The latest version of ultrasn0w has just hit Cydia with support for unlocking additional devices under iOS 5.0.1. You’ll need to have a compatible baseband in order for the unlock to work. Below is a list of compatible devices and basebands.

This version supports the following devices and basebands on iOS 5.0.1 –

• iPhone 3GS – 04.26.08 – 05.11.07 – 05.12.01 – 05.13.04 – 06.15.00
• iPhone 4 – 01.59.00

If you’re planning on upgrading from an older firmware, make sure you preserve your baseband with a program like sn0wbreeze if you need an unlock. Then follow our guide on how to unlock your device via ultrasn0w on iOS 5.0.1. If you need more help, make sure you check out our jailbreak and unlock forums too.

An untethered jailbreak for A5 devices (iPhone 4S and iPad 2) has finally been achieved according to pod2g’s most recent blog entry. He updated his blog yesterday stating he had hit a stumbling block but would update us today again. He’s kept true to his word and let us know today that he’s overcome the cache issue and achieved an untether.

OK, figured it out, the A5 cache is not a problem anymore. I sorted it out by doing the untether in a single thread and by flushing all the dcache then all the icache in a row at a strategical point of the process.

Saurik helped with launchd boot process so they’re one step closer to a stable jailbreak. Props to pod2g and saurik for all their hard work. I can’t wait to jailbreak my iPhone 4S as soon as a tool is updated and released. Anyone else jumping for joy at this news? I know I am! Check the source link for all the details.

Source: pod2g

TmoNews is reporting that some unlocked iPhone users may be picking up T-Mobile’s 3G network in small areas of the Pacific Northwest — specifically limited pockets in Nevada, Utah and California — due to spectrum reallocation under the 1900MHz band.

Most unlocked iPhone users are relegated to 2G due to most of the T-Mobile 3G network running on the AWS spectrum of 1700MHz/2100MHz. We’re not exactly sure what they’re reallocating the spectrum for, however, multiple reports have surfaced from Howard Forums detailing a jump in speeds and, more specifically, the 3G network indicator popping up in the statusbar on their unlocked iPhone.

It’s possible that T-Mobile could be testing spectrum allocation for new devices or simply to expand their network range for existing devices that already support the 1900MHz band, but again, there’s no concrete evidence on what precisely they’re up to. If you’re lucky enough, however, you may be able to hop onto their 3G network depending on the area you’re in.

Source: TmoNews via Howard Forums 1, Howard Forums 2

If you’ve updated your iPhone 3GS to iOS 5 or 5.0.1 and lost your unlock we can help you get it back. The actual jailbreak will be tethered but you’ll still be able to unlock and continue using your device in the mean time until an untethered jailbreak solution is released. iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S users should steer clear of this as it will not work.

Devices supported

• iPhone 3GS

What you’ll need

• RedSn0w 0.9.9b5 or later, we recommend the most current version which is RedSn0w 0.9.9b8 – Mac Link, Windows Link
• A working SIM card (doesn’t matter what carrier as long as it’s activated and working)

Jailbreak with RedSn0w and Install the iPad baseband

You’ll follow the same steps are you would to jailbreak via Redsn0w except for one difference. Instead of just checking Install Cydia you’ll need to check off Install iPad baseband. RedSn0w will warn you that this can not be undone. Agree and continue the jailbreak process.

Boot Tethered

After jailbreaking you’ll need to perform one tethered boot before unlocking. Simply launch RedSn0w again and click Extras. Check the box for Just boot tethered right now. You’ll be walked through DFU mode and your phone should reboot.

Install UltraSn0w

After your phone reboots you’ll need to perform the following steps to unlock it:

Known Issues

A few users have seen issues where their phone will not obtain service after using ultrasn0w on iOS 5 or iOS 5.0.1. If you have this issue, launch RedSn0w once more and choose jailbreak again. Instead of going through the whole process this time, you only want to check Deactivate. Do one more tethered boot and you should be good to go!

If you need more help, visit our TiPb jailbreak & unlock forums for answers to many common questions and to ask your own!

Update: Some users are pointing out that using RedSn0w 0.9.9b8 is breaking GPS functionality again but using RedSn0w 0.9.9b7 doesn’t. So if you’re having that issue, try using the beta 7 version instead. Thanks to all that tipped this!

If you’re a prospective iPhone 4S user who’s patiently waiting for an unlock, you may get one soon. According to Musclenerd, long time member of the iPhone Dev-Team, they’ve got an unlock for the iPhone 4S in the works that looks promising. This is exciting news considering the iPhone 4S is currently the only device that can’t be unlocked with Ultrasn0w.

Crazy Thanksgiving weekend! Very promising 4S unlock is in the works (Not i4, just 4S..that’s crazy part)

Musclenerd posted the above image with his tweet about an iPhone 4S unlock. We’d still need a jailbreak for the iPhone 4S in order to unlock it. A jailbreak is also rumored to be in the works as well. You can help the jailbreak community find one faster by sending your crash reports to the Chronic Dev-Team via their new Crash Reporter tool as well.

Any of you out there holding off upgrading or purchasing a 4S due to the need for an unlock?

• Insert original carrier AT&T SIM cardDial 611 for AT&T customer service hotline and drop the call
• Turn on Airplane Mode
• Take out AT&T SIM card
• Insert T-Mobile SIM card
• Make sure WiFi is off ( also tap on ‘Forget this Network” to make sure it doesn’t connect automatically later)
• Switch off Airplane Mode and iPhone will search for network. This is followed by the Apple splash screen appearing.
• Activation Required will be displayed on the screen
• EDGE network will activate automatically – notice the ‘E’ on the top left corner of the screen
• Wait for about 20-30 seconds and turn off the phone
• Turn on iPhone and the same Activation Required screen will be displayed
• When you see one signal bar, tap on Use Cellular Connection
• Eject SIM card
• Activation Required screen will be displayed the second time
• Insert SIM card
• Unlocked!

Source: 9to5Mac, @Chronic, Danielscalab.com

The iPhone Dev-Team has gone ahead and updated UltraSn0w as planned with full support for unlocking your iPhone 3G, 3GS and iPhone 4 under iOS 5.

UltraSn0w 1.2.4 is available in Cydia now and supports iPhone 3G and 3GS basebands 04.26.08, 05.11.07, 05.12.01, 05.13.04, and 06.15.00. Remember, If you’re trying to unlock your iPhone 4, the only baseband currently supported by UltraSn0w is 01.59.00.

You’ll need to jailbreak your iPhone running iOS 5 before getting started. It’s possible to preserve your baseband on the iPhone 4 while still updating to iOS 5 by using the latest version of Redsn0w for Mac (a Windows version is in the works).

Got any questions? Just jump into our jailbreak and unlock forums to help you along the way!

Source: iPhone Dev-Team

iOS Dev-Team member MuscleNerd says that UltraSn0w will be updated as soon as tomorrow with support for iOS 5, allowing iPhone users to unlock their device to use on unsupported carriers.

will coordinate ultrasn0w iOS5 compatibility update to come out after a planned MobileSubstrate update tomorrow

Keep in mind that the UltraSn0w unlock will only work for 01.59.00, 05.11.07, 04.26.08, 05.12.01, 05.13.04 and 06.15.00 basebands, so if your baseband differs from these you won’t be able to unlock your iPhone using UltraSn0w until the Dev-Team finds a new exploit.

It’s currently possible to upgrade your iPhone to iOS 5 while preserving your baseband using the current version of RedSn0w, which you’ll also need to jailbreak your iPhone before starting.

Will you be unlocking your iPhone with UltraSn0w?

Source: MuscleNerd

It hasn’t even been a full day since Apple seeded iOS 5 GM to developers, but the iPhone Dev-Team has already updated Redsn0w to fully support the gold-master release.

redsn0w has been updated to 0.9.9b3 to auto-detect iOS5 GM firmware. Remember: it’s still tethered for all devices except for iPhone 3GS with old bootrom. If you don’t use redsn0w to “Just boot” at power up, all jailbreak apps (and even some native ones like MobileSafari) will fail to launch.

If you already jailbroke the GM by pointing an older redsn0w at the beta7 IPSW, there’s no need to re-run the full jailbreak step again…just use this newer one to make the tethered boot easier

The following devices are supported under Redsn0w 0.9.9b3a.

• iPod touch 3G
• iPod touch 4G
• iPad 1
• iPhone3GS
• iPhone4 (GSM)
• iPhone4 (CDMA)

It’s important to note that this does not support unlocking your iPhone, and those requiring an unlock should stay away from iOS 5 completely until an unlock is available. Additionally, this is still a tethered jailbreak (unless you’re on an older bootrom) which means you’ll have to plug it into your computer each time a reboot is needed.

We’ll have a full how-to up shortly to help you through the steps of jailbreaking under iOS 5 GM.

Source: iPhone Dev-Team

In a company blog post earlier today, Cole Brodman, Chief Marketing Officer for T-Mobile USA, told customers that they were interested in offering a “no-compromise iPhone experience” on their network, but offered little details on the negotiations between the carrier and Apple.

We’ve heard from many customers who love their T-Mobile service, but are disappointed that we don’t carry the iPhone. To these customers, first, thank you for your business. Please know that we think the iPhone is a great device and Apple knows that we’d like to add it to our line-up. Today, there are over a million T-Mobile customers using unlocked iPhones on our network. We are interested in offering all of our customers a no-compromise iPhone experience on our network.

One interesting takeaway is the current amount T-Mobile customers using an unlocked iPhone on the service. Although T-Mobile has never offered the iPhone to its customers, over a million users have been able to unlock the iPhone to run on the network.

Funny, though, that Brodman went into how T-Mobile offers a plethora of Android devices to cull would-be iPhone users until they’re officially under the Apple umbrella. Given recent surveys suggesting roughly 31 percent of current Android device owners are planning on jumping ship to the iPhone as their next purchase, this doesn’t bode well for T-Mobile who currently has the lowest number of US customers (around 32 million).

It will be interesting to see how the AT&T/T-Mobile merger plays out and if that will have any impact on T-Mobile finally offering the iPhone to its customers.

Source: T-Mobile via AndroidCentral

Let’s be blunt — if you’re not in the TiPb Forums you’re missing out on the best darn discussion in iPhone and iPad today, so head on over and register now!

• iOS 5 beta 6 bug report
• iOS 5 SMS design
• Sprint iPhone coming?
• AT&T LTE iPhone in the near future?
• Jailbreaking and unlocking forum

See you in the forums!

Apple’s WWDC 2011 main keynote is over and we now have tons of iOS 5 news to digest! We’re getting revamped notifications, iCloud, new mail enhancements, and tons of new developer APIs.

But what does iOS 5 mean for all the jailbreakers out there? With the addition of OTA updates, we can’t be sure just yet. I’m assuming you’ll be prompted to install an update. If you wish to remain jailbroken, perhaps you can just ignore those? No one knows as of yet.

Obviously, if you’d like to keep your jailbreak and/or unlock, you’ll need to stay away from any beta version or release version of iOS 5 until the jailbreak community tells us different. This is even more crucial for unlockers. It’s yet to be seen how they’ll even get updates for iOS yet.

With new notifications coming our way, apps like LockInfo and MobileNotifier may not be worth the jailbreak anymore. As I said previously, with Peter Hajas, creator of MobileNotifier, now at Apple, I can see why. The new notification system in iOS 5 has some striking similarities to his MobileNotifier concept.

Regardless what you jailbreak for, steer clear of iOS 5 if you’d like to keep your jailbreak. If you plan on going stock the minute iOS 5 drops, let us know why in the comments. If you don’t, let us know that too!

Wondering how to turn your iPhone 4 LED flash into a flashlight? Click Home. Launch camera. Switch to video. Turn on the flash… and by then you’ve knocked your foot or your head or lost sight of whatever it is you were looking for. Luckily, you can get your flashlight on much faster with SpringFlash, an awesome tweak from Cydia. SpringFlash allows you to use the activator app, which is installed when you jailbreak your device, to get instant access to your iPhone 4′s LED light. Setup is easy, hit the jump to find out how.

Setup

1. Launch Cydia from your jailbroken iPhone 4
2. Search SpringFlash
3. Download the tweak

Note: there will be no app icon with this tweak, nor will there be an option in the settings app on your phone.

Activation

Once the app is installed:

1. Launch Settings
2. Go to Activator
3. Choose how you would like to have your iPhone 4′s LED activated.
4. That’s it. No re-spring required!

If you have any questions, or any other awesome Jailbreak tips to share, leave them in the comments!

Tips of the day will range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you’d like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to news@tipb.com. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)

Ultrasn0w has been updated by the Dev Team to include support for unlocking iOS 4.3.2. So if you’ve been holding off on upgrading and waiting patiently (or impatiently) for an unlock, you can now have your cake and eat it too! As always, you’ll need to be running a compatible baseband version (meaning don’t upgrade to 4.3.2 via iTunes!) Hit the jump for a walk-through!

What you need

• AT&T/GSM iPhone running a preserved baseband (refer below for compatibility list)
• PwnageTool – download for Mac
• Ultrasn0w (downloaded via Cydia)

Compatible Basebands

• 01.59.00
• 04.26.08
• 05.11.07
• 05.12.01
• 05.13.04
• 06.15.00

Not sure? We have a tip on how to find out what iPhone baseband you’re running. Check it out, and if yours is listed, you are okay to move on. If it isn’t, please do not attempt an unlock at this time. As you can see in the screen above, mine is not compatible. I have AT&T so I have not been concerned about preserving my baseband.

Jailbreak with PwnageTool

If you have already done this, skip ahead to the next section. If you haven’t, you will need to download PwnageTool for Mac as well as the iOS 4.3.2 IPSW file for iPhone 4 or iPhone 3GS

Make sure you save the IPSW file somewhere you can easily navigate to. I always save mine on my desktop for example.

Then simply follow the instructions on screen to jailbreak via PwnageTool. Once you’re done with that and Cydia is installed, you’re ready to move on. (Not sure what that is? Check out our how to use Cydia, the Jailbreak store tip.

Unlock your iPhone with Ultrasn0w

First you will need to add the repo for Ultrasn0w. Simply tap Manage and then Sources in Cydia. Tap edit and then the “+” sign to add the Ultrasn0w repository which is http://repo666.ultrasn0w.com

Next search for Ultrasn0w in Cydia under the search tab. Ultrasn0w 1.2.2 should now pop up. Simply install it and reboot your device. You should now have an unlocked iPhone running on iOS 4.3.2!

If you run into any issues or have any questions, let us know in the comments or check out our official TiPb jailbreak and unlock forums for answers to many commonly asked questions!

As you can see from the tweet above, the Dev Team has updated their popular PwnageTool to support an untethered jailbreak under iOS 4.3.2. You now have the option of using either PwnageTool or redsn0w to jailbreak iOS 4.3.2.

We have experienced some issues with jailbreaking iOS 4.3.2. Some users say they have had issues as well while others are perfectly fine. I’m personally staying on 4.2.1 for now since I have no compelling reason to upgrade.

The updated version of PwnageTool is available at the link below. It supports the following devices -

• iPhone 3GS
• iPhone 4 (GSM)
• iPod touch 3G
• iPod touch 4G
• iPad First generation

So iPad 2 users and Verizon iPhone users need not apply. And a final note to unlockers – you should only ever use a custom IPSW when upgrading firmware. While ultrasn0w will unlock your iPhone running iOS 4.3.2, that only applies if you are running an older baseband. So never restore to a stock firmware in iTunes because that will not preserve your baseband! Check out more details and grab your download from the link below!

