keyboard-wielding Android cousin.

Motorola launched their Motorola CLIQ Android phone last month with a unique user interface, called MOTOBLUR, as a new way to keep tabs on your social media. Using Motorola’s servers, MOTOBLUR automatically pulls information from your social networks and RSS feeds and splashes that data onto the CLIQ’s homescreen. MOTOBLUR also keeps your contacts’ status updates and photos up to date.

What you see here is the HTC G1 running MOTOBLUR. You may remember Google (NSDQ: GOOG) throwing a bit of a fit over Cyanogen’s distribution of Google’s licensed Android apps. We have to wonder what Motorola thinks about their entire MOTOBLUR getting the “mod” treatment.

[Via: AndroidandMe]

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention this in the wake of the iPhone OS 3.1.2 update. Turns out the iPhone SDK 3.1.2 is available as well at the iPhone Dev Center (of course). If you’ve updated your iPhone to 3.1.2, you’ll need this updated version of the SDK to carry on with your development. An alternate updated version of the SDK is available for OS X Snow Leopard users as well. All of the bases are covered here.

iPhone developers, get your updated SDK on at the iPhone Dev Center, would ya?

[Via: TiPB]

BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) developers, it’s time to get your ‘widget’ on. RIM has announced that the BlackBerry Widget SDK is now available for download. You can grab it at www.blackberry.com/developers/widget.

The BlackBerry Widget SDK 1.0 Beta 1 contains the BlackBerry Widget Packager 1.0 Beta 1, a BlackBerry Device Simulator, and a lot of documentation and samples. So what can you do with it? I think the official description from RIM does nicely:

The BlackBerry Widget Packager 1.0 Beta 1 is a new tool that allows web developers to package up their web assets into BlackBerry Widgets (small, discrete, standalone web applications that use HTML, CSS and JavaScript). A BlackBerry Widget looks, behaves and has the same security mechanisms as a native BlackBerry application. BlackBerry Widgets can be installed on a BlackBerry smartphone like any native application and can be extended to use device-specific information and data using the BlackBerry Widget APIs.

For more details, tutorials, samples and downloads, head on over to BlackBerry.

Note: This will be a biggie for BlackBerry Developers looking to get a jump on OS 5.0. Widgets will be supported in 5.0, and will be available for download/purchase via App World. Get on it developers!

Today at its MAX 2009 conference, Adobe gave developers a sneak peek at how Flash can play nice with the iPhone. Wait, didn’t we just finish talking about how Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) isn’t letting Adobe’s well-meaning but resource-hungry Flash technology anywhere near its pristine iPhone OS? Soothe your conflicted mind, dear reader, Adobe’s Flash still isn’t supported on the iPhone, but Adobe is going to make it easier for Flash developers to create iPhone apps. Using Adobe Flash Professional CS5, Flash developers can craft their apps in their native Flash and then use the automatic conversion feature to port their apps to the iPhone OS.

Adobe says a public beta of their Flash Professional CS5 software will be available later this year for Flash developers looking to flex their muscles in the iPhone AppStore. For the time being, Adobe already has a few apps in the AppStore that started their life in the Flash world. Find more info here.

Like we said, Flash for iPhone is somewhat a reality. But, it’s not what you think – and most definitely not what we’d like to see. Hopefully the release of Flash Professional CS5 will blaze a trail for the arrival of full Flash support on the iPhone.

[Via: Adobe]

Smaato Inc. (a leading mobile ad optimizer and mobile advertising company) announced today the distinguished VC partners for the Smaato Mobile Advertising Award 2009.

Smaato is delighted to have Tim Draper (Draper Fisher Jurvetson), Frédéric Veyssière (Innovacom Venture Capital) and Niall Davis (aeris CAPITAL) supporting the award for a second year and being introduced to the winning companies. We are also thrilled to a have the following VCs participating this year:

•    Mark Kvamme (Sequoia Capital)

•    Rich Wong (Accel)

•    Jörg Sievert (SAP Ventures)

•    Tim Chang (Norwest Venture Partners)

Ragnar Kruse, CEO & Co-Founder of Smaato stated: “We are pleased to announce a fantastic line-up of VCs for the forthcoming Smaato Award. It’s an honor to have the support of so many distinguished individuals for making this competition come to life. For the award winners it’s a great opportunity to meet top tier VCs from around the world and to have a real shot of getting funding.”

About the Smaato Mobile Advertising Award:

The award will honor mobile publishers or developers with an outstanding mobile ad-enabled solution in three categories: iPhone, in-application (any platform) or mobile web. Developers shall provide a description of their website, application or game, a download location, along with high res images and screenshots. In addition they may provide up to three PDF pages of supporting materials. Deadline is October 9th, 2009. For more information and to participate please visit: www.smaato.com/award.

Besides meeting with the above named venture capital partners, Smaato will invite the winner to participate at the Mobile World Congress, taking place in Barcelona, Spain in February 2010. Additional prizes are also on offer, including a free booth at M-Days in Munich, Germany in January 2010.

This could be a dream for small companies looking to win something meaningful, so, if you’ve got a Mobile-ad enabled solution up your sleeves, it’s definitely worth a go!

