Direct any iPhone 2g/3g unlock/jailbreak questions this way

[Siamey]

Ahoy,

After purchasing a melted iphone 3g (8gb) from a guy i worked for, and rebuilding it with some parts sent from HK (thanks ebay!) I now know my way around the iphone 3g pretty well. I have also dicked with the 2g (first gen iphone) a tad and feel comfortable advising people on it too.

I am by no means known as a resident tech at ocr but in this case I would be happy to advise and help anyone thinking to purchase or do anything to an iphone 2g or 3g, since ive invested about 30 hours into all the bs you have to go through to get things working properly.

If you have any questions about iPhone unlocking or jailbreaking (illigal according to the service agreement though not enforced, yet), what they are, why you would do them, and how to do them; please ask away.

I would also warn that if you are thinking of upgrading itunes or your iphone firmware, then do NOT until you find out what the consequences are, or you will end up like me, with no way out until the iPhone Dev Team releases their next batch of magic software.

Alrighty

[Jared Hudson]

In my opinion it's not worth it. With the 3.0 software and the App Store, I believe the cons out weight the pros when you jail break. It's buggy, it's slow, and god help you if you need to get it serviced. You better reload the original software ASAP. I've actually seen phones get fried by faulty software.

I hacked my RAZR to enable over the air bluetooth file transfer, but the iPhone is loaded to the roof with features where it doesn't make sense to jail break anymore. I'll trust the programmers in Cupertino rather than the Johnny Coder in mom's basement.

[Siamey]

I respectfully disagree with everything you just said. For one, you can't fry a phone with an app. If you were some crazy hacker, messing with the Mobile Terminal app and somehow found a way to over-ride some sort of low level... I don't even know how its possible, you'd have to physically modify it in some way, circuits just aren't built to fry themselves if software tells it to. Jailbreaking and Unlocking an iPhone has been made almost foolproof and very user friendly for both mac and pc users, thanks mostly to the iPhone Dev Team. I don't even know if it is possible to "brick" your phone during this process anymore, unless you deliberately disobey one of the the many warnings to "not unplug right now"

For two, Jailbreaking a phone doesn't change the way that the iPhone OS functions, so it isn't correct to claim that it makes it buggy or slow, it doesnt change the speed or functioning at all in fact. What it does to is allow programs that have been coded with the official iPhone SDK, but have not been "approved" by apple to be run on the iPhone.

Saying that this is a bad idea is like saying that you would be fine if Windows or OS X only allowed you to run software that was approved and distributed by Microsoft and Apple respectfully, it just doesn't make any sense for anyone who wants their computer (or smart-phone) to be a remotely functional tool.

Needing service on any iPhone that has been jailbroken or unlocked is as simple as plugging it into your computer and hitting "restore" in iTunes. Then you wait about 5 minutes and you have it an iPhone at factory default settings, ready for sending in for service or repair or whatever. When you send it in they will send it back to you with factory default settings anyways, even if you never unlocked/jailbroke it, so you have to back it up in both situations.

I'm not sure why you think that the iPhone is loaded with features; its taken 2 full years to get a simple "cut/copy/paste/" function built into the OS. The iPhone is notorious for lacking built in functionality. That is why jailbreaking is such a godsend. Also, I would like to point out that somewhere in the vicinity of 90% of the "new" features on every iPhone OS update are ideas ripped from a program available on the app store.

Voice dialing and shake2shuffle were available long before OS 3.0 my friend. I feel sorry for the independent programmers who try to make a couple bucks off their miraculous apps, only to have apple rip their idea and shove it clumsily into the next firmware update.

According to wikipedia, over 25% of all iphones sold in the USA are not registered with AT&T, and in the case of iPhone 3G, you must jailbreak it to unlock it. Thats a pretty big jailbreak user base.

Speaking of your RAZR, bluetooth OBEX file push is enabled based on what carrier you are with, not because of intentionally crippled firmware, like the iPhone. Jailbreaking the iPhone means you can enable bluetooth file transfer by the way, which is not available by default.

And what about Apples insistence that non-apple programs close themselves when the home button is pressed. The iPod program, or Safari can run just fine in the background, but non-apple programs are shut off by default. After jailbreaking, you can install Backgrounder, which simply turns off the "apple programs only" switch, and also gives you a "task manager" type menu to switch from program to program as well as perform many other useful tasks. Even if multitasking was the only benefit of jailbreaking it would still be completely worth it.

