iPhone Unlock

iPhone 4 Unlocked

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iPhone 4 has been unlocked. That’s the news coming via Twitter from the developer of Linux on the iPhone, who tweets under the alias planetbeing:

iPhone 4 Unlocked

The iPhone 4 unlock software allows you to use your iPhone on any GSM carrier. The only problem: Planetbeing’s iPhone 4 unlock solution has not been released to the public. Furthermore, iPhone 4 has not yet joined the list of jailbreak solutions.

The tweet that bore the news about the iPhone 4 unlock achievement also boasted this photo of the unlocked iPhone:

First Unlocked iPhone 4

Watch planetbeing showing off “the world’s first and only carrier unlocked American iPhone 4” in this YouTube video he recently posted:

Will you attempt to unlock your iPhone 4?

Once-Great ZiPhone Jailbreak Software Now Sadly a Scam

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ZiPhone Scam

Update: For accurate jailbreak instructions, see my iPhone Jailbreak guide.

A video I once created about ZiPhone now has nearly half a million views on YouTube because it cleverly showcased a Jailbreak solution that could be installed in under a minute. Although ZiPhone was once a fast and useful iPhone Jailbreak software, this utility has since become obsolete, and its creator is profiting off of confusion over the old software.

What is ZiPhone? ZiPhone was the first (free) iPhone jailbreak software I discovered, and it was in fact one of the first truly easy jailbreak solutions. I saw that a lot of people were demoing ZiPhone on YouTube, so I added a video to YouTube to show how easy it was to jailbreak with ZiPhone — so easy a caveman could do it, and in under a minute at that!

Jailbreak is Tough Business

The video went viral and Zibri from ZiPhone enjoyed some much-deserved recognition for his iPhone jailbreak software. But as it turns out, jailbreak is not an easy business to be in when you are constantly playing cat and mouse games with Apple.

Every time Apple issues an iPhone update, you have to update your jailbreak software to get around some new restrictions. I can imagine how time consuming it must be to develop jailbreak software and I commend Zibri for his work as well as the Dev-Team for their tireless efforts to distribute free jailbreak software for every iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.

ZiPhone Creator Quits

The ZiPhone creator, however, seems to have given up on jailbreak. Now, ZiPhone.org is a butchered, ad-infested version of what it used to be. While Zibri used to constantly post updates to his blog about Jailbreak software improvements, his posts are now absent from the site and it seems others have been hired to post general blog updates.

The link to “Download ZiPhone” is still in the navigation, though, and clicking it takes you to a page where a couple of download links (Windows and Mac) are hard to point out in the flood of advertising banners (six!) tempting you with the “Easiest Way to Unlock.”

iPhone Jailbreak Ads

If you are able to get around the ads and download the ZiPhone jailbreak software, you’ll come to an application that was last updated March 2008. Something tells me this software is severely out of date.

No Support

If you plug in your iPhone, click “Jailbreak” and then end up screwed, you’ve got nowhere to get help. ZiPhone.org offers no support, and clicking the Contact link in the navigation does nothing.

A thread at modmyi reveals that ZiPhone is in fact “extinct.” Yet Google still ranks the site well for jailbreak-related terms, therefore many visitors are likely deceived by ZiPhone each day.

Conclusion

Now, I’m not saying a guy can’t make a living, but it seems ZiPhone.org is turning a profit at the expense of iPhone users. ZiPhone is unsupported, outdated software, and the deceptively placed ads on ZiPhone.org point to jailbreak software that you can get for free in plenty of places. For these reasons, I withdraw my support for ZiPhone and I don’t recommend you download it.

My YouTube video got a laugh out of a lot of people, but after it became outdated, ZiPhone confused the hell out of iPhone owners looking to jailbreak. It’s time I set the record straight about this iPhone jailbreak software. Sorry for any confusion it might have caused.

iPhone Jailbreak/Unlock Issue: T-Mobile SIM Installed, But Stuck On Emergency Calls

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This post is intended to help T-Mobile customers who are having trouble jailbreaking and unlocking their 2nd generation iPhones.

I sold a jailbroken, unlocked iPhone 2G on eBay last week and the buyer contacted me because his T-Mobile SIM was “not supported” and he was stuck on the Emergency Call screen. I realized after some research that although this issue is common, there aren’t many answers floating around in the blogosphere.

I finally concluded that to make your iPhone 2G T-Mobile-compatible you need to wipe out your iPhone’s memory of the original SIM, in this case an AT&T SIM. Here are the instructions I sent my eBay customer to help him fix his iPhone 2G with a T-Mobile SIM, based on help from the comments on a jailbreak guide by The iPhone Blog:

“After doing some research, it seems the problem you’re having is that because I’ve used an AT&T SIM on that phone in the past, iTunes will not accept a new, non-AT&T SIM. So what we have to do is start from scratch and wipe out the memory of that AT&T SIM.

1. Download the 3.1.2 firmware and save it in a location you’ll remember.

2. After that has downloaded, put your T-Mobile SIM in the iPhone.

3. Connect the iPhone to your computer and start iTunes

At this point iTunes will probably tell you it cannot identify the SIM in the phone and that you should get a valid SIM from the proper carrier.

