Mac Password

Apple doesn’t allow iPhone users access to the entire filesystem. By jailbreaking your Apple iPhone, you can gain access to your complete filesystem. This allows you to run any type of code that you want, install any application that you want. Without jailbreaking your iPhone, you cannot unlock your phone. Unlocking your phone enables you to use it on any network that you desire. iPhones in the US are chained to AT&T’s network. Jailbreaking allows you to bypass that restriction and use your iPhone with any cellular network.

Another advantage of jailbreaking is that it allows you to install applications from third party application stores like Cydia. On an unaltered iPhone, you can only install applications from the Apple iPhone Appstore. Now some applications aren’t allowed on the Appstore due to certain restrictions. Those apps generally make their way to Cydia which you can use to download and install them.

Before iPhone 4 OS (iOS 4) was released, jailbreaking was the only way to enable multi-tasking on your iPhone. Jailbreaking also allows you to customize your application icons and enabled internet tethering. It also allowed you to sort your apps with categories and folders. But now, most of those features are also provided by the iPhone 4 OS (iOS 4). The only major advantages that now remain are access to the unofficial Cydia App store and unrestricted internet tethering. You can check out the Top Ten Cydia Apps to help you decide.

Jailbreaking your iPhone is safe for the most part. The software jailbreaks can be easily reverted without harming your iPhone. Around 10% of all iPhones are jailbroken. Now that the iPhone 4 is out, you can expect a new jailbreaking hack to be out soon.

There are many tools available online which you can use to jailbreak your iPhone for free. Some of them are whitesn0w, redsn0w, quickPwn, Pwnage Tool, blackra1n etc. Currently jailbreaking tools are available for all the iPhones – iPhone 2G, iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS as well as for the iPod Touch. No tool has been released yet for iPhone 4, but that can be expected soon.

The QuickPwn tool by the iPhone Dev Team can be used to jailbreak iPhone OS 2.0 to 2.2.1 on Windows, Mac and Linux. You can also use redsn0w to do it. The PwnageTool is available for all versions from 2.0 onwards – 2.0, 2.1.1, 2.2.1, 3.0, 3.0.1, 3.1.2 and 3.1.3. Even the latest version has been released – PwnageTool 4.01 for iOS 4.0 on the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS and iPod Touch. One disadvantage of PwnageTool is that it can be used only on a Mac.

There is another tool called blackra1n which was released by George Hotz. It can be used to jailbreak the iPhone OS versions 3.1.x. A version of PwnageTool for Windows, sn0wbreeze was released by the team iH8sn0w too.

How to Jailbreak your iPhone

If you currently have an iPhone, you most probably have the OS version 3,0.x, 3.1.1, 3.1.2 or 3.1.3. If you have upgraded your OS via iTunes in the last day or two, you must have iOS 4.0 running.

I will show you a way to jailbreak each of these OS versions.

Jailbreak OS 3.1.1 and 3.1.2 using blackra1n

The blackra1n tool is available for both Windows and Mac. It can be used to jailbreak your iPhone if the OS version is 3.1.1 or 3.1.2.

Just go to http://www.blackra1n.com/ and download the blackra1n tool.

Open it and connect the iPhone to your computer. Click on the “make it ra1n” button.

This will place your device into recovery mode and start the running blackra1n. Your device will reboot soon. After the reboot, you will see a blackra1n icon on your iPhone menu. Your iPhone is now jailbroken. You will see the option to install the Cydia, Rock or Icy app store on your iPhone. After installing it, just click on uninstall blackra1n to remove that icon.

Jailbreak OS 3.1.2 or 3.1.3 using Spirit.

The Spirit tool can be used to jailbreak iPhones running OS version 3.1.2 and 3.1.3.

Just download Spirit from http://spiritjb.com/win and extract the tool from the archive.

Run the tool after connecting your iPhone to the computer. After the iPhone is shown connected in the Spirit tool, just click on the Jailbreak button. After the jailbreak is complete, quit the Spirit application.

The process is similar for both Windows and Mac users.

Jailbreak or Not?

If you’re still wondering whether you should then perhaps Why should I need to Jailbreak my iPhone? will persuade you.

To Jailbreak iPhone 4.0 OS or iOS 4, you can use either Pwnage Tool or redsn0w. I will explain that process in the next article of this series.