Yesterday a prominent open-source developer laid the smack-down on the webOS App Catalog submission process, but much to Palm (NSDQ: PALM)’s credit, their director of developer relations, Ben Galbraith, has reached out and is attempting to amend the situation. If you aren’t up to speed, open-source veteran Jamie Zawinski berated Palm’s policies on claiming exclusivity to submitted applications, demanding fees to submit free apps, and end-users’ inability to natively install applications from anywhere other than the App Catalog. Galbraith’s reply was largely apologetic for slow communication, but only went so far to say that they were working on a solution; there weren’t any promises that the tip calculator was going to get in, or clarification about Palm’s ownership rights of applications in the catalog.

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m still coming to grips with the position of the Palm developer community, but from what I can tell, programmers who have been working with the company over the long term aren’t dealing well with the tightening grip that is gradually becoming the industry standard (thanks in large part to the iPhone’s App Store). When you’re used to being able to write an app and post it online wherever and and install it however you want, having to deal with paperwork and change requests and membership fees is an understandably hard transition. Developers just want to know that they actually own the device without any strings attached, and that is totally reasonable.

The homebrew market is apparently only a half-measure that doesn’t satisfy app creators, mainly because it’s too much of a hassle for end users – it sure would be interesting if Palm included homebrew section in the App Catalog plastered with “We didn’t look at these ones, install at your own risk” disclaimers. On the plus side, Palm is listening to the feedback and is treating their system as a work-in-progress. It doesn’t seem like Zawinski is quite as willing to dialog on the matter to help Palm figure out policies that work, but there has been more than enough feedback from others for Palm to chew on. Considering the explosion of contention surrounding this particular issue, it’s probably a good thing that the premium market didn’t go live with webOS 1.2.

For the developers out there, are you satisfied with Galbraith’s response, or do more dramatic steps need to be taken to get you to write apps for webOS?

A really great post has found its way to reddit from Jamie Zawinski, who’s a big name in developer circles (known as jwz), about his rough ride in trying to get a free tip calculator into the webOS App Catalog. Since I’ve been playing with Bell’s Palm (NSDQ: PALM) Pre for the last week and trying out homebrew applications, it really caught my eye. Here’s The Short Version of this particular programmer’s complaints, but I encourage you to read the whole thing if you’re packing a Palm Pre or developing on webOS.

• Inability to natively install applications from outside the market
• Requirement of a verified PayPal account and potential fees, even for free apps
• Forfeiting rights to post submitted applications anywhere other than the App Catalog

Let me preface my reply by saying that I’m not a developer, and don’t pretend to fully empathize with their wide-ranging plights and challenges when dealing with manufacturers, carriers, and end-users. However, a lot of this post raised some flags.

If you don’t want to play by Palm’s rules to get into the App Catalog (however reasonable/unreasonable they may be), don’t whine when your only option left is homebrew; making apps “off the grid” is not a bad starting spot for someone learning the webOS platform. Palm is in dire financial traits, and they need to harness their app market in order to stay in business – that entails some level of quality control, dealing with PayPal, code tweaks, and all that jazz that might come off as personal affronts to the more quixotic developers out there. How do you think Elevation Partners would feel if, when asking about third-party software strategy, Palm said “Developers can do whatever the hell they want! Woo, open source!” and cracked open a Bud? Instead, Palm saw what a financially successful player, Apple (NSDQ: AAPL), was doing right (taking control of the application stream) and doing wrong (making draconian app submission decisions) and built their strategy around that. Sure, it might not be the supposed open-source programming Nirvana found in Maemo 5 or even Android, but it’s a balanced approach that helps everyone win at least a little. If you’re writing free apps and you don’t want to jump through the hoops, homebrew is not that complicated for end users.

1. Enter dev mode
2. Get Quick Install and your recovery ROM (Sprint, Bell)
3. Install fileCoaster

There, you’re set. You have a second on-device app store that Palm doesn’t control. Go nuts. Is that really an insurmountable barrier for entry? Will an app really have that many fewer eyeballs on it than if it were in the App Catalog? And if the software is free anyway, why would the creator care?

If developers want to support the webOS ecosystem with a free app, or make a buck with a premium one, they should be ready to make some compromises, including small code changes for the sake of QA. It’s not like Palm is turning into a bunch of Nazis; they aren’t taking shots at the homebrew scene, like Apple does with jailbreakers – in fact, Palm encourages the homebrew scene. The exclusive rights to the code is simply Palm’s way of ensuring the official market remains valuable. Why would anyone use the App Catalog if the homebrew scene had all of the same apps plus others that didn’t make it though the hoops? Sure, end users would get their apps, and devs could do whatever they wanted, but Palm wouldn’t get their cut, which ultimately is bad news for the whole platform and anyone developing on it.

As for the $99 annual developer fee, someone has to handle the submissions; even if your app is free, that someone answering the e-mails has to get paid. If you can’t be bothered to manage a ubiquitous and widely-accepted payment method like PayPal to handle that tiny bit of bureaucracy, then why should they be bothered to look at your submission? The thing that probably set me off most on jwz’s post was the insinuation that Palm was dead because they’re abusing webOS developers like a bunch of naughty puppies. First off, the phone has been out three months, and as I’m sure you can imagine, it takes a lot of manpower to make an app store ready for primetime – calling the time of death at this point is ridiculous. Secondly, this is the harshest amount of discontent I’ve heard from a webOS developer so far, and I’m tempted to think the majority are still willing to stick with Palm through the official App Catalog launch. Let’s hear from other developers who have tried their hand at the submission process, and see who has been satisfied (or at least understanding), and who has been pushed to another mobile platform. Feel free to comment with your own personal experiences.