If you just got a new iPhone for Christmas, then congratulations, you are going to love it. Next step now is to jailbreak your iPhone in order to release the full potential of it. If you’re not sure what jailbreaking is, I suggest you read a bit more about it. As you will see, there are many reasons to jailbreak your iPhone.

Now if someone offered you an iPhone and you don’t want to use it on an official carrier (like AT&T in the US), then you will have to unlock your iPhone. Unlocking is fairly easy, even for non techy people and there are very few risks of doing any damage.

Brand new to this whole jailbreaking and unlocking thing? I understand it might be a little confusing. I wrote an article about the difference between jailbreaking and unlocking that might help you understand both better, so feel free to check it out if want to learn more about it.

Let’s get into it now. This article aims at giving a quick overview of possibilities for jailbreaking and unlocking the iPhone. For both jailbreaking and unlocking, the method used depends on what iPhone model you have and what software (firmware) is currently installed on it. At this time, I will assume that your iPhone comes with firmware 3.1.2 preinstalled on it.

First things first. Before unlocking an iPhone, you first have to jailbreak it.

Jailbreak iPhone 3.1.2

Note that I strongly recommend using PwnageTool to jailbreak your iPhone, that is if you have a Mac as it doesn’t work on PCs. PwnageTool is a much “cleaner” and trouble-free jailbreak.

I am not a big fan of BlackRa1n as many have reported issues with it (many have had great success too). Besides, if you have an iPhone 3GS, it’s important to note that BlackRa1n is a tethered jailbreak, which means that everytime you reboot your iPhone, you will have to plug it to your computer and launch BlackRa1n. Not so convenient but it does the job.

Jailbreak iPhone 3GS

• Jailbreak iPhone 3GS 3.1.2 with PwnageTool
• Jailbreak iPhone 3GS 3.1.2 with BlackRa1n
• Jailbreak iPhone 3GS 3.1.2 with BlackRa1n RC2
• Jailbreak iPhone 3GS 3.1.2 with BlackRa1n RC3

Jailbreak iPhone 3G

• Jailbreak iPhone 3G 3.1.2 with PwnageTool
• Jailbreak iPhone 3G 3.1.2 with BlackRa1n
• Jailbreak iPhone 3G 3.1.2 with BlackRa1n RC2
• Jailbreak iPhone 3G 3.1.2 with BlackRa1n RC3

Jailbreak iPhone 2G

• Jailbreak iPhone 2G 3.1.2 with PwnageTool
• Jailbreak iPhone 2G 3.1.2 with BlackRa1n
• Jailbreak iPhone 2G 3.1.2 with BlackRa1n RC2
• Jailbreak iPhone 2G 3.1.2 with BlackRa1n RC3

Unlock iPhone 3.1.2

Unlock iPhone 3GS

• How to unlock iPhone 3GS
• Unlock iPhone 3GS with BlackSn0w tutorial

Unlock iPhone 3G

• How to unlock iPhone 3G
• Unlock iPhone 3G with BlackSn0w tutorial

Unlock iPhone 2G

• Unlock iPhone 2G with PwnageTool

The iPhone and iPod touch have become immediately recognizable names around the world. Apple recently announced that the iPhone is the most popular mobile phone in the US. In addition, the iPod touch is generally regarded as the media player of choice, offering much more than just music. Perhaps the key to their success is the ever-growing app store which currently boasts over 100,000 apps. For those of you not crazy about math, that’s a huge number—you would have to purchase and download over 11 apps an hour, every single day for a year to test them all. While it is safe to say the majority of apps available are less than appealing, there are a few gems that stand out from the rest. We took a look and compiled a list of the best apps 2009 had to offer.

2009 brought some of the best apps to the iPhone and iPod touch to date. Gaming has now advanced to a point that rivals the Sony PSP or Nintendo DS. As the mobile market grows and hardware continues to improve, we are going to see some amazing things come our way. If 2008 was about experimentation, 2009 was about innovation. In 2010, developers will push this innovation to enhance our mobile experience—whether through augmented reality, cloud-based computing, or something completely new.

Below you will find our top 10 overall apps, our top 15 games, and top 5 innovations. Tell us which apps are on your top 10 list in comments.

