Doug and I took our boys to see fireworks last night and are going to hit-up some more tonight! Fun times.

P.S. Don’t forget sunscreen!

I make it ra1n

Yes, this is what you’ve all been waiting for. A jailbreak for the iPhone 3GS. And it’s awesome. To get started right now, go to purplera1n.com. Download it. Make sure you have windows(but not 7), the latest iTunes installed, and an iPhone 3GS with 3.0 firmware. Connect your iPhone normally. Click “make it ra1n”. Wait. On bootup, run Freeze, the purplera1n installer app. Hopefully you’ll figure out what to do from there. Best tutorial gets linked to from purplera1n site. This tool is beta. Make sure to have everything backed up before running. Also if Cydia doesn’t show up after running Freeze, reboot.

If you need help email purplera1n.support at gmail and attach your purplera1n.log file. Or call the purplera1n support hotline @ (650) 265-1210 Mac version is coming shortly.

Normally I don’t make tools for the general public, and rather wait for the dev team to do it. But guys, whats up with waiting until 3.1? That isn’t how the game is played. We release, Apple fixes, we find new holes. It isn’t worth waiting because you might have the “last” hole in the iPhone. What last hole…this isn’t golf. I’ll find a new one next week. Also your purplera1nyday files ensure that you can always get back to a jailbroken state, so if you have it it’s just a matter of tools.

Props to chronic dev for their help, and to kroo for writing v2 of Freeze. And props to Saurik for making an awesome package set. Note the binary size of purplera1n, it’s smaller than C++ hello world. No 20MB thing that needs to be torrented. And no IPSW to download. This is how jailbreak should be!

Follow me on twitter @geohot

UPDATE: I’ve added a spreadsheet to show what works and what doesn’t with 3.1 right now.

The iPhone apparently cannot be activated or restored and according the the Apple Genius people it, “is definitely iPhone 3G S, He matched the Serial Number on the SIM Tray with the Serial Number on the LogicBoard - they are the same, but He told me, nothing he can do about it, because He was unable to locate the number in Apple’s Database.”

MacRumors says that “Based on the model numbers inscribed on the case, it seems at best this is a prototype 3G, not 3GS.”

Interesting, we will see if the iPhone stays on Ebay or if it “mysteriously” disappears. Currently it is up to $510 USD.

Below is the product’s description:

“I Got this phone couple weeks ago and was trying to figure out what is it through the Apple Store and through Apple Product Specialists. Nobody never gave me any info on it - they told me it’s an Apple Ptoduct, but they don’t service it, cause it have never been sold. Before the 3G S came out last Friday, iTunes was giving me error “iPhone can not be restored, because software for this iPhone is not available yet”. I tried to restore it on Friday and it took 3G S Firmware with the error after unpacking it “This device is not eligible for the requested build”. All I can see on the screen is the Apple Logo after I start it up and Conncect to iTunes Cable. Last time I was at the Apple store the Genius Guy told me that this is defenitely iPhone 3G S, He matched the Serial Number on the SIM Tray with the Serial Number on the LogicBoard - they are the same, but He told me, nothing he can do about it, because He was unable to locate the number in Apple’s Database.”

I was on the bus to work when it occurred to me that I might be able to get my Exchange account back. You see, I have become very attached to Google calendar and more recently Google contacts. When GoogleSync was released, I was very excited to have the push capabilities of Calendar and Contacts. With ease, I set up and was able to push my calendar, along with my wife’s and our joint calendars. Although the initial sync of contacts was a bit frustrating (I relied on MS Outlook for a long time), I was pleased with the overall results. The one downside was the fact that GoogleSync used the Exchange Account, and the iPhone frustratingly only allows you to use one Exchange account. Thus, I was unable to link my work email to my iPhone and instead had to rely on a bookmark and a much more cumbersome web based interface. With the release of iPhone OS 3.0, CalDAV support was included, and after I read a bit more about this, the wheels started rolling.

Step one: I needed to read up on how to set up CalDAV on the iPhone. Google offers a forum post here, and I found a work around for multiple accounts here. Once I felt comfortable with this potential setup, I was ready to start the process of getting my Exchange account back. Honestly, I was willing to give up syncing my contacts for the ability to get my work email back and integrated with the iPhone’s Mail app. However, a quick search in the App Store revealed an application called Sync in a Blink that claimed to sync your Google contacts over the air and without using an Exchange account.

