Right. So everyone is plenty excited to update to 2.0.2 to fix all those nasty bugs in 2.0 and 2.0.1 right? Well don’t bother. As far as I can tell it fixes nothing… unless you are on a 3g.

Before I say any more, I will say that the 3g baseband update to 2.08 provided me with a significant increase in signal bars for EDGE. I still cannot get 3g in my office, but my EDGE went from 2 bars to 5. If you have a 3g device, I suspect this, alone, is worth the update. Note though, the baseband update will probably neuter your ability to unlock with the upcoming unlocker from the dev team. Other benefit noted is that 3g to EDGE fallback now can occur without losing service which is nice if you’re on a call and it switches during you call.

Now then. The official release notes for the 2.0.2 firmware says “bug fixes”. So what bugs are fixed?

Reports on the internet say these bugs are fixed:

Sync time: Sync time with appstore apps takes forever. And I mean in the range of 1-2 hours. Anyways, this is not changed on 2.0.  The sync time is stll horrible.

Stability: So far, 2.0.2 has crashed for me more times than 2.0 and 2.0.1 combined. In fact, the device managed to crash just sitting idle doing nothing! I mean literally the iPhone was in the dock and a few minutes later, apple logo and rebooting. App crashes have actually increased since the update. I have two devices updated and both exhibit the same behavior. If you are looking for increased stability, stay 2.0.2 does not provide it.

Contacts Lag: I never saw contacts lag in the first place and I still don’t see it now. Perhaps that is because I’m a hermit and don’t have enough contacts :)

Signal Bars: Ok significant gain due to 2.08 baseband for 3g. If you have a 2g, you do not get a baseband update and there will be no change here. This means if you were unlocked on 2g you will still be after the upgrade. When pwnage comes out, upgrading with pwnage will disable the baseband update (most likely) and you will not benefit from this.  I am not sure if I get 3g from more locations around town or not though. I will take my iPhone out for a drive and test it. Update: I actually do get 3g more than I did on 2.0.1, but the same as I got on 2.0. 2.0.1 really was horrible for the 3g baseband.

AppStore / Cydia Lag: This is the most ridiculous bug and it’s still not fixed. Want to reproduce it easily? Install “Platinum Sudoku” followed by “Super Monkey Ball” and good luck ever installing anything from Cydia or AppStore again. It’s not as bad if you avoid the above two app installs, but it still is a pain in the back side. This is still not fixed. Our only hope is that Saurik can neuter this in Winterboard/ Mobile Substrate.

Mail Sync: As always, my mail crashed after I restored my backup just like 2.0, 2.01 etc. I can’t believe Apple would allow this problem to continue. Anyways, BossPrefs ‘fix user dir permission’ solves the problem. I guess it’s another example how the hacking community managed to fix one of Apple’s bugs. For those that don’t jailbreak? Well, I guess you can’t restore your backup.

Good news for you windows users! Quickpwn for 2.0.2 is out. You can download it here. This is the GUI version. You can use my quickpwn GUI guide here for this.  Remember, this does not activate or unlock. So, you only want to use this if you are able to run 2.0.2 and already have phone service with your sim. For those that need more such as an unlock, you should wait for the full pwnage before moving to 2.0.2.

A few points to remind everyone:

1) This is for those that already updated to 2.0.2. It does not provide you with 2.0.2 as part of the process.

2) You can get 2.0.2 firmwares from my firmware page here.

3) If you’re having problems with the DFU steps, refer to my DFU page here.

4) Custom firmwares cannot be used with this process. It works differently. Where pwnage will allow you to create a firmware, pwn your device, then restore that firmware, this process will only pwn your phone and allow you to do so without a restore.

 While you can now always see the latest updates on the site using our latest apps WebApp, I’ll call out some highlights here.

New version of bitesms (v2.1) is out. With some decent features:

• As per the Apple SMS application, biteSMS now provides the [Add to Contacts] feature.
• Fixed up truncation of long SMS conversations when displayed in the conversation bubbles.
• Improved the rendering of conversation bubbles, such that text does not appear squashed.
• When composing, we now hide the keyboard if you tap above the compose text box. This lets you have a better look at the conversation.
• Fixed issue whereby some users would be presented with a white screen and biteSMS would not start properly.