TOP 10 APPS

Facebook 3.0
Access your friends, notes, pictures, and events using almost every feature the actual site offers. This app, based on the enormous social networking site, has seen many changes and just keeps getting better with time.
LINK: AppVee’s Facebook 3.0 Review

Fandango
View trailers, see showtimes, purchase tickets and read reviews using this free movie app. This is a must have for any moviegoer, giving you all you need to know about movies in your area at your fingertips.
LINK: AppVee’s Fandango Review

Beejive 3.0
One of the first applications to take advantage of push notifications, this multi-client instant messaging app is in a class of it’s own. Using its push features, iPhone and iPod touch users can easily hold IM conversations with their friends anywhere.
LINK: AppVee’s Beejive 3.0 Review

LogMeIn
Brings your desktop to your iPhone or iPod touch. Link up with your computer and access your computer screen from afar. The interface is easy and feature-filled, delivering the best VNC experience to your device.
LINK: AppVee’s LogMeIn Review

Mobile Navigator
Filling the void left by the default maps application, this app offers turn-by-turn directions from your device just like any dedicated GPS would. It provides a landscape GPS with plenty of features and a user interface that makes sense.
LINK: AppVee’s Mobile Navigator Review

Dropbox
Sync up with your Dropbox account and have access to all of your files right from your device. You can download files, upload photos, and maintain control of your folders.
LINK: AppVee’s Dropbox Review

Textfree Unlimited
No one likes paying to text. This app offers free texting via push notifications. The interface is similar to the default SMS app and is a great alternative to paying your phone company.
LINK: AppVee’s Textfree Unlimited Review

Google Mobile App
This app has revolutionized search on the iPhone with its voice search and in-app browsing. Speak a search query and the app will accurately recognize it and do a Google search. Not a Google fan? Check out the Bing app.
LINK: AppVee’s Google Mobile App Review

TweetDeck
All the wonderful features that can be found in the TweetDeck desktop app are packed into this iPhone version. With a sleek interface and great features, this app is one of the best of the many Twitter apps out there.
LINK: AppVee’s TweetDeck Review

Craigsphone
Offers the entire Craigslist experience in one easy package. Buy, sell, and save more by searching through posts and bookmarking ones for later use.
LINK: AppVee’s Craigsphone Review

Ustream
One of the first apps to bring live television to the iPhone, Ustream gives you the ability to see many live streams of all types of content on your mobile device.
LINK: AppVee’s Ustream Review

TOP 15 GAMES

Flight Control
The line drawing game that started it all, this app is very simple but insanely addicting. Each level gets harder as you play and keeps you coming back for more.
LINK: AppVee’s Flight Control Review

Peggle
Combining awesome graphics, addictive gameplay and a little bit of randomness, Peggle is an exciting mix. This game brings a casual experience to the iPhone that has yet to be rivaled.
LINK: AppVee’s Peggle Review

Rolando 2
The sequel to the hit game, this app takes the Rolando tilt formula and cranks it up. This game is an improvement in almost every way to the original and really shows what iPhone-specific gaming can provide.
LINK: AppVee’s Rolando 2 Review

Pocket God
The king of all time-wasting games, this app puts you in charge of some prehistoric pygmies who are completely at your mercy. Regular updates and features make it a pleasure to continue feeding them to the fishes.
LINK: AppVee’s Pocket God Review

Enigmo 2
Taking the puzzle genre to new heights, this app gives players everything they loved in the first game and puts it all in three dimensions. And you thought the first one was hard…
LINK: AppVee’s Enigmo 2 Review

N.O.V.A.
One of the best first person shooters that can be found in the app store, N.O.V.A. puts the Halo formula into your pocket with a complete single-player and four-player multiplayer experience.
LINK: AppVee’s N.O.V.A. Review

Labyrinth 2
Building on the app that started it all, this version gives you more than just holes to worry about as you will have to solve puzzles and dodge all sorts of objects. The game also offers the option to create your own boards and share them with the world.
LINK: AppVee’s Labyrinth 2 Review

Skeeball
Everyone loves skeeball. Now it has been brought to the iPhone in a fun way. One of the most recognizable arcade games, this app is simple and addictive.
LINK: AppVee’s Skeeball Review

Zenonia
As a full-fledged action RPG, this app brings the complete role-playing experience to the iPhone. Zenonia features attractive graphics and rewarding gameplay.
LINK: AppVee’s Zenonia Review

Real Racing
Arguably one of the best racing games for the iPhone, this app has great graphics, tight controls and immersive sound, making it one of the coolest racing experiences ever on a handheld.
LINK: AppVee’s Real Racing Review

Sims 3
Start a family and watch them interact in this full-featured Sims experience tailored specifically for the iPhone.
LINK: AppVee’s Sims 3 Review