So, off went the Google calendar and contacts from the Exchange account. This was indeed scary as all of my calendar events and contacts were quickly wiped from my iPhone. I’d recommend a backup before you try this just in case, though my backup times have been excessively long so I played with fire here. With the CalDAV accounts set up (see above links), my calendars were now on my iPhone and syncing correctly both ways. A nice bonus was that the colors on Google calendar were showing up correctly on the iPhone. This was often a crapshoot using GoogleSync, so I was pleasantly surprised when I saw green, purple, and blue displayed correctly on my native iPhone calendar. Next up was the import of my Google contacts.

Again, deleting all of the contacts from my iPhone was scary, but required. Upon opening Sync in a Blink, I entered my Gmail account info and started the sync. Without interruption, the sync took 7 minutes, but keep in mind, I had over 1,000 contacts (1,332 to be exact), so this was a reasonable amount of time in my opinion. I chose the “merge” option since I wiped all contacts from my phone, so all Gmail contacts would override any conflicts. This resulted in some duplicates, but this was largely the result of my upload from Outlook to Google awhile ago. I don’t blame Sync in a Blink for this slight annoyance. To test the app further, I made some changes on the iPhone and in my Google contacts, synced again, and in less than 1 minute, all changes were correctly reflected in both places.

Each time you start a sync process, Sync in a Blink downloads your Gmail contacts, processes iPhone contacts, adds contacts, makes changes to Google contacts, deletes Gmail contacts, and concludes with a summary report. All of this took less than one minute, and I tested in both WiFi and in 3G environments. I experienced only a handful of hiccups by the app during a week of testing. Other nice features included with the application are a conflicts tab which allows you to manually resolve any changes made to both the iPhone and in Gmail, a history tab that allows you to access your summary reports, and a settings screen that allows you to change options involving groups, accounts, and images.

All in all, Sync in a Blink provided the final piece needed for me to stay in sync with Google and yet also use my Exchange account for my work email and calendar. The application is well organized and its execution is simple and nearly flawless. If you’re in a similar situation to mine, heavily connected to Google apps, but want to access your Exchange account for work, I highly recommend Sync in a Blink in conjunction with CalDAV accounts. My one recommendation for the developers would be to incorporate an scheduled auto sync, but this might be a limitation that has more to do with Apple. Until then, for $4.99, Sync in a Blink is well worth the money and despite not having a free lite version, you can take it from this reviewer that you won’t be disappointed.

ScreenShots

LiveClock has been updated to version 0.4. Before the update, the LiveClock mod worked but, it was a little weird…when you first installed it, it would display six hands instead of three and you would have to tap at the very bottom of the Clock icon to open the stock Clock application. Well, the update fixes these problems. I no longer had a problem with the mod displaying six hands and the Clock application opens normally.

The update also says that it fixes the “digital clock digits disappearing at 00.” Overall, the update seems to work great! I am actually going to leave it enabled now! You can get LiveClock via the iSpazio source.

Note: LiveClock is enabled/disabled via WinterBoard.

ScreenShots

There is an update to SpringBoard Clock, a mod that adds the current time and date to your SpringBoard, to version 1.1. The update is said to change the app so that the user can use their own wallpaper and includes some bug fixes. I gave the update a shot and I’m still not having much luck. The wallpaper of the mod has been changed to a blank wallpaper but, I still cannot use it with another theme’s wallpaper (by moving the theme above the SpringBoard Clock mod in WinterBoard) or use my own wallpaper with the mod (by moving User Wallpaper above the SpringBaord Clock mod in WinterBoard). Let me know in the comments if it is working for you. You can get SpringBoard Clock via the modmyi source. Remember, there is an English version of the mod.

ScreenShots

Seek ‘n Spell, a real-time GPS-based word building competition, is on sale this 4th of July week-end. You can download the app for just $0.99 instead of the normal $2.99. I say it is a prefect week-end to try out this sweet app. Seek ‘n Spell recently won “Best Use of Technology” award from the 2009 Come Out & Play Festival. If you haven’t heard of Seek ‘n Spell, check out the video demo below!

“We are honored that the Come Out & Play Festival recognized Seek ‘n Spell for its innovative use of the iPhone and GPS technology,” said Dan Walton, co-founder of The Retronyms. “We felt that Independence Day weekend would be a perfect time to celebrate with our fans by offering a holiday discount. Seek ‘n Spell is a great game to play with family and friends during picnics, barbecues, or any other outdoor festivity.”

Full Press Release

Video Demo