Did you accidentally flip the switch on that OTA update to RC30 on your G1 and currently find yourself stuck with a non-root lifestyle? Well thanks to forum member chavonbravo over at xda-developers, things are about to get awesome for you. You can now revert back to RC29 with ease by snagging the uploaded image, renaming, copying to your microSD card, and running through standard procedure for re-flashing the phone. We can attest that the hack does indeed work, so feel free to proceed. Word to the wise, though: getting up to a modded RC30 isn't as easy as some might have you believe, so set aside a little time to walk through the steps (check out ModMyGPhone's guide page for clear instructions).

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Well, the year has come and gone, and with it, our 365 -- or in this case, 366 -- days of posting. We've seen some pretty amazing stuff, gotten to play with a stack of awesome gear, and watched the site grow by leaps and bounds. We thought we'd cap the year off with a look back at the posts that got the most heat. Check out the top 20 of the year below, and be sure to truck over to Engadget and Engadget HD for their year-end round-ups!

Top 20 most trafficked posts of 2008 (in order)

1. BlackBerry 9000 in the wild
2. Samsung Omnia review
3. Verizon tells us all about the BlackBerry Storm's "WOW factors"
4. Nokia e71 review
5. Blackberry Bold release dates, pricing leak out
6. LG enV2, Motorola W755 in glorious detail
7. The better part of Nokias smartphone roadmap goes on display
8. Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 review
9. HTC Touch Diamond hands-on
10. Verizon's Samsung Glyde gets even clearer
11. Hands-on with Sprint's Touch Pro
12. HTC's Raphael and Diamond: coming to Sprint and looking good
13. BlackBerry Storm 9530 for Verizon gets boxed
14. iPhone 3G from AT&T: unlimited data for $30
15. Nokia's E66 and E71 in the wild!
16. RIM's BlackBerry Bold / 9000 gets official
17. Hands-on with Sony Ericsson's world-beating XPERIA X1
18. Verizon's XV6900 Touch, in all its shockingly white glory
19. Samsung Glyde in pictures
20. Verizon surprises no one with XV6900, Motorola Q9c, and LG enV(2)

Top 20 most trafficked posts during 2008 (in order; non-2008 posts in bold)

1. BlackBerry 9000 in the wild
2. Samsung Omnia review
3. Verizon tells us all about the BlackBerry Storm's "WOW factors"
4. Nokia e71 review
5. Blackberry Bold release dates, pricing leak out
6. LG enV2, Motorola W755 in glorious detail
7. The better part of Nokias smartphone roadmap goes on display
8. Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 review
9. HTC Touch Diamond hands-on
10. Verizon's Samsung Glyde gets even clearer
11. Hands-on with Sprint's Touch Pro
12. HTC's Raphael and Diamond: coming to Sprint and looking good
13. BlackBerry Storm 9530 for Verizon gets boxed
14. iPhone 3G from AT&T: unlimited data for $30
15. Nokia's aeon "full surface screen" cellphone concept
16. Nokia's E66 and E71 in the wild!
17. RIM's BlackBerry Bold / 9000 gets official
18. Hands-on with Sony Ericsson's world-beating XPERIA X1
19. Verizon's XV6900 Touch, in all its shockingly white glory
20. Samsung Glyde in pictures

A few other interesting numbers for you:

Total posts on Engadget Mobile in 2008: 4,171
Total number of comments: 48,471 (and counting)
Average comments per post: 11.6

An Apple patent unearthed by Mac Rumors named Swipe Gestures for Touch Screen Keyboards suggests a future direction the company might be taking which would substantially change interaction with devices like the iPhone. According to the document, the new system would allow for simple finger gestures like swipes to the left or right to control basic functions of text editing. Some movements outlined in the application include a left swipe for deletion of characters, right swipes for a space, and a swipe down in place of the return key. Of course, these types of gestures are nothing new (and frankly, nothing patentable we suspect), as applications on the company's own devices -- namely the jailbreak-only MobileTerminal -- feature almost this exact implementation of gesture control, and Microsoft has had a similar (albeit stylus-based) concept in WinMo for years. Still, adding in this functionality to the software's existing tools would likely improve navigation and input, and opens the door for solutions to the lingering (and annoying) copy / paste problems Apple seems to have.

