If the hacking group called iPhone Dev-Team won't release their Jailbreak, it seems like someone else will. Developer George Hotz has released the Purplera1n jailbreak software for iPhone 3GS and by all accounts, it seems to work.

This one runs on Windows XP and Vista (Windows 7 and Mac OS aren't supported, apparently - it's weird for Windows 7). The jailbreak assumes that your iPhone runs with OS 3.0 (for a 3GS, that should be the case) and that you have the latest version of iTunes (may be do an update check?). The author warns that the Jailbreak is a beta, so do a full backup before running it just to be safe. Obviously, do this at your own peril, as this is clearly not supported by Apple. Good luck.

Links: Purplera1n, 3GS Jailbreak instructions, iPhone OS 3.0 Jailbreak

Today we are featuring some technologies that bring our drinking experience to the next level... but, please drink responsibly*. Absolut launched its new iPhone app Drinkspiration leveraging GPS use and integrating Twitter and Facebook. The Absolut application recommends the right drink depending on the user's mood, the time of the day, the liquor type, the drink color, the shape of the glass, the type of venue and more. Using the built-in GPS, social media and users' collective behavior, Drinkspiration displays what cocktails are ordered around the world in alive Top list feed. Drinkspiration is expected to be released for Google Android G3. Check the video here dowload the application from iTunes here.

*Drink responsibly: Alcohol beverages are only for adults of legal drinking age.
If you choose to drink alcohol beverages, do so sensibly, and in moderation.
Avoid drinking before or when driving, or whenever it puts you or others at risk.
Don't drink if you are pregnant.

You can bet your bottom dollar that the recent iPhone 3GS won't be the last handset released by Apple as a trio of recently unearthed patent applications havef shown. The first of these three is a haptic feedback concept employing a “grid of piezoelectronic actuators” which will work together to form a fully tactile touchscreen. Theoretically speaking, such a device will vibrate the actuators in various combinations at different frequencies in order to provide a range of tactile responses. Another two patents include fingerprint identification as an input method and an RFID tag reader located in the actual display panel of a device so that the device is able to handle RFID tags. No idea on when these patents will be incorporated into a future iPhone iteration, but you can be sure the future is going to be one exciting ride!

Another day and another e-reader for iPhone... Classic2Go offers more than 45 classic books to download with nicely illustrated digital covers (see picture, middle). I personally like the virtual bookshelf from which the reader can select the book in the application (picture, left); books can be organized by title or author. The application is available on iTunes for $0.99.

The sweepstakes' first prize winner will get two tickets to the Distant Worlds: music from FINAL FANTASY concert with the San Francisco Symphony July 18, 8pm at Davies Symphony Hall, an iPod touch (32 G) with the Smule applications Ocarina and Leaf Trombone, an Altec Lansing external speaker, a free night’s stay at The Westin St. Francis in San Francisco and a $50 Zipcar voucher.

There is a second prize as well, to enter the sweepstakes, join the San Francisco Symphony’s Social Network at http://community.sfsymphony.org and join the Smule Group sometime between June 30th and July 15th, 2009. Learn more about the contest in this video and on this page (prizes, terms and conditions).

After the concert, Smule will host an Ocarina Master Class, contest winners and other concert attendees will be invited to learn Ocarina techniques and play with other fellow musicians on their iPod Touches and iPhones in the first Ocarina Orchestra.

The word on the street is that iPhone developers have been seeded with the iPhone OS 3.1 and the SDK 3.1. Right now, the iPhone Dev-Team is waiting for the OS 3.0.1 and a critical mass of users before unleashing their jailbreaking and unlocking software, but we wonder if they will hold on until 3.1 now...

The second obvious question is: what’s in the 3.1 release?

