GreenPois0n Absinthe 2.0 was released on Friday, offering iOS 5.1.1 devices untethered jailbreaking. Absinthe works on A4 and A5 powered devices, like the iPhone 4S and new iPad. It however won’t work on the newer iPad 2. Absinthe 2.0, which was developed by the “Jailbreak Dream Team” (Chronic-Dev and iPhone Dev), and promises to be so easy, your “grandma could do it.” Steps to perform the jailbreak are as follows:

1. Make a backup of your device in iTunes by right clicking on your device name under the ‘Devices’ menu and click ‘Back Up’.
2. Once your backup is complete return to your device and go to Settings – General – Reset – Erase all Content and Settings. This will make the jailbreak process much faster.
3. Open Absinthe and be sure you are still connected via USB cable to your computer.
4. Click ‘Jailbreak’ and wait…. just be patient and do not disconnect your device.
5. Once jailbroken return to iTunes and restore your backup from earlier. Right click on your device name under the ‘Devices’ menu in the left panel of iTunes and click ‘Restore from Back Up…’ then select the latest backup you created before. (restoring this backup will return all the content previously on your device ie, apps, photos, etc.)

The jailbreaking process allows users to load third-party software and hacks not authorized by Apple onto their devices.

Press Release:

IOS JAILBREAK DREAM TEAM RELEASES ABSINTHE 2.0 – IOS 5.1.1 JAILBREAK AT #HITB2012AMS

AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS – 25th May 2012 – Today @pod2g and the @ChronicDevTeam announced the highly anticipated release of Absinthe 2.0 at #HITB2012AMS held at the Okura Hotel in Amsterdam.

Known as the “iOS Jailbreak Dream Team”, @p0sixninja, @pod2g, @planetbeing, @pimskeks released the untethered jailbreak for iOS 5.1.1 on the final day of the week-long conference. Echoing Steve Jobs’ trademark WWDC encore of ‘… and one more thing’, the team announced the release of Absinthe 2.0 during the closing minutes of their 2 hours talk at the conference.

Absinthe 2.0 will affect the majority of Apple devices running iOS 5.1.1 including iPad 1,1 – 2,1 – 2,2 – 2,3 – 3,1 – 3,2 – 3,3, the iPhone 2,1 – 3,1 – 3,3 – 4,1 and iPod 3,1 – 4,1. The jailbreak does not support the third generation Apple TV and support for iPad 2,4 will be added at a later date.

The team announced that the new Absinthe 2.0 will be available immediately for download from the official ChronicDevTeam website: http://greenpois0n.com The release announcement came after recent rife speculation spreading through online social networks on the actual release date and scope of Absinthe 2.0. The jailbreak community’s interest was first piqued when the team announced they were scheduled to appear at HITBSecConf2012 – Amsterdam to deliver not one but two talks covering both the Corona (A4) and Absinthe (A5) jailbreaks for Apple devices. On the 20th of May, a tweet from team member @pod2g stating the release of Absinthe 2.0 was ‘in a matter of days’ led to further speculation that the final release would be made at HITBSecConf which ran from 21 – 25 May.

“We want to take this opportunity to thank Hack in the Box for giving us the chance to all get together for the first time, especially in the beautiful city of Amsterdam, it has been a great delight for us to announce our next release at this event. Thank you to all our supporters and keep jailbreaking!! ”

“This was certainly one of the most highly anticipated talks we’ve EVER had at one of our HITB conferences, and we’ve done quite a few of these. The excitement from the Dream Team followers and overall Twitter and online buzz has been terrific!”, said Dhillon Andrew Kannabhiran, Founder and CEO of Hack In The Box.

“It was truly an honor to host the Dream Team in their first ever ‘real world’ meet up and we would like to thank them for taking the time and effort to make the trip over to not only join us at our third European outing, but to help kick-start our celebration of ’10 years of HITB awesomeness’ with the release of Absinthe 2.0!”, he added.

