It has been revealed that yellowsn0w (the popular iPhone unlock tool) has reached version 0.9.8, being capable of unlocking even iPhone 3Gs under firmware 2.2.1. While not announced on the iPhone Dev Team's blog yet, the makers of the tool tweeted the news just hours ago.

The iPhone Dev Team's post reads, “iphone_dev: yellowsn0w 0.9.8 is on Cydia for those who were seeing wifi or slowness issues with 0.9.7. This is NOT anything related to 02.30.03 baseband.”

At least one user confirms that “the Wi-Fi issue is gone on [his] UK O2 prepaid 3g 16gig running an O2 Germany and Swisscom SIM.” The post ends with a sincere “thanks” going out to the iPhone Dev Team.

An extended description of the update, as posted over at the hackint0sh forums, goes a bit like this:

“The 0.9.6 version worked for many but it had a hard-coded address for the airplane mode call. The hard-coded address changes depending on FW version (2.2 vs 2.2.1 so far). The 0.9.7 version tried to make it universal and applicable across all future updates. Although it worked for most people, it did have the side effect of keeping wi-fi off after the toggle. The 0.9.8 version fixes that at the expense of going back to hard-coded addresses. That affects us more than you.”

Softpedia doesn't condone jailbreaking / unlocking the iPhone / iPod touch or any other device. Using hacks may render your device unusable, or may considerably reduce the quality of your experience using the respective device.
This article has a purely informational purpose and doesn't, in any way, suggest that readers should go forth with downloading and using software like PwnageTool, QuickPWN or Yellowns0w. If you choose to download and install these tools, you will do so at your own risk. Unlocking / Jailbreaking your iPhone may violate your warranty, or the EULA with Apple and/or your cellular service provider.