How to Update to 2.1 iPhone Firmware via iTunes

Friday is upon us folks and that means it’s time to update our iPhone 3G’s to 2.1 firmware! The new firmware is supposed to fix bugs, allow for faster backing up, better battery life, less lag, you name it, it’s going to be there (I’m hoping for copy and paste). Let’s hope Apple won’t disappoint iPhone fanatics with this update. The original 2.0 and subsequent 2.0.1 and 2.0.2 updates were very minor, but overall we all still ran into “iPhone 3G lag” as I’d like to call it. Here are some tips to keep in mind when you’re updating to 2.1 firmware via iTunes! Read on!

Tips on Prepping for the 2.1 Firmware Update

The obvious thing to do before updating or restoring to 2.1 is to sync your iPhone in iTunes. This will ensure that after the update all your settings, contacts, bookmarks, photos, etc. will still be there.

There are two traditional ways to get 2.1 on your iPhone 3G:

1) You can click the ‘Update’ button right inside iTunes 8. Your iPhone 3G will update to 2.1 as planned–iTunes will take care of everything for you. Easy. As. Pie.

2) Complete a full ‘restore’, which essentially will erase all the content on your iPhone and then install a fresh version of 2.1 firmware. For all the jailbroken iPhone 3G users out there, this might be the preferred method of choice to ensure all remnants of the jailbreak are wiped clean off your iPhone’s hard drive.

Personally I will be doing the full restore method since previously this has resulted in less problems for both first generation and iPhone 3G users. Definitely something to consider when you’re updating. Can’t wait to get 2.1 on my iPhone! 🙂

Apple Pwnz Pwnage Tool, Dev Team Responds

The Dev Team is on top of their game versus Apple, and it’s evident that this “cat and mouse” game will neither dissipate nor subside anytime soon. According to the Dev Team’s recent blog entry, restated the following regarding the Pwnage Tool:

“…we’ve asserted multiple times that Apple can’t fix the bug we’ve exploited in PwnageTool unless they fix their hardware.

That hardware fact is still true. But one way they can try to combat Pwnage for existing hardware is to program iTunes to detect and prevent the Pwnage exploit. In fact, they’ve already done that in iTunes 8. The screenshot below from iTunes 8 using a Pwned ipsw (with an unPwned device attached) is one example.”

The Dev Team asserts that these iTunes fixes can be easily patched and they already have one for iTunes 8 and iPod Touch. If the Dev Team can easily exploit the iPhone OS so easily, just how secure is the iPhone and OSX? Something to ponder…

Let us know how your iPhone 2.1 firmware update goes. I’ll write back with a full summary after I complete my update!

Thanks to The iPhone Blog for the 2.1 image above!

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