Unlocking and jailbreaking the iPhone

Good to know

Needless to say that the iPhone was the pinnacle for the hi tech fans out there, I mean when the first pics and vids leaked any geek would drool to get its hands on it, including me, of course.
Of course, since then two and a half years past by and the iPhone is still a comparison to many new top brnd phones.
In the following I will save you some time, explaining what to do with your brand new iPhone and how to use it to its full potential and keeping your pocket untouched at the same time.

As you know we have three generations of iPhones out, so far:

The fisrt generation, also known as iPhone 2G:




The second generation, also known as iPhone 3G:




The third generation, also known as iPhone 3GS:

What you will need

A PC or a MAC with an internet connection

iTunes form http://apple.com/

An Apple ID, learn how to get it for free

... patience is a virtute

Firmwares

The biggest fuss now with all the software updates is not the firmware itself but the baseband firmware which is also changed, this happens to block the attempts of unlocking the baseband which gives you the free chioce for a decent operator.

Currently the newest firmware is 3.1.2 but to get it unlocked you will need to flash an earlier version for the baseband which is 04.26.08 not 5.11.7 which comes in the original 3.1.2 firmware.

In order to flash your own chioce of firmware into an iPhone you will need to hook it up with iTunes and press the button "Restore" whilst keeping the key SHIFT on your keyboard pressed, you will then be promted by iTunes to browse whichever firmware you like.
To save you some time check out the following links:

iPhone1,1 (2G) 3.1.2 (7D11) pwned activated IPSW

iPhone1,1 (2G) 3.1.2 (7D11) pwned UNactivated IPSW

iPhone1,2 (3G) 3.1.2 (7D11) pwned activated IPSW

iPhone1,2 (3G) 3.1.2 (7D11) pwned UNactivated IPSW

iPhone2,1 (3GS) 3.1.2 (7D11) pwned activated IPSW

iPhone2,1 (3GS) 3.1.2 (7D11) pwned UNactivated IPSW

Jailbreak

Jailbreaking basicly gives you more control over your device and saves you some headaches, it gives you the chance to try out some wondefull apps that otherwise you wouldn't know they existed. There is an app out there for just about anything you can thik of... (yes, crap counter too :P)

How to jailbreak your device, well there have been lots of programs for PCs and MACs, but the newest and by far the best option for you is "BlackRa1n", developed by geohot. All you have to do is go to http://blackra1n.com/, download the app, plug in your iPhone and run BlackRa1n, then click "Make it ra1n" and come back in two minutes.

As soon as your iPhone boots up go to the last page and you should see the icon that says "blackra1n", touch it and you should see this:




















Select Cydia or Rock then touch Install.
I recomend to use a wi-fi for the following steps as they are data consuming.

Free apps

Once you have installed Cydia, open it, choose the Graphical Interface and accept and install whatever updates is asking you to install, Cydia should restart, open it again, wait for it to load, then go Manage >> Sources and click "Add" and write the following: Http://cydia.hackulo.us and add it. You will get a warning, just ignore it, then you should install form this source "app sync for 3.1" and "Installous", by doing this you will be able to sync apps with iTunes. You can even download a cracked app, double click the *.ipa file and it will be automatically imported to iTunes and synced into your iPhone.

Unlocking

Currently the working unlock for the 3G and 3Gs is a soft unlock that can be found in Cydia, and it's free, just search for "Ultrasn0w"
For the latest news in unlocking your iPhone feel free to visit the Dev Team Blog http://blog.iphone-dev.org/