UPDATED: Ultrasn0w updated, uses old iPad baseband to unlock iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS!

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.

These tools can be downloaded from: Iphone Dev-Team Blog

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: 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!

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