AppBackup is out. This will backup your Appstore apps settings so that if you have to restore your apps you can. This is useful for reinstalling your apps on your iPhone. But if you restore, your backups, too will be gone unless you SSH them off of there.

Lockdown v3.0 is out with a lot of improvements. If you need to be able to lock certain apps with a password so you can hand your phone off to someone else for a bit, this is the app for you.

Scrobble is the first iPhone 2.0 Scrobbler app without the ridiculous restrictions Apple imposes on the SDK submitters. This app will sit in the background listening to what songs you listen to and scrobble them onto the last.fm servers.

For those of you that like quickpwn but want a GUI, there is one now. Here is a guide on how to use it. Before getting started, understand who this is for.

Who should use this tool? This is for those that are not planning to restore. It’s not clear what the activation state is after the process therefore, I only recommend this for those that have a contract carrier or an unlocked phone already. This is also perfect for those that pwned and did not install Cydia as it will result in Cydia being installed. If you are on a 2g and need to unlock, you can do so with bootneuter, but this will not activate for you. If you are on a stock device and using AT&T or a contract carrier, this is the perfect jailbreak for you. You will not lose your contacts or have to do any backups. Finally, if you are going to restore anyway, especially if you need to unlock a 2g, you may as well use winpwn or such.

Step 1: Download quickpwn gui and extract it. For this guide, we will use c:\quickpwn.

Step 2: Load iTunes and make sure it sees your phone. Leave iTunes running and do not touch it again.

Step 3: Download the proper firmware image (see firmwares page here for firmware of your choice). Save this image in the same folder with the quickpwn.exe file. For our example we will use c:\quickpwn. Your folder should now look like this:

Step 4: Launch quickpwn GUI.

Step 5: Select your device and hit the arrow at the bottom of the window.

Step 6: Click Browse

Get to your c:\quickpwn folder and select your firmware.

It should show you this when you are done:

Click the Blue arrow

Step 7: At the next screen, you are prompted to choose Cydia and Installer. Both are selected by default. You must select Cydia or your jailbreak will be useless. Installer is not a replacement for Cydia, is not ready, and has almost no packages. In addition, there is still a huge buglist in installer. In short, choose Cydia. This shouldn’t even be a choice. Select Cydia. Select installer if you want to but don’t forget Cydia. Note, you can also select to replace your bootlogos here if you wish.

Step 8: Click “Go”

Step 9: Wait. You will see some stuff go by on the screen:

Then you will be prompted to turn off your phone and press enter when you have done so:

Step 10) As it says on screen, turn off your phone by holding power, sliding to power off, and waiting for it to power off. Do not take the phone off the pc connection! If you do, you must start over.

Note: If you are being asked “Is your iPhone/iPod connected to your computer via USB” it is because you did not load iTunes and let it see your phone before starting. At this point it’s too late and you must start start back at step 8.

Step 11) In this next step we need to get our phone into DFU mode so it can be pwned. If you have any problems following the onscreen instructions, then refer to this DFU guide. The program will help you through the steps but it often takes multiple attempts to get into DFU mode. And, if you fail to get into DFU mode, the app quits and you must start over at step 8.

Therefore, I recommend that you get into DFU mode before hitting ENTER. Read the DFU guide link and press enter when you are in DFU mode. Then ignore the directions on the screen until it recognizes your phone is in DFU mode. When you are in DFU mode, the app should automatically take over and you will see this:

Wait a bit for the process to finish, and congratulations! You are done.

Step 12) Optional 2g phone only. If you need to unlock your phone, install bootneuter from Cydia and run it! Select “neuter, unlock, do not change bootloader settings, and then flash!”.

iPhone firmware 2.0.2 is out. But as always, do not update until we get word on a jailbreak. You can get the firmware files from our firmware links here.  The changelog officially only says “Bug Fixes”.

A nice little treat from the dev team tonight for Windows users. This app is called quick pwn. It’s in its beta stages. But it will allow you to pwn your device very quickly without restoring! This should eliminate many of those 160x errors many windows users are experiencing. Note: you do not need to do this if you already have a working, pwned 2.0.1 device. (Note: to see this guide in German, you can use this link).

