Just one day after its official unveiling, Apple has made iOS 4.3 Gold Master, build 8F190 (called it!) available to developers. The code adds support for mobile hotspot creation, third-party AirPlay access, along with a host of other improvements. The update is available to those with Apple Developer accounts and supports iPad, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, and the 3rd and 4th generation iPod touch models. Those of you with developer accounts, enjoy!

Thanks, @CDeeRON!

RadioShack’s $50 iPhone discount promotion was, according to the company, wildly successful. How successful you ask? The Shack’s PR team hit us up to boast that a “record setting number of phones” were sold earlier in the month. And what better way to stave off the holiday sales hangover than to keep the discounts coming, no? “Starting Wednesday, December 29, RadioShack will offer $50 off every iPhone 4 16G and iPhone 3G S for new and eligible upgrade customers while supplies last,” reads an email sent to BGR. If you happen to be upgrading from an iPhone 3G or 3GS, The Shack is offering additional savings to those willing to trade in your old iDevice. “Qualifying iPhone 3G and 3G S handsets will have a guaranteed trade-in credit of $75 and $125, respectively.” To qualify your device has to “power on, cannot be PIN locked and must be in fully functional, working condition without any broken components.” iPhone 3GS upgraders would be able to acquire a 16GB iPhone 4 for a measly $24 after the $50 instant discount and $125 trade-in credit. Not too shabby. The deal does not have a set end-date, but RadioShack does note that interested parties should call their local store to check product availability.

We have just received more information on Best Buy’s Free Smartphone Sales Event going on tomorrow at Best Buy Mobile. In addition to a free iPhone 3GS 8GB with new activation or qualified upgrade, we have been told that Best Buy Mobile will also be offering the BlackBerry Torch for free with the same terms, except it will be available for the price of $0 for the entire month of December. Additionally, the BlackBerry Curve 9300 (T-Mobile edition) will be become available for free on December 12th, again, with the same terms and will be available for free for the month of December. Not bad Best Buy, not bad.

Probably not the iOS 4.2 announcement you were hoping for, but it is an announcement nonetheless. Moments ago, Apple seeded another gold master candidate of iOS 4.2 — 4.2.1 — to developers via its iOS Dev Center. Presumably, the new code fixes several bugs that have been reported in the first 4.2 GM candidate; including a fairly nasty Wi-Fi bug affecting iPads. If you’re a member of Apple’s developer network, you know what to do. Everyone else… the waiting continues.

If you’re an iPhone 3GS owner, and feel shafted by your phone’s inability to take HDR photos, there still may be hope. 9to5Mac is reporting that resources in the latest iteration of the Apple’s iPhone SDK may indicate that support could be coming to the aging 3GS. The blog writes:

The iPhone 3GS is the only iPhone that is physically (hardware capabilities) able to capture HDR shots so we figure that non-Retina icon is for the 3GS not the original or 3G model. How do we know the other icon is not for the Retina Display? Apple has a very simple labeling process which places an “@2x” on image titles for the Retina Display and places nothing of that sort next to “iphone” on non-retina iPhones.

So there you have it. If you’re looking for HDR capabilities on your iPhone 3GS, and don’t feel like going the jailbreak route, your dreams may be just a software update away.

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If you have an older model iPhone, and are envious of the HDR photographic-prowess of the iPhone 4, there is still hope; albeit hope with a fairly long list of prerequisites. iPhone tinkerer Will Strafach has tweeted that he: “Made a Cydia tweak to allow HDR photos on 4.1 for the iPhone 3G and 3G[s].” So, when that rumored iOS 4.1 jailbreak is released you can take your jailbroken, iPhone 3G or 3GS and get the HDR goodies. There are a lot of “ifs” and “whens” in there… but it’s better than nothing.

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Apple has just released an update to iOS, labeled iOS 4.0.2. The update, amongst other things, plugs the PDF security hole most notably used by the website jailbreakme.com. The update is available for the iPhone 3G, 3GS, and 4, iPod Touch 2G and 3G, as well as the iPad. If you have a jailbroken device, or think you might want to jailbreak your device at some point, we would recommend against applying this update. Everyone else, have at it!

If you live in the States and are dying to get an unlocked iPhone 4, prepare to be taunted by two bordering nations. It looks as though Apple will offer the iPhone 4, carrier unlocked, to Mexico via the Online Apple Store; Canada already has this option. The pricing on the unit has not yet been announced, but if history repeats itself it should be about $1,500 pesos above the price of the iPhone 3GS for an unlocked 16 GB iPhone 4. Currently the iPhone 3GS is on the Mexican Apple Online Store for $9,510.84 pesos (about $730 US). Anyone want to head to Tijuana and pick one of these bad boys up?

Thanks, JLR!

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Apple’s iPhone is one step closer to officially landing in China. According to China’s Telecommunication Equipment Certification Center, a WiFi-enabled version of the iPhone was finally approved for a network access license. The image accompanying the approval notice suggests that the older iPhone 3G or 3GS and not the iPhone 4 will be the first to officially launch in the world’s largest mobile communications market. Look for the official confirmation to come from either Apple or the expected carrier China Unicom in the very near future. Until then, there is still the very active grey market for wanna-be iPhone owners in China.