And lastly, the way Jailbreak apps are distributed are through a very secure and professional system. Anyone who wants to have their app distributed needs to have it sponsored by a trustworthy iPhone software source, and no viruses or bullshit programs get past that. The fact is that "Johnny Coder" in his basement consistantely makes the iPhone an awesome piece of technology, instead of the flashy, gimicky, shitbrick that steve jobs was shitting himself over back in mid 07.

[analoq]

I think the "out of the box" iPhone features are fine but at the same time I've had positive experiences with jail-breaking. There are certain kinds of apps that just aren't going to appear on the App Store.

The main reason I jail-break is to experiment with

on the phone. I don't have anything I want to put on the App Store so paying $100/year isn't worth it to me. Have you jail-broken the 3.0 software? I'm planning on trying it soon, let me know if there's anything to watch out for.

cheers.

[Jared Hudson]

I respectfully disagree with everything you just said. For one, you can't fry a phone with an app. If you were some crazy hacker, messing with the Mobile Terminal app and somehow found a way to over-ride some sort of low level... I don't even know how its possible, you'd have to physically modify it in some way, circuits just aren't built to fry themselves if software tells it to. Jailbreaking and Unlocking an iPhone has been made almost foolproof and very user friendly for both mac and pc users, thanks mostly to the iPhone Dev Team. I don't even know if it is possible to "brick" your phone during this process anymore, unless you deliberately disobey one of the the many warnings to "not unplug right now"

For two, Jailbreaking a phone doesn't change the way that the iPhone OS functions, so it isn't correct to claim that it makes it buggy or slow, it doesnt change the speed or functioning at all in fact. What it does to is allow programs that have been coded with the official iPhone SDK, but have not been "approved" by apple to be run on the iPhone.

Saying that this is a bad idea is like saying that you would be fine if Windows or OS X only allowed you to run software that was approved and distributed by Microsoft and Apple respectfully, it just doesn't make any sense for anyone who wants their computer (or smart-phone) to be a remotely functional tool.

Needing service on any iPhone that has been jailbroken or unlocked is as simple as plugging it into your computer and hitting "restore" in iTunes. Then you wait about 5 minutes and you have it an iPhone at factory default settings, ready for sending in for service or repair or whatever. When you send it in they will send it back to you with factory default settings anyways, even if you never unlocked/jailbroke it, so you have to back it up in both situations.

I'm not sure why you think that the iPhone is loaded with features; its taken 2 full years to get a simple "cut/copy/paste/" function built into the OS. The iPhone is notorious for lacking built in functionality. That is why jailbreaking is such a godsend. Also, I would like to point out that somewhere in the vicinity of 90% of the "new" features on every iPhone OS update are ideas ripped from a program available on the app store.

Voice dialing and shake2shuffle were available long before OS 3.0 my friend. I feel sorry for the independent programmers who try to make a couple bucks off their miraculous apps, only to have apple rip their idea and shove it clumsily into the next firmware update.

According to wikipedia, over 25% of all iphones sold in the USA are not registered with AT&T, and in the case of iPhone 3G, you must jailbreak it to unlock it. Thats a pretty big jailbreak user base.

Speaking of your RAZR, bluetooth OBEX file push is enabled based on what carrier you are with, not because of intentionally crippled firmware, like the iPhone. Jailbreaking the iPhone means you can enable bluetooth file transfer by the way, which is not available by default.

And what about Apples insistence that non-apple programs close themselves when the home button is pressed. The iPod program, or Safari can run just fine in the background, but non-apple programs are shut off by default. After jailbreaking, you can install Backgrounder, which simply turns off the "apple programs only" switch, and also gives you a "task manager" type menu to switch from program to program as well as perform many other useful tasks. Even if multitasking was the only benefit of jailbreaking it would still be completely worth it.

And lastly, the way Jailbreak apps are distributed are through a very secure and professional system. Anyone who wants to have their app distributed needs to have it sponsored by a trustworthy iPhone software source, and no viruses or bullshit programs get past that. The fact is that "Johnny Coder" in his basement consistantely makes the iPhone an awesome piece of technology, instead of the flashy, gimicky, shitbrick that steve jobs was shitting himself over back in mid 07.