[Dev-Team Blog]

Today, apple has released the 4.3.2 firmware for iPhone (AT&T GSM), iPad, and iPod touch, and 4.2.7 for iPhone (Verizon). The update includes security fixes. Since Jailbreak exploits security holes, there’s every chance the update may patch something crucial to the current iOS 4.3.1/4.2.6 Jailbreaks. That means if you update, you may lose your Jailbreak.

We’re hearing the Jailbreak for 4.2.1 still works, but not the untethered version. Either way we recommend being safe rather than sorry and holding off on any update until the Jailbreak developers provide further information. Same goes for unlockers — stay away.

In the meantime, make sure you save your SHSH blobs with tinyumbrella (Cydia isn’t enough).

We’ll update everyone as soon as we know more, and be sure to check out our Jailbreak Forums to keep up with the latest!

A company by the name of Negri Electronics (among others) is offering a remote unlock for any iPhone model using the device’s IMEI number — the cost is a cool $175. They claim the unlock won’t be affected by future software updates and back the service with a 100% money back guarantee.

This is the FIRST remote unlocking service for the iPhone. Any model, any carrier, any firmware, any baseband and a permanent unlock. YOUR PHONE WILL NOT RE-LOCK, EVER. This service is guaranteed. Simply send us your IMEI and within 24 hours yourself a permanently unlocked iPhone.

The way an official SIM-unlock from Apple works is that the iPhone’s IMEI number is registered with Apple’s activation servers so that, when the iPhone is connected to iTunes, it’s recognized as unlocked, activated, and left open regardless of which SIM in subsequently inserted in the device.

Negri is not Apple or an official iPhone carrier, so there should be a big yellow sticky placed on it saying “buyer beware”.

Even officially unlocked iPhones sometimes experience problems or need to be reset by Apple, which requires time on the phone with Apple support or a trip to the Apple Store. Needless to say, they won’t help you at all with an unofficially unlocked phone.

So is this remote unlock worth dropping $175 on? Let us know what you think in the comments!

UPDATE: @CellUnlocknet on Twitter let us know they’re not offering this service because, as mentioned above, Apple could discover the IMEI numbers unlocked through this process and relock them. So once again, make a well informed decision any time you spend a good chunk of cash on the internet.

A SIM card hack known as Gevey has been released to unlock the iPhone 4 running the latest iOS 4.3 software and baseband. This is a hardware hack as opposed to a software hack like Ultrasn0w.

The hack involves a wafer thing SIM, that needs to be inserted in the SIM card tray along with the actual SIM card that you wish to use in your iPhone 4. You then have to follow a short procedure of dialling an emergency number, hanging up, then toggling flight mode on and off a few times. Then service with your chosen provider magically appears. It is a little convoluted and has to be repeated if you reset your iPhone 4 or run out of battery.

The Grevey SIM will cost in the region of $75 and supports iOS 4.0, 4.1, 4.2, 4.2.1, 4.3 and baseband 1.59.00, 2.10.04, 3.10.01, 04.10.01. This is a costly solution if you are in need of a SIM unlock for your iPhone 4. It is currently the only one available; and you do not need to jailbreak! If you really need an unlock solution, it may be worth considering.

[Gadgets DNA]

iOS 4.3 for iPhone is surely on the horizon and that leaves many unlockers wondering whether or not there will be an unlock ready. It’s been a while but it appears a tweet from @sherif_hashim may be confirming that the issues have finally been worked out.

Don’t go upgrading just yet though! MuscleNerd of the iPhone Dev Team stated earlier that an iPhone 4 unlock solution would not be released until after iOS 4.3 goes public. This unlock would allow iPhone 4 users to unlock their phones on the newer basebands (3.10.01 and 2.10.04).

If all goes well and the unlock does perform as expected, we can probably expect a release a few weeks after iOS 4.3 is released to the public. Any of you unlockers stuck waiting for a solution so you can upgrade? Sound off in the comments!

Redmond Pie

The Verizon iPhone has been announced so the first thing power users are going to want to know is whether or not it can be Jailbroken and maybe even unlocked to run on Sprint.

There won’t be any solid information until the Verizon iPhone actually ships and the software and baseband become known quantities but the Dev Team seldom disappoints. An Unlock for Sprint will probably be harder than GSM carriers since no SIMs mean Sprint has to put the device on their network. Will they?

We’re going to keep track of it in our iPhone Jailbreak Forum, so head on over!

With Comex not able to finish his planned iOS 4.2.1 untethered Jailbreak in time for Christmas, MuscleNerd and the iPhone Dev-Team are pushing ahead with a redsn0w “backup plan” and are looking for a few good, qualified testers.

To keep things manageable, this will be a Mac-only test program. We also request that any volunteers NOT need the ultrasn0w unlock (in case things go very wrong).

Right now, the “backup plan” requires that you have the 4.2b3 IPSW on your Mac, and that Cydia has your 4.2b3 SHSH hashes. Please don’t pirate that 4.2b3 IPSW! (We’re also working on a way that this technique might apply to all those with 4.1 IPSWs, but that’s not the first goal right now.)

If they’re talking to you, follow @redsn0w_testers on Twitter for more information, and send them feedback via the link below. Meanwhile, let us know how it works for you!

(If you’re not sure what any of this means, check out our Jailbreak starters guide first!)

[iPhone Dev-Team]

The TiPb forums are naturally a great place to talk, commiserate, celebrate, get help, and offer advice to your fellow iPhone users. In order to create a new thread of your own or reply to any of the existing threads, you must be a registered member. Becoming a member is easy and free so if you haven’t already, head on over and register now!

• iOS 4.2 has been available for some time now so we are sure some of you have spotted some bugs or have run into other issues. If you have, post them here in our iOS 4.2 bugs and issues thread.

• Supposedly the white iPhone 4 will be arriving in Spring of 2011, do any of you really care this late in the product cycle?

• The iPhone 5 is pretty much right around the corner so why not speculate about what the device may or may not contain.

• Need help jailbreaking or unlocking your iOS device? The jailbreak and unlocking forum is the place to get the help you are seeking.

See you in the forums!

MuscleNerd and the iPhone Dev-Team have released their long awaited update to Ultrasn0w which will use iPad’s old baseband (06.15.00) from iOS 3.2.2 to unlock anyone stuck at basebands 5.14.01, 5.14.02 or 5.15.05 for the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS. Ultrasn0w requires you to be jailbroken and to use pwnagetool to upgrade your baseband firmware to iPad’s 06.15.00 baseband. Ultrasn0w is then available to unlock that baseband and can be downloaded for free from Cydia.  Please read this entire post and also read iPhone Dev Team’s blog.  If you are unsure about any of the following instructions or warnings, please head on over to our forums! 

iPhone Dev-Team gives the following instructions:

We’ve been busy updating both PwnageTool and redsn0w to make the baseband update as seamless as possible.

1. First up is “PwnageTool 4.1.3 Unlock Edition”. It has a special dialog box which will ask you if you want to update to the iPad baseband. You must already have the iPad 3.2.2 IPSW on your computer (see the above link)….so just point PwnageTool at it (or let it find it on its own if you’re in “simple” mode).
2. Directly after PwnageTool 4.1.3 is available, the official ultrasn0w repo http://repo666.ultrasn0w.com will be updated with ultrasn0w 1.2, which covers iPhone 4 baseband 01.59.00 and iPhone 3G/3GS basebands 04.26.08, 05.11.07, 05.12.01, 05.13.04 and now 06.15.00.
3. Finally, we’ll release an update to redsn0w today for those without Macs and can’t run PwnageTool. The new redsn0w will give you the option to update your baseband to 06.15 too.

Also, iPhone Dev-Team issues this warning:

WARNING — YOU DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK! PLEASE UNDERSTAND THE CONSEQUENCES OF UPDATING TO 06.15.

1. There is no way to come back down from 06.15, and there’s no hiding the baseband version from Apple. You’ll be voiding your warranty in a very obvious way.
2. If some future baseband comes out with a critical fix, you won’t be able to update to it if it remains down in the 05.xx sequence (then again, you wouldn’t update to it if you wanted to keep your unlock anyway).
3. Starting with FW 4.2.1 if you have 06.15 on your iPhone you won’t ever be able to restore to stock firmware (it will fail). You’ll need to only restore to custom IPSWs (then again, if you’re unlocker you should already be doing that).

Certainly don’t update to 06.15 if you don’t need to! Only do this if you need the unlock and you’re stuck on 05.14 or 05.15, and you’re willing to assume the above risks. iPhone3GS users with old bootroms who want to go to 4.2.1 should not use this PwnageTool! Update to stock 4.2.1 first, then use the upcoming redsn0w to update your baseband.

Unlocking your iPhone allows you to use any GSM carrier which would still limit you to AT&T and TMobile in the US. iPhone 4 users will still get a badge on Cydia notifying them of the update and can download and install it to remove the badge, although it will have no affect. Word is that an unlock is being developed for the iPhone 4 as well, however no time table has been given.

UPDATE: iPhone Dev-Team has just released the following update: The new redsn0w 0.9.6beta5 is out. It gives both Windows and OSX users the ability to flash the iPad 06.15 baseband on iPhone3G or iPhone3GS. It fetches the baseband files directly from Apple for now (the only IPSW you ever point it at is the stock IPSW for the FW on your iPhone right now). There may be a long delay while it’s doing this (their servers are currently getting pounded).

• OSX (SHA1 a322ec2c9e91993eca21abaf2e655bb44de3d7d4)
• Windows (SHA1 7250416e17c3aea9838cdfc73712b38b025e2ed0) (Windows 7 and Vista users, please run redsn0w as Administrator in “XP Compatiblity Mode”)

If you do flash your baseband via redsn0w, please keep it plugged into USB the whole time. You don’t want your battery to die during the flash process!

Will you be jailbreaking for this new unlock? Are you finally able to update to 4.2.1? Let us know how it’s working for you by leaving a comment below!

Apple has once again raised the stakes in their continuing cat and mouse game with unlockers by implementing a boot level signature check in iOS 4.2.1 that will cause the device to fail to boot if the baseband firmware is not correct. This is clearly a reaction to TinyUmbrella’s ability to block baseband upgrades on the iPhone 4.

If you try and implement TinyUmbrella when installing 4.2.1 you will be thrown into recovery mode without the ability to kick yourself out of it unless you install the new baseband or downgrade back to iOS 4.1 (if you’ve saved your SHSH blobs).

If you plan on unlocking your iPhone it is recommended that you hold off on installing 4.2.1 as there is no current method available to maintain an unlockable baseband. Once the unlocking tools or custom firmware utilities have been updated and released it will be safe to upgrade.

Let us know what you think by leaving a comment below or visiting our awesome jailbreak forums!

[The Big Boss via Redmond Pie]

We see quite a few questions in our Jailbreak Forums about jailbreak basics. So, we’ve decided to compile a master list of some basic jailbreak magic right here in one place. Hopefully this will help a lot of you beginner jailbreakers learn the ropes (and maybe even help some of you decide whether the leap to the jailbreak world has its advantages for you). We’ve included common jailbreak lingo, popular jailbreak apps and tools, and videos highlighting some awesome jailbreak utilities!

Common ways to Jailbreak

There are usually several ways to Jailbreak depending exactly when a new version of iOS is released, when a new exploit is found, and when new Jailbreaks are released. Some are one-button easy, others command-line complicated. Here are the latest and the simplest.

If you’re not sure, here’s how to find out which iOS software and iPhone modem firmware you’re running.

iOS 5.0 & 5.0.1 (GSM/CDMA) Jailbreak (untethered)

• How to jailbreak iOS 5.0 & 5.0.1 via Greenpois0n Absinthe – iPhone 4S and iPad 2 users (Mac only so far)
• How to jailbreak iOS 5.0 & 5.0.1 via redsn0w CLI 0.4.3 – Windows only – iPhone 4S and iPad 2 users
• How to jailbreak iOS 5.0.1 via redsn0w – A4 users only (no support for iPhone 4S and iPad 2)

iOS 5 & 5.0.1 (GSM/CDMA) Jailbreak (tethered)

• How to jailbreak iOS 5 & 5.0.1 via redsn0w
• How to jailbreak iOS 5 & 5.0.1 via Ac1dSn0w

iOS 5 & 5.0.1 (GSM) Unlock

• How to unlock iOS 5 & 5.0.1 via ultrasn0w

iOS 4.3.3 (AT&T/GSM) Jailbreak (untethered)

• How to jailbreak iOS 4.3.3 via JailbreakMe (including iPad 2)
• How to Jailbreak iOS 4.3.3 with redsn0w

iOS 4.2.6 (Verizon) Jailbreak (untethered)

• How to jailbreak iOS 4.2.6 on your Verizon iPhone 4 with Greenpois0n

AppleTV Jailbreak

• How to jailbreak AppleTV 2 via Seas0nPass

Common Jailbreak Terms

Jailbreak

The most obvious of all terms, but yet the most confused. Jailbreaking simply allows users to have access to certain core functionality that Apple doesn’t give us stock. A jailbreak also gives users access to applications Apple may have rejected via Cydia. It also allows custom loading of apps (on Android, loading applications yourself is referred to as side-loading, just as rooting is to Android, jailbreak is to iPhone). On the iPhone you can use the SSH method or use iPhone Explorer. Jailbreaking allows customization at its core meaning, but shouldn’t be confused with unlocking.

Unlocking

Unlocking your iPhone allows you to use it on any GSM carrier. Simply meaning, if you have an AT&T iPhone, unlocking it will allow you to use it on T-Mobile USA or even Rogers Wireless in Canada by simply inserting a different SIM card. A lot of jailbreakers will unlock their iPhones not only to use on a different carrier, but to increase resale value. The unlock process can change from firmware to firmware but typically, you’ll need to jailbreak your phone and then install a program via Cydia like ultrasn0w or yellowsn0w, which will then unlock your iPhone.

Cydia

Apple has the App Store, jailbreakers have Cydia in addition to the default App Store. And if you want to be technical, Cydia was THE first App Store. It was available with iOS 1.x and allowed jailbreakers to download apps before the App Store even existed. Those who jailbroke their first generation iPhones on 1.x have seen several jailbreak ideas and concepts become parts of iOS. We would mention Rock here, but seeing as Cydia acquired Rock, there’s probably no point now. Another term you may hear when it comes to Cydia is repos, or repositories. These are simply sources you add in the manage section. ModMyi and BigBoss are two of the largest. They are already added when you install Cydia. You are always welcome to add custom repos if you choose. I highly advise only adding repos from trusted sources. If you have a weird feeling about adding it, I’d probably pass.

YouTube Link

Recovery Mode/DFU Mode

Many people still confuse these two terms. They ARE different. There IS an easy way to tell which mode your phone is in. If your screen shows a connect to iTunes logo with a slide for emergency option, you are in recovery mode. If the slide for emergency option is not there and you only see the connect to iTunes logo, you are in DFU mode (DFU mode can also present as a blank screen as well).

The main difference between these two modes is what they will and won’t bypass for installs. Recovery mode will implement iBoot (basically a portion of the bootloader than runs an integrity check) which will not allow you to downgrade your device. DFU mode will still talk to iTunes but it bypasses iBoot which will then allow you to downgrade firmware. Most jailbreaks will require DFU mode for these reasons. To enter DFU mode, you will follow these steps:

• Turn off your iPhone
• Hold down your power and home buttons
• Release the power button when the Apple logo appears, but continue holding down the home button. You should be presented with a Connect to iTunes logo.
• Plug in your phone and iTunes should yell at you and say you must restore the device before it can be used.

