A new, incredibly simple iPhone jailbreak has just been released for all iPhones, including the new iPhone 4. Whereas previous jailbreaks required some technical knowledge and figuring out what software package to download, this new jailbreak is as simple as visiting the jailbreakme.com web site from your iPhone’s Safari browser.
Now, while this new tool will easily jailbreak your iPhone, it will not activate or unlock it. Activation is required whenever you update the iOS of the phone. If you’re not upgrading and already syncing with iTunes, you’re good to jailbreak. If you need to upgrade your iOS, then you also need to re-activate using a SIM card from your approved carrier (AT&T in the US) or via the hacktivation method.
Unlocking your iPhone requires that you install the Ultrasn0w app from Cydia once you have jailbroken your phone. Ultrasn0w does not currently work for the iPhone 4, but an update is expected soon. (If you first want to confirm that your iPhone can be jailbroken and unlocked, there is a great guide at jailbreakmatrix.com.)
My iPhone 3GS was still running iOS 3.1.3 since that was the only version that could be jailbroken and unlocked until tonight. Following are the steps I took to back up my iPhone, upgrade to iOS 4.0.1, activate it, jailbreak and then unlock it.
- If your iPhone is already jailbroken, open Cydia and make sure that the SHSH files are backed up. You should see a notice at the top of the Cydia main screen. You may need these SHSH files if you ever need to downgrade to an earlier version of iOS.
- Connect your iPhone to your computer. In iTunes, right-click on the iPhone icon and select “Backup.”
- Once backed up, click on the “Update” button in iTunes to download and install the latest update from Apple. This will take awhile.
- When this finishes downloading, choose to upgrade your device and wait for that process to finish.
- When finished, your device will reboot into iTunes. You will need to have a valid SIM card installed in the iPhone or use the hacktivation method mentioned above to activate it now.
- Once activated, make sure your iPhone is connected to the Internet via WiFi. Open up Safari and go to www.jailbreakme.com. Follow the instructions on the screen there.
- This process should complete in a few minutes and once it does, your iPhone is jailbroken.
- Now, open up the Cydia app on you iPhone. When it opens, install any updates it asks you too.
- In Cydia, search for and install the Ultrasn0w app. Reboot when prompted.
- Install your carrier’s SIM card.
That’s it. After this step, you now have a jailbroken and unlocked iPhone and can use any mobile carrier you want. I now have my iPhone 3GS running iOS 4.0.1 on Movistar pre-paid and it’s working great.
The iPhone Hacks web site has some more detailed instructions if you’re interested. Oh yeah, the US Library of Congress has now made jailbreaking legal as well, though it will void your warranty.
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You just improved my next trip to BA — I've been renting cheap phones each time, but I have a spare 3GS lying around. Much better to have access to apps, maps, and my Google Voice number!
Glad it helped. And, Movistar has 2GB of data to use over 2 days for only $9 pesos. Send a text to the number 2345 with a message of: D to activate.
Wow your blog is so helpful. These might be really stupid questions, but here it goes…. If I follow all of the above and unlock iphone 3G and put in pre paid sim card from movistar will my phone still have my old stuff stored on it such as apps, contacts etc or is that stuff stored on the SIM card? I also don't quite understand the 2nd paragraph in this blog regarding "upgrading". How does one know if they need to upgrade or not?
Thanks, Robin
Robin, all your information is stored on the phone itself and not on the SIM, so you will be all set there.
Upgrading is based on the latest version of iOS. When you connect your iPhone to iTunes, it will say whether there is a newer version or not. To see if your phone can be jailbroken and unlocked, check out http://www.jailbreakmatrix.com
Thanks so much!
So, last night someone told me that if I unlock phone and then later download updates it will kill my phone? The specific term he used was "brick". Basically render it useless like a brick. True or False?
Thanks again
You will not brick the iPhone, but you will cause the jailbreak and unlock to get wiped out. Once you jailbreak your phone, you can never do the updates directly from Apple until you confirm that there is a new jailbreak available for that version of iOS.
It won't brick it, but will simply change it from unlocked to locked status. This is because whenever Apple issues a iOS (operating system software) update it checks the IMEI (phone's serial number) in it's database to see if the phone is supposed to be officially unlocked or not and returns it to the status it is supposed to be. So, if you unofficiallly unock it using software then it is not a factory unlocked phone and so it gets re-locked. If you bought a factory unlocked phone (like you can from Apple in Canada and a few other countries) then it will always stay unlocked regardless of the iOS updates you install.
If your phone does become locked then you have to wait until the hackers release software to unlock it. Moral of the story then is don't update your software unlocked phone with iOS updates unless a unlock procedure has been released for it.
Hi, Great blog. I am travelling to Argentina next week for 12 days. Which pre-paid card would I buy from Movistar that would have the data not expire for at least 12 days and how do I activate the sim card? I mainly need just data so I can access maps, email, etc, and would likely just use Skype for 3G to make phone calls.
Thanks so much
Any pre-paid card will work. The problem is that the data plans are only good for 2 days, so you will need to be careful to always have a plan otherwise it eats through your credit very quickly. You can find out more at http://www.discoverbuenosaires.com/movistar-pre-p…
You might be better off using the free WiFi and almost every restaurant and in the subway…