October 27 - 2:05am EDT  Google has released Google Earth for the iPhone [not active yet]. The free iPhone software available now from iTunes, displays the same high-resolution imagery as the desktop version for over half the world's population and a third of the world's land mass. The software allows you to tilt the device to adjust the view of the mountainous terrain as well as show the Panoramio layer to browse the millions of geo-located photos. Users can also view geo-located Wikipedia articles, locate themselves on the map using the device's Location services, and search for cities, places, and businesses with Google Local Search. It is available in English, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, ... [full story]

October 6 - 12:10pm EDT   Some heavily-requested features may be among those added to Apple's planned iPhone 2.2 firmware, anonymous developers claim. While the first beta is said to have altered Safari's address bar, and tweaked the App Store interface to include items like a new bug report option, an updated release is said to include hooks for Google's Street View feature, which lets people access ground-level panoramas on particular roads. At present, this can only be accessed through the Google Maps website. [full story]

September 25 - 5:30pm EDT   Apple today released iPhone 2.2 firmware into a first stage of beta testing, according to Gear Live. Background push notification is rumored to have returned in this version; Apple pulled background push from the fourth beta of v2.1, and left it out of the official release. The technology allows apps such as e-mail or instant messaging clients to receive messages, or other information, without requiring constant operation and/or draining a phone's resources. [full story]

September 10 - 9:30am EDT   Despite its nominal focus on new iPods and iTunes 8, the two most important factors for investors in yesterday's Apple event were unrelated, writes Needham & Co. The research firm says that perhaps the most crucial moment was the appearance of a healthy Steve Jobs, defeating rumors that the Apple CEO might not speak, due to serious medical problems. Jobs' media prominence and involvement in the minute details of Apple has led analysts to think the company could suffer badly in his absence, whether as a result of death or having to resign. [full story]

August 28 - 7:05pm EDT  Confirming the forthcoming iPhone 2.0x software update, Apple on Thursday promised it would deliver an security update for the recently publicized iPhone security flaw that could allow users to access some password-locked iPhones. First noted earlier this week, a simple series of keystrokes -- first the emergency button and then double tapping the home button --- could allow users in some cases to access private information on the device despite the screen lock. [full story]

August 28 - 10:50am EDT   Ongoing 3G connection problems with the iPhone are actually a mix of software and networking issues, a new account indicates. The report from Roughly Drafted cites "an inside source from AT&T," who explains that the trouble originates with how UMTS-based cellular networks function. All devices tapping into a UMTS node demand a certain amount of power, and once a certain threshold is reached, the node can run out of power to share. At this stage a node will begin dropping calls, and graphs are said to demonstrate this exact event coinciding with the release of the iPhone 3G. [full story]

August 27 - 11:20am EDT   The iPhone 2.0 firmware is vulnerable to an unusually easy security bypass, a report claims. Updated iPhones have the option of a four-digit passcode, which in theory should restrict all access to the device's data. The vulnerability manifests through the "Emergency Call" button on the passcode entry screen, meant to allow simple dialing functions regardless of whether the code is remembered. [full story]

August 21 - 1:20pm EDT   The iPhone 2.0.2 update that was supposed to improve 3G connectivity may have had an unexpectedly negative effect on download speeds, accounts say. Test My iPhone is a site that allows users to test their iPhone's download and upload speeds, and also keeps track of average speeds recorded in the last 24 hours. The site has completed just over 600,000 speed tests, and has previously shown an average speed of around 2,224Kbps; in the last 24 hours however, this has fallen 30 percent to 1,578Kbps. [full story]

August 20 - 11:00am EDT   A developer believes he has created a way for copy and paste functions to work on the iPhone without violating Apple's SDK agreement. Zac White has started a non-profit, open-source project named OpenClip, from which developers can borrow framework for their own apps. Programs with the technology should not only be able to copy and paste internally, but between each other; this works through saving selections to a shared space on an iPhone. All applications are able to access this space, and there is no need for processes to be running in the background. [full story]

August 11 - 11:45am EDT   The unofficial iPhone Dev Team says it has released v2.0.2 of PwnageTool, its comprehensive hacking utility for 3G and 2.5G iPhones. The update incorporates a beta of Installer 4, which sports a new graphical interface and a new repository structure, which should make the download of unauthorized apps faster for users and file providers. Its associated package management interface is not enabled yet however, and the Dev Team notes that Pwnage will (erroneously) claim that installer.app is not available. [full story]

August 8 - 3:15pm EDT   A fourth known app has been delisted from the iTunes App Store, it has been revealed. PhoneSaber -- a free title that imitated the lightsabers from Star Wars -- has been pulled, despite being a popular choice of early adopters of the iPhone 3G and/or iPhone 2.0 firmware. The disappearance marks the fourth such prominent withdrawl in a short space of time, following I Am Rich, BoxOffice and NetShare. [full story]

August 8 - 11:10am EDT   The alleged kill switch for iPhone software is not meant to apply universally, a new source claims. Yesterday, writer Jonathan Zdziarski called attention to the iPhone 2.0 firmware, whose Core Location code contains a URL titled "https://iphone-services.apple.com/clbl/unauthorizedApps." Zdziarski and others have thus argued that Apple may have a means of remotely disabling any app it wants to, whether for selfish reasons or legitimate user protection. [full story]

August 7 - 9:30am EDT   The iPhone 2.0 firmware may contain a means of disabling applications at Apple's behest, investigation reveals. Probing into CoreLocation code has uncovered a reference to an unexpected URL, listed as "https://iphone-services.apple.com/clbl/unauthorizedApps." Visiting the page in a browser like Firefox displays yet more unusual code, containing terms such as "BlackListedApps," "com.mal.icious," "'Description' = 'Being really bad!'" and "Date Revoked." [full story]

August 5 - 4:15pm EDT   iPhone 3G owners who want to run firmware hacks should not upgrade to Apple's v2.0.1 release, the unofficial iPhone Dev Team cautions. The creators of the PwnageTool note that while the update is officially meant to fix bugs, it also makes changes to the underlying baseband code, which could potentially block any future attempts to unlock an iPhone. At the least, the update undoes any jailbreaking performed with PwnageTool. [full story]

August 5 - 1:35pm EDT   Corporations should limit their support for the iPhone, says the Gartner research group. Analyst Ken Dulaney notes that although the iPhone 2.0 firmware now supports a variety of corporate-friendly features, most notably Exchange sync, traffic encryption and remote wiping, holes remain in its security. The primary issue is encryption, because while iPhones can now operate on encrypted networks, it is currently impossible to encrypt local files, leaving data exposed in cases of physical theft. [full story]