[Via Mac Rumors]

According to reports today, Palm has managed to snag another $100 million from Elevation Partners (the private equity team co-owned by Bono). The new figure gets tacked onto Palm's existing $325 million buy-in from the firm. The previous sum was put towards the struggling handset / software-maker's "strategic recapitalization," and we can only assume this latest infusion is being used for the home stretch into that New OS and those New devices we're expecting see come CES. It's not completely surprising you'd want to juice your previous large investment, but if Palm's numbers keep shifting downward, it seems unlikely this will be anything other than a Hail Mary. Even if Bono loses $100m in his couch cushions, it doesn't mean Elevation Partners is in for the long haul.

Apparently the Motorola leak-fest begun yesterday hasn't come to a halt. After witnessing some compelling renders of smartphones the company has headed to Verizon, we're now privy to a set of featurephone / dumbphone mockups -- all courtesy of the Boy Genius Report. The new images show off a device supposedly called the "Niagra" (pictured), a slider in the vein of yesterday's "Calgary" QWERTY phone, a dowdy looking number called the "Fairbanks" (a PTT device), and a clamshell called the "Harmony." The latter two phones could hardly stoke much excitement, but the Niagra definitely gives us some hope for Moto's big comeback. Now -- these will all be powered by Android, right?

Well this has been a long time coming. It seems that the iPhone Dev-Team has finally done the impossible -- they've gone and unlocked the iPhone 3G. The hack isn't out yet (the team says they're shooting for a December 31st release), and it requires that you've got a baseband of 2.11.07 or earlier, but when it drops, the crew seems fairly confident it will result in freedom from carrier oppression. The team is packaging the app -- formerly codenamed "yellowsn0w" -- into a user-friendly app a la PwnageTool and QuickPwn. Of course, you know how this cat and mouse game goes by now, so don't be surprised when Jobs and company come calling with an update that adds toast making to the official menu, but breaks your breaks all over again.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

According to extremely reliable and embarrassingly handsome Engadget sources, at an iPhone event held today, John Geleynse (AKA Director of Technology Evangelism at Apple) made some statements regarding the iPhone platform that should seriously raise a few eyebrows. During an ADC "iPhone Tech Talk" in San Jose, Geleynse apparently waxed excited about the potential for the handheld as a viable threat to the DS (and the PSP by proxy), calling the iPhone a "gaming console" and claiming that "it's not a phone, it's a console experience." Pretty bold talk about a device that has yet to really prove its gaming mettle, but nothing new from the Apple camp as far as we're concerned. Considering these comments alongside those from a recent interview in which Greg Joswiak compared the touch to the DS, it seems clear that the company is making a noticeable effort to push this angle. Adding some fuel to that fire is PR that just went out announcing a series of EA "sneak peek" events at Apple Stores around the US. In their words:

Throughout the month of December Apple Stores in New York, LA, San Francisco and Chicago will host special "EA Games Sneak Peek" events where Electronic Arts will discuss why the iPod touch and iPhone are amazing platforms for mobile gaming...

While there's no question the iPhone and touch have made inroads when it comes to gaming, it still isn't clear that there's going to be anything beyond a casual interest for these devices. Then again, if the Wii's success has proven anything, it's that there's plenty of cash in casual if you can make it appealing enough. And you know how Apple feels about appealing products and money.

Since hearing about Nokia's foray into the world of home automation, our curiosity has been seriously piqued. Thankfully, our girl-on-the-scene Drita has captured video of the new software / hardware combo in action on the Nokia World show floor. It looks like a fully decked out system is going to run you a hefty fee (given all the components required), but can you put a price on the extreme laziness it will enable? We didn't think so. Check out the pics on Engadget and the thrilling video out after the break!

If you're like us, you haven't seen nearly enough of the N97 yet... right? Well fear not, faithful reader, as our intrepid comrade from Engadget Spanish, Drita, has nabbed a tasty hands-on with the phone in question. As you can tell from the pics, it's not quite as thin as its nearest competitors, but fairly sleek and stylish all the same (metal bezel and all), and that QWERTY keyboard looks practically edible. We're salivating at the thought of getting one to thoroughly put through its paces, but until then, let's all just sit back and soak in the handsome gallery below.

Need to do some serious stereo Bluetoothing? Here's your answer: Nokia's BH-601 headset. Want to totally win these without doing anything at all (well, almost anything)? All you have to do is enter a comment below. This is how it's done.

We'll put up a gadget on the site, and you can only enter it until the next gadget lands (usually within a couple of hours). If you miss your shot, sorry, we're moving on to the next gadget. Good luck! Oh, and don't forget the rules. (Yeah, there are always rules.)

• Leave a comment below. That's it! Who loves you, baby.
• You may only enter this specific giveaway once. If you enter this giveaway more than once you'll be automatically disqualified, etc. (Yes, we have robots that thoroughly check to ensure fairness.) You can enter different giveaways in today's Black Friday giveaways, but you can only enter this one once.
  