HITBSecConf2012 – Malaysia (#HITB2012KUL) marks our 10th annual event in Asia and runs from October 8th till 11th at the Intercontinental Kuala Lumpur featuring 42 of HITB’s best speakers of the decade in one massive event. Registration is already open: http://conference.hitb.org/hitbsecconf2012kul/

About iOS Jailbreak Dream Team: The group is made up of members from the Chronic-Dev Team and the iPhone Dev Team and consists of @MuscleNerd @pod2g @planetbeing @p0sixninja @pimskeks.

About iOS jailbreaking: iOS jailbreaking, or simply jailbreaking, is the process of removing the limitations imposed by Apple on devices running the iOS operating system through use of custom security exploits. Jailbreaking allows users to gain elevated access to the operating system. Consequently it also allows users to download additional applications, extensions and themes that are unavailable through the official Apple App Store.

Source: BGR – greenpois0n.com and iMore

The FCC this week approved the current iDEN, 800MHz band for use by LTE and other 3G services. According to the report, the band was previously limited to 2G technology use, and the change will allow Sprint and others with these spectrum holdings to deploy upgraded networks. Sprint received 3GPP certification for the Specialized Mobile  Radio (SMR) Band Class 26 change, and the FCC’s approval removes a challenge to allow operation on contiguous channels without spacing requirements and bandwidth limitations. The restrictions had kept operations on 800 MHz spectrum limited to 2G services, and the technical limitations dated from an older FCC order before Sprint merged with Nextel in 2005. The FCC also took steps to continue to mitigate against interference with public-safety operations in the 800 MHz band.

Source: FCC and Fierce Wireless

IDC Thursday released Q1 2012 numbers for worldwide smartphone marketshare. Comparing the OS’es, Android now has 59% of the total smartphones in the world, followed by iOS with 23%. Third place belongs to plummeting Symbian with 6.8%, and forth to BlackBerry with 6.4%. Rounding out the top six include Linux with 2.3% and Windows Phone now making up 2.2%.

Source: Engadget and Business Wire

Following the iOS update a few weeks back, Google+ for Android has been updated with the new visual refresh as well. Features include:

• Initiate a Hangout from the main menu
• Support for ringing hangout notification
• Support for post editing
• Messenger suggestions for people you may know
• Download photos from posts or Messenger conversations

The update can be downloaded directly through the Google Play store.

Source: Google via Android Central

Google Wednesday released version 2.0 of its Google Search application for the Apple iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. The redesign brings a faster experience, links to both web or phone Google apps, and a more media-rich experience in the UI. The app is a free download in the iTunes App Store. A full list of the features new to the redesign are as follows:

✓ Major speed improvements

✓ Auto full screen: scroll down to hide controls, scroll up to reveal

✓ Beautiful full-screen image search

✓ Swipe away webpages to quickly return to search results

✓ Search within a webpage using the built-in text finder

✓ Easily switch between images, places, news, and more

✓ Fast access to Google apps like Gmail, Calendar, Docs and more all from one place

Source: 9to5Mac

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AT&T Wednesday began refarming some of the spectrum it uses for 2G services to expand its 3G/4G networks. The 1900MHz spectrum will assist with both voice and data, and comes two months after the carrier began notifying customers with 2G-only phones that the changes were coming. AT&T said it has provided 2G-only customers with options for upgrading their devices, including discounts on new ones.

Source: Fierce Wireless

Microsoft Tuesday announced that Windows Phone 7.5 Mango will be required to access the Marketplace for applications. Phones without the update will see errors when attempting to connect to the marketplace.

Source: Windows Phone Blog via The Verge

Nine months after it began the process, Google closed Tuesday on the acquisition of Motorola Mobility for $40 per share in cash, or about $12.5 billion. According to Google:

The acquisition will enable Google to supercharge the Android ecosystem and will enhance competition in mobile computing. Motorola Mobility will remain a licensee of Android and Android will remain open. Google will run Motorola Mobility as a separate business.

No word yet on how the transaction will effect employees, or the day to day product innovation by Motorola.

Press Release:

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – May 22, 2012 – Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) announced today that the acquisition of Motorola Mobility Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: MMI) has closed, with Google acquiring MMI for $40.00 per share in cash.

The acquisition will enable Google to supercharge the Android ecosystem and will enhance competition in mobile computing. Motorola Mobility will remain a licensee of Android and Android will remain open. Google will run Motorola Mobility as a separate business.