Rock Band
EA’s answer to the popular Guitar Hero franchise, this app employs some big names in the music industry and lets you tap your way to fame.
LINK: AppVee’s Rock Band Review

Super Monkey Ball 2
This exciting balance game gets a small overhaul and some great new maps making it the king of its kind.
LINK: AppVee’s Super Monkey Ball 2 Review

Doodle Jump
Another highly addictive game that sells for cheap but never grows old. The game is casual and simple, a perfect addition to any iPhone.
LINK: AppVee’s Doodle Jump Review

Words With Friends
A Scrabble clone with a great interface, this app allows you to play multiple games against players all over the world by alerting you via push.
LINK: AppVee’s Words With Friends Review

TOP 5 INNOVATIONS

Red Laser 2.2
A step forward in innovation, this app scans barcodes using the iPhone camera and then returns pricing from various online sites. While still in its infancy, this app could revolutionize the way we shop.
LINK: AppVee’s Red Laser 2.2 Review

Hitchcock
Storyboarding in your pocket. Hitchcock allows aspiring cinematographers to create movie layouts while on the go.
LINK: AppVee’s Hitchcock Review

I Am T-Pain
Impress your friends by altering your voice with autotune. This app was an instant hit and gives you the ability to be a star the next time you are ‘on a boat.’
LINK: AppVee’s I Am T-Pain Review

Mailtones
Ringtones for email. Mailtones allows you to identify who just emailed you by their individual sound tone. Offers a new level of customization for your inbox.
LINK: AppVee’s Mailtones Review

Leaf Trombone
Leaf Trombone is a fun app that lets you play a slide instrument on your iPhone. Create your own songs and share them with the world.
LINK: AppVee’s Leaf Trombone Review

From the same folks at Whirled Interactive who brought us the excellently funny “Pulp Wave Fiction” comes another intelligent use of Google Wave as a video production medium — this time it’s used to encapsulate the year in news and social media.

In “Waving Goodbye to 2009,” embedded after the break, we see a Google Wave rendition of the year’s most memorable moments. From the Obama inauguration to the Iran elections, from Susan Boyle to Kanye West, the video highlights the best — and worst — moments of 2009.

Check it out below and let us know what you think. Were any huge stories omitted you would have liked to see included (were we blind or did we miss an appearance from Balloon Boy, e.g.)? You can also check out some other novel use cases for Google Wave, too.

Apple just pushed out a new, Holiday-themed commercial. Playing on the classic “12 Days of Christmas” song, they rattle off a different type of application for each of 12 days.

Is the end in sight for Windows Mobile? A number of recent surveys show that market penetration for Microsoft’s mobile platform is stagnant, even as support for Apple’s iPhone, Research in Motion’s BlackBerry, and mobile devices based on Google’s Android are growing by leaps and bounds.

New numbers from comScore show precious little interest in Windows Mobile. The platform had seven million users in May, 6.6 million in July, and 7.1 million in October. Those numbers compare unfavorably with the iPhone, up 50 percent since May, and market leader RIM, up 20 percent. Android, while still a small player, is up nearly 30 percent.

“Windows Mobile has not captured the imagination of the public and people are not buying those phones,” Greg Sterling, principal analyst with Sterling Market Research, said in a telephone interview. “The attention is not on Windows Mobile — it has been crowded out in the press and the public mind.”

Waiting … and Waiting on Mobile 7

In the smartphone business, excitement is a key part of marketing success. The market has dramatically shifted since the introduction of the iPhone. Mobile operating systems used to create a level playing field — with manufacturers delivering hardware enhancements on top of platforms like Windows Mobile.

Now the market is controlled by companies like Apple and RIM who control both the OS and the hardware. And with the iPhone and Android supporting a rich ecosystem of third-party development, the ground has shifted again.

Microsoft may be counting on the release of Windows Mobile 7 to make a difference, but it’s still an open question about when consumers will be able to buy Mobile 7 phones. “There is no question that Microsoft’s Windows Mobile platform is way behind their competitors and they need to do a lot of work if they are to catch up,” Tim Bajarin, principal analyst with Creative Strategies, said in an e-mail.

“It appears that Microsoft is putting a lot of energy behind Windows Mobile 7 and plans to make it the cornerstone of a new thrust in the mobile handheld market,” Bajarin said. “But given the competition, even if they get it to market in 2010 they will face the strongest competition they have ever encountered and will need to put an enormous amount of marketing and energy behind this platform if Microsoft wants to be a serious player in this market in the future.”