SHSH Blobs

A lot of people ask about this one and why Cydia wants to save them. When you upgrade firmware in iTunes, you’ll see at the top when you start a restore “Verifying restore with Apple”. Apple only signs current firmware versions. If you accidentally upgrade and then try to downgrade, your restore will fail. SHSH blobs save you from this headache. It will basically give iTunes a fake hand to shake, which in turn, makes iTunes think your restore has been verified. This can be a life saver if you accidentally upgrade and need to downgrade. TinyUmbrella will save SHSH blobs to the Cydia server as well. I highly recommend saving your blobs for every firmware version in case you ever find yourself in this predicament. We have posted a guide on how to save SHSH blobs via TinyUmbrella.

Baseband

The baseband is essentially the part of your device that controls the antennae. This has everything to do with your service and signal. This is why most unlockers have to be extremely careful when upgrading. If the baseband changes, it can permanently keep them from achieving an unlock. This is the main reason most unlockers tend to favor PwnageTool. It creates a custom firmware bundle for you to upgrade to that doesn’t upgrade the baseband, only the main OS. If you are running on a legitimate carrier and don’t care about unlocking, the baseband it typically less of a concern. Wifi and Bluetooth don’t run on the baseband either, so iPod touch or iPad owners typically don’t have concerns when it comes to new baseband versions.

Springboard

On a desktop you have a desktop, on an iPhone you have a springboard. It’s basically the interface you constantly interact with. Another term you’ll come in contact with is respringing. This is basically the act of restarting the springboard. Some jailbreak apps you install will require you to do this. All changes in the appearance of your phone via Winterboard (explained below) will require a respring as well. It’s nothing more than refreshing your desktop on a computer.

Common Jailbreak Utilities

Winterboard

A lot of people jailbreak for the ability to change the look of their iPhone. Enter Winterboard, which is a free download via Cydia. It’s a necessary utility to install themes and most customizations. Many veteran jailbreakers will remember the days of Summerboard as well. Winterboard took its place a few years back and improved upon several things. When you install a theme, all the components will show up in Winterboard. Depending upon how a theme developer decided to bundle their theme, you may have only one package in Winterboard, or you may have several. I personally prefer when developers separate theme elements. Since Winterboard works as a hierarchy, I can select a theme and if I don’t like the sounds, I can download a sound pack I “do” like and apply that in Winterboard. The key is to move it above the main theme so it overrides the sounds I don’t want. I highly suggest jailbreakers to become very familiar and comfortable with Winterboard. If you do, there is no limit to what you can do to your phone and you’ll be able to tweak and customize even the littlest details of your springboard.

YouTube Link

SBSettings

This free utility allows you to add quick toggles that will drop down onto your springboard. There are also several plug-ins and themes you can download for SBSettings as well. It’ll also allow you to hide icons you don’t want or use. This is especially useful for hiding stock apps you can’t uninstall. I hide the default weather and stock apps among others that are simply wasting space on my springboard. You’ll also be able to more closely keep tabs on your memory and running processes. This was extremely useful before multitasking. It’s still useful today for freeing up memory and seeing what may be eating through battery or slowing your phone down.

YouTube Link

iWipeCache

Prior to 3.x, iOS didn’t cache icons in a way that created issues. The problem now with 3.x and beyond is the way the file system caches icons. When you switch themes, sometimes you’ll notice certain icons don’t change or they stay stuck on the last theme you had active. Prior to iWipecache, you had to SSH into your phone and delete the cache in certain folders and respring. iWipecache simplifies this process and does it for you on the go. It’s a free utility and something I’d highly recommend to anyone who likes to change UI elements and themes frequently. If there is ever a time iWipeCache doesn’t work, especially under iOS 4.x, try going into Winterboard and toggling Summerboard mode on and off, then respringing. This seems force even the most stubborn icons to change.

OpenSSH

Open SSH is a utility that allows SSH access to your device. You can then use an SSH client to access your device’s main file system for editing. Simpler utilities now exist, such as iPhone explorer which you’ll download to your PC or Mac. When you plug your iPhone, iPod, or iPad in, it will bring up the file system and you can edit without SSH access. I recommend using a utility like iPhone explorer over SSH as it’s safer. SSH can open you up to hackers and give others access to your file system if you forget to disable it. SSH is also a huge battery hog. The only benefit is that you don’t have to have your phone plugged in to SSH. You must be plugged in to use a utility like iPhone explorer. If you decide to use the SSH option, make sure to change your iPhone root and user passwords. You can visit our Jailbreak Forums if you need help doing this.

Notification Replacement Apps

There are more than a few choices when it comes to selecting a notification app. LockInfo, Intelliscreen, and Notified Pro are all acceptable selections. Most offer trials so it’s really up to personal preference. I’m a major fan of LockInfo and find it much more user friendly than Intelliscreen. Notified Pro has also been gaining some ground and continues to add many improvements as well. Since Apple has yet to improve upon their notification system, I highly suggest checking these out and implementing one of them. You’ll be happy you did. I’ve already posted a guide to setting up LockInfo so be sure to check that out as well.

SMS Apps and Add-Ons

There are many apps that improve SMS capabilities as well. I personally use BiteSMS but apps such as TLert and iRealSMS are more than acceptable candidates as well. QuickReply for SMS is also a good app but be warned that the developer has decided to not continue with it. It’s rumored to go free (if it hasn’t already). So if you’re okay with the current bugs and don’t expect updates, it may be an acceptable option for you. Most of these apps allow you to reply quickly to texts without it interrupting your work-flow. They’ll also allow you to create gestures on the springboard which will allow you to quickly send an SMS without ever leaving the current app you’re already in.

MyWi

Many users are left bitter when certain carriers want to charge them an additional fee just for the privilege of tethering. MyWi is a wonderful little app and in my opinion, a major reason to jailbreak on its own. MyWi alllows you to create a wifi hotspot with your iPhone. I have a wifi only iPad and I never even considered purchasing the 3G version. I simply tether my iPad to my iPhone. Just be wary of doing this if you don’t have an unlimited data plan. As of writing this, MyWi currently costs $19.99. It may seem like a hefty price tag but you’ll pay that in data and/or tethering fees in less than 2 months. You’ll only pay for MyWi once. You do the math.

My3G

Similar to MyWi, this app is a tweak that allows you to lift certain restrictions carriers and Apple have in place. It will allow you to trick your phone into thinking you have a wifi connection when you are really on the carrier network. This trick comes in handy if you need to download an app over 20MB and aren’t in range of wifi. It also allows you to use FaceTime over 3G as well. There is also another app called 3G Unrestrictor which will also allow you to make FaceTime calls over 3G.

As always, if you guys think of anything awesome you think should be on this list, shoot me an e-mail to ally.kazmucha@tipb.com or post it in the comments below!

With Cydia currently not giving new users the ability to save their SHSH blobs it seemed like a good time to go over how to save your SHS blobs with an alternative, TinyUmbrella. An SHSH blob or ECID SHSH is basically a unique signature which is checked against Apple servers whenever you decide to restore the firmware on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Once a new firmware is released, Apple stops signing the older firmware, hence making it impossible to restore back to the older firmware from iTunes. So, YOU MUST SAVE YOUR SHSH WHILE APPLE IS CURRENTLY SIGNING THEM.

Now to “why is it important to save your SHSH blobs”: The creator of Cydia has setup a new server which basically mimics Apple’s verification server and can save your older signature (SHSH blob) so that you can downgrade or restore back to the older firmware. This is important because if you don’t have your SHSH blob saved, and accidently update to new firmware, you’ll loose your jailbreak and furthermore, you wont be able to downgrade back to older firmware to re-jailbreak your device.

Now while Cydia will probably once again start letting you save your SHSH blobs on the server automatically by using the “Make my life easier” button, a utility has been released which allows for both saving blobs on the server and locally and also for restoring older firmware via iTunes. You can also use TinyUmbrella to save your SHSH without being Jailbroken and for the currently signed firmware even if your iDevice is using a lower firmware. You can download it here: TinyUmbrella Look for version you need on right hand column.

Instructions for saving your SHSH

1. Download and run TinyUmbrella and make sure your iDevice is detected.
2. Check “Advanced Options.”
3. Under “Device / Version,” select the firmware version you want to Save (You can only restore to versions that have SHSH saved).
4. Click on “Save my SHSH.”
5. Repeat to save other firmware hashes if you wish.
6. Now, click on “Display SHSHs.” It should listed all hashes you have saved on your computer for all your iDevices.

Instructions for restoring:

(Make sure you have saved your SHSH blob locally using method above. If not, repeat the method above for the firmware you wish to restore to.)

1. Backup iDevice in iTunes and then close iTunes.
2. Open TinyUmbrella and make sure you dont get any errors on startup or else you will need to make sure that port 80 is open and that your host file is not set to Read-Only.
3. Click on Start “TSS server,”
4. Download firmware you wish to restore to from here: iPhone/iPodTouch
5. Open Itunes and use the Shift/Option + Restore method to choose the firmware file you wish to restore to (Upgrade button cannot be used)
6. After your firmware is restored you might get a 1004 error. Not to worry, simply click “Kick Device out of Recovery” if you get it.
7. Restore Settings from Backup in iTunes and sync.

Done! If you have any questions or need any help, head on over to our Jailbreak Forum.

by Farbod

The iOS Dev-Team, the folks behind a lot of the Jailbreak technology, have issued an Admiral Ackbar-style warning to Jailbreakers and unlockers about the impending iOS 4.1 update — stay away for now:

This time of year there are lots of new iPhone owners, and not everybody knows that accepting new iOS updates is the surest way to lose your jailbreak and/or unlock. While those of you who have Cydia or TinyUmbrella backups of your FW hashes will always be able to get back to 4.0.1 if you make this mistake, this doesn’t hold for unlockers. There’s currently no known way to revert your baseband — if you update your baseband you’ll lose the ultrasn0w unlock, possible forever.

On the plus side, sounds like a safe, ultrans0w-friendly Jailbreak upgrade path for 4.1 is in the pipeline. Maybe a clean 4.1 Jailbreak as well?

The TiPb forums are naturally a great place to talk, commiserate, celebrate, get help, and offer advice to your fellow iPhone users. In order to create a new thread of your own or reply to any of the existing threads, you must be a registered member. Becoming a member is easy and free so if you haven’t already head on over and register now!

• Discuss jailbreaking and/or unlocking any iOS device in the following forum: iPhone Jailbreak and Unlock forum.

• Discuss Apple’s revolutionary iPhone 2G, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod touch, including help, how-to, and next-generation news and rumors here: iPhone forum.

• Discuss cases, Bluetooth headsets, chargers, car kits, and all accessories for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch here: iPhone, iPad, iPod touch accessory forum.

• Discuss iPhone and iPod touch native App Store apps and games, and Web Apps. Share tips, tricks, and reviews here: iPhone Apps and Games forum.

• Discuss Apple’s latest creation, the iPad, including release news and feature rumors here: iPad forum.

See you in the forums!

If your iPhone 4 is locked to AT&T or another carrier, good news — the ultrasn0w unlock is now available to set you free.

Those who ponied up full price for an international, factory unlocked iPhone 4 direct from Apple need not apply. Those who chose subsidies and the lock that came with it, get your Jailbreak on and head over to Cydia. If ultrasn0w doesn’t show up immediately, search for repo repo666.ultrasn0w.com.

Version 1.0-1 of ultrasn0w works for:

• iPhone4 baseband 01.59
• 3G/3GS basebands 04.26.08, 05.11.07, 05.12.01 and 05.13.04

Remember, you’ll need a microSIM card if you plan on jumping to another carrier, and in the US that means manually cutting down your T-Mobile SIM to microSIM size.

As always, Jailbreak and unlock will void your warranty and could cause other problems with your device. If you don’t know what you’re doing, don’t do it. If you decide to go ahead, let us know how it works for you.

[Dev Team]

The TiPb forums are naturally a great place to talk, commiserate, celebrate, get help, and offer advice to your fellow iPhone users. In order to create a new thread of your own or reply to any of the existing threads, you must be a registered member. Becoming a member is easy and free so if you haven’t already head on over and register now!

• In case you have not heard, a new jailbreak has been released and a unlock is right around the corner. So to discuss these topics be sure to visit our iPhone Jailbreak and Unlock forum!

• So far the iPhone 4′s battery life has been nothing less than stellar for myself and many others, how about you – how is your iPhone 4′s battery life?

• Are you looking for some fresh high resolution wallpaper for your iPhone 4? Then this is the thread for you – iPhone 4 wallpaper.

• Want to discuss Apple’s competition? Be sure to check out the Other Smartphones and Gadgets forum!

See you in the forums!

Those of you looking to break your iPhone 4 free from it’s carrier lock have less than 48 hours to wait as iPhone Dev Team member planetbeing announced late last night on Twitter that the unlock is just around the corner. It was just yesterday that Comex released his new web-based jailbreak but not without some issues. Those issues consisted of some users losing MMS and FaceTime. Since then those issues have been cleared up and if you give the jailbreak a try you should be good to go, at least until Apple releases a new firmware update which will break this jailbreak method.

How many of you are chomping at the bit to get a hold of this iPhone 4 unlock and what carrier are you looking to be free from?

The Library of Congress’ DMCA exception for jailbreaking is big news for our community.  The new ruling basically says that jailbreaking or unlocking devices is not illegal.  But I think the bigger question on most people’s minds is what that’s going to mean for end users and the jailbreak community in general.  So what does this ruling mean for you, jailbreak ninjas? Read on to find out.

Now we all know the iPhone has its shortcomings. Every smartphone does. In the iPhone world, we jailbreak to compensate. Android users may root their phones to side load apps. We also have a big issue (mainly in the US) where unlocking your phones is frowned upon. Users have cried foul for a long time. Logically, if you buy an iPhone outright in the states, you should be free to take that phone to whatever carrier you’d like. Yet they’re still locked down to AT&T for state-side users.

Today’s ruling is definitely a step in the right direction and a huge hurdle for groups like EFF, but how it will effect end users right “now” still remains somewhat unclear.  Now keep in mind, as of now, this is strictly my opinion. What I’m taking from this is that Apple or any other phone manufacturer will not be able to sue you or take legal action for jailbreaking or unlocking your device. Does that mean they have to be okay with it or aid you in doing it? Absolutely not.

What about warranties?

In my opinion, I don’t think anything will change (as of now). Apple will still have the same stance on modifying your iOS devices and the risks involved.  I can’t image it would be hard for apple to play off a software malfunction on user error or the fact that you downloaded an application that was not approved or isn’t supported by them.  What if you have a hardware issue?  That should be a little different.  Apple shouldn’t be allowed to deny you hardware repairs solely based on the fact that you are jailbroken.  I’ve read in forums several times that users would attempt to exchange white iPhones for hairline cracks and get turned away because their device was jailbroken.  I’d really like someone at Apple to explain to me how being jailbroken caused a crack in the casing.  Other users have said they swapped their phone just fine.  I’m assuming this probably depends upon what store you go to and how much the genius really pays attention to the phone before performing a swap.  Either way – I don’t see this ruling changing the way Apple handles servicing jailbroken or unlocked devices.

Unlocking

Users have long been unlocking devices and taken them to other GSM carriers such as T-Mobile.  If this becomes a common practice, I’m curious to see how carriers will handle that.  Honestly, I don’t think they will.  They’ll refer you to the manufacturer.  And if that carrier happens to be Apple, if you don’t have a valid AT&T SIM, I still think you’ll have a hard time getting them to service your phone.

If unlocking becomes a standard practice are users can buy unlocked devices to take to whichever GSM carrier they’d like, then Apple would not have the software argument to hide behind, nor would any manufacturer.  AT&T offers unlock codes to users who have been on contract for a specified period of time for pretty much every device in their lineup, except the most popular ones.  And obviously, that includes the iPhone.

