Attention, Apple iPhone owners! The latest software update for your elegantly-designed handheld of Apple joy is here. Will it be broken out of jail (that's a jailbreak joke there, I say, a joke about jailbreaks) just like the other updates? You only have to read more in the full article to find out. Your iPhone's non-bricked status depends on it!

The latest look into the Apple homebrew scene allowed us to spot a new version of Xlaunch, Erica Sadun's application launcher and organizer. Xlaunch has been updated to version 0.31 - a work in progress - and it now supports both the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch. Memorable Cover Flow features and interface aesthetics have been introduced, but you'd do best to hit the full story for more information.


Download: XLaunch v0.31

Don't want to upgrade to iPhone firmware version 1.1.2? There's now a good reason for you to: the return of custom ringtones! We just hope that this isn't just a firmware update bug. Read on to find out how to use custom ringtones on your iPhone.

There have been quite a few reports of bricked iPhones ever since the release of the software update from Apple. Contrary to what some may believe, it doesn't look like the company intentionally created software that would brick hacked iPhones.

One of the developers of the unlocking application, Erica Sadun, said that "it wasn't intentional at all. If they wanted to brick hacked iPhones, they could have done a much better job of it." She further supported her stand on this by pointing out that the update bricked both hacked and stock iPhones. The problem, she noted, was with the update itself.

The new software, which was a complete rewrite of the original code, was still unfinished according to Sadun. She added that there were many parts of the application which consisted of hacks geared towards just getting the application to work.

Despite the fact that the code looks rushed, Apple did make sure that the update was very secure with every function certified, encrypted, and requiring a checksum. Sadun commented on this saying that "Apple wants no one else on the platform. It's a pretty strong statement of that."

This release seems consistent with Apple's current stand on hacking the iPhone. Vice president of Apple's hardware and product marketing Greg Joswiak said that while they will not be designing software to intentionally break third party applications, they won't care if their regular software updates do break the unlicensed applications. Note however, that he did leave a disclaimer stating that the company is always re-evaluating its stand on topics like this.

The people from The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) took a magnifying glass to the recent iPhone commercials and have come up with a few interesting bits of info about them. In a recent TUAW post, Erica Sadun gave the low-down on the iPhone's Maps feature.

First off, the iPhone's keyboard interface. The QWERTY keyboard has a shift button, a delete button, a button that lets users switch to numeric view and a search button which Sadun assumes is the same as "return". For the iPhone's Maps features, Sadun speculates that the interaction order goes like this:

1. Search
2. Select a pin
3. Press the (>) button on the link
4. View the location information

Another bit of trivia that the TUAW people dug up is that Pacific Catch, the restaurant featured in the "Calamari" commercial, is actually a real restaurant. They actually called Pacific Catch and were told that the restaurant had been "getting calls all morning from all over the country."

We guess being featured in an Apple commercial's not bad for business.