Update: according to developers, here are the highlights of this new update:

• OpenGL improvements
• Non-destructive video editing (creates a new "post-editing" video)
• Applications can access the videos
• AT&T profile goes to 4.2
• Voice Control over Bluetooth
• iPhone vibrates upon an icon move
• Modem Firmware version 5.08.01
• via iPhoneblog

Apricorn knows that you can never have enough storage space for all your data, and this is why they are now offering an upgrade solution to your aging iPod Video by throwing in 240GB of storage space. This upgrade kit will also comprise of a new battery to give your iPod Video a new lease of life. Fret not about your data or new battery as both parts are accompanied by a 1-year warranty. While the drive is much larger than the older one, it will ne 33% more efficient than the original, so hopefully this will translate to a longer battery life as well for you to eke out more entertainment on the road.

If you find the quietness of being underwater all too much to bear, preferring the sounds of Michael Jackson blaring in your ears instead while you see fishes swim, then might you consider the iDive300 deep dive waterproof case that works with a wide range of Apple products including the iPod, iPod Touch and iPhone. No idea why you would want to watch movies when underwater (it comes with a pair of over-the-ear speakers) considering there are so many other more interesting sights to check out, but guess there is always a niche market for something. This $349.99 case will help the decompression proecess be more bearable, and what makes this slightly more attractive is the replacement warranty for your iPod or iPhone should anything ever happen to them as a result of the iDive300 failing.

Apple has loosed the iPhone OS 3.1 Beta on developers, and this one looks much better than the wee bit buggy OS 3.0. What are you waiting for - if you're part of the iPhone dev community, go and make a beeline for the iPhone OS 3.1 beta and start enjoying an even more bug-free iPhone experience! If you're already played around with it, do let us know how the whole thing has worked out for you.

The NES controller seems to be one of the more versatile retro gaming peripheral that can be turned into something apart from its original use with enough imagination, and the latest iteration would be an iPhone dock. Created by iPhone.fr forum member WCR to commemorate his recent acquisition of the new iPhone 3GS, this is the merger of both old and new guards where technology is concerned, but too bad you won't be able to play games on the iPhone using this.

There's an interesting list of benchmarks results on glbenchmark.com where you can compare the iPhone 3GS against other phones, including older iPhones. I did not spend a lot of time dissecting the results, but here's the bottom-line, when compared to the iPhone 3G:

• The CPU performance is Faster by 40-70%
• The fillrate* is 3x to 4x higher
• Texture effects and filters are about 10x faster

This is a synthetic benchmark and real life performance might be different, but that gives you a good idea of what the hardware is capable of. Note that this is running OpenGL 1.x and that the iPhone 3GS can run OpenGL 2.x, which has more features. I guess that you had been warned when we said that the 3GS graphics performance would "shock" you (follow the link for more details). The Zune HD is probably the only handheld that could beat the 3GS. [glbenchmark via extremetech]

Here are the steps to enable MMS on 2G (OS 3.0) using the default SMS/MMS application.

1. For install copy mms2g.deb to iphone in folder, for example /var/root
2. Then in same folder (/var/root) in terminal input: dpkg -i mms2g.deb
3. Reboot

Alternatively, you can extract files from Patch.zip to the iPhone to folders similar to archive. Set the CommCenter chmod to 755, followed by a reboot. Under the settings, adjust apn, username and password fields.

The iPhone Dev-team, a group of hackers who have previously created many unlocking and jailbreaking applications for previous iPhone models, says that the iPhone 3GS jailbreak is ready, but they are waiting the 3GS customer base to reach a critical mass before they unleash the new software. According to them, releasing it too soon would help apple circumvent their hack, which would in turn make the process more complicated for users because the iPhone Dev-Team would need to churn several version of the jailbreak software. At the moment, the team wants to wait until OS 3.0.1 so you'll have to be patient.

Related: iPhone 3.0 Jailbreak Is Ready

It is interesting to note that the iPhone 3GS actually heats up a fair bit when both 3G connectivity as well as GPS navigation functions are turned on, affecting the white colored model a whole lot more since it might result in an unattractive discoloration. Well, we already know that those two functions will definitely heat things up to another level based on experience with other handsets, but this proves either one of two things - the iPhone 3GS uses some really cheap plastic material, or it has poor cooling capability.