What is jailbreak?
If you own an iPhone or iPod Touch you must have heard of the term jailbreak. Apple has restricted iPhone and iPod Touch users to have access to only certain folders on their device. A jailbreak bypasses that and allows iPhone or iPod Touch users to have root access to all the files and folders available on the iPhone or iPod Touch. Sounds boring, doesn’t it? But wait, there’s more to it. Jailbreak or jailbreaking also allows us to add third-party apps, and customize our iPhone or iPod Touch the way we want to.
Why jailbreak?
Why should you jailbreak your iPhone or iPod Touch? Here are the three main reasons:
- Apple denies a lot of the cool apps from their App Store, and there are some apps that Apple will never accept in to the App Store due to their very strict guidelines. With a jailbreak you can add those cool apps to your device.
- Jailbreaking allows you to fully customize your device the way you want it. You can do cool things like changing your SpringBoard design, icons, keyboard, and a lot more.
- A jailbreak also allows iPhone users to unlock their iPhone and use it with a different network. If you live in the US the only other carrier you can use besides AT&T is T-Mobile.
How do I jailbreak?
There are many different ways to jailbreak. The most current jailbreak tools available are redsn0w and purplera1n. purplera1n is only for iPhone 3GS owners, if you don’t have an iPhone 3GS then use redsn0w. Both of these programs are really easy to use.
Important Jailbreaking Information!
Jailbreaking your device voids your warranty! With each firmware update you need to jailbreak your device again. If you’re an iPhone 3G/3GS user and you want to keep your unlock or jailbreak you must be careful and not update once Apple releases new firmware.
iPhone 3GS users: Unlike all the other devices, the iPhone 3GS jailbreak can be patched easily by Apple. In fact Apple might patch the update in their next iPhone 3.1 update. Be careful not to update!
Unlocked iPhone 3G/3GS users: Apple will update the baseband once they release the iPhone 3.1 update. You must refrain from updating if you want to keep your unlock! That baseband update can permanently block your unlock. You will need to install a custom firmware with the current baseband. I’ll post a tutorial on how to do that here once the iPhone 3.1 update and iPhone 3.1 jailbreak is released.