The most-hyped (if not anticipated) mobile phone in the history of mobile phones has recently published the first firmware update. For those not hip to the techno lingo - firmware is the “programming” that runs the actual hardware that runs a device.

Ordinarily a firmware update would not be newsworthy, but this is a special case. Since it was released, the iPhone was locked into a very proprietary scheme (par for the course with Apple products) that didn’t allow the user to easily make use of third party applications nor allow the user to take their rather expensive gadget to another network.  Certain industrious individuals had managed to unlock the iPhone and get the most out of the hundreds of dollars spent.

Apple’s recent firmware update undoes all of that hard work. For phones that have been unlocked, the phone has been rendered into what is commonly called a “brick” – that is, an unusable state. Topping that off, many (some say all) third party applications have been rendered unusable.

Here are some headlines:

Gizmondo downgrades the iPhone from “Wait” to “Don’t Buy”

Ars Technica has a list of what works, and what doesn’t, after the upgrade.

PhoneNews.com questions the legality of iPhone bricking. 

And remember, the Gphone is rumored to be arriving next month. 

As for this me, I’m quite happy with my BlackBerry.