The long awaited Ultrasn0w soft unlock for the iPhone 3G has been released.  In order to unlock your iPhone 3G you first need to update to 3.0 and jailbreak with either Redsn0w or PwnageTool.  You can find instructions for jailbreaking here: How To Jailbreak Your iPhone 3G
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The Federal Trade Commission is planning to investigate the practice of bloggers taking “kick-backs” in exchange for positive reviews.

Apparently, many bloggers have been accepting free items, such as laptops, cell phones, gift cards, and even straight out cash, to post favorable blog posts regarding said products and companies. Some bloggers let their readers know, in some degree, that they got a “freebie”, however many do not reveal, at the time of posting, that they have received such compensation at all.

The extreme growth of this practice and public “calling out” between rival bloggers has drawn the attention of the FTC. A video surfaced of, tech blogger, Michael Arrington of TechCrunch asking fellow blogger Leo Laporte, “Did you pay for the Pre?” during a broadcast of Twit.tv that Leo hosts. The conversation was regarding Leo’s favorable posts regarding the Palm Pre mobile phone before and at launch of the device. Arrington says, “Let’s get the disclosures right out of the way.” This conversation turns into a flurry of obscenities and ending with Laporte kicking Arrington off the show.

Companies such as IZEA, have sprung up in the surge of blogging. IZEA connects high profile bloggers with companies that offer compensation for posting reviews on their products.

The FTC believes that bloggers should be held to the same rules as other advertising campaigns regarding false claims and disclosure of compensation. The FTC has submitted, for approval, new guidelines that would allow them to go after such bloggers. The new laws are expected to be approved later this summer.

The guidelines proposed allow the FTC to investigate bloggers, defined as anyone writing a personal journal online. Many personal bloggers fear repercussions for posting articles about every-day things they like. Would this make a blogger think twice before posting about the new fertilizer they used over the weekend or the great sales they found at the local department store?

I will state publicly that I have never taken nor received any “freebies”, “kick-backs”, or any form of compensation for my postings. But, I’m not opposed to being compensated for my work. Come on, I’m broke, where are all these freebies!

Associated Press Online

With RedSn0w 0.7.1 iPod Touch 1g and 2g users can jailbreak 3.0 firmware on Windows. Before following this guide please restore your iPod Touch to 3.0 firmware. To get the 3.0 firmware you have to connect to iTunes, check for updates, and buy it for about $10. Yes Apple is screwing you. Positive side is that if you have both a 1g and a 2g you get to download firmware for both for $10.

You will need RedSn0w 0.7.1 which you can download right here Redsn0w for Windows (4377) (Download requires login) along with the 3.0 firmware file for your device. Since you already bought and downloaded the firmware in order to upgrade to 3.0 you can find it on your computer

iPod2,1_3.0_7A341_Restore.ipsw is the iPod Touch 2g 3.0 firmware file.
iPod1,1_3.0_7A341_Restore.ipsw is the iPod Touch 1g 3.0 firmware file.

On XP they are located in
C:\Documents and Settings\ YOUR USER NAME \Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes\iPod Software Updates\

On Vista the are located in
C:\Users\ YOUR USER NAME \AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\iTunes\iPod Software Updates\

Lets begin. Extract redsn0w-win_0.7.1.zip to a location on your computer and run redsn0w.exe.

Click Browse.

Find your firmware file, select it, and click Open.

RedSn0w will tell you that the ISPW has been successfully identified. Click Next.

You’ll see a pop up as RedSn0w does some stuff.

Select to Install Cydia and click Next.

Now you should plug in your iPod Touch and turn it off. Once you are done click Next.

RedSn0w gives you instructions. We are entering DFU mode now. First hold the power button for 3 seconds.

Keep holding the power button and start holding the home button for 10 seconds.

Release the power button but continue holding the home button for 30 seconds.

RedSn0w does its thing. Let it.

Finally RedSn0w has finished loading everything onto your iPod Touch. You will see a pretty screen on your iPod as it is being jailbroken. Don’t mess with your iPod while all this is going on. After your iPod restarts you are done!

I did not have an iPod Touch to perform the jailbreak, so I give all credit for this tutorial to Modmyi.com.

Modmyi

If you feel like it’s worth it

Ten Ways To Increase Your Twitter Followers:

1. Your bio is one of the first things people see. Your bio is displayed on most suggested Twitter user sites and people will pass you right over if you don’t have an interesting account of yourself.  Fill out your bio. Your latest tweets and @replies don’t mean much if they just pass right over your profile.

2. Retweet interesting tweets and explain to your followers what retweeting is. Most new users are not hip to the shorthand of Twitter such as RT, D, and # hastags.  If you help them understand they are all the more likely to retweet your tweets.  The more your @username gets out into the “Twitterverse” the more clicks back to your profile you will receive.  Keep track of your Twitter stats with a site like Twitteranalyzer.com

3. Link to your profile. Create linkbacks to your profile everywhere.  Link it on Facebook, LinkedIn, Digg, your blog, other blogs, anywhere it can be seen by someone.  Make sure you put your @username in all of your signatures.  Again, the more people that see your @username, the more hits on your profile you will get.

4. Use #hashtags. Tweet about interesting things in your life and make sure that people see them by using #hashtags.  #hashtags allow users a way to find tweets that interest them on Twitter.  Many people search Twitter trends for interesting tweets and if your tweets are included you have a better chance they will find you.

5. Ask people about Twitter. When you meet new people, ask them if they Twitter.  Ask for their @username and give them yours in return.  If they don’t know about Twitter, teach them.  Put your @username on your business cards and give them out so people don’t forget your name.

6. Share pictures. People love looking at pictures from around the world.  Pictures are one of the most retweeted items on Twitter.  Use apps for your camera phone to tweet and upload to sites like TwitPic and yfrog.

7. Interact with your followers. NYT tech columnnist David Pogue, @pogue, often asks off the wall questions that are fun to answer with witty responses such as, “I need a cure for hiccups… RIGHT NOW! Help?”  Instantly he receives replies such as, “check your 401K. That should scare the hiccups right out of ya!”  This always starts a plethora of conversation.

8. Follow the top twitter users and watch what they tweet. Pay attention to the type of content they sent out and how they address their audiences.

9. Reply to/get involved in #hash tag memes. search.twitter.com lists the hot ‘trending topics. Look for the #hash topics and jump in on the conversation (see #4 for links to #hash instructions).

10. Track your results. TwitterCounter will show you how many new users you’re adding per day and Qwitter will email you when someone unfollows you after a tweet.

I hope this helps you in your Twitter experience.  If you find this interesting please follow me @Rotilda

Symantec is reporting a confirmed mass mailing worm being spread by fake Twitter invite emails.  The fake emails appear to come from a Twitter account inviting you to join, but unlike real Twitter invites, the fake ones do not include a legitimate invitation URL in the body.  Instead, the user will see an attachment in the form of a .zip called “Invitation.zip”.  Contained in this file is the W32.Ackantta.B@mm worm which gathers email addresses and infects the computer, removable drives, and shared folders.

The fake emails are reportedly coming from invitations@twitter.com with the subject line, “Your friend invited you to Twitter!”.  If you receive one of these emails, delete it immediately.

Here is an example of what the emails look like:

Symantec

The Palm Pre has been hacked to run the iconic game Doom.  The mod hacks the root directory of the Pre.  Even without Palm releasing an approved SDK, developers are working.

Check out the wiki for a how to. Pre Dev Wiki