4. On your iPhone, press the Home and Power buttons simultaneously until the screen goes black. (Home is the circle at the bottom center of the screen, Power is the black button at the top right of the phone.) A second after the screen goes black, release the Power button while keeping the Home button pressed.

5. iTunes will tell you it has detected an iPhone in recovery mode. Press OK.

6. Now, click Shift + Restore and a file browser window should come up (If you have a Mac, click Option + Restore). Find the file you downloaded in Step 1 and open it. iTunes will complete the restore of the software and firmware and when it completes and reboots the phone, disconnect the phone immediately. Now all traces of AT&T should be removed and you’ll want to jailbreak and unlock the phone once again.

7. To Jailbreak, download Blackra1n RC3 for Windows or Mac.

8. Plug your iPhone to your computer and make sure iTunes is closed. Run BlackRa1n RC3 and click on “make it ra1n.”

9. Your iPhone will enter recovery mode and you will see the usual recovery image replaced by a picture of iPhone hacker GeoHot. BlackRa1n will run on your iPhone and it will reboot when done.

10. After your iPhone has rebooted, you will notice a new BlackRa1n icon on your iPhone screen. Make sure you have a Wi-Fi connection and launch BlackRa1n.app on your iPhone. Select Cydia and tap Install.

11. Launch Cydia and search for the BootNeuter app. Download and install it. Launch the BootNeuter app and tweak the settings to match the ones in the image on
Step 12 here.

12. Reboot your iPhone and cross your fingers!

After trying this, my customer called me from his iPhone and confirmed that the phone was recognizing his T-Mobile SIM. Ta-da!

Did this solution work for you? For further help, read my general iPhone Jailbreak instructions and check out the comments on that post.

How to Jailbreak & Unlock iPhone 2G v 3.0

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iPhones that have been Jailbroken & unlocked sell better on eBay, so I decided to Jailbreak my old 2nd generation iPhone OS 3.0 before I put it up for auction. This is the second time I Jailbreak my iPhone after writing my original iPhone Jailbreak guide a couple years ago.

Here’s how I did it:

[Note: This iPhone Jailbreak guide is intended for 2nd generation iPhones with 3.0 firmware or below ONLY. For instructions on jailbreaking other iPhone versions, visit the ultimate guide to jailbreaking your iPhone.]

Jailbreak iPhone 2G with OS 3.0

  1. This iPhone Jailbreak guide requires you to download the following: (1) RedSn0w for Windows, Mac or Linux; (2) the 3.0 firmware for iPhone 2G; and (3) the 3.9 and (4) 4.6 BootLoaders if you want to unlock your iPhone in addition to Jailbreaking. Save your downloads in a folder named “Jailbreak.”

    iPhone Jailbreak files

  2. Launch RedSn0w and click “Browse.” Find the 3.0 firmware (the .ipsw file you just downloaded to your Jailbreak folder) and select it. Then click “Next” to restore your 2G iPhone to the 3.0 firmware.

    iPhone Jailbreak RedSn0w

  3. Choose whether to install Cydia, install Icy and/or unlock your iPhone. I chose to install Cydia (like an “App Store” for Jailbreak) and to unlock my iPhone 2G, which allows the iPhone to be used on non-approved carriers.
  4. If you chose to unlock your iPhone, RedSn0w will ask you to identify the bootloader files you downloaded in Step 1.

    iPhone Jailbreak Bootloaders

  5. Now turn off your iPhone (but leave it connected via USB), click “Next” and follow instructions.

    iPhone Jailbreak instructions

    In under a minute, you will have a Jailbroken iPhone 2G.

    iPhone Jailbreaking with RedSn0w

    iPhone Jailbreak activating

  6. Let your iPhone reboot, open Cydia and download a bunch of cool apps and modifications that you could not otherwise download with a factory iPhone.

What Do You Think?

Did this Jailbreak solution work for you? Got any iPhone Jailbreak tips? Let us know in the comments.

Apple Has No Right to Break Your Unlocked iPhone (See Proof)

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Owners of unlocked iPhones are rightfully nervous after Apple said yesterday that it “has discovered that many of the unauthorized iPhone unlocking programs … will likely result in the modified iPhone becoming permanently inoperable when a future Apple-supplied iPhone software update is installed.”

Worse, if your unlocked iPhone breaks, Apple will not fix it under the warranty, which they say becomes void if you tamper with the iPhone software.

Panic over having your unlocked iPhone damaged by an Apple software update may or may not be justified. One user on an Apple Discussions thread thinks “Apple is going to make it sound a lot worse than it actually is since they are the ones who don’t want you to do it in the first place,” referring to the software unlock that lets you use your iPhone on cell phone networks other than AT&T.

I’m writing today to prove that Apple has no legal right to break your unlocked iPhone, according to U.S. Copyright law. There’s a lot of hard-to-understand technical jargon on the U.S. Copyright Office website, but bear with me and I’ll translate to English:

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