Android Rising

That competition clearly includes Google’s Android platform. With Apple and RIM sporting their own proprietary operating systems, Android is positioned in exactly the same space as Windows Mobile — a general mobile operating system that many manufacturers can deploy and differentiate. That means Microsoft faces a serious risk that manufacturers will jump ship to Android.

The success of Motorola’s Android-powered Droid smartphone, offered exclusively by Verizon Wireless, sharpens the software giant’s dilemma. Microsoft desperately needs a partner to deliver a “really good product” on the platform, “and there needs to be a massive marketing campaign,” Sterling said. “One gets the sense that the public is not interested and OEMs are not seeing the demand from the public or innovation from Microsoft.”

Motorola has already walked away from the Windows Mobile platform, and it’s possible other handset makers may follow.

With the momentum firmly in the Apple-Android-RIM camp, Palm is also facing a dark future, Sterling said. “Palm is emerging as a takeover target, but it will be hard for Microsoft or Nokia to admit their current strategies have failed,” Sterling said.

This bathroom scale knows how much you weigh and it can blab it to your Twitter friends. Credit: Withings.

The most embarrassing new tech product of the year just got more embarrassing.

Last month, we let you know about the Wi-Fi Body Scale, the first bathroom scale equipped with a wireless connection to send your weight and body fat information directly to your Web page and iPhone.

But weight, there’s more.

Today the French company behind the scale, Withings, announced it has added Twitter capability to the scale, enabling the user to automatically tweet the weight/fat info to followers.

In a news release, Withings declared the Twitter function would be a great help to users, “further motivating them by sharing their progress with followers.”

Right.

What’s next for Withings? An app to let the Twitterverse know how much debt you’re carrying? How about a public questionnaire to rate how far you are from achieving your life dreams?

Come to think of it, either might be preferable to letting the weight info hit Twitter. This is Los Angeles.

This body scale puts your weight online. Credit: Withings.

Here’s maybe the best reason yet to make sure your Wi-Fi connection is secure from snoopers.

A French technology company, Withings, has introduced the first-ever bathroom scale with Wi-Fi capability. And if that wasn’t enough, it also has an iPhone app.

All you do is step on the scale, and your weight shows up on a personal Web page (hopefully, that’s secure too) or the phone screen where you can compare it to past readings. You can even get a graphic showing weight loss — or gain — over time.

This could perhaps bring on a new wave of smashed computer screens, or broken iPhones from them being thrown across the room.

The Wi-Fi Body Scale also measures body mass index and recognizes up to eight users, so the whole household can join in.

The price: $159.

In a press release, a Withings official declared that the company strives to make products “that make everyday life better.”

Well, in this case, it would depend on the day.

For all of you waiting for mobile data networks to catch up to broadband speeds on cable and DSL, the first 4G/LTE network has arrived . . . in Sweden (and Norway too). The Scandinavians get everything first when it comes to mobile, except the iPhone. TeliaSonera launched the first two cities of its 4G network, which promises wireless download speeds of up to 100 megabits per second (yeah, right) using equipment from Ericsson and Huawei.

SAN FRANCISCO — Two titans of the tech world, Google and Apple, may soon be engaged in hand-to-hand combat. Or, more precisely, handset-to-handset combat.

Google plans to begin selling its own smartphone early next year, company employees say, a move that could challenge Apple’s leadership in one of the fastest-growing and most important technologies in decades.

Google’s new touch-screen Android phone, which it began giving to many employees to test last week, could also shake up the fundamentals of the cellphone market in the United States, where most phones work only on the networks of the wireless carriers that sold them.

The company, using

the power of its brand, plans to market and sell the new phone directly to consumers over the Internet, and buyers would be able to sign up for service from any compatible provider, the employees say.

The introduction of a Google phone — manufactured to its hardware and software specifications by an Asian maker of handsets — would be an important and risky departure for Google. Until now, it has made software to power cellphones that are built and marketed by partners, and it has largely avoided selling hardware.

The apparent shift underscores the fact that mobile phones are quickly becoming the biggest technology battleground of the future, as consumers increasingly rely on their phones to browse the Internet and perform other computing tasks.

It also indicates Google’s determination to make its mark on yet another industry, as it has done previously in advertising, books and online videos.