Your last paragraph makes me laugh. You quickly forget that the iphone revolutionized the cell phone industry, creating something nobody, and I mean NOBODY had anything close to. Everyone was "shitting bricks" when it came out, including yourself, which you now have. You're talking shit about the original iphone, when even 2 years later, no one has come close, not even the Palm Pre. Also, comparing something like Voice Dial to "screwing over" independent programmers is ridiculous. Voice Dial was on my LG in 2004. They're recreating basic functionality available for years in a new SDK, but not ripping ideas from their app store developers. That's absurd (wait....Picasso / Jobs phrased that great arists STEAL.......you might be on to something). However, for basic functionality, that's like trying to copyright numbers. I admit it was stupid for apple to take that long for crap like copy/paste, but apparently that didn't matter to too many people. It's the most sold domestic phone in America.

Oh, and when did shake2shuffle start? Cause my records show September 08. App Store was out July 08. Are you going to tell me a black market app jailbroken phone had it first? Oh, and how clumsy is apple at programming again? Enlighten me.

Jailbreak for all I care. I won't deny the functionality it adds, but it also depends how deep you go in jailbreaking it. I still standby the fact that if you get heavy handed in the crap you jailbreak it with, it will hurt the performance (especially those shitty themes). Did I mention worse battery life? I know plenty of people who've jailbroken (heavily I might add), who by the way are VERY proficient in technology. I've seen it too many times first hand, and so have others.

If you're smart and selective, it can be a great thing. Eating a few chocolates is fine. Eating the whole fucking bag is just going to make you barf.

[prophetik music]

internet is serious business. jared, you take this too seriously. quit fanboying.

[Jared Hudson]

internet is serious business. jared, you take this too seriously. quit fanboying.

yet who's reply was 3 times longer than mine?

[prophetik music]

he's offering his services on a hobby that he obviously enjoys, and then you come in and complain that it's a useless hobby. who's in the wrong?

[Jared Hudson]

he's offering his services on a hobby that he obviously enjoys, and then you come in and complain that it's a useless hobby. who's in the wrong?

I believe it's a matter of perception. I may have come across that way, but to me, it's like teaching how to pirate software in a public forum, which is my main point. Oh sure it can be a learning process and have benefits, but that doesn't make it very ethical, not including the risks that could affect phones of curious users in this thread. For god sake, he's teaching people how to breach Apple and ATT agreements he himself said was "illegal". My recommendation is stick to the specialized jailbreak sites, and not flood the info into others.

The poster may have good intentions, but it may also bring bad results to many.

[Siamey]

lol i love the serious business line

I think that there is a difference between the legal and ethical implications of jailbreaking the iphone. I'm not so stupid to say that it is fine and right to try to rip off a company just because they are huge and have an obscene profit margin. I think this issue has far reaching implications in the field of free software. They are within their means to make crazy copy protection and security, but don't you think that it is within the user's rights to dick with it and make it more usable to him? I mean it doesnt even come down to stealing software.

This isn't like modding a ps2 or something, we're not trying to get commercial software for free here, just escaping from apple's creativity stifling policies. Yes they have investors and themselves to think about, but it makes me laugh at how their marketing department spews these McDonald's commercials where everyone is dancing and creating and collaborating, and then they bust out this communist iphone shit.

I think it has to do at least partially with the iTunes store and the amount of alternate music sources that a jailbroken or freed iPhone has at its fingertips. I can understand the conflict of interest but its on their shoulders.

I figure that since this is so common practice, and I have a lot of experience on the matter, that I could offer a hand. This isn't the same as pirating software or stealing cable Jared, any iPhone you purchase has already been on contract for 2 years (or bought out of it for a shitton of $$), and thus payed apple and ATT many times over what it took to make the product and market it.

I'd love for you to point out 1 risk of jailbreaking, 1 downside to the user.

You hit the nail on the head; my replies were pretty long, probably cause I have the time on my hands and its an interesting subject to me. Nothing wrong with that in my book. Anyways no hard feelings from my end, just a friendly discussion, 2 different sides of an interesting issue.

[Siamey]

I think the "out of the box" iPhone features are fine but at the same time I've had positive experiences with jail-breaking. There are certain kinds of apps that just aren't going to appear on the App Store.

The main reason I jail-break is to experiment with

on the phone. I don't have anything I want to put on the App Store so paying $100/year isn't worth it to me. Have you jail-broken the 3.0 software? I'm planning on trying it soon, let me know if there's anything to watch out for.

cheers.

