Veni. Vidi. Pwni. My iPhone has been updated to 2.0-pwnage, I have installed Open SSH and successfully run programs outside the official Apple boundaries. Without getting into details (I hope to do a live chat tomorrow, along with several other developers), I'd rate the new 2.0 Pwnage software as "for dedicated hackers only".

If you're a casual jailbreaker, or looking to simply unlock your iPhone, you probably want to wait for another week for the bugs to be ironed out of the system and the software to become more stable. The iPhone dev team have done a fabulous job as a first approach -- especially under the huge pressure and time constraints they've been subjected to -- but it's still not "ready for Grandma".

Be aware that a 3G unlock is not part of the current pwnage tool. You can still unlock first generation iPhones though. Jailbreak supports every platform: 3G, 1st Gen and iPod touches.

I'm heading off to bed right now so I've only had a few hours to play. 2.0 from the command line seems both slow and clunky, with a noticeable lag after running even just an "ls" command. In contrast, Applications run more sprightly. (Sprightlier?) They launch quickly and in the case of AppFlow (which was rejected from AppStore) with peppier interface interaction.

The Cydia software, a 2.0-ready Installer.app alternative, seems solid. I had no problems downloading OpenSSH and getting it going. Cydia provides several system optimization features that allow you to relocate space-consuming elements from the limited system partition into the more open user partition. Cydia assumes a more command-line friendly audience than Installer.app did and many of its features are best accessed from the shell.

All in all, it's nice to finally be back home on the phone.

The iPhone Dev Team has just released PwnageTool 2.0, thus bringing jailbreak and non-App Store third-party application support to iPhones/iPod Touches running firmware 2.0. First-generation iPhones can also be unlocked. At this time, the iPhone 3G cannot be unlocked or used with BootNeuter.

Erica will post more details later tonight or tomorrow, and the Dev Team promises a more detailed announcement soon.

As always, be cautious if you decide to install PwnageTool 2.0 and make proper backups of all of your data before proceeding, understand that installing software like PwnageTool is unsupported by Apple, blah blah blah.

Enjoy!

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

Geocaching is a sport / hobby in which you wander about with a GPS and try to find caches, small hidden containers with swag and a logbook inside. One of the first things I looked for in the App Store was a geocaching application that would let me a) look up caches near my present location, b) tell me when I'm getting close, and c) let me log my finds on Geocaching.com.

Well, nothing is available yet. But don't let that stop you from going out and doing a little cache hunting! See how you can go caching with nothing more than an iPhone 3G in your hand after the break.

I'm a heavy user of the IconFactory's xScope, a great universal tool for designers which we've covered several times. For those of us with a need for it, it's worth every cent. I happened upon a freeware application today, though, which provides a subset of xScope's very useful features: omnidea Rulers.

This free app does a great job of providing on-screen guides, allowing the insertion of horizontal, vertical and intersection rules. It also gives you Photoshop-style rulers at the top and side of your screen for positioning. A HUD provides mouse coordinates and a magnifying glass, with two minimal views and one that shows all of the data at once.

Rulers provides screenshot capabilities. More useful than that, though, it also has an auto-measure tool similar to xScope's "Dimensions" mode. This is infinitely useful for quickly determining the pixel size of any on-screen area of which it can discern the edges. When Rulers is in the foreground, pressing Command-A will instantly show cross-hairs and a measurement for the area surrounding the mouse cursor.

Rulers is pretty darn useful, especially for web designers, and it's free. Pick up a copy from omnidea and enjoy.

What do you do when you've got a pre-queue queue downstairs, then an actual queue proper upstairs? There's a lot of tired people involved, and twice as many tired legs. The answer, of course, is the iQueue. Dozens of plastic chairs brought in solely for the comfort of your customers' backsides.

This pic was snapped in the London Regents Street Apple Store on Thursday afternoon as a great many people wait for their chance to buy an iPhone. Photographer Chris Mac Morrison was less than impressed.

"I'll wait until waiting time is less than 10 mins before i hand over any cash," he told us. Good plan.