Cat & Mouse

The Dev Team and jailbreaks have long played the cat and mouse game with Apple.  A jailbreak is released, a couple months later, an update to iOS is released, it breaks the jailbreak or patches the exploit.  Jailbreakers go back to the drawing board and find yet another exploit.  And the cycle continues.  I don’t see any end to this either.  Apple may not be able to sue you, but they sure don’t have to like it or condone it.

Conclusion

So my opinion? I don’t think a thing will change for end users, as of right now anyways.  Apple can still choose not to honor warranties, they just can’t take legal action, given you aren’t using a jailbreak for unlawful purposes.  Around these parts, we fully support the jailbreak community, without supporting those who use it for illegal purposes.  It’ll be interesting to see how Apple and other manufacturers respond.  But in the mean time, what do you guys think?

Did the Library of Congress just add a DCMA exception for Jailbreaking? Why yes they did:

Computer programs that enable wireless telephone handsets to execute software applications, where circumvention is accomplished for the sole purpose of enabling interoperability of such applications, when they have been lawfully obtained, with computer programs on the telephone handset.

Engagdet lays out what it means and — more importantly — what it doesn’t:

you should know that this in no way requires Apple to jailbreak your phone for you, or lay down its arms in this ongoing fight. Basically, they just can’t sue you for the specific act of breaking their protections, but there’s nothing stopping from putting those protections in there in the first place, or for suing you for an infringement not covered in this exception — like using Apple code in a non-Apple-approved way, or installing illegal software. Not that any of you jailbreakers would ever do that.

Rooting Android is also covered, and both firmware and software are now in the language.

Head on over to our Jailbreak Forum for more.

[Engagdet]

Twitter lit up this morning with signs that an iPhone 4 jailbreak and unlock is definitely on it’s way.  On the other side of things, original iPhone Jailbreaker, GeoHot (George Hotz) has apparently deleted his Twitter account and made his blog private. What’s going on? Keep reading.

I noticed this morning @planetbeing had posted a tweet saying a soft unlock had been achieved.  He’s followed up by posting pics of an iPhone 4 running Cydia and a pic showing the phone running on Canadian carrier, Bell.  This is definitely good news for all you iPhone 4 owners itching for your jailbreak and/or unlock.  For end users, a jailbreak may still be a month or two off, but for developers and hackers, this is great news and major progress. @Comex had reported a userland jailbreak not that long ago. Using that, himself and @planetbeing are making great progress.

Now on to GeoHot. He posted up an article talking about his jailbreak for iPhone 4 and what he had posted over the weekend.  I showed a little skepticism about whether or not it was real.  In the past, geohot had always given us a little bit more “actual” proof than what he gave this time.  Apparently in his last blog, he commented that the screen shot actually wasn’t real.

“Sorry, this post was probably a bad idea. Next time I won’t say anything. I miss when this blog was actually about technical things(I’ve been reacting too much to the feedback, which led it to the place it’s in now). I didn’t fully realize most of the current scene don’t care unless they are getting something. Now I do. It’s late tonight, I’ll think about what to do about this in the morning. The real reason behind no release isn’t technical. It’s just that it will never stop, after blackra1n, people demand unlock, after blacksn0w, people demand untethered. I miss the days when jailbreaking and unlocking were difficult, it attracted a much higher caliber crowd. Also, to the haters, the picture is quite obviously fake ”

Geohot got a lot of heat on his own blog and all over the Twitter-verse for his post over the weekend. Many people calling foul and saying his ego had gotten way too large for his own good. I somewhat see his point about it never ending. He’s never charged for his work so people waiting with their hand out can probably get a little irritating at times. Maybe he didn’t handle it in the best manner, but he’s made up his mind (for now anyways).

So to @planetbeing and @comex, congrats and thanks for all your hard work, we’re all just as excited as you are! And to geohot, maybe we’ll see you around again soon?

[via GumballTech, via MobileCrunch]

The dev team recently released a new PwnageTool that will allow you to jailbreak iOS4 on your iPhone or iPod touch. Since we covered that, the dev team has upgraded the PwnageTool to 4.0.1.  This is our walkthrough of  how to jailbreak devices running iOS4. As always here’s our disclaimer;

If you are in any way, shape, or form hesitant to jailbreak your device, don’t!  We take no responsibility for whatever damage you may do to your device during or after the process.  Jailbreaking should typically be reserved for semi-advanced to advanced users.  Preliminary jailbreaks can sometimes cause more problems.  This jailbreak is NOT as simple as a button click like blackra1n or Spirit.  If that’s what you’d prefer, wait for that… pass on this one.”

If you’re alright with all of that, hit the jump to see if your device can currently be jailbroken/unlocked and how to do it.

Sorry I don’t have a video for you guys this time, I had my 3GS swapped due to it bricking hardcore, and I have the newer baseband, but for now, here’s a nice walkthrough. I’ll update with a video when the dev team has a solution for newer basebands on 4.0.

iPhone Family (Mac Only)

• Not currently supported, so please don’t attempt as you may damage your phone. As with all new hardware, you’ll have to wait a bit for an update that supports iPhone 4.

• New bootrom: No
• Old bootrom and haven’t ever jailbroken with Spirit but HAVE been jailbroken before: yes, you can jailbreak
• An easy way to tell if you have an older or newer bootrom is to check your serial, if the 4th and 5th digits are 40 or less, you’ve got an older bootrom. (ie – if my serial was 8B4387323 I’d be okay as my phone’s 4th and 5th digits are 38)

• Easiest way, just use redsn0w regardless of your situation, it should work, or follow the directions below

iPod Family (Mac and Windows)

• The second generation iPod touch is currently the ONLY iPod touch that is compatible with PwnageTool 4.0.1 at this time.  If you have a first or third generation, you’ll have to wait a bit longer. Either follow the directions below for second generation iPods or use redsn0w if you have a non-MC model of the 2nd gen iPod touch, basically older bootrom)

Instructions

Alright, now that we’ve determined whether or not you’re capable of jailbreaking, I’m assuming you’d only be reading this if you’re “certain” you can.  Here’s what you need to do:

1. Back up your iPhone/iPod in iTunes
2. Download PwnageTool here from the official source or one of the many mirrors
3. Make sure your device is connected and open PwnageTool
4. PwnageTool will ask you to select your device (I always select expert mode by the way, it will give you more choices when building your custom firmware – for iPhone 3G users who would like to activate the multi-tasking functionality, etc, you’ll need to select expert mode and further down in the process, you’ll be able to select an option that will enable features like multitasking, it may lag though, so consider yourself warned.)
5. Then select Next and PwnageTool will browse for firmwares on your computer. If for some reason your computer does not find them, you can get firmwares from here. (Remember to make SURE you are downloading the correct firmware for your device.  iPhone 1st gen = 1,1 – iPhone 3G = 1,2 – iPhone 3GS = 2,1 – iPhone 4 = 3,1
6. After PwnageTool finds your correct firmware or you have browsed to the firmware you have downloaded, click next.
7. (Simple Mode, skip to step 11) If you selected expert most, you will now get a screen asking you to customize your build, select general at the very least, and typically Cydia packages, if you’d like the pineapple logo instead of the Apple logo, select Custom Logos then click next.
8. Next you will get a screen asking you to partition your space for jailbreak stuff (you don’t have to). It’ll also ask you if you’d like to activate, uncheck this if you’re on AT&T and not unlocking.
9. The next screen will allow you to select custom packages you’d like pre-installed. Select what you want and click next again.
10. Select your custom boot logos or browse for your own and click Next.
11. Select Build on this screen, it’ll prompt you for a location to save your custom IPSW, I normally save this to my desktop. (Oh, don’t stray too far away from your computer, you’ll probably be asked for an admin password at some point during the build process).
12. Once your bundle is done you’ll need to open iTunes and put your phone into DFU mode. Simply turn your phone completely off, open iTunes, and hold down your home button until iTunes recognizes there is an iPhone/iPod in recovery mode.
13. Next hold down alt+option on your keyboard and click restore, navigate to your custom firmware you just built and restore from that. If all went well, your iPhone/iPod should reboot jailbroken!

Unlocking iPhone 3G and 3GS

As ultrasn0w now supports ALL versions of iPhone basebands, if your jailbreak was successful, you just need to install ultrasn0w via Cydia and you’ll be unlocked!

If you have any questions or concerns with this process, feel free to leave them in the comments, forums, contact me on Twitter @iMuggle, or shoot me a quick e-mail at ally.kazmucha@tipb.com! Happy jailbreaking!

Alright kiddies, you’ve been asking for it, so here it is.  The Dev Team has officially announced their jailbreak and unlock for iOS4.

There’s a few caveats though, you must:

• Own a Mac (if you’re a 3GS user, there is a windows solution for 3G users)
• NOT have jailbroken previously with Spirit
• Have a previously jailbroken device

Questions about upgrading or whether your device is okay? Check out the Dev Team’s blog before doing anything! And if you’re wary, we’d recommend staying away. I’d assume a PC version will follow.  When that will happen is anyone’s guess.  Have questions or concerns? Leave them below.

[via Dev Team]

Due to a settlement of a class action lawsuit, AT&T has a agreed to unlock all of the phones the company has sold since March 12, 1999 with the exception of — you guessed it — Apple’s iPhone. Unlocking the iPhone would mean you’d be able to take the phone and pop in any other GSM carrier sim card and have a fully functional device to travel with… or just run on T-Mobile EDGE. When push came to shove it appears even the courts can not force the carrier to unlock the jewel of the smartphone world:

“Cingular and AT&T Mobility current and former customers, upon request and where available, codes that unlock AT&T Wireless, Cingular and AT&T Mobility handsets other than (i) the Apple iPhone; or (ii) any handset that AT&T Mobility introduces or has introduced for sale pursuant to a contract with a handset manufacturer that provides for an exclusivity period of ten (10) months or longer (“AT&T Handset”).”

I guess this is one of the reasons we still have the good folks in the Dev-Team. Now did any of you really expect anything more?

[BGR]

From the Forums is a great way to see all of the current hot topics within our forums are. In order to create any new threads of your own or reply to any of the existing threads, you must be a registered member. Becoming a member is a simple process that will only take a few minutes out of your day, so if you have not already already done so, head on over and register now!

• iPad Wi-Fi issues – There is no denying there is something going on with Wi-Fi on the iPad so whether you do or do not have issues staying connected to your Wi-Fi, let us know.

• What do you use to protect your iPad? Screen protector? Hard case? Flip case? We want to hear what protective measure you are taking!

• What are your thoughts on the next generation iPhone leak? Was it legal? Illegal? Vote in this poll that is split 50/50 at the moment.

• Words with Friends ID – Share your ID with the latest gaming craze on the iPhone and iPad.

• iPhone Jailbreak and Unlock – for all of your jailbreaking and unlocking needs visit our dedicated forum on the topics.

See you in the forums!

In today’s From the Forums we’d like to introduce to you our new forum look and layout.

First, you may have noticed our little name switch to TiPb and domain switch to tipb.com. Likewise, you can now find our forums at http://forums.imore.com!

Second, with some new great Apple devices right around the corner it was time to change things up a little bit — to help everyone find what they need faster and better.

Third, we’re doing a ton of great give-aways lately, and a lot of them happen right in the TiPb forums (like $260 worth of PowerMat last week, 10 Appigo Todo promo codes right now, not to mention our big iPad give-away coming up!).

Becoming a member is a simple process that will only take a few moments of your time, so if you have not already already done so, head on over and register now!

• iPhone Forum: This is the place to go if you are in need of help, how-to guides, and any news and rumors regarding anything iPhone related.

• iPad Forum: Visit this forum to converse about all things iPad including release news and feature rumorse.

• iPhone Jailbreak and Unlock: This forum is dedicated to all of your iPhone or iPod touch jailbreaking and unlocking needs.

• iPhone Apps and Games: Discuss iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch native App Store apps and games, and Web Apps. Share tips, tricks, and reviews.

• Jailbreak Apps, Games, and Themes: Here is the place to chat about jailbreak apps, games, and themes for your iPhone and iPod touch.

Now that’s not all, feel free to browse our other forums to find one that interests you! See you in the forums!

iPhone Dev-Team member, MuscleNerd has announced that redsn0w 0.9 is officially out of beta and is now available in both Mac and Windows flavors.

“redsn0w 0.9beta3 results were good, may as well take it out of beta: http://is.gd/7ppQO (new: ipt3G and IPCC tethering)”

This version of redsn0w supports all iPhone and iPod touches running the 3.0 and 3.1.2 firmware. If you need to perform a carrier unlock on your iPhone 2G, redsn0w can do that for you but for the 3G and 3GS you must use Cydia to install blacks0w for baseband 04.26 and ultrasn0w for baseband 05.11. And yes, for late model 3GS devices you are still limited to a tethered jailbreak.

For the full details and download links be sure to check out the official redsn0w 0.9 wikee.

From the Forums is a great way to see what all of the current hot topics are on the TiPb forums. Today we would like to go over some of the popular sub-forums for those of you who may not be familiar with our forum setup. Becoming a member is fast and free, so if you have not already already done so, head on over and register now.

• iPhone Social & Off Topic: If you are new to the forums and would like to introduce yourself or maybe you want to discuss something that’s not iPhone related, this is your place.
• iPhone Help: This is the place to go to post general questions you may have or view countless of other threads that already may contain the answer you are seeking.
• iPhone Apps and Games: This particular forum is a must if you are interested in anything App Store related. Whether you are a developer or a user, be sure to check it out.
• iPhone Jailbreak and Unlock: The title of this one says it all. If you are looking to jailbreak or unlock your device and are unsure of how to go about it, look no further than this forum.
• All iPhone Accessories: You guessed right, all iPhone related accessories should be discussed here.

See you on the forums!

From the Forums is a great way to see what all of the current hot topics are on the TiPb forums. In order to create any new threads of your own or reply to any of the existing threads, you must be a registered member. Becoming a member is a simple process that will only take a few minutes out of your day, so if you have not already already done so, head on over and register now.

• It’s week 3 of our Smartphone Round Robin and this week Casey from Android Central needs your expertise. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
• What is an iPhone without all of the applications within the App Store? Apps are essential to our beloved device so this particular forum, iPhone Apps and Games, is a great place to visit for anything app related!
• If you are interested in the jailbreak process or perhaps you need to unlock an iPhone for a friend or relative, this forum is a must – iPhone Jailbreak and Unlock.
• It’s really great to see so many people leave their old phones for a new iPhone, especially when the user is leaving their old school BlackBerry behind. If you left the BlackBerry platform stop by this thread and chime in!

See you on the forums!

blackra1n is the latest, simplest Jailbreak tool from iPhone hacker George Hotz (Geohot) and supports all modern iPhone and iPod touch devices running the latest 3.1.2 firmware. blacksn0w is the associated Unlock utility. (Jailbreaking lets you run software not approved by Apple, like background tasks, Google Voice apps, etc. Unlocking lets you use your iPhone on other carriers, like T-Mobile US or international carriers when traveling). blackra1n makes the process faster and easier than ever before, but if you need extra help, TiPb has your back.

Note: For those of you who are planning on jailbreaking your new iPhone 3GS with the updated bootrom, you should be aware that BlackRa1n supports only a tethered jailbreak. This simply means if you have to reset your phone or your battery runs out on you, you will need to connect your device to your computer and run BlackRa1n to be able to boot your iPhone.

Disclaimer: Neither TiPb nor I take any responsibility for any problems/issues/bricking/etc. that may occur while using this software to modify your iPhone. Please be aware of what you are doing. If you don’t understand it — don’t do it.

Lets get started, after the jump!

Preparation

First things first, before we start please be sure you are currently on the 05.11.07 baseband. If you are not, connect to iTunes and update your software to 3.1.2. Once that is done it is time to begin. You will need to go to the BlackRa1n homepage, and click on the Apple to download the proper software. You will want to save the zip file to your desktop and then double-click on it. This will then create the BlackRa1n launch icon.