Yea dude, I used redsn0w on my friend's 2g tonight and got it up and running. Seems like a lot of apps like winterboard and backgrounder(E-FUCKING-SSENTIAL) aren't compat with os3 yet, but maybe that was just a bug we ran into ourselves. Bossprefs I've heard isn't working well with 3.0, so thats a shame, but 3.0 is pretty snazzy in a lot of ways too, so its a trade off I guess. hehe what a stupid thing to say. everything is a trade-off, life is a trade-off.

Im gonna bust out the ultrasn0w unlock on my 3G next week some time when I install the new camera and put the case back together. I'll post how that goes in case anyone else is thinking of getting a 3G on a different carrier.

By the way, check out those speed test vids on 3G vs 3Gs. :/ man that new shit is faaast... at booting at least, but probably at almost everything else too. criminy

EDIT: hey analoq, you crazy iphone hacker, port us some fuckin spc/gym players already, im sick of having to use an emulator just to listen to some vg tunes. I haven't investigated the sdk myself but i keep having a recurring dream where someone ports audio overload to iphone and world peace endures. Think of that shit!!! I could have the entire SNES library on my phone, with lots of nsfs and psfs thrown in for good measure.

EDIT2: What I will probably do is upgrade to 3.0 so that the modem baseband is upgraded to the version that Ultrasn0w will unlock, then downgrade my firmware back to 2.2.1 so that all my jbapps will still work like butter, best of both worlds. We will see if this works in practice. My iphone was already at 2.2.1 when I bought it off that dude, so unfortunately I havent ever had it unlocked, since yellowsn0w was 2.2 only if i remember (or whatever firmware updated had baseband 2.28 )

[The Pezman]

I haven't hopped on the iPhone train yet, but now seems a better time than ever (barring me waiting another year or so for the multicore version). Of course, that's conditional on me being able to jailbreak the thing, so when compatibilities and updates are sorted out I'll be waiting. Does the hardware (i.e. 3G vs 3GS) make any difference?

The main reason I jail-break is to experiment with

on the phone. I don't have anything I want to put on the App Store so paying $100/year isn't worth it to me. Have you jail-broken the 3.0 software? I'm planning on trying it soon, let me know if there's anything to watch out for.

I'm not sure why you wouldn't want to put that on the app store (unless certain processes like wireless OSC transmission aren't normally available). With a bit of UI work I think that puppy would be very appealing to musicians desiring high quality sounds from the slim form factor. At least three from this forum alone. Depending on my experience with the phone, I'm definitely considering trying to create a few apps for some cash flow on the side.

As long as I've got you, what screen/voicecasting software did you use for your trackr demo?

[analoq]

I've had a few people express interest in some of the projects I've been working on. My only reluctance to share them is that I'd have to support them on some level. Writing software is a lot of fun, but maintaining software is a lot of work. It would slow me down from developing new projects.

But when I come up with something I think is worth maintaining I'll do just that and be making noise about it.

As long as I've got you, what screen/voicecasting software did you use for your trackr demo?

I looked at a bunch of them, the best one I found was Screenium but it's a bit expensive for what I wanted it for so I bought iShowU instead which was closer to what I was willing to spend.

Apologies to Siamey for drifting a bit, thanks for the 3.0 jailbreaking info though!

[Jared Hudson]

lol i love the serious business line

I think that there is a difference between the legal and ethical implications of jailbreaking the iphone. I'm not so stupid to say that it is fine and right to try to rip off a company just because they are huge and have an obscene profit margin. I think this issue has far reaching implications in the field of free software. They are within their means to make crazy copy protection and security, but don't you think that it is within the user's rights to dick with it and make it more usable to him? I mean it doesnt even come down to stealing software.

This isn't like modding a ps2 or something, we're not trying to get commercial software for free here, just escaping from apple's creativity stifling policies. Yes they have investors and themselves to think about, but it makes me laugh at how their marketing department spews these McDonald's commercials where everyone is dancing and creating and collaborating, and then they bust out this communist iphone shit.

I think it has to do at least partially with the iTunes store and the amount of alternate music sources that a jailbroken or freed iPhone has at its fingertips. I can understand the conflict of interest but its on their shoulders.

I figure that since this is so common practice, and I have a lot of experience on the matter, that I could offer a hand. This isn't the same as pirating software or stealing cable Jared, any iPhone you purchase has already been on contract for 2 years (or bought out of it for a shitton of $$), and thus payed apple and ATT many times over what it took to make the product and market it.