Who should use this tool? This is for those that are not planning to restore. It’s not clear what the activation state is after the process therefore, I only recommend this for those that have a contract carrier or an unlocked phone already. This is also perfect for those that pwned and did not install Cydia as it will result in Cydia being installed. If you are on a 2g and need to unlock, you can do so with bootneuter, but this will not activate for you. If you are on a stock device and using AT&T or a contract carrier, this is the perfect jailbreak for you. You will not lose your contacts or have to do any backups. Finally, if you are going to restore anyway, especially if you need to unlock a 2g, you may as well use winpwn or such.

Here are the steps to using the tool:

Step 1) Download the tool here and extract it to a folder such as c:\quickpwn.

Step 2)  Download the proper firmware image such as 2.0.1 3g or 2.0.1 2g. Save this image in the same folder with the quickpwn.exe file. For our example we will use c:\quickpwn. Your folder should now look like this:

Step 3) Optional. semi-advanced, and can be skipped! You can replace your boot images now if you want to.  Make sure you get proper files and name them properly. You must use logo.png and recovery.png and put them in the same folder overwriting the ones that are there. Note that there are many boot logos that are not valid. If you have any problems try using the default images.

Step 4) While the command  prompt will say “kill all itunes processes”, you must ignore this step. In fact, before you get started start iTunes and make sure your phone is recognized by it. Now, leave iTunes running but don’t touch it again.

Step 5) Hook your phone up to your PC and double click either  “iPhone 2G.bat”, “iPod touch.bat”, or “iPhone 3g.bat” depending on which device you have.

Step 6) You will see some stuff go by the screen like this:

Then you will be prompted to turn off your phone and press enter when you have done so:

Step 7) As it says on screen, turn off your phone by holding power, sliding to power off, and waiting for it to power off. Do not take the phone off the pc connection! If you do, you must start over.

Step 8) In this next step we need to get our phone into DFU mode so it can be pwned. If you have any problems following the onscreen instructions, then refer to this DFU guide. The program will help you through the steps but it often takes multiple attempts to get into DFU mode. And, if you fail to get into DFU mode, the app quits and you must start over.

Therefore, I recommend that you get into DFU mode before hitting ENTER. Read the DFU guide link and press enter when you are in DFU mode. Then ignore the directions on the screen until it recognizes your phone is in DFU mode. When you are in DFU mode, the app should automatically take over and you will see this:

Wait a bit for the process to finish, and congratulations! You are done.

Step 9) Optional 2g phone only. If you need to unlock your phone, install bootneuter from Cydia and run it! Select “neuter, unlock, do not change bootloader settings, and then flash!”.

Troubleshooting:

1) If during the process you did not kill iTunes you will see these questions:

Is your device connected to your computer via USB? Type “Y” to continue.
Is your iPhone currently powering on? Type “Y” to continue.

If you see these questions it means that your phone is not being recognized by the PC. Remember you must have iTunes running and it must see your device. If you have to, close and reopen iTunes, disconnect and reconnect your device, or even reboot your PC. You should not see the above two message as part of the process.

2) When you turn on your iPhone, it does not have any display.  Man, is it bricked?

This is probably caused by using an invalid boot image (logo.png) in the process. If you wait long enough the thing should boot up to springboard normally. In this state, you do not have any logo showing you the device is booting. You can fix it by repeating the process with a valid png file.

I updated BossPrefs today to version 2.12b. The changelog can be viewed in the link but one feature that is worth calling out. I added an apple killswitch neuter button. This will allow you to turn off Apple’s killswitch.

Betty’s Cookbook is a nice cookbook featuring 24 recipes and pictures to help you become that master chef.

Qik is a social networking / video recording app. Check out the types of videos at www.qik.com. (Sorry no icon, but it cant be decoded on a pc).

The Fantasy Pack theme has been updated. It now contains 350 pictures (up from 100) and also has been redone to use less CPU and have smoother transitions.  The theme uses advanced features from Winterboard. Enjoy