Thanks to Mac for the pic.

The iPhone will no doubt see it's fair share of Twitter clients (just as the Mac has). Twitterrific is the big name in the Mac/iPhone Twitter app space, but in a client from Tapulous called "Twinkle" has also been generating some interest. Originally released as a jailbreak application for the iPhone and iPod touch, Twinkle has just debuted on the App Store with the ability to location-base your tweets.

While Twitterrific seems to have more precise locating abilities, Twinkle uses the location-based tweeting in interesting ways. For instance, you can see tweets originating within a certain mileage range from your location. Twinkle allows you to easily view your direct messages.

Overall, Twinkle looks like it will give Twitterrific a run for its money. Best part of all? Twinkle (iTunes Link) for iPhone and iPod touch is absolutely free.

Check out our gallery for some screenshots.

Imagine you are a software development company that has been around for 11 years, with award-winning titles for mobile computing devices. You follow the rules, you submit iPhone versions of your applications to the App Store, and yet you still haven't seen your programs make it to the store.

This is the boat that a lot of developers are in, but it is particularly frustrating for Ilium Software. Ilium has sold two well-respected applications -- eWallet and ListPro -- for Palm OS and Windows Mobile devices for years, and has a number of other commercial and free mobile applications on the market.

According to Ilium spokesperson Ellen Craw, eWallet has been "in the queue" at Apple for over two weeks, and they can't get any word from App Store personnel on when their highly anticipated app will actually appear online. The comments in Ilium's blog are particularly revealing, as longtime customers are also frustrated by the black hole at Apple.

Having used Ilium's products before, I'm waiting for both ListPro and eWallet to show up in the store to fill those niches on my iPhone. What other great products are being held up by Apple? We'd love to know!

Has a sync somehow gone terribly wrong and you've lost your favorite paid application for your iPhone or iPod touch? Well, if you didn't have a backup of it in your iTunes library, fear not. Apple has designed the App Store to allow for re-downloading purchased applications.

All you have to do is navigate to the application that you originally bought in the App Store and tap "Buy." You will have to enter your password, and the App Store will return you to your home screen where it displays a message saying that you've already bought this application and are entitled to an additional free download. After you tap "OK," your app will begin downloading.

Now you don't have to fret about losing your favorite iPhone or iPod touch application.

Well, Merlin, you did ask.

Having listed some imaginary iPhone apps he'd like to see, Merlin Mann asked the world: "What's the iPhone app you crave?" Hmm, let me see now - I've got a little list.

• Avant Go: A fantastic portable newsagent, in which you could download whole chunks of your favourite magazine and newspaper web sites for offline reading. I used to read dozens of articles in Avant Go on my train commutes in and out of London, back in the days when I commuted. It was an absolutely essential app and I'm very much looking forward to it - or something similar - arriving on iPhone.
• Yojimbo or Notational Velocity for iPhone: See yesterday's rant. If this, or something like this, isn't right round the corner, I shall eat my router.
• TextMate or Bean: This is dependent on Apple opening up Bluetooth to other devices in a future software update. If I could use a full-size external keyboard to quickly write text, I'd want a decent editor to write it in.

What iPhone apps are you craving? Let us know in the comments.

Apple will open a new UK store in Leicester on September 4th. The 577 square metre store will be located in the Highcross Leicester development along with 119 others, 15 restaurants and 3000 parking spaces. The new store joins others in Birmingham, Manchester, Solihull and Sheffield to provide pretty good coverage for the whole region.

Thanks to John Coxon for the tip!

For the past year when it comes to the iPhone, us Canadians have had to watch enviously as our American neighbors got to have all the fun. Well, no more! As of today I have joined the ranks of the enlightened -- at least, my wallet has been "lightened".

I am, like many of you, a software junkie. As such, one of things I am really excited about is the App Store. Imagine my surprise today when I tried to access it from my gleaming new device, only to run into an error message when I attempted to download my first app. The error stated "Your account is only valid for purchases in the Canadian iTunes Store." Huh?