I'd love for you to point out 1 risk of jailbreaking, 1 downside to the user.

You hit the nail on the head; my replies were pretty long, probably cause I have the time on my hands and its an interesting subject to me. Nothing wrong with that in my book. Anyways no hard feelings from my end, just a friendly discussion, 2 different sides of an interesting issue.

Maybe you bought your phone out of contract, but a lot of people that read threads like this or jailbreak sites ARE still in contract. The main concern here is persuading newbies into doing something without knowing the consequences.

Risk: Denied Service

Downside to User: Denied Service, phone not covered under warranty.

Do anything you want with your own phone, it is yours. People just need to be aware that a jailbroken phone will be denied serviced at an Apple Store.

[kitty]

I don't really see the need (personally) to jailbreak as I've been very happy with my touch since the day I got it. I initially planned to jailbreak it but never got around to it. I bought a few apps through the store, namely Peggle, Zenonia, and some Japanese language apps to assist in my learning. Is there any advantage for a casual user to jailbreak other than to pirate software?

[SoulinEther]

You said you've replaced parts on an iphone... my friend has a Touch with a broken screen (only the glass - actual display is fine). Do you know how much a new one would reasonably run me, and how easy it would be to replace? I have googled this stuff and have found some videos and sites detailing the process, and am looking for deals on the screens.

Any advice/experience on the matter would be great.

[Siamey]

@ Soul

I've replaced the LCD and touch screen on an iPod Touch 2nd generation after my friend ran his over with his car. It was a fucking nightmare compared to ANY of the work i did on my iphone. The iPhone strips down into like 40 parts in a matter of minutes, and is apples best product yet

The iTouch is a lot more work because the bezel (read: plastic piece that frames the LCD)is attached to the body by weak glue and some snaps, which means you will probably end up breaking it in the process of getting the front off. You will need to buy a new touch screen off ebay, like I did. You will also need a new LCD if his lcd turns out to be glued face-to-face with the broken touch screen. A tip, the touch screen is also referred to as a "digitizer" on ebay, so that is what you are looking for.

You would probably do well to buy a front bezel as well, since you'll most likely snap it while taking the shit apart.

The most irritating part of the whole operation is putting the touch screen on again, because the flex cable (small ribbon cable that comes from the digitizer and plugs into the logic board, which is UNDER the bezel by this point) needs to be fed through a small place in the bezel, AND folded at a strange angle. plus you need to glue the digitizer down yourself, using superglue, and if you have made any mods to the bezel (to make it not such a bitch or something) then your touchscreen will slightly stick up above the metal rim, which means you need some sort of other case on it for protection.

Thats my experience. I would honestly just say... send it in to apple for $150 which last time i checked was how much they charged for out of warrenty repairs on an itouch. OR sell it on ebay and put that money towards a new one, since there are tech geniuses on ebay who will pay good money knowing they can replace the shit themselves.

In the end, the stress of it was totally not worth it for me, I almost would have rather payed his way to get apple to do it.

@kittykar I don't pirate any software, thats not at all why I jailbroke my phone. A casual user could take advantage of the myriads of productivity enhancing tools and tweaks available, for example:

Backgrounder. You know how safari and the iPod music player run in the background if you switch to another app? I mean they dont close themselves just because you press the home button to open another app. The only reason that all other programs close when you hit the home button is because apple designed it that way. Backgrounder simply enables "universal backgrounding" so that any app can run just like iPod or safari, in the background. I swithc seamlessly from safari to Kotoba! and back again when I am learning japanese. If I am playing Pokemon Blue in japanese, then sometimes i need to background the gameboy emulator to look up a word in Kotoba! also.

running IM+ lite or Facebook in the background is great, because no matter what you are doing, if you get a message from someone, your iPhone/iPod vibrates, and then you can switch back to it to answer them.

There are also a huge number of apps that let you skin your interface, and make it look awesome. I would recommend Winterboard for that

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=winterboard&sa=N&tab=wi&um=1

Also, you can organize your apps into folders, or have drop-down menus etc. Categories and Stack are great apps for this.

http://www.apple-touch.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/stack_application_launcher.jpg

If you don't want to upgrade to the 3Gs, there are many apps that reproduce 3Gs functionality.

