While there are plenty of Mobile Safari alternatives in the form of Dolphin, SkyFire and iCab, Apple’s iOS iteration of its popular desktop browser could soon be facing a battle from Google, since rumor has it that the web company is developing Chrome for the fruit company’s ecosystem – an app which could be finished as early as this quarter.

The news that Google is looking to bring a Game Center-like feature to its Android smartphone and tablet operating system is a particularly interesting one, if perhaps not a surprising one.

Stefan Esser, also known throughout tech space as i0n1c, is without a doubt, one of the most talented iOS hackers around. While the Cydia community has been working tirelessly to find a jailbreak for the brand new, Retina-displaying iPad running the latest firmware, Esser has been ahead of the game since day one, and no sooner did he get his new device home, than he released pictures on Twitter of his achieved jailbreak.

While Apple’s iCloud has enjoyed a good start to its life as a fully-fledged cloud service, the Cupertino company recognizes the importance of constantly updating and improving it – particularly given Microsoft and Google’s recently introduced cloud-based efforts SkyDrive and Google Drive.

Popular jailbreak tool Redsn0w – compiled by the iPhone Dev Team – has just been updated with full support for iOS 5.1.1. You may have caught our tutorial, which detailed how one could jailbreak their device tethered using Redsn0w, although since it was a pre-iOS 5.1.1 release, users needed to “point” the tool to the older firmware.

Considering we are right in the middle of that period of uncertainty for jailbreak users, it stands to reason that those who are seeking an iOS 5.1.1 untether for their devices have some questions circling around in their minds. Pod2g, the French researcher who is currently in the community spotlight, has always done an excellent job of keeping people updated on progress and today is no different.

In the ever-expanding and ever-changing world of consumer technology, less is more, meaning that achieving certain end-results by exerting less effort is definitely something that appeals to users. We are beginning to see this way of thinking make its way into our gadgets through the use of quick and simple gestures, apps and tweaks that automate certain tasks, as well as the production and development of software like Apple’s Siri assistant.

With the Dashboard X tweak hitting Cydia recently, and looking forward to become one of the most popular packages we have seen for quite a while, the question which is surely going to be asked is – what widgets are currently available for Dashboard X? There are very few, in fact only two, I believe, at the time of writing, widgets that were actually created specifically for Dashboard X. But luckily for us all, the majority of Notification Center widgets work flawlessly with Dashboard X.

Apple has taken the decision to rename one of its iPad models in the face of criticism from a collection of countries, over the way the ‘WiFi + 4G’ iPad was named.

New photos of Ashton Kutcher have shown the actor walking the streets dressed entirely as the man he will be playing in an upcoming movie. That man is Steve Jobs, the former Apple CEO and co-founder who died last year.

With the iPhone Dev Team updating their popular Redsn0w jailbreak tool to include a method of downgrading A5-powered devices, it provides a perfect opportunity for those who may be sitting on the latest firmware with an iPad 2 or iPhone 4S to roll back to 5.0.1 once again in order to benefit from an untethered jailbreak. With pod2g closing in on his untether for Apple’s latest firmware and testing against the latest devices going all well, the need to roll back and jailbreak iOS 5.0.1 could be temporary, but the fact remains that a lot of users will benefit from this.

The build-up to WWDC always sees a plethora of rumors and conjecture, and the 2012 event is no different. As it is often the case, a new version of iOS is very much the hotly anticipated product this year, what may or may not find its way into the first beta being disputed across the internet.

New discoveries suggest that iOS 6 could be shown off at WWDC, with a beta iCloud web portal potentially giving away the secrets of the developer get-together that kicks off next month.

Whenever Apple releases a new version of their mobile operating system, the jailbreak loving public inevitably greet it with a mix of jubilation and hesitation. Investigating the firmware to see what features and upgrades Apple have added is obviously part of the fun, but knowing that they can’t immediately upgrade to it through fear of not being able to jailbreak their device for an indeterminate period of time is the downside of such a situation.

With Apple and Google competing for supremacy on so many different levels, it’s been known for a while that the fruit company wishes to eradicate the current stock Google Maps offering in place of its own version. Sources of 9to5mac have offered confirmation, while also going into some detail about the upcoming improvements.

The iPhone Dev Team has released the updated version of their Redsn0w tool which was teased a while back on Twitter by MuscleNerd. The update as you’d expect is a very significant one, and brings with it the support for downgrading the iPhone 4S, iPad 2 and the new 3rd-gen iPad to an earlier version of iOS 5 from iOS 5.1.1.

For those anxious to own an iPad but put off somewhat by it’s sky-high price tag, your luck might well be in, because the rumor mill is currently in overdrive with the news that Apple is to release a smaller iPad in October starting at as little as $200.

You could be forgiven for thinking that the Apple TV set-top box isn’t a very popular gadget amongst consumers, after all, it doesn’t really receive a great deal of attention thanks to being overshadowed by the insane popularity of the iPhone and iPad. With Tim Cook calling the little black puck a “hobby”, it’s evident that they aren’t placing as much emphasis on it as they are on other products, but that doesn’t detract from the fact that they have shipped well over 3 million units.

It was only a few days ago when i0n1c tweeted to the world that he had jailbroken the new 3rd-iPad running on the latest firmware. And now, famous iOS security researcher Pod2g has revealed to the world via Twitter that he has managed to jailbreak the new iPad – fully untethered.

If you check out any technology lover’s arsenal of gadgets, I am pretty sure it will contain pieces of kit that cover all aspects of the consumer electronics spectrum. In today’s day and age it isn’t uncommon to walk into a home office and see a desktop computer as well as a laptop or notebook, also accompanied by a smart mobile device such as Apple’s ‘Post-PC’ iPad tablet as well as the a smartphone like the iPhone.