The Jailbreak Process

Connect your iPhone to your computer. Once connected double-click the BlackRa1n icon to begin the process.

Now simply click “make it rain”. Your device will now enter recovery mode.

Your device will now reboot.

Once your device reboots the jailbreak process is complete and you will see the following message on your desktop.

Installing Cydia/Rock/Unlock

On your Springboard you will now see the BlackRa1n icon. Make sure you have a data connection and then press the icon to proceed.

* If you plan to unlock your device for T-Mobile USA (or any carrier not supporting iPhone 3G bands) you must first disable 3G in your settings before proceeding. *

Here you will now choose your installer. Your choices are Cydia and Rock. You can also select “sn0w” if you are unlocking your device. After you make your selections press “install”.

* Do not select “sn0w” if you are not unlocking your iPhone. *

Once complete your Springboard will reset and you will now see Cydia or Rock, whichever you chose, on your screen.

Congratulations, you have successfully jailbroke/unlocked your iPhone. If you wish, you can uninstall BlackRa1n from your iPhone by simply going back into the application and pressing “uninstall”.

If you are in need of some further help with this process please visit our iPhone Jailbreak/Unlock forums as there are many friendly forum members who are always willing to help you out.

For those of you who have been patiently waiting to unlock your iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS currently on the 3.1.2 software, today is your lucky sn0w day as blacksn0w has been released one day ahead of schedule. It was just 3 days ago that iPhone hacker, George Hotz, announced via his Twitter account that he had found an exploit to unlock any iPhone with the 5.11.77 radio baseband.

blacksn0w is the unlock for the latest 05.11.07 baseband, and will also enable official tethering. blackra1n, a jailbreak for 3.1.2, has been updated to RC3, with hacktivation support, 15 second speed improvement, Tiger+PPC support, and installation of the latest blackra1n.app.

For the full details and on how to gain access to blacksn0w be sure to check out GeoHot’s blog. Need more help? Visit our Jailbreak and Unlock forums.

If you are looking to unlock your iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS and use blacksn0w, let us know how it goes!

iPhone hacker extraordinaire, Geohot, blaming successful initial testing, has moved up the release for blacksn0w, his new iPhone 05.11.07 unlock tool, to… today! More specifically, noon today (Eastern time). And it looks slick:

If you are a loyal blackra1n user who kept the blackra1n.app on your iPhone, run it. You will see Icy replaced by an option “ra1n”. Install this to upgrade your app. After upgrading, run blackra1n.app again. You will see “sn0w”. Install this, and enjoy your unlocked iPhone.

He has notes up for new jailbreakers, pwnagetool users, and iPhone 2G owners as well (who don’t need blacksn0w but rather BootNeuter, as always).

(If you’re a Twitter user, show him love by helping #blacksn0w trend.) Lastly, a warning:

Also, a note. This may be the best iPhone users ever have it. Be sure, if you have a 3GS or iPod Touch 3, to use Cydia’s “On File” or Firmware Umbrella in order to be able to restore to 3.1.2 in the future. And as always, the baseband cannot be downgraded, so be super careful with updates if you need the unlock.

For more, head on over to TiPb’s Jailbreak and Unlock Forums, and happy sn0w day!

George Hotz, aka geohot, posted on his Twitter account that he has found an exploit to unlock any iPhone that contains the 05.11.77 radio baseband found in the 3.1.2 iPhone software. This new unlock tool, blacksn0w, will be released to the public on November 4th and yes, it does contain hackivation!

Something else that everyone should take a look at is a post that Hotz wrote up on his blog regarding all of the websites out there that sell unlocks and jailbreaks to people who don’t know any better. These tools that jailbreak and unlock are a simple google search away and don’t cost a penny. These people who run these sites truly are scum that are simply ripping a lot of iPhone owners off.

All we can do to help shut these sites down is to just spread the word. The more of us who are aware the better.

Are you looking for some good iPhone conversation? From the Forums is a great way to see what all of the current hot topics are on the TiPb forums. In order to create any new threads of your own or reply to any of the existing threads, you must be a registered member. Becoming a member is a simple process that will only take a few minutes out of your day, so if you have not already already done so, head on over and register now.

First topic up for today, App Store Genius and how is it working for you? Rene doesn’t seem to be having the best of luck with his Genius, for me it started out pretty so-so but it seems the more I delete the more accurate it seems to get. Perhaps my mind is playing tricks on me, how is it working for you?

iPhone OS 3.1.2 was released yesterday and we are assuming most of you jumped right in and updated your phones. Cdudek was wondering, how is your battery life on the 3.1.2 software? Anyone notice a significant change for the better or for the worse? Check the thread out to see results from other forum members and while you are there, post your own.

This next thread for today comes to us from naviwilliams and he offers up a question that we hear quite often – do you leave Wi-Fi on or off? It is a fact that using Wi-Fi over 3G will save you a decent amount of battery life so I have a tendency to leave it on since Wi-Fi is available to me at work and at home. How about you?

Last up for today is one of my personal favorite forums to check out – the iPhone Jailbreak and Unlock forum. This is the place to check out if you are interested in jailbreaking or unlocking your device. Most of the time you can find the answers to your questions within minutes.

See you on the forums!

It was just one day ago we mentioned that a new PwnageTool was on the horizon and for those iPhone 3GS owners who stayed on 3.0, your patience has paid off as the latest PwnageTool for Mac OS X has been release by the Dev-Team. If you couldn’t wait and you updated your iPhone 3GS to 3.1 via iTunes, you have a slight problem as you will not be able to jailbreak.

The iPhone 3GS is now supported in PwnageTool 3.1.3, assuming the phone was pwned at 3.0 or 3.0.1 – PwnageTool does not support the 3GS out of the box. If your iPhone 3GS has 3.1 preinstalled and is not Pwned then there is no tested jailbreak solution at the moment.

For the full details be sure to check out the Dev-Teams blog and make sure you fully understand what you are getting yourself into before attempting a jailbreak.

If you don’t understand the process, do not attempt it, and as always – TiPb takes no responsibility for the outcome. Need help? Check out our iPhone Jailbreak and Unlock forum.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

For those of you who have patiently been waiting to jailbreak your iPhone 3GS with the 3.1 software, your patience is about to pay off. According to MuscleNerd all of the testing is complete and the new PwnageTool is almost ready to be released to the public.

Regarding the iPhone 3GS 3.1 software unlock, if you have already updated to the official 3.1, there still is no known way to unlock your device. In order to unlock the 3.1 software on a iPhone 3GS, this next version of the PwnageTool will be needed to make a custom IPSW file to preserve the 04.26.08 baseband firmware. Again — that older baseband is needed if you plan on unlocking your device successfully.

Stay tuned as we will bring you the news when the latest PwnageTool drops.

[Thanks to mysterio for the tip!]

Now that the dust is starting to settle after the return of Steve, we would like to take a moment and issue another friendly reminder to all of you who currently using an unlocked iPhone 3G or the 3GS – do not install the iPhone 3.1 update via iTunes. You will lose your unlock and it may be permanent as Dev Team’s MuscleNerd stated on Twitter earlier today:

3G+3GS unlockers..you must not update to official 3.1! unlock needs pre-hacked 3.1 with 04.26.08

So what does that mean, well like I mentioned earlier do not update via iTunes. You must first hack the 3.1 software to include modem firmware 04.26.08. If this confuses you, please do not attempt to unlock your phone until an easier way is released.

We here at TiPb are wondering, what about iTunes? Have any of you with unlocked iPhones updated to iTunes 9.0? Let us know how it went in the comments!

As always, be safe out there, as we are not responsible if you blow up your iPhone.

*If you have questions regarding unlocking please visit our iPhone Jailbreak and Unlock forum.

On Friday, Apple launched their new Mac operating system, OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, and whenever that happens, Mac iPhone Jailbreakers everyone wonder if, on purpose or by accident (oh, hi DFU bug!) Apple will somehow break the Jailbreak. Well, good news this time around — Snow Leopard looks to be Jailbreak safe according to the Dev-Team:

Snow Leopard, the OS released for Mac on Friday, poses no new wrinkles for the redsn0w jailbreak or ultrsn0w unlock. [...] We’re glad to see Apple joining in on the “snow” theme. If only Apple had called their new OS “Sn0w Leopard”!

Indeed!

It was just this past Thursday that the Dev Team updated their software unlock, ultrasn0w, to version .09. While this update seems to have eliminated most of the issues some users were experiencing, the Dev Team have been nice enough to post some pro tips for unlocking your iPhone 3G/3GS with ultrasn0w .09. The following are just a few:

• Unusual battery depletion is almost always caused by people choosing to “Restore from backup” instead of “Setup as new iPhone” when iTunes asks you. This isn’t caused by either the jailbreak or the unlock, but it’s a common 3.0 snafu. The fix is to just re-run the official 3.0 restore and choose “Setup as new” this time. Your music and apps and all that will still be synced, but you’ll get rid of any conflicting wifi, bluetooth, or carrier settings. Then just re-run redsn0w and install ultrasn0w.
• T-Mobile in the USA doesn’t use the 3G frequencies that the iPhones support, so turn off 3G in Settings->General->Network. (Some T-Mobile territories gracefully hand down to Edge mode, but most do not).

So there you have it folks, two very important tips for the unlockers of the world. We here at TiPb can not stress exactly how important that first tip really is to “Setup as new iPhone” within iTunes while restoring your device. Not doing so can and will create issues for you somewhere along the way.

For the full list of tips, swing by the Dev Teams blog.

In the past 24 hours we have seen major updates to not one but two software unlocks for the iPhone 3GS. Who says competition isn’t a good thing and who doesn’t love a good old fashion hacker fight? Let’s get it on:

In the red corner we have George Hotz along with his fresh version of purplesn0w RC2.

• 3G(the network speed) issues fixed
• Now only patches one file, CommCenter
• Leaves no traces on your baseband after it runs.
• Much more clean and reliable.

In the blue corner we have the iPhone Dev Team. And since Hotz released his source code, his competition used it to create their latest version of ultrasn0w .09.

• Works on both 3G and 3GS
• Doesn’t patch any mach-o binary whatsoever. (Doesn’t require a separate patch as each new firmware comes out).
• Has no race conditions, no popups about “Missing SIM”, no network issues
• Is almost 7000 times smaller than its nearest competition

So there you have it – two software unlocks for your iPhone 3GS and one update for your iPhone 3G unlock. You have to credit George Hotz for stepping his game up when the Dev Team has been dragging their feet. It really seems to have sparked up a good rivalry that we can all benefit from.

There is one major question though, how do you score the match?

George Hotz has taken it upon himself to create a new iPhone 3GS unlocking solution which he calls purplesn0w. It seems the original iPhone hacker and creator of the jailbreak software purplera1n, was once again not happy with the Dev Teams software, this time it was their unlocking tool, ultrasn0w.

First off, what is purplesn0w? It’s a soft unlock for your 3GS that I’d actually use day to day. It’s not a daemon that takes any resources, and it doesn’t add a task to your baseband. It’s very close to a true unlock. All it does is patch three files, CommCenter, lockdownd, and your wildcard activation plist (which you need, activate w at&t sim first, no hacktivation support yet). That’s it, no other files are installed.

So as you can see Hotz needs to do some more tweaking to get purplesn0w in pristine full working condition. If you do choose to use this software now be prepared to jump thru a few hoops such as having a legitimately activated AT&T sim card. On the bright side – Hotz claims that all of the issues people have had with ultrasn0w, such as Wi-Fi loss, battery fails, unlock fails, etc… are now gone if you use his unlock. If you can hold off for a day or two, do so as Hotz will release an update according to his twitter account.

For the full details on purplesn0w be sure to check out his blog. In the meantime, the competition is heating up between the Dev Team and Mr. Hotz. It’s time to sit back with some popcorn and enjoy the show!

Three of the most popular tools on the scene have been updated to be fully compatible with the iPhone 3GS: The Dev Teams software unlock – ultrasn0w, their jailbreak software – redsn0w (via torrent for Windows, Mac, Linux), and saurik’s popular iPhone theming tool, Winterboard (via Cydia).

Two hours ago saurik twittered the following:

The newly released 0.9.2958 versions of MobileSubstrate and WinterBoard (upgraded to support ARM7/Thumb2) should now work on the iPhone 3GS

That was followed by a quick tweet from the Dev Team:

Released: redsn0w 0.8 (incl. 3GS, hactivate, linux) http://is.gd/1pRlV . Ultrasn0W 0.8 (incl. 3GS support) (see Cydia).

So it looks like purplera1n forced the Dev Team to respond by finally releasing their jailbreak software. Good news for all of you iPhone 3GS owners out there today, now you have two jailbreak solutions for your iPhone 3GS. Which will you choose?

For more jailbreak discussion be sure to check out TiPb’s Jailbreak Central.

Update: The Dev Team have updated their blog since the release of the new software, for more information on why they decided to release it and more check it out!

There has been so much jailbreak/unlock news as of late, it’s enough to make your head spin. So let’s end this week with two more tidbits of news from the community.

The Dev Team has released yet another demo video. This time they are showing off their iPhone 3GS 3.0 ultrasn0w unlock. Please keep in mind for the unlock to work you cannot update to 3.1 — and yes, this includes the 3.1 beta.

It’s pretty well known in the jailbreak community that the Dev Team delayed releasing their iPhone 3GS jailbreak for their own reasons. Well someone else has stepped up to the plate to bring you a iPhone 3GS jailbreak alternative. iPhone original hacker, George Hotz, has released purplera1n which is currently only available to Windows users (not Windows 7 though). Mac users don’t panic, your version is coming soon!

In his latest blog post, not only does George explain the steps you must take to jailbreak your iPhone 3GS, he is pretty vocal on why he has decided to release purplera1n to the public.

Normally I don’t make tools for the general public, and rather wait for the dev team to do it. But guys, whats up with waiting until 3.1? That isn’t how the game is played. We release, Apple fixes, we find new holes. It isn’t worth waiting because you might have the “last” hole in the iPhone. What last hole…this isn’t golf. I’ll find a new one next week. Also your purplera1nyday files ensure that you can always get back to a jailbroken state, so if you have it it’s just a matter of tools.

Has this brought back to life a heated rivalry? It’s time to sit back, relax, and jailbreak!

And as always, TiPb and staff take no responsibility for any bricking, failures, security risks, etc… that may occur during the jailbreak process. Proceed at your own risk!

[Not iPhone-friendly video -- we know -- please encourage them to post video to YouTube in the future. Thanks to everyone who sent these in!]

Right in time for iPhone 3.1, the iPhone Dev-Team has begun issuing their usual warnings about jailbreak/unlock users and new firmware updates:

ultrasn0w users must stay away from official 3.1 (incl. betas) until we release the tools for it, or you’ll lose unlock!

Tempting as a tasty new beta may be, if you can’t live without your hacked iPhone, don’t hit that update button now, or any time before the iPhone Dev-Team has new, tested tools ready for you.

Once again, you’ve been warned!

[Via Twitter]

Disclaimer – Neither TiPb nor I take any responsibility for any problems/issues/bricking/etc. that may occur while using this software to modify your iPhone. Please be aware of what you are doing. This will NOT work with iPhone 3GS.

There has been a lot of buzz going on in the forums regarding jailbreaking the iPhone 3.0 software lately, and a lot of questions to go along with it!. Today we’re going to take a deeper look at the exact steps you have to take to get your iPhone 3G with the 3.0 software, jailbroken on your Windows PC machine.

Let’s get started, after the jump!

Get the tools

First and foremost make sure your iPhone is updated to the 3.0 firmware. If you’re not yet running 3.0, update via iTunes.

