Early this morning the iPhone Dev-Team announced the impending availability of the latest release of PwnageTool and QuickPwn. The feature most touted was compatibility with the recent update of the iPhone's OS to 2.2.1.

The announcement over at the Dev-Team's blog also provides some very useful information regarding unlocking and jailbreaking iPhones and iPod touches. It gives heads-up warnings for users in different situations, such as factory-unlocked iPhone owners, YellowSn0w users, and iPod touch owners. It covers what they should or should not do regarding upgrading to 2.2.1 and using PwnageTool or QuickPwn; the Dev-Team also details a fix for entering DFU mode when using OS X 10.5.6.

Currently the release is Mac-only, but a Windows-friendly version of QuickPwn is said to be "coming soon." You can grab the release from the official BitTorrent download. Alternatively, there are several unofficial HTTP mirrors available. The team recommends comparing the SHA1 checksums when downloading from an unofficial mirror. Given the recent string of security-related downloading incidents, TUAW cannot recommend highly enough that users download from an official source or follow the Dev-Team's security advice.

I tip my hat to the many fine folks that sent this in!

The dev team has released PwnageTool and QuickPwn for iPhones and first generation iPod touch devices, for those who want to upgrade to firmware 2.2.

Important: If you have a 3G iPhone and you want to unlock it in the near future, you cannot use QuickPwn and must use PwnageTool (currently available for Mac users only). As the dev team explained yesterday, the 2.2 update for the 3G iPhone also upgraded the baseband. In order to achieve a jailbreak and keep future soft-unlock options available, you must use PwnageTool to create a custom .ipsw file that preserves the 2.1 baseband but provides the software functionality of a 2.2 update. Read the entire dev team posting for complete instructions.

Users with first generation iPod touches, 2G (first gen) iPhones, factory unlocked iPhone 3Gs or users who have no desire to soft-unlock their iPhone 3G can use the QuickPwn tool. Neither PwnageTool nor QuickPwn work with the second generation iPod touch. The dev team has already said that its current focus is the 3G unlock and then they will look into working on the new iPod touch.

If you just want to use Installer.app on your 2G or 3G iPhone and don't want to go through the jailbreak process, check out Pusher from RiP Dev. It works with 2.2 and doesn't open the system partition when writing information, making it a potentially safer jailbreak alternative.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in! And thanks Josh for the RiP Dev tip!

For iPhone owners who want the benefit of the 2.1 firmware, but also want to run their jail-broken applications, the iPhone Dev Team has just released PwnageTool and QuickPwn for 2.1 devices. Please note: this does NOT work with the new iPod Touch 2g and is for iPhones or first generation Touch devices only.

The Dev Team managed to work around iTunes 8 without having to patch the program, so pwners can try the new tool without worrying about altering a core OS X program.

Let us know in the comments how well Pwnage and/or Quick/Pwn is working with your device. As always, pwning is unauthorized, do it at your own risk and make sure you back-up any important information before using the tool.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

If you are the iPhone jailbreaking type, then you might want to know that Pwnage Tool from the iPhone Dev Team has been updated to version 2.0.3.

This version includes the following new features:

• Support for iPhone/iPod touch firmware 2.0.2 5C1
• Updated version of Installer.app beta 6
• New .de localization for German speaking users

Pwnage Tool 2.0.3 can be downloaded from the iPhone Dev Team's blog, or via the Pwnage Tool updater.
Thanks for the tip, Doc!

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!