Brent Kearney » Apple

How to Unlock an iPhone 3GS

Brent — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 23:15:54 +0000

Here I hope to help alleviate the confusion that some iPhone 3GS owners have about jailbreaking and unlocking their phones. This article pertains to the iPhone 3GS only. The iPhone 3GS is the one that came out in the summer of 2009. These instructions do not pertain to other models of iPhones. For other models, I recommend the tutorials at iClarified.

This whole process is thanks to the efforts of the group of hackers who call themselves the iPhone Dev Team. These guys volunteer hundreds of hours of their time so that iPhone owners around the world can make full use of their phones. They are the Mother Theresas of iPhones. They are awesome.

What does “Jailbreaking” do?

Jailbreaking allows you to install software on your iPhone that was not approved by Apple and is thus not available in the App Store.

Example of a custom theme

It also allows for a vast range of customizations to your iPhone, allowing you to make full use of your device. Jailbreaking is a prerequisite to “unlock” your iPhone.

What is “Unlocking”?

Unlocking refers to removing the restriction on your iPhone that limits it to a particular cellular service provider (a.k.a. “carrier”). For example, if you buy an iPhone from AT&T, you won’t be able to subsequently switch to a different (GSM) service provider, unless your iPhone is unlocked.

Being able to switch carriers is very useful if you travel, because you can then buy a pay-as-you-go or prepaid SIM card at your new destination, and put it into your iPhone for local service, at local rates. This is usually far cheaper than incurring roaming charges from your provider at home.

Do NOT upgrade to iPhone OS 3.1, Yet

You can find out what version of iPhone OS you have by going to Settings -> General -> Version on your iPhone. If you buy a new iPhone today, it probably came with version 3.0 or 3.0.1. Leave it that way. Do not click the “Download and Update” button that iTunes prompts you for the first time that you plug the phone into your computer.

To unlock your iPhone 3GS, you need iPhone OS version 3.0 or 3.0.1; you must never have installed version 3.1 from Apple. If you have, at any time, updated to version 3.1 via an official release from Apple, then you cannot jailbreak or unlock your phone until some indefinite time in the future.

If you installed the official iPhone OS version 3.1, you will have to wait for someone to discover a new software bug that will allow for jailbreaking and unlocking. One may never be discovered. One might be discovered tomorrow. Nobody knows.

Step One: iPhone 3GS Jailbreak

Assuming that you have an iPhone 3GS with OS version 3.0 or 3.0.1:

Download the iPhone 3.0 firmware from Apple. You’ll find links to all firmwares here.
Download redsn0w from the DevTeam. Download links are near the bottom of the article.
Open redsn0w, click the Browse button, locate the iPhone2,1_3.0_7A341_Restore.ipsw file, and click the Open button.
Click the Next button in redsn0w. It will prepare the jailbreak, then ask if you’d like Cydia and/or Icy installed. Select at least Cydia, and click Next.
Follow the onscreen instructions (turn off your phone, etc). It will say “Done!” before the process is actually finished. Watch your phone, and do not disconnect it from your computer.

Your phone is now jailbroken, but still not unlocked. If you had OS version 3.0.1, you will still have version 3.0.1, only now it also has the Cydia App installed.

Step Two: Unlock Your iPhone 3GS

Now that you’ve jailbroken your iPhone, you should see that the Cydia App has been added to your screen. Start it. The first time you start Cydia, it will do some “rearranging”, and restart the springboard, causing your iPhone’s screen to lock.
Unlock your screen, and start Cydia. At this point, it is a good idea to update any packages that need updating (it should tell you if there are available updates). After updating, Cydia will quit again.
Start Cydia again, and click the Search icon in the bottom-right corner. Search for “ultrasn”. The 3rd match should be “ultrasn0w”. Select it, and click Install. It will present a Reboot button after installing. Click the Reboot button.

Your iPhone should now be unlocked, and you can use it with any SIM card. Happy traveling! :)

New! Upgrade to iPhone OS 3.1

As of October 2nd, 2009, the DevTeam gave us the gift of PwnageTool 3.1.3, which allows you to create a hacked 3.1 firmware for jailbroken iPhones. Note that if you already have 3.1 installed, and it isn’t jailbroken, this is not for you. Re-read the “Do NOT upgrade to iPhone OS 3.1, Yet” section, above.

If you have already jailbroken your iPhone, the new PwnageTool allows you to upgrade to 3.1 safely, maintaining your jailbreak and carrier unlock.

iClarified has posted a tutorial on how to do this here.

Newer! iPhone OS 3.1.2

On October 8th, Apple released version 3.1.2 of iPhone OS. The DevTeam says:

If you care about your jailbreak and unlock, don’t update your device – 3G and 3G(S) owners should pay particular attention to this warning.

* PwnageTool and redsn0w are not yet compatible with 3.1.2
* There is no estimated release time for compatible tools (please don’t bug us about this).

Newest! iPhone OS 3.1 is cracked!

October 13th, 2009, the DevTeam has released PwnageTool version 3.1.4. The new version allows for unlocking version 3.1, making much of what I said in this article obsolete.

It also allows for updating to version 3.1.2 on your already jailbroken iPhone. Get it and read all of the details here.

Copy Music Off of Your iPod in Five Easy Steps

Brent — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 23:37:55 +0000

These instructions explain how to copy files from your iPod to your Mac using the tools built into Mac OS X. There is plenty of 3rd-party software that can transfer files from iPods, for example EphPod for Windows and iLinkPod for Mac, but the method I will show you does not require 3rd party software. The procedure is basically this: use the command line to copy the randomly-named files from the iPod to a temporary folder on your Mac’s hard drive, then add them to iTunes to automatically re-organize and rename the files appropriately.