All good? Okay, next make sure your iPhone is not connected to your PC. Next you will need to download the following files:

• redsn0w 0.7.2

• iPhone OS 3.0 for iPhone 3G (IPSW)

Jailbreak Process

Now double click on the redsn0w file you just download to open the redsn0w application. You will then be prompted to select the 3.0 IPSW file you downloaded. Do as instructed now. Once it is successfully identified press next to continue.

Now you will have to select whether you’d like Cydia, Icy, or both installed on your phone. You must install at least one of them. Make sure your choices are checked and press next.

Next you will be connecting your iPhone 3G to your PC. Once your device is connected, hold the power button until the “Slide to Power Off” appears – then slide to power it off. Press next.

Redsn0w will not put your iPhone 3G into DFU mode. Be sure to follow the onscreen instructions exactly. Start by holding down the power button for 3 seconds.

Hold down both both the power button as well as the home button for 10 seconds.

Finally release the power button while continuing to hold the home button down until redsn0w detects your iPhone 3G.

The device will now reboot once it is detected by redsn0w.

Redsn0w will now begin the process of uploading the new ramdisk. Once this is complete you will be notified that the jailbreak process is complete. Click the Finish button.

Even though redsn0w completed it’s process your iPhone will still be finishing up. This can take up to 5 minutes. Be patient, when it’s done you will have a jailbroken iPhone 3G with Cydia/Icy on the SpringBoard.

Unlocking Process

Now if you are looking to unlock your iPhone follow these steps below.

• If you are unlocking for T-Mobile USA be sure to disable 3G.

• Run Cydia or Icy

• Add the repo repo666.ultrasn0w.com to Cydia or Icy. That last “o” is actually the number zero “0”.

• Search for ‘ultrasn0w’ in cydia or icy and install ultrasn0w.

• Reboot your iPhone 3G.

Enjoy your freshly unlocked iPhone 3G running the 3.0 software!

The wait is over ladies and gentleman. The Dev-Team has released their latest software to unlock iPhone 3G’s running the 3.0 software. Again, it is important to remember when a 3G S jailbreak application is released do not use Ultrasn0w with the iPhone 3G S.

To unlock your iPhone 3G 3.0 is as simple as jailbreaking your device, downloading Ultrasn0w via Cydia, and running the software. For full detailed directions be sure to check out the Dev-Teams blog.

Before you decide to jailbreak and unlock there are a few things you should know. If you do not know what you are doing – please do not attempt this as there is a possibility you can permanently damage your device. Regarding jailbreaking, remember most of the apps available will not work on 3.0 due to the developers not updating their apps yet. So be careful on what you install.

Want to learn more? Visit Jailbreak Central in TiPb forums.

Engadget Mobile brings word that the iPhone Dev-Team has shown off a working Jailbreak and Unlock — now dubbed UltraSn0w — via Qik video.

The Jailbreak and Unlock should be available on Friday, though TiPb’s guess is it may not work on the new iPhone 3G S, since it took 6 months to unlock the iPhone 3G via yellowsn0w and longer for the 2nd generation iPod touch via redSn0w. We’ll likely know more when the Dev-Team gets some quality time with the new hardware and figures out what, if any, new cats Apple has brought for the mice to game…

Just a little reminder for those of you who are waiting for the Dev-Team to unveil the 3.0 software unlock for iPhone 3G, there is a live demo tonight.

On Tuesday evening (just before the big Apple release) we’ll do a live demo of the yellowsn0w carrier unlock working on official 3.0 firmware. The actual link for the feed will be twittered by @MuscleNerd and also placed here when the feed starts. The demo should answer everything you need to know about the new yellowsn0w. But it’s good news for iPhone 3G unlockers everywhere.

Keep in mind this unlock will not work along with the iPhone 3G S hardware. It is noted they may or may not be working on cracking the latest Apple has to offer.

P.S. For the new iPhone 3GS, please don’t expect periodic updates about any progress we have or don’t have. Nothing gives Apple the upper hand like someone tweeting or blogging partial hack results.

The cat and mouse game continues…

Tomorrow is the start of WWDC and there are some people out there who truly believe Apple will official release the iPhone OS 3.0 software very soon. Whether or not it is released this week or within the next month, don’t be so quick to pull the trigger on the upgrade button within iTunes if you are planning on unlocking your device. If you choose to update there is a high possibility that you will lose your option to unlock in the future. Don’t want to listen to us, ok, will you take the Dev-Teams word for it?

you all paid lots of money for your iPhones, and so we know that if you are depending on a software unlock, this is a sensitive issue. It’s a very sensitive issue to us too, which is why we can’t say or release anything prematurely that could potentially compromise any 3.0 software unlock.

In other words, don’t do anything until the Dev-Team releases any official unlock for the 3.0 software. Also something to keep in mind, which we’ve warned you about in the past, don’t be fooled these fake wanna be Dev-Team websites that are out there.

We’re used to (though still aren’t happy about) less predatory websites, like quickpwn.com. That site (1) is not us. We don’t consult with them in any way (2) makes money from their Google hits (they’re usually near the top) (3) sometimes gives very very bad advice (like tweeting yellowsn0w users to use QuickPwn on 3.0 betas. Bad suggestion). (4) also owns yellowsn0w.net, another money making website.

For more information, be sure to check out the official Dev-Team blog. So there you have it folks, be careful out there.

With all of this Jailbreak talk going on lately, what better time to let all of you wanna-be Jailbreakers know that all of our how to guides are completely up to date for firmware 2.2.1. For some people, getting into the world of Jailbreaking can be confusing and that is completely understandable. TiPb wants to make it as cut and dry as humanly possible for you. So here we go.

So you have a iPhone 3G that you will want to unlock? Ok, in order for that to happen you must use our preserving baseband guide which can be found here. Currently only Mac users can use this method, sorry Windows faithful. It is also important to note that you must be on anything but the 2.2.1 firmware (2.2 or earlier) in order to be able to unlock your iPhone 3G with the Dev Teams Yellowsn0w.

Ok, here is another one for all of the Mac users out there. You have a first generation iPhone or an iPhone 3G and all you care about is simply Jailbreaking. Well then you would use the Mac QuickPWN method. It is important to remember, use this method only if you are not interested in unlocking your iPhone.

No, we have not forgotten about Windows how to guides. You say you have a first generation iPhone that you want Jailbroken and unlocked? This is the guide you would use to get that taken care of right here.

iPhone 3G owners who want to Jailbreak, it is pretty simply – check out this guide and you are good to go.

So there you have it, all of TiPb how to guides updated for 2.2.1.

So if you don’t live under a rock you would have noticed that Apple released a iPhone/iPhone 3G firmware update this past Tuesday. TiPb then warned all of you jailbreakers/unlockers out there not to proceed with updating your firmware… Judging from the comments, some of you took heed to our warning, while others were not so lucky.

To get a better understanding of what is going on with this latest Apple firmware and why you should not update just yet, be sure to check out the video above from iPhone Dev Team member, musclenerd.

[Via blog.iphone-dev.org]

There is an old saying, a picture is worth a thousand words. This could not be more true than the image above.

If you are currently jailbroken or unlocked, do not update your firmware via iTunes to the latest iPhone firmware, 2.2.1. According to the Dev Team this update will indeed break yellsn0w rendering your unlocked iPhone useless.

So you have been warned, do not update to the latest Apple firmware if you are unlocked or jailbroken. Stay tuned to TiPb for more information, when it becomes available we will be sure to update you.

If you have been living under a rock for the past few months, you might not have heard all the talk about unlocking iPhone 3G. Well the time is officially here, the iPhone Dev Team has released the latest software unlock for iPhone 3G!!! It is only available on a Jailbroken iPhone 3G via the Cydia Installer and is to be used on the latest firmware with the newest baseband!

Dev Team update from their blog:

The unlock about to be released works exclusively with baseband 02.28.00. This baseband is provided by the latest firmware update (2.2) from Apple. You’ll need to upgrade to this release using iTunes and then use QuickPwn to activate etc. [...] Because it works on 02.28.00, it is available to everyone on the planet. This means we don’t need to unnecessarily expose holes in earlier basebands, which is an important concern.

So who will be the first to give this a try? If you do, be sure to comment and let us know how it goes!

While the Dev Team still hasn’t released the final iPhone 3G software Unlock, they certainly aren’t taking New Year off. In addition to squashing some last minute permission errors, they have an extra-special surprise for 2009:

The soft unlock has undergone many changes in the last two days. The most significant one: the soft unlock will now be only for baseband 02.28.00 (the most recent baseband).

Jeremy is keeping an eye on all the details and will be bring us word as soon soon as the Unlock is live.

So, even if it’s a beta, who’s going for it?

Jeremy posted this earlier in the month and linked to the video, and he’ll be back again when the iPhone 3G Unlock goes live, but until then, we just wanted to remind everyone (who’s never updated their iPhone from OS 2.0!) that today is supposed to be the day!

Well it is now official, the Dev-Team has updated their blog today to let you all know when the iPhone 3G software unlock will be released. Seems as if New Years eve is what they are aiming for.

• The target release date for the unlock is New Year’s Eve 2008.
• This unlock method is available to iPhone 3Gs that have 2.11.07 baseband or earlier, we did warn you.
• The unlock requires a jailbroken 3G iPhone.

Guess Times Square won’t be the only massive countdown going on today!

Ok, in case you have been missing all of the iPhone 3G unlock talk lately, the Dev-Team yesterday previewed their unlock software for all of us to see.

It will be available to anyone who wants it (and is still running the original base band!) on New Years Eve. Until then let the video above fill your craving! Enjoy!

[Via Blog.iPhone-Dev.org]

So you say you updated to the latest Mac OS X 10.5.6 and wanted to jailbreak or unlock. Well the update severely hindered your ability to do that. The Dev-Team says it is a simple kernel bug and not a specific countermeasure by Apple, never the less, there is still a work around.

It’s a pretty straight forward fix actually, first you need to have administrator privileges. Then download the script file . Got it? Good, now continue on for the detailed instructions after the break!

[Via Gizmodo]

Well it is now official, the Dev-Team has updated their blog today to let you all know when the iPhone 3G software unlock will be released. Seems as if New Years eve is what they are aiming for.

• The target release date for the unlock is New Year’s Eve 2008.
• This unlock method is available to iPhone 3Gs that have 2.11.07 baseband or earlier, we did warn you.
• The unlock requires a jailbroken 3G iPhone.

Another bit of jailbreaking related news, a word of warning to all Mac owners: If you are planning on jailbreaking or unlocking your iPhone, TiPb suggests you put the Mac 10.5.6 system update on the back burner until the Dev Team comes up with a solution to the issue. Or you try the following work around:

We believe this behavior is due to a kernel bug not a specific countermeasure by Apple. Possible fixes are (try at your own risk!)

1. Replace the following plugin kexts from within IOUSBFamily.kext with the ones from 10.5.5 and then rebuild kextcache (if you don’t understand this, then you shouldn’t attempt it!)

   • /System/Library/Extensions/IOUSBFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleUSBHub.kext
   • /System/Library/Extensions/IOUSBFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/IOUSBCompositeDriver.kext

2. Use a USB hub in-between the DFU device and the Mac and insert/reinsert the iPhone’s USB cable.

3. Use a PwnageTool created .ipsw on Windows! Oh the irony!

Again, take heed to their warning, if you don’t understand what they are saying, Don’t Attempt It!

[Via blog-iPhone-dev.org]

For anyone who has been waiting for a software unlock soltution for their iPhone 3G, it looks like you patience will be paying off in a short few weeks. As Dev Team member MuscleNerd stated “Target date is a few days after Christmas”.

With this good news comes some bad news… in order to be one of the first to be able to unlock your iPhone 3G it will be required that you are running the 01.45.00 baseband. Which would mean you are on 2.0 firmware. Now who is actually running the 2.0 firmware at this moment in time is beyond me but we have to take what comes our way. There is a possibility that a unlock will come for the 02.11.07 baseband (2.1 firmware) as well but that is not for certain. And if you are running the 2.2 firmware currently you must have followed our guide to jailbreak 2.2 firmware on a Mac while preserving the baseband. The Dev-Team did warn you and we relayed the warning numerous times.

Here is what the Dev-Team had to say recently:

Right now for 02.11.07 we have some untested ideas. Ideally we’d have something solid by the end of next week, but if we don’t then it would be a staged release, with 01.45.00 first out of the gate.

Here is a list of the iPhone firmware versions and their matching basebands…

- 2.0.0 Firmware & 01.45.00 Baseband

- 2.0.1 Firmware & 01.48.02 Baseband

- 2.0.2 Firmware & 02.08.01 Baseband

- 2.1.0 Firmware & 02.11.07 Baseband

- 2.2.0 Firmware & 02.28.00 Baseband

Those of you lucky enough to still be on 2.0.0 or the 01.45.00 baseband will be able to unlock first. If you are at 2.1 or used PwnageTool to update to 2.2 then you will have the 2.11.07 baseband. This will be the second baseband to receive an unlock. Those on the 02.28.00 baseband will likely have to wait a while before an unlock is released so make sure you use a tutorial on our site to jailbreak and update rather then using iTunes directly.

If this has totally confused you, accept our apologies. An iPhone 3G software unlock should be here before New Years for the first baseband of the device. Other unlocks for later basebands should come shortly after. Keep hanging in there, the Dev-Team will take care of you!

[Via iPhone in Canada.ca]

Ok, so here we have yet another update on the Dev Team’s blog. This time they tell us everything we want to know about the 2.2 firmware and jailbreaking.

So, as anticipated our friends the misfits have recently released the long awaited 2.2 update. We can confirm that this update SHOULD NOT be applied using iTunes if you want the chance of a soft-unlock in the near future. If you want to keep that option of a ‘soft-unlock in the near future’ available but you want the new features of 2.2, you will be able to update to 2.2 using a PwnageTool created custom ipsw file that disables the baseband update. You will be able to do this using an updated version of PwnageTool that will be released sometime soon.

Notice the “to be released soon” part? Yeah, so did we. For a full list of facts regarding the firmware and jailbreaking please proceed to the Dev Team post. The most important fact to be aware of is if do update to 2.2 right now and are jailbroken you will not only lose the jailbreak but you will not be able to jailbreak 2.2 until they release their new PWNage tool. So, proceed with caution out there.

Of course, when they do release said 2.2 PWNage, you know we’ll be all over it.

[Via blog.iphone-dev.org]

I have a funny feeling that sometime shortly after the 2.2 firmware drops, we will see the iPhone 3G software unlock in the next version of the ever so popular PWNage tools from the Dev Team.

They just updated their blog with more good news, the ability to spawn background tasks. Which is great and means they have everything they need for the unlock except for the implementation. Watch the video above for more details.

Keep up the good work guys. Everyone here at TiPb appreciate your work!

[Via blog.iPhone-dev.org]

Well if this is not a bit of foreshadowing I don’t know what is. The Dev Team just posted a update on their website with a “warning” to would be unlockers.

Update warning! Now for something a bit more serious, we’ve explained about the pros and cons of applying Apple’s updates in the past and we’ve warned against the immediate installation of these updates without knowing what they do to your device. This is indeed true of the iPhone 3G’s upcoming 2.2 release. Installing ‘2.2’ straight away on the iPhone 3G using the iTunes auto-updater could affect your chances of any software unlock in the near future (should one be found and released), so when you see an update in iTunes await our instructions first! Please don’t blindly install the update and then complain about it later

Did any of you happen to notice the “software unlock in the near future” part? Yeah, so did we here at TiPb. Looks like if you have been waiting for a unlock for the iPhone 3G your patience may be paying off.

