It’s a conflict as old as time: Apple releases an iPhone OS update and the hacking/unlocking community releases an updated version of its software.

For those of you who are happy to use an unlocked version of the iPhone, the iPhone Dev Team has released PwnageTool 3.1.5 that handles Apple’s newly-released iPhone OS 3.1.1 while preserving your device’s ultrasn0w unlock and jailbroken state.

As usual, there are the customary precautions to take regarding the legality of this, what Apple has to say about this, etc. Still, in the end, you can see improvements such as the improved accuracy of your iPhone’s reported battery level.

If you’re up for this, take a stab at it and let us know how it goes.

Ok, you love your unibody MacBook Pro notebook, aren’t terribly attached the optical drive and the warranty isn’t that important…odds are you’re ready to hack in a second hard drive. Per this hack, a user faced the dilemma of getting the faster SSD hard drive or the larger capacity rotational drive. Instead of settling on either of those options, he removed his DVD drive, hacked together an adapter to interface with the proprietary Apple connector, and installed a second hard drive. The result is a “best of both worlds” scenario for him complete with a faster boot time and responsiveness, and plenty of space available for movies and music.

The user, who has yet to fully identify himself, posted full step by step instructions over on his blog, complete with pictures and a plug to provide the service to anyone who may want it.

Be warned, some of the language isn’t safe for work, but if you’re up for a second hard drive in your MacBook Pro at all costs, take a gander and let us know how it goes!

It’s a matter of how comfortable you are taking your notebook apart and soldering new components into place, but for MacBook owners looking to make the Apple component of their LCD screen look like this:

check out the tutorial created by Mac user Eddie Zarick.
The tutorial includes a full list of supplies and materials you’ll need, including a US$200 Century Plus One sub-monitor, but this should yield some fairly cool results.
If you’re about to take this on or have performed a similar mod, please let us know in the comments or forums.

This was sort of to be expected, but it’s interesting.
According to the Los Angeles Times, users installing a pirated version of Apple’s upcoming iPhone OS 3.0 firmware are finding their iPhone handsets effectively bricked, wherein the handset loads to the activation screen.
At this point, they’re in trouble.
Per the story, the version of iPhone OS 3.0 floating around the Web checks with the mother ship to make sure that the user has an active and paid up Apple Developer Connection account.
Once in place, there’s no way to roll back to version 2 of the software.
As mentioned on the Apple Core, a few YouTube videos have sprung up purporting to offer solutions. The first suggests that you can simply disconnect from the Internet when interfacing with iTunes to bypass the authentication process. The second video involves data files and appears far more involved.
Fortunately, users can get their iPhone swapped out under warranty at the Apple Store, or pony up the US$100 for an ADC account in order to resolve the issue.
If you’ve seen this issue on your end, please let us know in the comments or forums.

This could be interesting, provided you’re willing to jailbreak your iPhone or iPod touch handset.
Ralf Ackerman has just posted a blog entry demonstrating a jailbroken iPhone using an Apple Bluetooth wireless keyboard. Details are still sketchy, but it’s an interesting proof of concept that makes one wonder when Apple will officially support this?
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available and let us know what you think in the comments or forums.

Whether you feel it’s right or not, successful iPhone hardware hacks have been reported around the world. Some of these hacks have worked and the users seem pretty happy with the results.
Others have backfired and caused damage that’s nothing less than impossible to explain to the nice person behind the Genius Bar as accidental or the dog’s fault (such as the Wi-Fi or Bluetooth now refusing to work or the iPhone itself refusing to power up).
According to iPhone Atlas, a more severe example has arisen.
A relatively anonymous post to the Hackintosh forums provided this comment and showed this picture:
“We were so happy, all the software part was done, so we started opening the iphone. The antenna cover was a bit tricky but eventually it came off. Then we started to open the metal cover (after taking out the 3 screws) and PUFF, up it went in smoke, I think my collegue must have touched something. It literally went up in black smoke. I was so hot that when I tried to pick it up I burnt my fingers. So, this is for sure the most difficult part of the whole process. I don’t know what he did, as I had just stepped out of the room to fetch something when I heard a scream…they got such a fright.”

A group working to unlock the iPhone and thus allow it to run on wireless carriers outside of AT&T is claiming success. Contributors to the Finding JTAG blog are citing a successful unlock of the iPhone via a “hardware hack”. According to iPhone Alley, the hack involves removing a piece of hardware that’s temporarily installed in the iPhone that is temporarily installed into the iPhone during the time involved in unlocking the handset. Once the hardware is removed, the iPhone can function normally using any wireless carrier’s SIM card.
The group has provided the following YouTube video as a means of proving the group’s claim and demonstrating the hack in action:

If you’ve been determined to muck about with your iPhone, possibly violating its warranty and hack it so it can run third-party applications, this might be what you’re looking for.
The guys over at Gizmodo have posted a full tutorial as to how to install third-party applications on your iPhone via a program called Installer.app for the iPhone.
User-friendly but not for the faint of heart, this doesn’t have Apple’s blessing and may require resetting your iPhone if things go south.
That being said, this is also the least techie way of getting to a point where you can place third-party applications on your iPhone.
Be careful. Have fun. And let us know how it works out in the comments or forums.

I was never this optimistic when my iBook G3 croaked a few years back, but a user over on Chaos Blog 2.0 has apparently taken a 500 MHz iBook G3 with a broken screen and turned it both into a book and a server.
After removing the non-functioning screen and trimming down the essentials of the case, the author then wrapped the remaining iBook in a hardcover casing and connected the unit to a Firewire hard drive.
Perhaps the most impressive part is that he was able to retrofit the power supply to another part of the laptop and cut the footprint down by half. The blog posts step by step instructions, complete with pictures, so if you have several free hours, the tools on hand, a somewhat-croaked iBook and a soldering gun, you can pull off a similar feat.
As always, if you have a cool fix, hack or workaround of your own that you’ve done with your Mac laptop, let us know about it.

A picture’s worth a thousand words in this case.
Engadget has a story about an iPod that’s been essentially hacked into a handheld/mini-laptop. The story originally appeared over on Hack-A-Day in which Owen McGarry took an out of warranty iPod, installed a swivel device, a protruding hard drive and a Linux operating system.
Unfortunately, details are scarce at this time, although additional photos can be found over here via FaceBook.
Remove the glare factor and you could have a cool portable video unit for flights as well…
Let us know what you think.