Billed as a "compliment" to the existing PwnageTool, iphone-dev has released a working beta of what it calls QuickPwn, a utility that uses a crafty new jailbreaking method to forgo the installation of a fresh IPSW. In layman's terms, that means you can have a fully jailbroken phone running 2.0.1 (and soon 2.0.2, we'd imagine) without the mild discomfort of having to restore your precious sidearm from scratch. The tool's still being developed and is currently only available on Windows, though the team is quick to point out that because QuickPwn operates only on the iPhone's app processor, any screw-ups should be totally undoable. Be that as it may, you know the drill: keep your gloves up, protect yourselves at all times, and let's have a clean fight.

[Via Boy Genius Report]

Hopes were high that 2.0.2 would decisively crush the reception woes some iPhone 3G owners have experienced since taking delivery of their cracking beauties; dropped calls, latching onto EDGE reception when 3G (also known as "the good stuff") is available, and general signal strength wonkiness have all plagued a select group of handsets since launch, making for a decidedly MobileMe-like user experience. Some upgraders are actually reporting just the opposite, though -- for these lucky few, 2.0.2 seems to be making reception somehow worse than it already was, and what's more, there are intermittent reports cropping up of broken third-party apps, too. With the 1.x line of builds having chugged along with relatively little drama for a year, here's our question: what the hell is going on? Why does 2.0, after two post-launch builds, still feel like a beta? MobileMe took the lion's share of the fall for Apple having spread itself too thin through the launch-heavy summer months, but did some of that fire-drill mentality trickle over to the breadwinner, too? Sound off in comments with your experiences putting 2.0.2 through its paces so far!

[Via Mobility Site]

Update: Apparently Steve Jobs, who should have his face buried in a developer workstation somewhere in Cupertino slaving away on iPhone bug fixes, somehow found the time to slack off for half an hour and fire off an email to some guy who wrote him complaining about third-party apps that are crashing on startup. Jobs allegedly says that the issue is a "known iPhone bug" and that it'll be fixed in the next update come September -- but frankly, we wish he'd let his assistants attend to this sort of needless communication so he could get back to, you know, writing code and inventing phones. Thanks, Alexander!

It has taken its sweet, sweet time in arriving, but it seems the iPhone Nike+ running application is just... about... here. A slew of new screenshots of the application have emerged, and while there are no juicy tidbits to accompany 'em (release date, cost, etc.), we all know how many lines of text a single snapshot is worth. Hang tight runners, the app you've been waiting (and waiting) for can't be far from the finish line now.

[Via MacRumors]

HTC's already done a terrific job of going from anonymous Asian ODM to a major name player in the cellphone game, and it sounds like the company's aiming for the next level -- in an interview with the Commercial Times, CEO Peter Chou said the goal is to become one of the top three to five handset makers in the global market. That's a pretty aggressive target for a smartphone manufacturer -- competitors like Nokia and Samsung crank out millions of low-end dumbphones every quarter, and while there's no denying the appeal of devices like the Touch Diamond and Touch Pro, it's going to be hard to match those numbers. Still, with Android and the Dream on the horizon, anything's possible -- and HTC's definitely got the chops to pull it off.

[Via Electronista]

The N85 at retail in October? Yeah, sounds totally believable, especially considering that an October release would give the populace enough time to wrangle one for the holidays, the fact that Nokia's known to be revealing two hotties this month, and that the date comes from none other than Mobile-review's scoop-tastic Eldar Murtazin. A graphic scored by Murtazin has the N85 and the just-announced Carbon Arte variant of the 8800 series both slated for grand entrances in the tenth month of the year. One, we stand a fighting chance of affording; the other, just like the Artes of old, probably not.

[Via Mobile Phone Helpdesk]

It won't be the first launch in North America -- those honors go to Telus at this point -- but Sprint won't be far behind. A pretty believable new slide deck suggests that big ol' Number Three will take delivery of its Touch Diamonds in September and start hawking them for the princely sum of $299.99 on contract after rebates, netting customers a 3.2 megapixel cam, 4GB of internal storage, and EV-DO Rev. A, among all the other spoils that only Windows Mobile 6.1 can offer. Is the back end of it red? Can't really tell from this angle, but if the goal is to offer up a high-end business tool, we've gotta believe black will be available either way.

[Thanks, anonymous tipster]

The follow-on to Motorola's sporty and moderately popular (for a stereo bluetooth headset, anyway) S9 may not have launched yet -- a disappointment, considering the original plan for a Q2 release when it was announced at CES -- but perhaps a little last-minute paint job was the reason for the delay. We've now spotted the S9-HD in a bright white getup with blue accents, a far cry from the black of the model shown at CES (and presumably still slated for launch) or the red of the original, but let's not kid ourselves: this one has a way better chance of finding its way into an ear canal or two. Hopefully we'll see it within a few weeks -- just in time for a successor to be launched at CES 2009, no doubt.