Stay tuned in the upcoming few weeks… I think Christmas may be earlier for some of you!

[Via Blog-iPhone-dev.org]

Apparently, when it comes to working on unlocking the iPhone 3G to run on other carriers, for the iPhone DevTeam, Sunday is funday…

So, still no software unlock for the 3G (don’t let the web scams fool you!), but they’re getting closer…

Since Canada has no other GSM carrier, this won’t change much for me locally, but it would make traveling so much easier (change country, change SIM!). How about you? Waiting to get your unlock on?

Jeremy recently reported that the iPhone-dev Team were inching towards an unlock for the iPhone 3G. This time, the iPhone-dev Team checks in through their blog saying that they have made “significant progress” with the 3G Unlock.

The team modified the baseband of the iPhone 3G and even though it failed the integrity check, it was still running. They state that though running modified code is extremely useful, they still can’t give an accurate time table to when we will see a 3G Unlock. Click the read link to see a video of the process. And let’s hope that the amazing iPhone-dev Team are able to get through.

Read

Let me first start off by quoting the iPhone-dev Team:

Disclaimer!! This is a purely technical post with no pragmatic use!

Sadly you will not read that they have unlocked the iPhone 3G. They have posted a few updates over the past few months giving us some idea of what is going on with the 3G unlock. It seems they have hit a snag while trying to use a specific exploit. They were able to get the baseband to stop responding to the OS. They then tried to restore the device multiple times to no avail.

Without getting too technical, they were able to fix the issue and even tried to reproduce the issue but had no luck. Reproducing this error would have been a Good Thing and possibly would have gotten the Dev Team one step closer to unlocking the 3G. So, “two steps forward, one step back”.

For all of the technical jargon please check out this the Dev Teams Blog. Good thing is, we all know the iPhone Dev-Team is still hard at work for all of you looking to use your iPhone 3G on a carrier besides AT&T. Have faith, it should only be a matter of time.

[Via blog.iPhone-dev.org]

Disclaimer – Neither TiPb nor I take any responsibility for any problems/issues/bricking/etc. that may occur while using this software to modify your iPhone. Please be aware of what you are doing.

It was not long ago that we filled you in on the steps to take in order to jailbreak your iPhone 3G on Mac OS X as well as a Windows PC. Well today TiPb is proud to present a step by step guide to not only jailbreak your first generation iPhone 2G but to unlock it while jailbreaking. This is for Windows PC’s only.

So if you are against AT&T in the US, or simply need to run your original iPhone on an international carrier like Rogers in Canada or any GSM/EDGE network around the world, then please read on after the jump!

This guide will show you how to jailbreak/unlock the original iPhone 2G only, not the iPhone 3G. Some important notes before we begin: You must have iTunes 8 installed and you must be on firmware 2.2.1, if you are not, be sure to update via iTunes. Also make sure to go into the task manager and disable ANYTHING Apple or iTunes related.

1. Get the tools.

Once you are positive you are running the 2.2.1 on your iPhone and have iTunes 8 installed it’s time to get the tools you will need. Create a folder on your desktop named “Pwnage”, then download the following files into that folder:

• Windows QuickPwn 2.2.5
• iPhone 2.2.1 ISPW
• 3.9 Bootloader
• 4.6 Bootloader

Unzip the QuickPwn.zip file inside the Pwnage folder.

2. Launch QuickPwn

Simply click on the pineapple from the Pwnage folder you created on your desktop.

3. Connect your iPhone

Connect your iPhone via USB to your computer and click the blue arrow to continue.

4. Locate Firmware

Now we have to click the browse button to locate your iPhone firmware.

5. Selecting the 2.2.1 firmware IPSW

Select the 2.1 firmware IPSW file from the Pwnage folder you created on your desktop then select the IPSW file and click the open button.

6. Firmware Verification

QuickPwn will now verify you have selected the correct firmware. After it is verified click the blue arrow to continue.

7. Customize your firmware

This step allows you select what you’d like installed on your iPhone. You have the ability to select Cydia, Installer, replace boot logos, and unlock your device. Once you have made your selections click the blue arrow to continue on. If you want a full jailbreaking experience, installing Cydia and Installer is highly recommended.

8. Bootloader Files

You will now be prompted to select your bootloader files that I instructed you to download a few minutes ago. Click on the Browse button and select the 3.9 bootloader from the Pwnage folder you created on your desktop. Repeat this for the 4.6 bootloader file. Then click the blue arrow button to proceed.

9. Verify Connection

QuickPwn will noW verify that your iPhone is still connected to your PC. Again click the blue arrow to carry on forward.

10. Potential Tricky Part – Pay Attention

Ok, this part seems to give some people issues, but I assure you it does work. QuickPwn will now put your iPhone into recovery mode. When its in recovery mode you will be given directions to: Hold the Home button for 5 seconds, Hold the Home and Power buttons for 10 seconds, then release the Power button and continuing holding the Home button until your iPhone is in DFU mode.

11. Let the jailingbreaking begin – no going back now!

QuickPwn will detect your phone is in DFU mode and proceed with the jailbreaking process.

12. You are officially jailbroken – Congrats! Now Time to Unlock – Be Patient

Once jailbreaking is complete, QuickPwn will then reboot it and run BootNeuter. Let BootNeuter take over, do not interupt it. This process will take about 5 minutes. Your iPhone will reboot when it has completed and you will have a fully unlocked iPhone!

13. Setting up data connection – T-Mobile ONLY

Go into Settings, General, then Network and enter the following information.

APN: wap.voicestream.com

Username: (leave empty)

Password: (leave empty)

For other Mobile Carriers data settings check out this link.

Well that’s it folks, it’s time to start exploring this whole new world you have just opened. For answers to more of the questions you may have regarding jailbreaking please head on into our forums. There are always members of our community willing to help you out!

Did Apple finally bring the hounds to the old iPhone jailbreak/unlock cat and mouse game?

Maybe. It’s been over 2 months and while the miraculous iPhone DevTeam has jailbroken the iPhone 3G, unlocking the device to work on any carrier has thus far eluded them. Likewise, the brand new iPod Touch — which might be a sign of things to come with the next iPhone as well — has proven more resistant to Jailbreaking. Says the DevTeam:

the 3G iPhone soft unlock and iPod Touch 2G jailbreak are still relatively new challenges (compare them with the timeframe of the iPhone challenges last year). We’re making slow advances on both fronts, but it’s not the sort of thing that can be easily described in a blog like this. But, to maybe show how interlinked these challenges are, this weekend we’ll be trying some hardware based ideas on the iPod Touch 2G jailbreak

It’s not all doom and gloom, however, as the DevTeam also elaborates a little on iPhone 2.2 “Timberline”, confirms it’s still vulnerable to pwnage, and shows it running Terminal.app.

Clever.

What raises TiPb’s eyebrow is the fact that their website has common spelling and grammatical errors. Plus it seems like they’re pimping their product more than showing the process. But hardware Sim Unlocks do seem to be from foreign countries and use some mysterious, voodoo magic to unlock the iPhone. So I guess if they’re right, we can forgive them for everything.

What do you think? Is this legit? Or should we wait until a non-SIM Unlock method?

ReadVia

So a new employment opportunity popped up at Apple’s job listings the other day and Apple is looking for an experienced iPhone Security Engineer to create “proof of concept” attacks on current security mechanisms and provide risk analysis of potential security threats. Basically, Apple needs an iPhone Hacker to prevent future jailbreaks, unlocks, and security breaches.

So if any of you are good at what you do and want to work for the “good guys”, go give it a try. Apple is trying to ramp up security to protect enterprises who are adopting iPhone 2.0 and more selfishly, protect their own App Store from competition ahem Cydia & Installer. Either way, Apple is getting serious about security and the iPhone.

What do you think?

ReadVia

Tired of the three-percenter Mac population hogging all the iPhone Unlock/Jailbreak/Pwnage goodness for their eye-candied, single-button’ied selves? No longer!

The Windows version of the iphone-dev team’s Pwnage tool, WinPwn, is now available:

Support for both 1.1.4 and 2.0, Custom Image Support, Custom Payload Support, 3g iPhone support

So, if you really want to Pwn your iPhone and haven’t already hunted down that turtle-neck wearing snob at the sushi bar and commandeered the aluminum sliver that passes for his laptop, your Microsoft compatible version awaits…

UPDATE: Pawnage has been updated to address some of the problems users faced over the weekend, including better discovery of the boot loaders, creation of the devices folder, etc.

Original post:

Starting with the cryptic announcement “We love Sundays. We think you will too”, the iphone-dev-team followed up quickly with the words many (including all those with unsupported countries and carriers) have been waiting clamoring for:

We’ll be releasing a more official announcement soon, but we wanted to get the tool out there. We sincerely hope you enjoy using it as much as we enjoyed making it

Of course, the site’s being hit so hard right now the links are down, if pwnage is what you seek, and you want to jailbreak and unlock 2.0 on your original iPhone 2G, or jailbreak your iPhone 3G (I don’t believe unlock is supported yet on the 3G but will be following soon), new mirrors, seeds, rapidshares, etc. should be popping up.

JAR!

We’ve been all over the jailbreak/unlock situation for both the iPhone 3G and the original iPhone 2G updated to 2.0, and here’s the latest.

The iphone-dev team’s pwnage hasn’t been released yet, but will be soon. According to their blog, Apple’s firmware update slowed them down a little, as has the 3G baseband, so what you’ll get short term is:

iPhone (1st Gen) with 2.0 – Activated, Unlocked & Jailbroken, (with support for third party applications). iPod Touch with 2.0 – Activated & Jailbroken, (with support for third party applications). iPhone (3G) with 2.0 – Activated, Jailbroken (with support for third party applications).

Can’t wait? Willing to risk mail order? Engadget Mobile says you can order a $1000 worth of unlocked iPhone 3G now:

According to the [Alibaba.com] wholesale goods supply site, you can just order up the “original” Apple device direct from a company called Union Camera and have them sent to whatever poorly lit dock, abandoned warehouse, or suburban safe-house you desire. The best part? They’re network unlocked.

Dunno if I’d risk it yet. How about you?

JAR! Avast ye scurvy 2.0 firmware and prepare to be unlocked!

Didn’t take long, did it? Well, actually it did — the iPhoneDevTeam has been hax0ring away at it since the SDK went wide and Apple, in an attempt to woo legitimate developers, made the beta 2.0 firmware (all 8 versions of it), widely available.

Their latest, release version 2.0, Pwnage tool hasn’t gone public yet, but will soon. Are you willing to unlock? 22 countries are getting the iPhone tomorrow, and 50 more are following, but with Apple’s tight control of the SDK, my bet is there will still be a few folks out there who want to run anything they dang-well please on their iPhone.

What about you? Are you one of the crazy-ones, the pirates? Are you going to jailbreak/unlock?

Read

We mentioned yesterday that the Canadian Government was poised to bring down the DMCA hammer on us humble citizens, handing the reins of power more overtly than ever to Big Media and Big Telco.

Not so, says the Government, listing off ways in which their new bill is mildly less offensive than it’s American progenitor, but I’m struck by what they don’t mention. Will cell phone unlocking, including iPhone 3G unlocking, be made illegal? And what about DVD ripping? Can I not take a movie I pay money for and put it into iTunes so I can watch it on my new iPhone 3G? And why, to balance the rights you’re stripping from Canadians, have you not long ago introduced a bill to prevent GSM monopolies in the telco industry from charging Canadians among the highest prices in the world for data?

How about that?

(Read on for the full text of the Canadian Government’s preemptive email blast)

The Government of Canada has introduced Bill C-61, An Act to Amend the Copyright Act. The proposed legislation is a made-in-Canada approach that balances the needs of Canadian consumers and copyright owners, promoting culture, innovation and competition in the digital age. What does Bill C-61 mean to Canadians? Specifically, it includes measures that would: expressly allow you to record TV shows for later viewing; copy legally purchased music onto other devices, such as MP3 players or cell phones; make back-up copies of legally purchased books, newspapers, videocassettes and photographs onto devices you own; and limit the “statutory damages” a court could award for all private use copyright infringements; implement new rights and protections for copyright holders, tailored to the Internet, to encourage participation in the online economy, as well as stronger legal remedies to address Internet piracy; clarify the roles and responsibilities of Internet Service Providers related to the copyright content flowing over their network facilities; and provide photographers with the same rights as other creators. What Bill C-61 does not do: it would not empower border agents to seize your iPod or laptop at border crossings, contrary to recent public speculation What this Bill is not: it is not a mirror image of U.S. copyright laws. Our Bill is made-in-Canada with different exceptions for educators, consumers and others and brings us into line with more than 60 countries including Japan, France, Germany and Australia Bill C-61 was introduced in the Commons on June 12, 2008 by Industry Minister Jim Prentice and Heritage Minister Josée Verner. For more information, please visit the Copyright Reform Process website at www.ic.gc.ca/epic/site/crp-prda.nsf/en/home Thank you for sharing your views on this important matter. The Honourable Jim Prentice, P.C., Q.C., M.P. Minister of Industry The Honourable Josée Verner, P.C., M.P. Minister of Canadian Heritage, Status of Women and Official Languages and Minister for La Francophonie

[Updated following Phone Different Podcast #19, see below!]

Way back in February, Apple’s Chief Operating Officer, Tim Cook said:

“We’re not married to any business model.”

At the time — and it’s scary how long ago it seems already — the iPhone was only available in the US, UK, Germany, and France, with rumors of Ireland and Austria waiting in the wings. What’s more, these were all exclusive deals, with Apple doing their best to lock the iPhone down to single carriers in each territory in exchange for lucrative — and unprecedented — revenue-sharing deals that some have estimated could be netting Apple up to $15 per month, per subscriber.

So, with a potential billion dollars on the table, while they weren’t married to it, they no doubt felt more than a little lusty.

But in true Apple fashion, invoking perhaps the pirate mantra of old, and embracing the same mindset that has them run iTunes as a near-loss leader, price-cut the iPhone a scant few months in, and offer cheap family upgrade options on their OS and iApps, it looks like Tim Cook was serious.

Read on to find out just how serious he was…

Late April brought rumblings of carrier “discounts” in Europe. Apple claimed carriers could charge what they wanted. Pundits on various sides pointed to clearing stock in the face impending 3G, or desperation to nudge thus-far-disappointing sales.

Then the floodgates opened. Literally. What had been a scant 5 countries with official first generation iPhone deals, became a torrent of announcements, week after week, of dozens upon dozens more. Canada. Australasia. Africa. Latin America. The Middle East. Scandinavia and the Baltics. And more. Double, triple, quadruple, the numbers became near-exponential.

The strange part? Multiple carriers began announcing iPhone deals in the same countries or territories. Vodafone and Telecom Italia both claimed Italy in early May.

Carrier exclusivity was gone.

No doubt at Apple’s behest, press releases were short to the point of single sentences at times, all with the promise of more details to follow, but Orange did let slip that there would now be non-exclusive deals (where no carrier had the sole rights to the iPhone and any GSM provider could theoretically support it), and co-exclusivity (where two or more carriers had sole rights and only they could officially support it).

Orange didn’t stop there either. Rumor has it they are now calling up existing iPhone customers and offering them €50 upgrade paths to the next generation iPhone 3G. Talk about a subsidy!

So why, with so much money at stake — and let’s face it, cachet — are Tim Cook’s words suddenly ringing so loudly?

Steve Jobs has said that one of Apple’s greatest failings during his absence was that other leadership chose to grab for money rather than grow market share. And Steve Jobs is known to think about products and positioning years into the future.

Our own Dieter Bohn has teased some of his thoughts on this, and promises to follow up on the next Phone Different Podcast. Don’t miss it.