I personally think that the "average user" can benefit a lot from jailbreaking.

EDIT for KittyKar: http://www.rapidrepair.com and http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/ are your bible if you decide to do it yourself.

@analoq. No worries dude, you're still on iPhones and shit, and thats what the topic is about.

@jared. where is your sense of adventure man? it sounds like you live in a cocoon, or in 40s USSR. I've already explained how simple it is to restore your product to a condition where it can be serviced be apple support personnel.

You're making it sound like I'm reaching into other peoples houses and jailbreaking their shit lol, I'm not forcing anyone to do anything, I'm just explaining the benefits of such a choice. If you can come up with any REAL downside to jailbreaking other than interrupting someones lazyness for about an hour, then I would be the first person to shout that shit from the mountain tops. The iPhone is a computer, and just like any computer system, it can get clogged and bogged with software, and eventually have decreased functionality. I reinstall Windows and OSX once a year approx because I use the fuck out of them. My mom doesnt, so she doesnt have to do that. If you use the fuck out of your iphone, then maybe at some point you'll have to factory reset it because its being a slowpoke, but jailbreaking is not directly responsible for that. Ive had iphone and iTouch slowdown syndrome from un-jailbroken units many a time.

[Siamey]

For anyone who cares:

The 3Gs is basically a 3G with a new bluetooth chip, an upgraded HSDPA antenna, a 3mp autofocusing camera (2.0 on 3g, and no autofocus).

It has 256mb ram, the the 3g has 128. The CPU is also new, and is about 200mhz faster, though it is also underclocked from stock.

Ive seen speedtests that show much faster boot time, and app load time based on this new hardware. Any other new "3gs only" features are not hardware dependant, and part of an age old tradition of apple playing tricks on an ignorent user base. What I mean to say is, they could all have been included with OS3.

[SoulinEther]

@ Soul

Lots of valuable text here.

K, so if i'm understanding correctly, the digitizer and the glass are actually one item.

...making the list of stuff I would need to buy:

• A Touchscreen/digitizer which is part of the glass screen
  
• An LCD if the broken digitizer is glued to the current LCD.
  
• A front bezel in case i fubar the old one.
  

I saw a video demonstrating the process for a first gen iTouch (which is what my friend has) and the LCD didn't seem to be glued. I might just get it as a precaution, still.

I've already opened up a few older ipods before... just on principle the idea of replacing the front panel where there's a touchscreen and stuff is not appealing to me. My friend's iTouch's screen is just cracked - it still functions properly. I have no problem with going through the hell of fixing it, even seeing that i'd have to completely disassemble the damn thing to reach the screen.

Oh... and about how long did the process take you?

Thanks. I'll think about it.

[kitty]

Always been a sucker for skinning things. Also the repair guides are for soul . I'm still running 2.2 firmware, should I upgrade to 2.2.1 or 3 to jailbreak my ipod touch? And is there a difference between jailbreaking the touch vs. the iphone?

[SoulinEther]

Always been a sucker for skinning things. Also the repair guides are for soul . I'm still running 2.2 firmware, should I upgrade to 2.2.1 or 3 to jailbreak my ipod touch? And is there a difference between jailbreaking the touch vs. the iphone?

Whoa thanks for pointing them out, lol, I would have missed 'em.

[Siamey]

lol my bad guys. Thanks for pointing that out kittykar, it was just one of those nights. I swear by those sites for all the repairs i do in the mac world.

@soul, sorry, i misunderstood something you said and assumed your friend had a 2nd gen itouch, and thus tailored my commentary towards 2nd gen. The first gen might be a trifle easier to handle, in fact it might be much less of a nightmare.

I would check some of the breakdown guides for 1st gen iTouch on those sites and see if there are any steps that are a hassle. I hope it is less bullshit than I had to deal with. I would warn against making any purchases without careful review of the parts youll need. You might not even need the bezel or lcd if it is put together much differently than the 2nd gen.

Lets hope that the 1st gen is more like the iPhone 3G universe, where the bezel holds the digitizer in with snaps instead of glue, and there is peace on earth.

I was learning about the iTouch while i repaired his, so all in all it was about 1 or 2 hours work, spaced out to 2 weeks, since i ordered the bezel after the new lcd and digitizer arrived and i realized we needed a new bezel, etc etc fucking problems.