The copy process will require double the amount of disk space that is used on your iPod. So if you have 6GB worth of music on your iPod, copying the music off of your iPod will require 12GB worth of space on your computer — 6GB of storage for the files copied from the iPod, plus 6GB of temporary storage (which you can delete after).

1. Create a folder on your desktop that will temporarily hold the files from your iPod. To create a folder on your desktop, click your desktop, then select File -> New Folder.

A new folder will appear on your desktop, and you can type in a new name for it. Name the new folder “ipod”.

2. Connect your iPod to your computer and open iTunes. An iPod icon should appear in the column on the left, under Devices. Note the name of your iPod. This will be important for later.

Click on the icon of your iPod. This should show you the summary screen:

Scroll down to the Options section, and make sure that the option to “Enable Disk Use” is enabled:

Click the “Apply” button if the option was previously not enabled.

3. Open iTunes Preferences by holding down the command key (⌘) and pressing the comma key. Click the Advanced tab. Optionally change the “iTunes Music folder location” to your Music folder; this is where your music files will be stored. Check off the “Keep iTunes Music folder organized” option, and the “Copy files to the iTunes Music folder when adding to library” option.

Click the “Apply” button after making changes. Note that, from now on, when you add new music to iTunes, a copy of those files will be made in your Music folder. So remember to delete original files after importing to iTunes.

4. Copy & Paste the following text — not including the semi-colon (;) — into a Terminal window. That is, using your mouse, highlight the following line up to just before the ‘;’ at the end of the line, then press ⌘-c (or select Edit -> Copy) to copy it:

cp -R "/Volumes/My iPod/iPod_Control/Music/*" ~/Desktop/ipod/ ;

Open a Terminal window from your Applications -> Utilities folder, and press ⌘-v (or Edit -> Paste) to paste the text into it. Use the back-arrow key (←) to move the cursor to where it says “My iPod”, and use your delete key to replace “My iPod” with the name of your iPod, which you noted in step 2. So for example, if your iPod is named FooPod, the line in your Terminal window should look like:

When the command line looks like the above, except with your iPod’s name in place of FooPod, press the Enter key.

The temporary “ipod” folder on your desktop will begin to fill up with the files from your iPod. The files will have random names, like “ZTUG.mp3″ — don’t worry, that will be fixed in the next step! The copy process could take a long time, depending how much music you have on your iPod. This will in no way effect the contents of your iPod. It merely copies the files, it doesn’t change them.

5. Drag & Drop the “ipod” folder onto iTunes, after the files are finished copying from the iPod. iTunes will import the music and use the meta-data in the files to rename and organize them into an Artist -> Album -> Song hierarchy, in your music folder.

When iTunes is finished importing the files, you can delete the temporary folder (“ipod”). You’re done!

Windows 7 or Mac OS X?

Brent — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 07:01:46 +0000

The look and feel of Windows 7 is great. It reminds me more of a Mac than any previous version of Windows.

Don Reisinger’s recent review on C|Net had some praise for the Apple Macintosh-like user interface of the Windows 7 beta, which apparently makes it more attractive, but on the other hand, compared to XP it is “harder to perform basic functions”, and, “Microsoft has placed too much stock in Apple’s design and not enough in usability.”

Microsoft Vista, the latest version of Windows, was criticized for poor performance, annoying user interface, lack of compatibility, and ongoing susceptibility to Internet malware. This provided a major incentive for people to switch to Mac, and was the subject of much ridicule by Apple’s marketing team.

I found one thing interesting in Reisinger’s review: given the significant user interface changes in the upcoming Windows 7, large businesses will have to consider the training and support costs of the upgrade. I think that another consideration should be: if they’re going to have to learn a new user interface anyways — one that looks like a Mac — why not go for the real thing, and be spared the traditional Windows headaches?

The next version of Mac OS (10.6) is likely to be out before Windows 7, and according to Apple, it will “set a new standard for quality”. It will also feature even greater compatibility with Microsoft server products, adding to the all-in-one platform’s attractiveness for the corporate IT department.

iPhone: How to Disable Cellular Internet Access

Brent — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 15:35:30 +0000

For those of you using iPhones on cellular networks that do not include unlimited data access, you probably want to disable Internet access through your service provider’s network, and use only wifi for Internet access. In the first generation iPhone, you could disable cellular Internet access by changing the APN (access point name) in the Settings utility on the phone. In the new iPhone 2.0, however, Apple gave service providers the ability to disable this setting. If the carrier chooses to do that, you will automatically connect to the Internet through their network and incur their data access fees, and there is no built-in way to turn it off. Sneaky, and evil.

Fortunately for customers of underhanded carriers that disabled the APN option in the iPhone Settings, Apple has provided the iPhone Configuration Utility, which allows one to customize the APN. For your convenience, I’ve created a basic configuration profile that does just one thing: sets the APN to “NULL”, so that your phone won’t be able to use your cellular provider’s Internet service. Here it is. Note: do not rename it to end with .txt. It should end with “.mobileconfig”.

Use a computer to e-mail it to yourself, as an attachment. If you are using Microsoft IE (Windows), download this zipped version, since IE seems to mangle the original file. You’ll have to unzip the file before e-mailing it to yourself. Alternatively you can get a better web browser here.

To install it on your phone, simply open the email on your iPhone. When you click on the attachment in the email, it will prompt you about applying the new configuration, and warn you about no trusted signature (I didn’t pay Verisign). Once the profile is installed, it won’t be possible for your iPhone to use your carrier’s network for Internet access. If you wish to re-enable cellular data access, all you need to do is open Settings -> General -> Profile, and remove the profile. The phone might require a reboot after removing the profile.

Enjoy!