But analysts say it is not clear that Google’s success on the Internet will carry over into the design, marketing and distribution of hardware. Many companies have tried to make similar shifts and stumbled. Microsoft turned the Xbox into a hit, but when it pushed aside its partners in the music-player business in favor of its own Zune, it failed to gain traction against Apple and its iPods.

The phone’s success could also depend on how Google chooses to price it. Most Americans buy phones that are subsidized by wireless carriers, which recoup that cost by locking customers into contracts. IPhones that cost consumers $199 actually cost AT&T about $550, analysts say.

Katie Watson, a Google spokeswoman, declined to comment on the company’s plans. She referred reporters to a blog post published Saturday in which Google said that the new device was a “mobile lab” that would let employees test out new technologies.

Google employees who spoke on the condition of anonymity because plans for the phone were supposed to be confidential said that the device, manufactured by the Taiwanese company HTC, was thinner than Apple’s iPhone, with a slightly larger touch screen. It could be available as early as January, they said.

Employees say the phone will be sold unlocked, meaning that buyers will be able to choose a service provider, and will be based on G.S.M. technology, which is used by AT&T and T-Mobile in the United States and by most other carriers around the world. It is named Nexus One, according to various reports and to digital traces that the phones have been leaving on Web sites.

Google had long insisted that it was not interested in building and selling phones, saying it preferred to rely on hardware partners and wireless carriers to market a wide variety of phones powered by Android, the operating system that it offers free.

In October, Andy Rubin, vice president of engineering for Android at Google, scoffed at the idea that the company would “compete with its customers” by releasing its own phone, according to the technology news service CNet.

Analysts say that the apparent shift signals a recognition by the company’s executives that Google needs to take more control of its destiny in the wireless world.

“They perceive mobile as the next major opportunity,” said Jeffrey Lindsay, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein. “It is too big a risk to drive the strategy through their partners. They want more say and more control.”

In addition, analysts say that the iPhone, despite prominently featuring some Google services, makes the company nervous.

“They don’t want to have access to Google being controlled or influenced by one player like Apple,” said Ben Schachter, an analyst with Broadpoint AmTech, a research firm.

Google wants to get more people using Web-friendly phones in part because it depends on the growth of search advertising, which is slowing on PCs. On cellphones, however, use of Google’s mobile search engine grew 30 percent in six months this year, Mr. Schachter said. “That’s huge, and a majority of that growth is coming from the iPhone,” he said. “When that happens, Apple has a lot of power over influencing users’ behavior.”

Until recently, Google and Apple were considered close allies with a common enemy: Microsoft. They shared two board members, Eric E. Schmidt, the chairman and chief executive of Google, and Arthur Levinson, the former chief executive of Genentech.

Last night, we started seeing some Tweets from Google employees and others about a new Android-powered Google phone that was apparently handed out at an “all hands” meeting. Now Google is confirming that it is indeed “dogfood” testing a new Android device with employees around the world.

But this isn’t just another Android phone. Very trustworthy sources who have seen the phone say that it is the Google Phone we first wrote about last month (despite the uninformed saying we were dreaming). It will be branded Google and sold by Google as an unlocked phone, which could change everything. As we wrote in our original post:

Google is building their own branded phone that they’ll sell directly and through retailers. They were long planning to have the phone be available by the holidays, but it has now slipped to early 2010. The phone will be produced by a major phone manufacturer but will only have Google branding (Microsoft did the same thing with their first Zunes, which were built by Toshiba).

There won’t be any negotiation or compromise over the phone’s design of features – Google is dictating every last piece of it. No splintering of the Android OS that makes some applications unusable. Like the iPhone for Apple, this phone will be Google’s pure vision of what a phone should be.

The phone itself is being built by HTC, with a lot of input from Google. It seems to be a tailored version of the HTC Passion or the related HD2 (Unlocker scored some leaked pictures back in October which are of the same phone).

Here are the details we know so far about the phone: It will be called the Google Phone and will launch in early January, 2010. It won’t be sold by any one carrier, but instead will be an unlocked GSM phone. In the U.S., that means T-Mobile and possibly AT&T, whose exclusivity deal with the iPhone is about to run out. It will be running Android 2.1

The phone is “really, really fast,” says someone who has seen one in action. It runs on a Snapdragon chip, has a super high-resolution OLED touchscreen, is thinner than the iPhone, has no keyboard, and two mics. The mic on the back of the phone helps eliminate background noise, and it also has a “weirdly” large camera for a phone. And if you don’t like the touchscreen keyboard, a voice-to-text feature is supposed to let you dictate emails and notes by speaking directly into the phone.