@kittykar

If I am correct in remembering that you have an iTouch, then upgrading to firmware 2.2 or 2.2.1 is not a big deal, where as I would reccomend all iPhone 3G users stick to 2.2 for now, since 2.2.1 adds irreversible changes to modem firmware, making it un-unlockable until you hit OS 3.0, which I am avoiding for now.

* If you have 1st gen iTouch then you can use Redsn0w to jailbreak it. RedSn0w is an easy-as-pie wizard which can jailbreak 1st gen iTouch and install Cydia on it. Cydia is like the "app-store" for jailbroken apps.

* If you have a 2nd gen iTouch, then you can use QuickPWN to jailbreak it.

QuickPWN is another simple program like Redsn0w, which will walk you through it step by step.

In both cases, you will need some suplimentry files, such as the firmware file (.ipsw) with the same version as your installed firmware (meaning if you are running 2.2, then you will need the 2.2 firmware ".ipsw" file).

These are the official software torrents from the iPhoneDevTeam

http://thepiratebay.org/user/iphonedev/

download whichever tool you need for OSX or Windows, then find the ipsw file for your firmware and save it to your desktop or wherever you installed quickpwn or redsn0w.

There are many guides on the internet for doing this and they walk you through it with baby steps. It is extremely simple to do.

I am not running 3.0 because:

1. it is still buggy

2. most jailbreak apps haven't been updated to work on 3.0 yet

3. most, if not all of the features that 3.0 gives you are already available through jailbreak apps. I also find these to be faster and more innovative and customizable than the apple counterparts in 3.0

If you want to run OS 3.0, there are even MORE guides on how to jailbreak that. I would try the Guides section at ModMyI

http://modmyi.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

Sorry if all that shit was unorganized and messy, just ask me any specific questions if i missed something, or if something is unclear and I'll do my best to answer!

EDIT: if you are having trouble finding the ipsw files, just tell me and I can dig some up for you.

There are a lot of different methods for jailbreaking and unlocking (unlocking means enabling the phone to run on another GSM carrier other than ATT, such as T-Mobile or SprintNextel, and thus the process of unlocking only applies to iPhones and not iTouch, though they both can be jailbroken, and in the case of iPhones, need to be first JB before they can be unlocked)

In answer to your question about the difference between jailbreaking iTouch and iPhone, they are mostly the same method, though in some cases the software (like PWNage, QuickPWN, redsn0w) that you are using might not work with the latest firmware update, or has been deprecated in favor of another software. It is really a case by case basis, but the overall method is the same. If you jailbreak your iTouch, you should really have no problem jailbreaking someones iPhone for them, though it might require 5 min of reading on how which program to use for their iPhone model and firmware. AHAHA redundancy is fun, sorry for the repetition.

EDIT2: If you are running 2.2, then there is no reason to upgrade to 2.2.1 unless there is some feature or crucial bug fix that you know about in 2.2.1

I do not know of one personally

[kitty]

Alright it's been a while.

First, I've decided to jailbreak my iPod Touch 2nd gen with 2.2.1 official firmware.

I got the necessary tools, namely Quickpwn 2.2.5 and I have a copy of the official 2.2.1 firmware for 2g iPod touches downloaded with iTunes saved on my computer.

The problem: Neither Quickpwn nor redsn0w recognize the ipsw file that I got through itunes. I also tried downloading the firmware from other sources, no luck. I'm running Windows 7 32-bit and I tried running the programs with administrative priviledges. I also tried compatibility settings to WinXP service packs 2 and 3, again no luck.

Any suggestions?

[tatehermosa]

Saimeye,

I recently had a failed attempt at using redsn0w to upgrade to 3.0. To make matters worse I reset my phone back to factory defaults and now I need to know how to unlock it from v2.2. My iPhone is a 3g and I'm using Vista Ultimate but I also have a Macbook pro with Leopard.

Any tips would help.

Thanks,

Tate

[Siamey]

This post is for tatehermosa:

(As for kittykar, I would recommend deleting the firmware that you got from iTunes, and downloading the 2.2.1 firmware from the site in this post. Then go into iTunes and hold shift while you click the "restore" button, this will allow you to select your own firmware file to use for the restore. Browse to the file you downloaded and restore using it. Then try redsn0w again. If this doesn't work....