Sanjay Jha, who revived Motorola’s Mobile Devices business and led the company through this acquisition, has stepped down as CEO, although he will continue to work with Google to help ensure a smooth transition.

Dennis Woodside, who has overseen integration planning for the acquisition and previously served as President of Google’s Americas region, has become CEO of Motorola Mobility.

Larry Page, CEO of Google, said, “I’m happy to announce the deal has closed. Motorola is a great American tech company, with a track record of over 80 years of innovation. It’s a great time to be in the mobile business, and I’m confident that the team at Motorola will be creating the next generation of mobile devices that will improve lives for years to come.

“Sanjay Jha, who was responsible for building the company and placing a big bet on Android, has stepped down as CEO. I would like to thank him for his efforts and am tremendously pleased that he will be working to ensure a smooth transition as long-time Googler Dennis Woodside takes over as CEO of Motorola Mobility.

“I’ve known Dennis for nearly a decade, and he’s been phenomenal at building teams and delivering on some of Google’s biggest bets. Dennis has always been a committed partner to our customers and I know he will be an outstanding leader of Motorola–and he’s already off to great start with some very strong new hires for the Motorola team.”

Dennis Woodside, CEO of Motorola Mobility, said: “Motorola literally invented the entire mobile industry with the first-ever commercial cell phone in 1983. Thirty years later, mobile devices are at the center of the computing revolution.

“Our aim is simple: to focus Motorola Mobility’s remarkable talent on fewer, bigger bets, and create wonderful devices that are used by people around the world.”

Dennis Woodside has hired a small number of leaders who will immediately join Motorola’s executive team, including Regina Dugan (former Director of DARPA), Mark Randall (former supply chain VP at Amazon and previously at Nokia), Vanessa Wittman (former CFO of Marsh & McLennan), Scott Sullivan (former head of HR at Visa and NVIDIA), and Gary Briggs (former Google VP of Consumer Marketing). In addition to these new leaders, many members of Motorola Mobility’s team will continue in their current roles: Iqbal Arshad (Product Development), Marshall Brown (Chief of Staff), Fei Liu (Mass Market Products), Dan Moloney (Home), Scott Offer (General Counsel), Mark Shockley (Sales), Mahesh Veerina (Software & Enterprise) and Jim Wicks (Consumer Experience Design).

Woodside added: “Motorola Mobility has many outstanding leaders, including people who were behind the original RAZR in 2004 and recent successes like the Droid and RAZR MAXX. Our colleagues joining the team come from varied backgrounds, from DARPA to Amazon and NVIDIA, but they all share a track record of leading innovation at speed, and a great deal of excitement about the mission ahead.”

Verizon Monday stated that four smartphones will receive updates soon to allow them to function globally on GSM networks. The devices effected include the HTC Rezound, the Motorola Droid RAZR, RAZR MAXX and the Droid 4. Per Verizon:

Customers will see a notification on their device when the software update is available for their device. After the software update, customers will be able to take their smartphone overseas and use voice service in more than 220 countries and receive data in more than 205 countries.

The devices each have LTE capabilities, and the GSM support will come from the same SIM slot used by the LTE SIM.

Source: Verizonwireless.com/global via Android Central

As they do each quarter, Fierce Wireless analyzed the numbers from Strategy Analytics and posted charts on the top carriers in the US for the previous quarter.  In Q1 2012, Verizon remained in the top spot with 109.8 million subscribers, edging out AT&T’s 103.9 million.  Both saw healthy growth with Verizon adding just over a million customers, and AT&T adding ¾ of a million.  Keeping the third spot, Sprint added 1.1 million users, bringing them to 55.8 million.  T-Mobile finished fourth with a gain of 187k, finishing at 33.4 million.  Rounding out the top 8 include Clearwire at 11 million, Metro PCS at 9.5 million, Leap Wireless at 6.2 million, and US Cellular at 5.8 million. Slots 9 through 12 belonged to C Spire, ATN, Cincinnati Bell, and Ntelos, each with under a million subscribers.

Source: Fierce Wireless

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