My first thought was, "this darn thing has GPS on it, doesn't it know I'm in Canada?" So I went looking in the international settings on the phone, and sure enough the region format was set to United States. I dutifully changed it to Canada and tried again, to be met again with the same error.

At this point I should mention that I had, up until this point, not synchronized my iPhone with iTunes. I had not planned to, since my MacBook Pro is currently down for the count with a dead video card, and it will be a week before the Apple Store has one in stock to repair my machine.

Frustrated by my inability to download apps, I finally threw caution to the wind and synchronized my new iPhone with a newly downloaded copy of iTunes on the Windows desktop I am relegated to using while waiting for my laptop to be repaired. Unfortunately, I still had no luck.

Then it occurred to me to log into the iTunes Store in iTunes using my account. It was at this stage that iTunes informed me that I was viewing the wrong store, and transferred me over to the Canadian iTunes Store. One more synchronization of the iPhone was needed to transfer my iTunes Store credentials into the phone, and I was finally able to waste untold hours downloading applications.

I imagine this tip will apply to almost nobody, but here's hoping that if there's someone else out there that is so dazzled by the iPhone that they are unable to think coherently, as I was, that they will find in this post the help and understanding that they so desperately need. Or something like that.

Greetings, TUAW readers. Allow myself to introduce...myself. My name is Kent Pribbernow - a freelance web designer and tech writer hailing from Fort Wayne Indiana - a land of corn fields, lake resorts, Amish buggies, and deadly turnip bombs.

As a long time blogger, I have written about all things Apple with passion and enthusiasm, minus the Kool-Aid and mock turtleneck. Now I join the TUAW team in delivering you the best Apple coverage anywhere. I look forward to your comments, and most of all filling your RSS reader with lots of great content. Keep reading.

Christopher Walken's 'More Cowbell' skit for SNL holds a special place in my heart. So I literally squealed out loud when I saw More Cowbell in the App Store.

Certainly not filed under Productivity, the application presents you with a large cowbell, while the voice of Bruce Dickinson -- yes, the Bruce Dickinson -- lets you know that he's gotta have more cowbell. Outstanding.

So tap away, Gene, tap away -- preferably to the tune of (Don't Fear) the Reaper. Don't do yourself a disservice.

Remember, everyone: I put my pants on, just like the rest of you, one leg at a time. Except, once my pants are on, I make gold records.

[Via Macenstein.]

One game that jumped out at me while I was pawing through the virtual game racks at the App Store was Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D from Vivendi Games Mobile.

A racing game featuring Playstation perennial Crash Bandicoot, Nitro Kart 3D is sure to wear out your iPhone batteries quickly. This app uses the accelerometers in the iPhone for control; turn the iPhone left or right like a steering wheel to turn, and tilt the phone up or down to accelerate or brake.

The entire time you're racing against the other characters, including the nefarious Brio, you need to avoid oil slicks and weapons used by your opponents, try to pick up a little time by hitting rainbow-colored "hyperdrive spots" on the track, and hit boxes containing weapons (like surface-to-surface missiles, my personal favorite) so you can slow down the other racers.

The game is localized for English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish, and you can adjust the sensitivity of the accelerometer to keep you from over-controlling your kart. With smooth 3D graphics, fun sound effects, and the enjoyment of waving your iPhone around to steer, Nitro Kart is well worth the $9.99 price in the App Store.

After teasing us about it back in May it looks like AT&T has finally come through. They have announced that they "are proud to offer iPhone customers free access to the nation's largest Wi-Fi hotspot network with more than 17,000 hotspots, including Starbucks". Unfortunately, the details are a little sketchy; it's unclear exactly what you have to do to access the network with your iPhone.

In any case, you can look up an AT&T hotspot near you or search for a Starbucks. Let us know if you've been able to take AT&T up on their offer.

[via iPhone Alley]

Update: It looks like AT&T has once again mistakenly posted this information. That's right, at the moment AT&T is not offering free wifi to iPhone users, but it is in the works. Look for an announcement, and a quick retraction, sometime next week (and then the week after that, and once again...).