• If you enter more than once, only activate one comment. This is pretty self explanatory. Just be careful and you'll be fine.
  
• Contest is open to anyone in the 50 States, 18 or older! Sorry, we don't make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so be mad at our lawyers or US contest laws if you have to be mad.
  
• Winners will be chosen randomly.
• Entries can be submitted until the next contest goes up. After that we're all done. Good luck!
• Full rules can be found here.

Last round's winner: crk! (Remember, winners are selected at random.)

Special thanks to Reset Generation!

If you've been gritting your teeth and letting the PR onslaught of the iPhone 3G, Storm, and G1 knock you around as you waited for Nokia's entry into the widescreen, touchscreen superphone market -- that wait appears to be nearing it's end. Nokia has gone and gotten all official and release-y with it's anticipated (if somewhat disappointing) 5800 XpressMusic... or as we know it, the Tube. According to the company's PR, the device "is now, or will be soon" available in Russia, Spain, India, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Finland, "among others." If you'll recall, the phone boasts a 3.2-inch, 16:9 resistive touchscreen (hey, they throw in a guitar pick stylus), a 3.2-megapixel camera, 8GB of on-board storage, and the constant assurance that you're using a phone once called the Tube. No word on price or plans, but we expect cheap, and lots.

[Thanks, Pdexter]

Yesterday we sat down for an interview with Amol Sarva, CEO of the email-handheld startup Peek. We're in the midst of transcribing what was a fairly interesting conversation, but in the middle of our chat he proposed a pretty striking deal, and we wanted to put it out there (and to see the company put its money where its mouth is). Sarva and co. are pretty convinced that while the Peek may not be the perfect device for the hardcore gadget junkie, it is the perfect device for their moms or girlfriends (or boyfriends, we assume) -- in fact, they're so convinced that they're offering to pay a month of said junkie's iPhone or G1 bill (up to $150) if they buy a Peek for their mom... and girlfriend. According to Amol, if you buy two of the devices (which you can get for $79.95 right now) and activate them, the company will cover your November cellphone bill. Amol himself will be heading up this project, and as long as you place your order by December 1st, you can make the magic happen. Wildly, Amol says to just email him with the account info at: amol (at) getpeek (dot) com.

Recently we were sent a PR email about an iPhone app called BdEmailer. No big deal, press releases about new iPhone applications show up in our box in large bundles every day -- but this one was different. According to the release, the program is the "the first wide email iPhone app that supports client SMTP." That means, in essence, that it duplicates an exact function of Apple's Mail application on the iPhone and touch. That's kind of a huge deal, because up until this point we've been led to believe that this duplication of functionality is one of the company's red flags when it comes to approval. Now mind you, we're not complaining. The idea of having more apps to choose from for doing things like sending email is a great idea, but Apple... what the hell is going on? You refused MailWrangler and Podcaster for similar reasons, yet BdEmailer passes through your review process, SMTP functionality intact? This means one of two things as far as we can tell -- either you've relaxed your policies on duplicate functionality, or you've gotten incredibly lazy when it comes to approving applications. We're inclined to believe it's the latter, as BdEmailer has a fair share of bugs that need working out, but really, people need some clarification here on what will and won't pass -- and moving the goalpost all the time isn't going to help.

Oh M8, you've grown up before our eyes. It seems like just yesterday we were looking at your early incarnations and their uncanny similarity to certain other devices. And how could we forget those times we spent together waiting for you at trade shows, and mocking checking out your early hardware? And now look at you, all grown up and caught on video doing your thing. You know what? This actually looks pretty damn nice. Sure, the obvious major iPhone influence is still there, but we have to say, Jack Wong and co. have done a pretty good job of smoothing out this UI -- and we didn't expect to see multitouch working this nicely. Of course, the clip says more than we ever could, so go and wrap yourself in your grandmother's afghan, grab a steaming cup of coffee, head out to the porch of your 19th century farmhouse, and just listen to the wind chimes and smooth sounds of this video as you take a tour of the Meizu M8... after the break.

[Via MP4 Nation Blog]

Are you a classy sort of lady or gent? Looking for something understated and sophisticated to adorn your iPhone that says, 'Hey world, I've got refinement to spare'? You're in luck then, as German artist and rising accessories star Antje has created the bacon iPhone sleeve with which to adorn your precious, high-society gadget. It's the perfect thing to go with your meat iPod case, and your actual meat cellphone. Get them while they last for only €25 (or around $31), you foppish bon vivants!

[Thanks, Jesse]