[Via WSJ]

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Announced earlier today after months of speculation, Hulu Plus has finally become official. For $9.99 per month, subscribers will be able to watch their favorite shows — including those from seasons past — on a multitude of internet-connected devices. Mobile devices are a go, with iOS devices including the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad, and iPod touch (3rd generation) being the main attraction at this point in time. The best part as far as mobile is concerned is that streaming will work on both Wi-Fi and 3G networks. Several internet-connected HDTVs and Blu-ray players from Samsung already have support for the streaming service, and later on in the year, both Sony and Vizio will introduce support in some of their sets ad Blu-ray players. The PlayStation 3 will support the service “soon”, while the Xbox 360 will play nice come 2011. Hulu Plus will officially launch is July, but if you’re lucky you might just be able snag a preview invite.

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The crew over at modmyi.com got their hands on some AT&T collateral that explains just how Ma’ Bell plans on handling those who purchased an iPhone 3GS days and weeks before Monday’s announcement. AT&T plans on offering those who purchased a 3GS, from a local AT&T dealer, from May 7th to June 7th two options. Option #1: a $50 rebate for the 16 GB 3GS or a $100 rebate for the 32 GB 3GS; credited to your next bill. Option #2: an exchange of your 3GS towards the new iPhone 4. There are a couple caveats, for the $50 and $100 credits:

Customers who purchased iPhone 3GS May 7th through May 14th will have until June 14th to visit the original location of purchase and receive this one-time bill credit

Customers who purchased after May 14th will have 30 days to complete their price protection transaction by returning to the original location of purchase

For the 3GS to 4 exchange customers will be responsible for the price difference (if any). Let us know your thoughts.

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Maybe your current iPhone is falling apart at the seams or perhaps something about the iPhone 4 just rubs you the wrong way, we don’t know, but in case you’re desperate to get a new iPhone today, AT&T has announced it has cut the contract price of both the 16 and 32GB models. The 16GB model now goes for $149 while the 32GB goes for $199. It’s probably not the most wise decision to grab one considering what’s going down in 18 days, but this is definitely your last shot at getting a 3GS before it gets its capacity neutered down to a measly 8GB.

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You had a really, really good run iPhone 3G. We’ll miss you.

June 4, 2010

iPhone 3G 8 GB is Out of Stock

Effective immediately, iPhone 3G 8GB is Out of Stock.  Please refer all customers to iPhone 3GS 16 GB and 32 GB models.

FAQ:
Q:  When will we receive inventory for iPhone 3G 8GB?
A:  At this time, we do not know when more iPhone 3G 8GB will arrive.

Q:  Are there any iPhone 3G 8 GB available in COR if my customer can purchase there?
A:  Check with your local COR stores to see if they have any inventory available.

Anyone excited for the 3GS to probably drop to $99, or will you spring for the new $199/$299 device?

Thanks, AT&TFreshNinja!

A major security flaw has been uncovered in the Apple iPhone 3GS this week after two security experts discovered it was possible to bypass the device’s security and gain nearly full read access using Ubuntu Lucid Lynx. Perhaps even more frightening is the fact that the two believe they’re nearing the ability to write data as well. Said Bernd Marienfeldt, one of the two gentleman responsible for uncovering the flaw:

I uncovered a data protection vulnerability, which I could reproduce on 3 other non jail broken 3GS iPhones (MC 131B, MC132B) with different iPhone OS versions installed (3.1.3-7E18 modem firmware 05.12.01 and version 3.1.2 -7D11, modem 05.11.07), all PIN code protected which means the vulnerability bypasses authentication for various data where people most likely rely on data protection through encryption and do not expect that authentication is not in place. [...] This data protection flaw exposes music, photos, videos, podcasts, voice recordings, Google safe browsing database, game contents… by [sic] in my opinion the quickest compromising read/write access discovered so far, without leaving any track record by the attacker. It’s about to imagine how many enterprises (e.g. Fortune 100) actually do rely on the expectation that their iPhone 3GS’s whole content is protected by encryption with an PIN code based authentication in place to unlock it.

Marienfeldt and his partner Jim Herbeck notified Apple of the flaw, and according to then, “Apple could reproduce the described serious issue and believes to understand why this can happen but cannot provide timing or further details on the release of a fix.” Let’s hope the new data protection feature in iPhone OS 4.0 does the trick.

[Via Engadget]

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Effective as of Tuesday, Walmart has announced that it will be cutting the 2-year contract price of the Apple iPhone 3GS to $97. Walmart would have you believe that the drop in price is nothing more than it making good on its “commitment to always lead on price”, but it’s not as if we don’t know exactly what’s going on. To us the question still remains: Will the iPhone 3GS pick up where the soon-to-be-discontinued iPhone 3G is going to leave off, or does Steve Jobs have “one more thing” up the sleeve of his St. Croix mock turtleneck?

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