Today Apple announced iOS 4.1, addressing many bugs (like iPhone 3G performance) as well as bringing new features like HDR photography, HD video upload and TV show rentals. Additionally, Apple previewed iOS 4.2, bringing this and more to the iPad.

Apple's targeted many bugs in the new iOS 4.1, primarily aiming to fix issues with the proximity sensor, Bluetooth, and the iPhone 3G's sluggish performance. On top of these fixes, a few new features made it into the mix. Additionally, Apple's releasing iOS 4.2 which will bring these updates, plus a few extras, to the iPad.

Many of the most vocal critics of jailbreaking — a group which includes Apple itself — have been quick in the past to cite the fact that hacking your smartphone is a violation of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, and thus illegal.

It wasn’t a bad argument, all things considered, but if you’re used to relying on it, you’re going to have to ditch it: the Copyright Office has just issued a new set of exemptions to the DMCA, making jailbreaking and unlocking your iPhone officially legal.

Last month I blogged about the VS 2010 Productivity Power Tools Extensions – a free set of Visual Studio 2010 extensions that provide some really nice additional functionality.

The initial Visual Studio Productivity Power Tools release included a bunch of really useful productivity enhancements – including a much fast

SQLite version 3.7.0 is a major new release of SQLite that features a new transaction control mechanism using a write-ahead log or WAL. The traditional rollback-journal is still used as the default so there should be no visible change for legacy programs. But newer programs can take advantage of improved performance and concurrency by enabling the WAL journaling mode.

SQLite version 3.7.0 also contains some query planner enhancements and a few obscure bug fixes, but the only really big change is the addition of WAL mode.

In April, Jeffrey Way provided us with a list of the “20 Mac Apps You’ll Use Every Day.” Not one to be biased, if you prefer Windows, this article rounds up the best programs available for boosting your productivity as a web designer.

It's been a long road, hasn't it? Well, in some respects, it hasn't -- in fact, it's only been about two years since development of Windows Phone 7 as we know it today kicked off -- but when you consider that this product will be replacing Windows Mobile 6.5, that puts things in proper perspective.

Apple today released the first beta version of iOS 4.1 and the associated software development kit (SDK) to developers. There is no word yet on changes included in the updates.

Earlier today we shipped the beta of the Windows Phone 7 Developer Tools.  You can download them here.

What is included in the Windows Phone Developer Tools

The Windows Phone Developer Tools Beta includes:

You can build just about any app you can imagine with App Inventor. Often people begin by building games like WhackAMole or games that let you draw funny pictures on your friend's faces. You can even make use of the phone's sensors to move a ball through a maze based on tilting the phone.

But app building is not limited to simple games. You can also build apps that inform and educate. You can create a quiz app to help you and your classmates study for a test.

Last week I published several blog posts that covered some new web development technologies we are releasing:

• IIS Developer Express: A lightweight web-server that is simple to setup, free, works with all versions of Windows, and is compatible with the full IIS 7.5.