Well, it looks like that long, painful wait is finally over. According to all kinds of tipsters, the BlackBerry Bold touches down for the first time in North America (in its home country of Canada, obviously) come August 21st (that's this Thursday, in case you don't own a calendar, computer, or have any friends). That's right -- the Bold will land on Rogers (where else?) with a price tag set somewhere between the dark valley of $300 and $400, according to Research In Motion co-CEO Jim Balsillie. Reports say the phone will be available from other carriers by the end of the week, though we don't have any definitive rumblings that confirm such heavenly ideas. You'll know more when we do, of course.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Google feels really badly about that several month-long stretch where it kept any and all updates to its Android SDK out of the public limelight, developers, honest, but it wants to make it up to you. It seems that yesterday's 0.9 release, which represented the first official SDK available with a platform even remotely resembling what Google intends to release on retail devices this fall, was just the first in a string of goings-on leading up to the grand 1.0 launch in the coming months according to a new roadmap published on the Android site. To start, there'll be "additional Android 1.0 (pre) SDK releases made available, as necessary" in September, followed by the first 1.0-compatible release in the Q3 to Q4 timeframe (that's any time between now and the end of December, for you calendar-disadvantaged folk). Finally, the Android source will leak out in the fourth quarter along with the first "Android 1.0 devices" -- pay special attention to the plural "devices" there -- and an announcement about Android Developer Challenge II. It gives us a warm fuzzy to see that Google's interested in keeping its devs engaged with these contests on an ongoing basis, because let's be honest: "prize money" has a much nicer ring to it than "VC money" ever will.

[Via Talk Android]

Now that the Treo Pro's been uncovered, the sleek black handset just can't stay out of the spotlight -- it's popped up today in several more high-res shots, a quick hands-on video, and even what looks like official press photography. Specs are still up in the air -- we're hearing there's a 400MHz processor and 128MB of RAM behind that 320 x 320 screen and original Xbox-looking exterior, but we won't know for sure until this thing gets official, which we're guessing will happen within the week. Video after the break.

Read - Lots of hands-on shots
Read - Slashgear post with press photography

Okay, pretend you had absolutely no inclination that this so-called KickStart was real. Surprise! E-tailer expansys has spoiled RIM's thunder (no silly, not that Thunder) by posting up detailed product pages for both the BlackBerry 8220 (WiFi) and BlackBerry 8210 (GPS). The current specs list points out a 2.6-inch 320 x 240 primary display, 160 x 128 pixel secondary display, 2-megapixel camera (with LED flash), video recording and a microSDHC slot. There's no price or release date listed for either, but at least you can shelve those worries of this thing never making it to market.

[Via Cellpassion]

Read - BlackBerry 8220
Read - BlackBerry 8210

If there's one thing smartphone can never be, it's too fast. Yeah, granted, mobile processors have been intentionally throttled for years in the interest of keeping battery times reasonable -- so we're always delighted to hear when someone's doing something to boost speeds in different, creative ways. That's where flash memory giant Samsung comes into play, rolling out new file systems and drivers for its OneNAND, Flex-OneNAND, and moviNAND storage solutions (none of which are pictured to the right) that it claims will slap a turbocharger on boot and access times. The new software is available for basically every major mobile operating system, and Sammy even claims that it'll decrease engineering times, so it looks like it's a win all the way around.

Besides the RAZR, few handsets have milked longevity like Nokia's 8800 slider -- first introduced in April 2005 (spied in March). Unlike RAZR, however, the 8800 somehow manages not to annoy... too much. The latest Carbon Arte model brings 3G, a 3.2 megapixel camera, 4GB of flash memory, and OLED display with anti-fingerprint coating. Fine, but it's the rocket-esque carbon fiber, titanium, and stainless steel materials that help push the price tag to €1,100 (that's about $1,600) before taxes and of course, carrier subsidies. Expected to brazenly appear in the smoking dens of Europe's finest gentlemens' clubs sometime in Q3.

Hmm, Hov, you may want to check the fine print on whatever deal you've got with Moto, because these Jay-Z-branded MOTOROKR S7-HD Bluetooth headset aren't exactly big pimpin' -- and compared to Dre's big ol' cans, they look downright sad. Of course, the FCC's legendarily nasty product photography isnt helping here, but even A2DP stereo support and the integrated mic can't salvage this mess -- was this really worth unretiring for?

[Via Crave]