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Apple rolled out firmware 1.1.2 with the launch of the iPhone in Europe - Britain and Germany - over the weekend, as expected. The software upgrade installs when you connect the iPhone to a computer running iTunes.

And, as was also expected, said update broke the firmware 1.1.1 jailbreak, snatching the ability to run third-party applications from right under iPhone users’ noses … once again. Jailbreak is the term often used for hacking the iPhone to open it to natively software—applications that run in the operator system—and not remotely through the Safari Web browser, as Apple only allows today.

Fortunately for iPhone owners, the hacker community jumped on 1.1.2 quickly, developing counter measures to the firmware upgrade’s negative effects on application development right away.

First, someone posted instructions on the Hackintosh forums explaining how to downgrade to 1.1.1 from 1.1.2, should you have a change of heart after upgrading your iPhone's firmware.

Later on, and more importantly, the hackers at Conceited Software/TouchFree rolled out a 1.1.2 jailbreak. It is available for Mac OS X and Windows iPhone users. And is for both the iPhone and iPod Touch, which is basically an iPhone without the phone.

The jailbreak requires your iPhone is running firmware 1.1.1. So if you've upgraded to 1.1.2 or bought an iPhone with the upgrade on it already, then you'll need to downgrade to 1.1.1. A README.txt file explains how to do this.

Because the 1.1.2 jailbreak only works with iPhone's that have been activated officially through iTunes, the new jailbreak won't work for iPhones that have been hacked to run on non-official networks. Official networks include all of Apple's carrier partners: AT&T in the U.S., 02 in the U.K. and T-Mobile in Germany so far. Tuaw describes the new jailbreak, which it says takes about 10 minutes to implement, in detail.

In addition to killing the ability to run software natively, firmware upgrade 1.1.2 brings support for foreign languages—U.K. English, German, and Italian—a battery status indicator in iTunes, a "Custom" section for ringtones and, well actually, that's about it.

This back and forth between Apple and hackers will likely continue until at least February. When Apple said it would finally introduce a software development kit (SDK) to allow developers to create official third party applications for the iPhone.

In the meantime, by the close of business Friday, O2 reported 8,000 iPhone activations in the U.K. O2 says it's moved an unspecified tens of thousands of iPhones since launch, making Apple's smartphone its fasted seller ever. Less is known about how the iPhone performed in Germany. Dow Jones reports T-Mobile moved 10,000 the first day, however.