Hot off the release of the iPhone 3.0 and iPhone 3G S, Apple has now made available iPhone OS 3.1 beta to developers. We’re still not quite sure what exciting new features this latest firmware will come with, but taking a cue from its name, it’s probably more a set of bug fixes with only a handful of new treats to spice up the package. We’ll report more on this once additional info is made available, but nonetheless, this is a sure sign that work on an iPhone 3.1 jailbreak/unlock should now finally commence.

Likewise, we’re still waiting on an iPhone 3G S jailbreak to the public. For those running iPhone 3.0 already, iPhone 3.0 jailbreak Pwnage tool and redsnow are already available for your jailbreaking needs as well as ultrasnow to unlock your iPhone.

[via engadget]

This is by far the best news this year for true music fanatics. The amazing COWON S9, which was our PMP of the year last year, just got significantly better with firmware update 2.31b. Additionally, there’s now support for M3U playlists. Wow. The new firmware also provides playback support for damaged AVI videos. Got a lot of that in my computer.

Features of 2.31b (international version) firmware for the Cowon S9

• Gapless playback for FLAC, APE and Lossless WMA, as well as Ogg Vorbis and WAV
• M3U support
• plays damaged AVI
• support for AVI containers
• typist feature: notepad with keyboard

[read more at dapreview]

Yet another firmware update from COWON for the S9. The firmware V1.30 is for Koreans and the V2.30 is for international users. Dapreview has the skinny on what the new S9 firmware does:

Added to display the title of the music file on the screen when you start music in matrix browser.
- Improved displaying picture quality of album art in Music mode.
- Improved conducting speed when you play music.
- Added settings that you can choose sharpen or soften tone in Video mode.
- Fixed the error that resume functionality were occasionally not working.
- Fixed errors in UCI FSCommand ‘EtcUsrSetString’, ‘EtcUsrGetString’.

[via dapreview]

Available starting today, the 32GB COWON S9. Early birds will get an extra treat: a shield case and a TV out cable. The 32GB COWON S9 has been announced two weeks ago and the company wasn’t late in delivering its promise. You’d love the 3.3-inch AMOLED screen. For sheer viewing pleasure on a portable player, this COWON PMP is on the top tier. It’s priced at around $286 in Korea.

Oh, also, the 1.2 firmware is available, which will bring the following feature improvements:

• widgets screen has multiple pages now
• better high-rez video playback
• videos with corrupted frames get better support as well

More at dapreview

Our PMP of the year for 2008 recently received a small number of fixes and improvements via firmware 1.1.

Partial list of the improvements of the COWON S9:

• battery life extended to 10.5 hours for video playback
• enhanced photo reproduction
• DivX3 support
• subtitle during music and video playback

For more, head on to Dapreview.

UPDATE: iPhone 3.0 Jailbreak is out now.

[via iphone dev team blog]

iPhone 3.0 firmware has just be previewed, and I must say, it definitely got us interested. With the exception of supporting background apps, it features almost all of the features we were hoping the iPhone 3.0 firmware will come with and then some for the 2G iPod Touch as well. Here’s a quick rundown of the new features and apps it will come with:

• Cut, copy and paste
• MMS with message forwarding and deleting of multiple messages
• Bluetooth stereo A2DP
• Tethering
• New Spotlight feature for universal search on the iPhone/iPod Touch
• New Voice Memos app
• Revised Stocks app that features news stories and supports landscape view
• Calendar now supports CalDAV and subscriptions in the .ics format
• Landscape view for Mail, Text and Notes
• Note syncing to Mac and PC
• Parental controls for TV shows, movies and App Store apps
• Auto-login for WiFi hotspots
• Shake the shuffle iPod playback
• Phishing protection
• Form auto-fill
• YouTube account support
• Bluetooth on the 2G iPod touch

[via engadget]

They’ve also included some new features developers can take advantage of when creating and/or updating their apps. Here’s what future apps can boast of:

• Push functionality
• Peer-to-peer Bluetooth connectivity for gaming and info-swapping.
• Paid apps can be subscription fee-based, and include option to buy content directly from inside the app.
• New apps can use Google Maps, and make turn-by-turn available apps for the phone.
• Developers can integrate hardware accessory support via Bluetooth or dock for their apps
• Streaming video and audio can be included in apps as well as in-game voice use

The iPhone 3.0 SDK is already available, and we’re pretty sure it won’t take long before the iPhone Dev Team gets their hands on one and start working on an appropraite jailbreak to crack this baby. This new firmware is also compatible with 1G iPhones though MMS and A2DP won’t be available as a result of hardware limitation. iPod Touch owners who want to avail of this new firmware will have to cough up $9.95 to update to iPhone 3.0.

From the way it looks, it almost seems perfect, but I know you folks out there probably still have a little nitpicking here and there. So let’s get the ball rolling on this one; what do you think is lacking in iPhone 3.0 firmware or don’t you like about it?

The Archos 5 and 7 internet tablets will now enjoy ntive HD videos with the $20 HD Plug-in accessory after they update to Firmware 1.6.03.  These are 720 x 1280 videos playing at 24fps. The firmware update also fixes several bugs: recording bu on the new Archos TV snap-on, and bugs in the Music Library, TV Program Guide and in the GUI, including the animated wallpaper failing to go fullscreen. And the new features:

• HiDef Video Plug-in support
  - WMV/VC1 AP at 720p, 24 fps, 6 Mbps maximum
  - MPEG-4 ASP w/o QPEL and GMC at 720p, 24 fps, 6 Mbps maximum
• Network: Now display only one Hidden SSID item in the access point list even if several are detected (Note: previous Wifi configuration is lost after firmware update)

[more at dapreview]

When you upgrade your iPod Touch to iPhone 3.0 firmware, you’ll finally be able to use that Broadcom BCM4325 Bluetooth chip inside every iPod Touch since the second gen. A2DP and wireless gaming is included with a $9.95 upgrade to the new firmware. Honestly, only the lack of Bluetooth stands in the way of the Apple PMP from becoming the perfect non-phone mobile device. For those people who are waiting for Nike+ on the iPod Touch, I’m sorry to say they’ll have to settle for the smaller iPod lineup.

[via cnet]