Today at Apple’s “Let’s rock and roll” event in San Francisco, they officially announced the updated iTunes, releasing version 9 today.

iTunes 9 comes with Genius Mixes, with more than 54 billion songs to choose from, helping consumers find new music that relates to current library. Apple also announced Genius DJ built into iTunes 9 that seeks out songs and creates a playlist for endless possibilities, great for parties.

iTunes 9 also improves syncing with devices, for your iPhone and iPod Touch. Users can sync by artists, playlists, genres, and more possibilities. Apple also announced that iTunes now offers Home Sharing, allowing users to copy songs, movies, TV shows and more, for up to five computers around your house.

iTunes 9 comes with a built in application sorting feature for the iPhone and iPod Touch, allowing users to customize the layout of their device directly from their computer, without having to painstakingly move dozens of applications and games around. The built in feature should make users organize their devices a little easier.

Download here: Apple iTunes v9 Windows XP & Vista x86 (88MB)

Apple releases 3.1 iPhone & iPod touch firmware

Apple has announced the release of iPhone and iPod Touch firmware 3.1, available for download later today. The free download, for both iPhone and iPod Touch 3.0 users, is said to improve battery life.

The 3.1 firmware will improve video editing on the iPhone 3GS, that won’t overwrite the original clip when editing videos, preventing the loss of the original film. The new developer API’s allows third-party applications access to the videos and edit them, without having to use Apple’s editing tools for the iPhone 3GS. The update is said to increase the boot time of devices. The device will now vibrate when moving icons around to different locations.

Apple also included a “Fraud Protection” toggle switch for browsing, now available under the settings for Safari. The firmware update allows Voice Control over Bluetooth now. Users can also organize their icons through iTunes without having to move them around on their device.

Download v3.1 for iPhone 2G – iPhone1,1_3.1_7C144_Restore.ipsw (241MB)

Download v3.1 for iPhone 3G – iPhone1,2_3.1_7C144_Restore.ipsw (242MB)

Download v3.1 for iPhone 3GS – iPhone2,1_3.1_7C144_Restore.ipsw (306MB)

Get them while they are hot!

Remember this is still beta software, so usual rules apply, no complaints ifanything goes wrong and use the tool at at your own risk! 

Download here!  SHA1 = 8e1ed2ce9e7e473d38a9dc7824a384a9ac34d7d0

NB: Using QuickPwn does not update the firmware itself, this tool is designed to ‘Pwn’ (the ability to install future custom non-Apple firmwares) , ‘Jailbreak’ and install Installer or Cydia on a given device. If your device is running 2.0.1 and you QuickPwn it, it’ll still be running 2.0.1, although it will now be Pwned and Jailbroken, similarly if your device is running 2.0.2 and you QuickPwn it, it will then be running 2.0.2 but the device will now be Pwned and Jailbroken. It will also activate (not unlock) devices that are being used outside of their intended territories and cannot be activated using iTunes.

If you want to update to 2.0.2 then use the normal iTunes update to get to 2.0.2 and then use QuickPwn to Pwn, Jailbreak and Activate, remember that the 2.0.2 update includes a baseband update for the 3G iPhone, so depending what your long term intentions are for the phone, update wisely, of course in the upcoming PwnageTool application you’ll be able to create a custom ipsw without the baseband update enabled.

Our Mac GUI whizzes in the team are working on a graphical Mac OS X version of QuickPwn and also adding some nice little tweaks to the next release of PwnageTool. As soon as these are finished and tested, we’ll let you know, but don’t hold your breath and refresh for these, the release is not imminent.

Again, no updates from our baseband hackers with regard to the unlocking of the 3G iPhone.

Step 1: Shift+Restore your iPhone to v2.0.2 firmware

If you want to update to 2.0.2 then use the normal iTunes update (Shift+Restore) to get to 2.0.2.

Step 2: Download, Unzip, and Run QuickPwnGUIv120.exe

Browse to the downloaded v2.0.2 firmware file…

Step 3: Follow the onscreen guide to Jailbreak, and Activate your iPhone.

Step 4: Use BootNeuter to Unlock

If needed, you can download BootNueter using Cydia, and install THAT to unlock your 1st gen iPhone

neuter, unlock, do not change bootloader settings, and then flash!

What gives???

You will also notice that you can’t edit, add or remove any of the email account settings at all.

Reason for the Problem

This is caused by the sync of the backup from iTunes. The permissions on the mail folder are incorrect. The folder is supposed to be owned by “mobile”, but instead it is owned by “root”. This causes the application to crash, sending you back to the dashboard.

The Solution

The easiest fix is to run bossprefs (which you can install using Cydia), click more, and click “fix user dir permissions”. You may need to reboot.

You can also SSH into your iPhone, and take ownership of the folder directly – but this is the advanced way!

Link: Jailbreak the new 2.0 iPhone software Video

In other news, well… actually the same news, the next version of the PwnageTool, v2.0.2 is undergoing final checks and will be packaged, signed and should be uploaded to the devteam’s website within the next few hours! This will be available via the PwnageTool software updater that is built in and checked when you start PwnageTool, we’ll also publish a link here for direct downloads.

As always, there is a WARNING:

Warning: If you care about the possibility of a GSM/3G unlock in the future (there is no unlock available as yet), do not update your 3G device with iTunes unless you do it via PwnageTool 2.0.2 (this means you’ll need to create a custom .ipsw with PwnageTool 2.0.2 and install it using iTunes) – If you have updated over the last few days with iTunes, you’ll still be able to Jailbreak using PwnageTool 2.0.2 but it may reduce the chance of you being able to unlock the Phone to be able to use a SIM card from all carriers in the future.

Enjoy !!!! And Good luck for any upgrades…