So all that talk about Apple beating the iPhone hackers. Well, that didn’t last long. Already a method for downgrading the new firmware has been released, showing users a way to return their iPhone to the original firmware. Now it’s not perfect since you can’t use the iPhone as a phone, but come on, one step at a time. It might be harder to get phone functions back for a while, but Wi-Fi still works as well as all the third-party apps.

Though this would all be easier if Apple just let third-party companies easily create applications for the iPhone. People are doing it for free already. Why fight something that only makes your product worth more.

Within days hackers cracked the iPhone like the glass touch screen rolled over by car tires. Apple released a new firmware that freezes hacked or modded iPhones preventing users from accessing programs or services, possibly permanently.

The mainstream press has followed the thus far short give-and-take between Apple and iPhone hackers, and this sudden firmware update looks like a powerful win for Apple. But this is only because the mainstream hasn’t seen hackers battle and beat corporate America over and over again.

Video game consoles have been fighting a back-and-forth war between hackers freeing up console firmware. The console maker than updates the firmware, often for the sole purpose of blocking the hackers. But within a few weeks, a new hacked firmware gets released. Nothing is perfect.

Apple will discover the same painful challenge. In a few weeks or less, this new iPhone firmware will be cracked and people will once again be able to customize their iPhone until the next firmware gets released.

But as Between the Lines points out, Apple’s battle with hackers might cause more bad than good:

We do know none of these hacks to unlock the iPhone would be necessary if we had carrier choice. What’s the cost differential between adding a few carriers to the iPhone and wasting time developing software to outflank hackers?

Even with an extremely successful launch for the iPhone, Apple has started seeing their power getting the better of them. The mass of attention on their products, from the media to the early adopters to the general public, means little information can hide. Most people will never know or care that Sony blocks PSP hackers every chance it gets. But Apple battling hackers will get attention and at some point, the once sweet Apple might get too many sour stories affecting the taste. Apple thrives on rapid evangelical early adopters. After forcing users into one phone service, announcing a major price cut early, and now freezing people’s phone, there might not be enough of a good thing left to adopt.

Okay, so I wasn’t going to write about Halo (again), but this was too hilarious to ignore: geeks pranking geeks. Students from MIT upgraded the statue of John P. Harvard at Harvard Yard with a Master Chief helmet and assault rifle. I can’t wait for the spin-off.