UPDATE: Dieter, having brainstormed with another one of our writers, Chad Garrett, is offering the following: Given the massive amount of carriers now announced for the iPhone 3G, managing activation via iTunes may get a lot tricker… unless Apple offers the iPhone unlocked, and iTunes simply provides a way to connect to one of the established carriers in exchange for a subsidy, or — dream of all dreams — lets you keep running unlocked if you’re willing to forgo said subsidy. How’s that for a new business model?

For my part, I’ll mention this again:

Apple is alone among modern technology companies in enjoying near spherical integration. They make the iPhone hardware. They develop its software. They provide .Mac services. They market pro-level content creation tools. They own the high-end computer market that runs those — and the developer — tools. They sell content via the #1 music retailer in the US, iTunes. They have a toe in the accessory business with a headset, docks, cables, etc. They license 3rd party accessories. They get revenue sharing on subscriptions from current carriers. They are about to launch an App Store, getting a cut of commercial sales in exchange for putting product in front of every single iPhone user on the planet. They have an international online store, and their growing chain of retail Apple Stores make more per square foot than Tiffany’s.

So, unlike many others who have to survive on platform licenses, hardware margins, service contracts, or any other single or small number of profit streams, Apple can choose to take hits in multiple streams (like revenue sharing) and still earn money hand over fist in many, many others.

In short, Apple isn’t married to any specific business model because they can afford not to be. And come WWDC in June, and the long expected iPhone 3G announcement with it, Apple’s plans may just result in a windfall for consumers as well…

Avast ye scurvy 2.0 firmware — prepare to be pwned! Erica Sadun of TUAW tells us the cartoon Jobs’ing, Russian slang’ing, custom firmware making, iTunes loading unlock solution has hit version 1.1:

The new tool allows you to add custom packages, logos and fixes EDGE settings under 1.1.4. Either pop over to iPhone-dev.org or choose PwnageTool > Check for Updates (Command-U) directly from the app.

But don’t raise the Jolly Roger too soon, rumors are also circulating that Cap’n Jobs is coming about hard, cannon’s loaded, and may just be upping the ante soon in the great unloack cat’n'mouse game.

Will Apple be able to hang the rascally pirates from the highest yard arm? Are the pirates too far ahead at this point? And how ironic is it that Jobs and co. once styled themselves as the pirates? What do you think?

Roughly Drafted recently proposed that neither impending 3G nor poor supply chain management were to blame for Apple Store’s lack of iPhone stock, but rather the international gray market for unlocked handsets.

Now, based on a post from Infrageeks, they’re back with a look at how Apple could replace some carrier kick-back revenue with .Mac subscription revenue, if El Jobso saw fit to beef up the service and better tie it into the iPhone.

Our own Chad Garrett has already made the case for .Mac syncing via the iPhone, and iPhone Alley, (via TUAW) has said it’s coming, so what’s Dilger’s take?

Integrating .Mac services into its iPhone and iPod Touch mobile platform would not only make the devices more valuable and competitive, but would also add a layer of ongoing subscription revenue that would enable the company to more profitably sell unlocked iPhones at regular prices in emerging markets where demand is off the charts. Rather than paying a smuggler $800, Apple could sell customers the iPhone at the regular $399 price, bundled with a two year .Mac subscription for another $99 a year. This would rapidly develop Apple’s software service revenue and allow the company a significant budget for investing to keep the services up to date and valuable for users.

What value would $99 bring? The details are in the full article, but include network data sync, file sharing, back-to-my-mac, blogging, hyperblogging, a reputation system, community profiles, secure identity services, marketplace, privacy management, data sharing/networking, and subscription music.

Would those services be worth $99 a year to you? Would they be worth giving up the carrier revenue for Apple? What do you think?

Real nice, Bohn. Fine. Let’s do this.

As most probably know, Canada doesn’t have the iPhone. Well, we do, but it’s a cr@ppy piece of VoIP. Nothing near as revolutionary or useful as Le Steve’s little universe denter. We also have a GSM monopoly with data rates so high Warren Buffet wants no part of them. (A national newspaper once calculated that to even approach an AT&T type iPhone plan on Rogers would cost well over $1000 a month, and would still offer less service).

Despite that, there are many iPhones up in the frozen north, unlocked, unsupported, but much loved by their users. I’ve personally been rocking a 1.1.1 firmware iPhone ever since I stomped my WinMob into oblivion and skipped my Treo across the St. Lawrence seaway.

Today, I decided to take the leap and upgrade my most precious of gadgets, my Unix in-the-pocket, my multi-touch new-interfacer, to 1.1.4.

Since I’m petrified of bricking the poor little fellow, I’m going with the easiest and most straight-forward solution, iLiberty X.

First I sync everything. Nice and safe. Now I’m going to restore to 1.1.4. Not upgrade — restore. They’re pretty clear on that point.

Okay, launching the iLiberty X GUI. iTunes shuts down, iTunes service shuts down, I bite down — hard enough to draw blood, and pray to every god and deity I could think of.

GUI starts to work — Step 1. iPhone streams tons and tons of text. UNIX friend over my shoulder seems to think it makes sense. Seems to…

Step 2… Some parts seem to tic away for an exasperatingly long time… Will it brick any second? Is Steve Jobs chuckling even now, cracking his knuckles, and preparing to “unleash the hounds”?

YES! Complete!

iTunes is coming up and recognizing an iPhone! Quick test — we have jigglies!! Looking for cell network… CAN Rogers! (Used to just say Rogers, the CAN part is new…) Installer.app is there, non-AT&T SIM is working, phone is working. That’s jailbreak, unlock, and activation FTW!

Okay, now all that’s left is to re-enter a bunch of Wi-Fi keys, reassign favorites, and I’m sure fix up a dozen or so other minor settings, but after languishing in the 3rd world for so long, it feels nice to be a second-class citizen again.

Hello proper podcast place-keeping! Hello screen dim and sleep! Hello 1.1.4!

Hmmm, now what’s this about 2.0…

Note: jailbreaking, unlocking, and activating are not Apple approved procedures, might violate your ULA, certainly voids your warranty, and could well brick you phone. No one here advises anyone to do it, or takes any responsibility for results, good or ill, from doing it. Proceed at your own risk. Ed. Note: Actually, we fully support you doing whatever you want to your iPhone, just don’t blame us if it goes wrong! :p

As previously mentioned, US Apple Store’s have been surprisingly (or suspiciously) out of iPhone stock lately.

Some have speculated that this is due to the immanent release of a 3G iPhone, others have cited atypical supply chain management issues, component shortages, or shipping problems.

In a long post based on info from an anonymous source nom-de-tip’d, Tantrum, Roughly Drafted brings a third option to the table: Pirates. (JAR!)

“Demand for iPhones outside the United States, particularly in emerging markets, is out of control and has reached the point where it has started to impact Apple’s normalized supply chain projections,” Tantrum wrote. “It’s okay to have a delta of, say, 100,000 units or so per year between actual and forecast. International demand is driving that delta upwards of 1 million. That’s a whole different ball game for component sourcing, quality control and production ramp-up and some things are starting to come unstuck, even for a finely managed company like Apple.”

Tantrum mentions 5 specific reasons for the increased international demand:

Ease of jailbreak/unlock with new GUI-based solution. Organizations specializing in getting iPhones into Eastern Europe and Asia. Spread of Wi-Fi and EDGE being “good enough” in most countries. GSM compatibility. Low price (due to weak American dollar and high local smartphone costs).

There’s much more in the original post, so be sure to check it out. Could the pirates (JAR!) be sucking the US channels dry? Or is this just another crazy theory in face of the impending 3G monster birthing any minute now? What do you think?

JAR! The “Cat and Mouse Game” between the nasty pirates and the royal Cupertino navy seems to have shifted decidedly in the pirates favor, or so says Engadget:

Those crafty kids on the iPhone Dev Team have already hacked the 2.0 firmware, but now they’re getting ready to release the oh-so-creatively-named PWNED tool, which takes iPhone hacking to the next level by patching the bootloader to let you load any firmware image you want — even images not signed by Apple. That means custom patched firmware can now be loaded directly from iTunes, which simplifies the jailbreaking / unlocking process tremendously, and also means that a patched version of the 2.0 firmware is coming soon.

Video after the break!

Looks like the most dastardly of jailbreaks/unlocks yet. Can Apple check the move and raise the stakes, or is the iPhone DevTeam to be believed and it’s the yard-arm for El Jobso’s lock-down? What do you think?

If you have an iPhone on firmware 1.1.4 you’re just dying to jailbreak and/or unlock, or an iPod Touch you want to liberate (and add apps to before June!), and you trust software created by 13-year olds(!), then iJailBreak may just be what you’re looking for.

If you’ve previously used iJailBreak, you can update automatically. If you’re new to the pirate scene and don’t mind violating the ULA and your warranty, then this implementation is about as simple as it can get. Ars Technica reports you just download, install, run, connect, and viola!

A pirate’s life indeed…

Gizmodo raises the Jolly Roger this morning with news that the scurvy Pwned Project DevTeam has forced the iPhone SDK beta firmware to walk the plank:

• Jailbreak? Aye.
• Unlock? Aye Aye.
• Unsigned Apps? JAR!

Old Install.app applications will need to be updated to the new APIs, but by using a firmware patch rather than hack, DevTeam believes this Jailbreak will be hard for Apple to counter. Prepare to be boarded!

Has the DevTeam got Apple’s treasure for good this time or is Cap’n Jobs already coming around, cannons primed? The cat and mouse game continues!

UPDATE: Ars Technica explains:

The new exploit works by taking advantage of the boot loading process on the iPhone, using the AppleImage2NorAccess extension to load a custom firmware to the device in the same way that the standard restore process works. After the patched firmware has been written to the device and restarted, any unsigned app can be loaded and run.

Catch the video after the break!

Engadget has put together a veritable jolly roger of an update to iPhone firmware 1.1.4 jailbreaking and SIM unlocking.

These methods include the usual scurvy gang of iNdependence 1.4 beta 5 for OS X, Zibri’s cross-platform Ziphone 2.5, and a new, and potentially mega-infringing stow-away: iTunes (looks to be purely proof-of-concept at the moment).

As always, jailbreaking and unlocking are not for the faint of heart, so explore at your own risk, lest your precious iPhone end up on the receiving end of a one way trip to Davey Jones’ locker…

Representative Ed Mackey (D-Mass) wants to make Apple & ATT (and all other US providers) cry. How? By copying the French. Well, technically, by adopting a law similar to France‘s which mandates that cell companies “shall offer to consumers the opportunity to purchase subsidy-free wireless customer equipment.”

Under this proposal, Apple & ATT would likely be forced to offer an unlocked (and unsubsidized) version of the iPhone. (Bidding to start at US$999?)

Potentially worse for the telcos, it would mandate a level of clarity, detail, and (gasp!) understandability for rate plans, including itemization and disclosure of taxes and early termination fees.

Hit up news.com for the details…

Does it seem like, with each update to the iPhone, it takes longer and longer for Jailbreaks and SIM Unlocks to shake out? Here’s the latest for those of you who want both a SIM Unlocked phone and the latest OS from Cupertino – a SIM unlock from Zibri. There’s caveats, though, as you can see:

This is Version 1.3 Of anySIM.
This version unlocks baseband 4.03_13_g
It’s only for bootblock 3.9 don’t use on 4.6
To use it, upgrade the baseband then
put the iPhone in airplane mode and run it !
It works also in JB 113 OS… – Zibri [via]

Short version of the above: unless you’re very clear on what exact firmware versions you have loaded on the various radio bit on your iPhone, steer clear.

In the Phone different forums, surur (with the help of marcol) has posted up some fine analysis on the question of all those missing iPhones we mentioned a couple weeks back. The question: whether or not iPhone sales had slumped over the holidays (they didn’t), but more importantly, how big is the gap between what Apple says they’ve sold and what AT&T says they’ve sold. As you can see in the graph above, it’s a big gap that’s getting bigger.

I’d previously doubted that a significant part of that gap was unlocked iPhones and unsold inventory. It seemed like the 1.5 million gap had to be some error in reporting or other such strangeness. But based on what analysis is available, it’s starting to look like “unlocked and unsold iPhones” are exactly what makes up that gap.

The real question, then, is what the ratio is of unlocked to unsold. Actually, the real question is what does this gap tell us about how Apple is going to be able to talk about the iPhone. Read on for the answers to both questions, after the break!

BusinessWeek has done some analysis. Once you factor out the iPhones sold “legit” via European carriers, the data suggests that as many as 800,000 iPhones have been purchased, unlocked, and shipped overseas (many to China). It also suggests that somewhere around 400,000 iPhones are sitting in inventory somewhere. That’s an awfully high number (at least for Apple), but no big deal compared to many other of AT&T’s SKUs. It basically works out to around 3 weeks of inventory, which is again slightly high but not at panic levels — though one wonders how that inventory of 8 gig iPhones will move now that the 16 gig has been released.

I make no claims about the accuracy of the above numbers, but I think they’re fairly close. Wouldn’t it be nice if I didn’t have to make that disclaimer?

The thing that I’d like to see, and that I doubt I’ll ever get, is a clear explanation from Apple. The gap seems to have given investors the willies, but it’s not exactly going to calm anybody down if Apple talks directly about two things that look bad on their face: unsold inventory and iPhones that aren’t bringing in residual income via carrier agreements. Like so many companies who have to sell via carriers, Apple is in the awkward position of not being able to be as transparent as they otherwise might be regarding the financials behind their product.

Again, “not being transparent” is nothing new for Apple. They don’t, for example, make a habit of detailing exactly what ratio of the types iPods go into their sales numbers. The iPhone situation feels different, though, because Apple has made a deal with AT&T that may last for as many as 5 years. The confusion here feels, heart-sinkingly, much like the confusion that Palm sometimes is forced into because of their deals with various carriers.

The whole situation solidifies my feeling that Apple missed an opportunity to shake up the wireless industry business-wise in a way that benefits consumers. What’s best for consumers is to make carriers into dumb tubes for our data and calls. Though I can’t fully fault Apple for not trying to take down that system, I do wish they hadn’t introduced another layer of confusion and payola “synergy” into it.

The counter-argument is that if you have no choice but to make a deal with the Mafia, you might as well get a piece of the action. I have to say it’s a compelling argument and I can’t pretend I would have done differently in Apple’s place. At least we know that Google’s demands for openness on the new wireless spectrum auction will have to be met. As soon as their deal with AT&T allows it, Apple needs to jump on the open wireless access bandwagon with Google.

There’s a lot of talk today (here and here for starters) about the iPhone’s sales numbers from Apple’s quarterly conference call and how they didn’t match up with AT&T’s numbers from their conference call. The gist is that Apple sold 3.7 million iPhones and AT&T had about 2 million iPhone subscribers. So where are the rest?

Of course, many were sold overseas, but most people very much doubt that Apple sold 1.7 million of them. Which has led to speculation that as many as a third of all iPhones have been purchased and unlocked. That’s a lot, and it strikes me as an unrealistically high number. Naturally, we’d like Apple to help us understand this riddle. Naturally, we are sure they won’t. Fake Steve Jobs agrees:

Why not just break out the numbers and share more information and tell Toni Sacconaghi and his pals on Wall Street exactly where all the iPhones are? Well, we’re not going to do that. We’re not going to break out any numbers or share any more information on this topic or try to explain how we arrived at the 4 million figure. We’re just not going to do it, so stop asking.

It could be that Apple’s number includes those shipped out to AT&T (and international carriers) for them to sell but haven’t actually sold yet. It could be that hundreds of thousands of people bought iPhones just because they’re really shiny. Whatever it is, it’s clear that a significant number of these un-accounted for iPhones have been unlocked.