OH fuck I just read over your post again and realized you already tried this. OK umm try running this entire process on a WinXP computer, I have had headaches and little success jailbreaking 2nd Gens on windows 7, and compatibility mode wouldnt help in this case). If you still have no luck then I would ask if you have ever brought the iTouch past 2.2.1, because downgrading the firmware could be fucking with it. Forgive me if 2.2.1 is the latest firmware for iTouch, the have been off my radar for a while.

So step 1, make sure you are using the latest version of redsn0w, from an official devteam torrent (links are in this post) and have RESTORED (factory reset) the phone using the exact same firmware you are trying to tell redsn0w to use afterwards.

step 2, try on an XP computer.

step 3, come back and yell at me and ill try to help.

Ive set this thread to email notify me of replies now, so ill be back asap this time, sorry about the wait.))

tatehermosa stuff starts here:

An important distinction to make is that redsn0w is only for jailbreaking the firmware, not upgrading it. Perhaps you already know this and it is just semantics we are differing on, but I have seen some botched iPhone projects because of upgrading rather than restoring, and other combinations of processes, so lets start from the top and try this:

1. download redsnow .8 from piratebay (the link for the official iPhone devteam torrents is on their site, on the left nav bar) http://blog.iphone-dev.org/

2. download the 3.0 (NOT 3.0.1) firmware from http://www.felixbruns.de/iPod/firmware/ (select "iPhone 3G (3.0/7A341)" from the second dropdown menu and click download) save this to your desktop using firefox preferably, and definitely not Safari.

3. Fire up iTunes 8.2 (or download it if you don't have this version yet) and pop in your iPhone, then on the main page click the restore button, or "restore and upgrade" if that is how the button appears. Click yes to all the things it tells you. What we want to be careful of is that we did not simply click the "upgrade" button. Restoring to factory default settings is important when performing any upgrades because otherwise the jailbroken programs can get f'd up. Better to just start fresh, then we know we are cutting out all the variables for error in the jailbreak process.

The iTunes dialog box will pop up asking if you want to install firmware 3.0.1, and we want this because it is essentially 3.0 with one bug fix, and it does not affect our ability to jailbreak and unlock the phone.

Let it do its business, and once the phone restarts itunes will probly bitch at you because you have a non standard SIM in the phone. shut down iTunes and fire up redsn0w .8

The first page of redsn0w will ask for the CURRENT ipsw file, the current firmware that is installed on your phone. You want to select the 3.0 firmware file that you downloaded from the website for this, NOT the 3.0.1, because redsn0w has not been updated to recognize this as a valid firmware file yet, and there are no changes in 3.0.1 that redsn0w cares about, so directing it to the 3.0 IPSW file is fine. These directions come directly from the DevTeam, so it is legit.

Once it says "IPSW successfully identified" or something similar, click next and it will do some loading. Now make sure you have your iPhone plugged in, and turned off. This means hitting the home button to turn the screen on, then holding the power button down until the red power slider appears, then drag your finger to the right to power down the iPhone. Give it a minute to power down, then click next in redsn0w and get ready for the old finger tricks to bring the device into DFU mode. Don't worry about botching this, it won't brick your unit, at the very worst redsn0w will ask you to do it again.

Once the redsn0w screen goes to the next page, with the loading bar, you can release your fingers and sit back and watch the funny graphics on your phone as it jailbreaks it. I especially like the steve jobs cartoon with the Cyrillic text.

Once it is all jailbroken and has rebooted a couple times on its own etc etc, you can fire up cydia or ICY (i forgot to mention that redsn0w gives you an option to install one or the other, or both) (ICY is similar to cydia with a different interface, some say faster, I still prefer cydia though. I think icy is just a different frontend for the cydia system)

Anyways, fire one of them up, wait for it to do its one-time-fresh-install bullshit, it might restart springboard, then fire it up again and add "repo666.ultrasn0w.com" without the quotes to your repository list, then search for ultrasn0w and download it.

It should be at version .9 I think. Now your iPhone should be unlocked. If you are on T-mobile then turn off 3G using settings or SBSettings since it will just drain your battery and won't work anyways.

once you have installed ultrasn0w, the phone should be unlocked

If this didnt work, please detail where it started to go wrong, and we will go from there. It is possible that vista is the culprit, but I've unlocked on vista before too. I apologize for going overboard on the steps and baby-talking the tech jargon cause I'm sure you know most of this stuff already but I just wanted to do a full run-through of the procedure before we start troubleshooting it.

I hope it goes well but if not we'll figure it out.