All Things Digital

If you’re the owner of an iPhone 3G and you haven’t already updated to the iPhone 2.0.2 firmware, do so today–for your sake and that of all iPhone 3G owners.

Why?

Well, according to sources at AT&T (T), the reception problems that have plagued the device won’t be resolved until you do. iPhone’s running 2.0 or 2.0.1 firmware mistakenly demand too much power from 3G networks. And when they do this en masse, they can cause the network to refuse new requests for 3G bandwidth. That in turn causes the reception issues we’ve been hearing about since the device first arrived at market in July. And those issues will persist as long as handsets running iPhone 2.0 and 2.0.1 continue to strain the 3G networks.

That’s the story, anyway. And it does sound plausible. Although, you’ve got to wonder why this issue is specific to the iPhone. Presumably, there’s a multitude of other 3G devices out in the world requesting a 3G signal from the same networks the Apple (AAPL) iPhone is overwhelming. Why aren’t they suffering similar problems?

Moments ago, Apple issued a firmware update for the iPhone 3G that presumably addresses the voice and data reception issues that have troubled the device since its debut. Whether it successfully resolves them remains to be seen. The update description says only that it includes “bug fixes.” Let’s hope the “bugs” to which Apple (AAPL) is referring here include the iPhone-consistently-drops- calls bug, the iPhone-fails-to-recognize-cell-coverage-where-I-am- certain-it-exists bug and the iPhone-has-serious-trouble-transition- ing-between-Edge-3G-and-WiFi bug.

(Image credit: magerleagues/Flickr)

I live in downtown Los Angeles, where 3G coverage is a given, and not only is the 3G wonky and unreliable, but oftentimes I’m struggling to even get decent Edge support! Edge is absolutely worse on my new 3G than it ever was on my first-generation iPhone. Adding insult to injury, I drop multiple calls every day, something that rarely happened before my ‘upgrade.’ ”

– A post to Apple’s iPhone 3G discussion forum

Good thing the iPhone was chosen as Time Magazine’s 2007 Invention of the Year, because a growing chorus of discontent suggests its successor is unworthy of the honor in 2008. Voice and data reception issues have been troubling the device for weeks now and it seems the blame for them lies not with the network carriers, but with Apple (AAPL) itself. On Wednesday, T-Mobile Netherlands stepped forward to blame Apple for the reception issues with the iPhone 3G. “We suspect that it is a hardware/ software-specific issue of the iPhone itself,” the company said in a (poorly translated) blog post. In Australia, Vodafone also blamed the iPhone 3G’s reception issues on Apple. In Sweden, engineering weekly Ny Teknik claims that iPhone 3G’s sensitivity to third-generation wireless network signals is well below the 3G standard.

In the states, “well-placed sources” have told BusinessWeek that the Infineon Technologies (IFX) chip Apple chose for the handset is undermining its performance. And they are not the first to make such claims. Earlier this week, Nomura analyst Richard Windsor fingered the device’s chipset as the problem as well. “The 3G iPhone has been out for a month, but signs of problems are appearing that should give competitors some breathing space,” Windsor said in a report to clients. “Problems include high incidence of dropped calls, switching onto EDGE while the device is stationary and loss of reception while in good coverage. We believe that these issues are typical of an immature chipset and radio protocol stack where we are almost certain Infineon is the 3G supplier.”

So if that’s truly the case, what’s the solution? A firmware upgrade, most likely. Those “well-placed sources” mentioned earlier say Apple and Infineon are prepping one for September release. In the meantime, the companies are sticking with time-tested workaround: “no comment.”

In the run-up to Apple’s (AAPL) Worldwide Developer’s Conference in June, the Mac faithful are sifting entrails for portents of iPhones to come.

Yesterday the creators of the popular ZiPhone jailbreak discovered in the latest test firmware for iPhone developers a reference to Infineon’s (IFX) SGOLD3H chipset–a chipset that supports 3G wireless broadband of up to 7.2 Mbit/s.

Now “industry sources” cited by TG Daily are claiming that the next-gen iPhone that runs on that chip will debut at WWDC. And there’s more. The device will be slimmer than its predecessor (by about 2.5 mm) and it will be offered in least two configurations at current price points: an 8GB version for $399 and a 16GB $499.

We are excited about creating a vibrant third-party developer community around the iPhone and enabling hundreds of new applications for our users.”

Though the firmware update that disabled third-party iPhone applications and bricked iPhones uncoupled from AT&T’s network might have led you to think otherwise, Apple is actually excited about the prospect of a third-party developer community for the iPhone. So much so that it’s planning to release an official SDK (software development kit) for the device.

In a letter posted on Apple’s Web site this morning, CEO Steve Jobs said the company will release an iPhone SDK early next year. “Let me just say it: We want native third-party applications on the iPhone, and we plan to have an SDK in developers’ hands in February,” Jobs wrote. “We are excited about creating a vibrant third-party developer community around the iPhone and enabling hundreds of new applications for our users.”

Jobs offered few other concrete details beyond that, but an Apple-sanctioned kit, even a limited one, will likely be embraced by a developer community that’s created scores of applications for the device despite Apple’s best efforts to stop them.

The sputtering outrage over the firmware update that disabled third-party iPhone applications and bricked iPhones uncoupled from AT&T’s network became a cry of victory yesterday when the iPhone dev community said it had found a way to again implement third-party applications on the device.

According to Engadget, the iPhone Dev Team, an unofficial group of programmers who developed the jailbreaking tools that opened up iPhone 1.0.1, have crafted a second set of tools that exploits a vulnerability in Mobile Safari to open iPhone 1.1.1. They’ve not yet released a general-use version of the tool, but one is surely on the way.

That said, there’s no telling how long it will work once it’s released. As Engadget notes, these newer jailbreaks aren’t nearly as robust as their predecessors. “… Unfortunately, it sounds like most (if not all) of these new hacks rely solely on that single TIFF exploit in Mobile Safari, meaning that everyone’s back to square one the moment Apple beams v1.1.2 to the public at large.”

Turns out “irreparable damage” was a fairly apt description for what Apple’s latest iPhone firmware update does to modified or unlocked iPhones. Issued yesterday afternoon, iPhone 1.1.1 update does indeed play havoc with modified iPhones, particularly those that have been hacked to work on non-AT&T networks. It wipes out all unsupported third-party applications and disables the Jailbreak hack used to install them. And it bricks unlocked iPhones. “The update will work OK in unlocked iPhones, but it will return your iPhone to the activation screen,” explains Gizmodo. “From there, no activation is possible. The iPhone doesn’t get bricked but, if you want to keep using it, don’t update your iPhone.”

Actually, it does get bricked out. Sources at Apple tell Ars Technica that the activation limbo into which unlocked iPhones are sent is the company’s definition of “bricking”: “Current attempts to reactivate across the Web are failing and therefore [a hacked] iPhone cannot be used to do anything–no phone calls, no Safari, no iPod, nothing. An unlocked iPhone that runs firmware update 1.1.1 is unusable no matter what SIM is in it.”

UPDATE:The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) reports that Apple Stores around the country are restoring bricked iPhones. “We’re not sure whether they’re doing a low-level reflash or just swapping units out,” TUAW explains. “We have reports of at least four customers who walked in with iBricks and walked out with iPhones. It is unclear at this time whether these customers unlocked their iPhones or not–we’re also receiving reports of iBricks from people who never unlocked or modded their units.”