Jailbreak that iPhone!

Alright, so I previously mentioned having gotten an iPhone and all the wicked shit I could do with it despite not paying any of the outlandish fees my wife and the rest of the world does for service. Then, I proceeded to make an ass of myself for having clearly never heard of an iPod Touch. Well, I'm back to say the hell with an iPod Touch, we're still doing iPhones. More stuff (like a camera) and potential features (all the associated phone stuff) says if you're gonna spend the money, you may as well plan ahead for the day you bite the bullet on the service plan. Fair enough?

Now, say I refuse to pay for the service plan today, so what can I do with my iPhone? The answer is the same as the last post: basically everything anyone else can as long as you're in a wifi hotspot. For me, that's pretty much all the time (home and work). Now I want to talk about Skype.

Skype service is VERY reasonably priced, and the call quality is better than my old phone ever was. You can get your own phone number, call other people's cell phones, get voicemail service, etc. Trouble is, the backgrounding limitations of the iPhone prevent Skype from really being all it could be. Sure, you can call any time you want (with wifi) but receiving calls is another matter. Basically, the service doesn't work unless you're signed in to the app, which means unless you leave the thing open all the time and never lock your phone, you'll never know if someone's trying to call you until you open up the app again. Sucks. You end up with a lot of voicemail and frustration. So how do you fix this?

How do you fix most of the stupid, irritating shit that prevents you from doing whatever you need to do with an Apple (or any other) product? You hack the thing. Right now, I've got root access to my phone, which is pretty much the definition of when ownership of this piece of hardware transfers from Steve Jobs to yours truly. This is the famous "jailbreaking" process that you hear about (note that that's different from "unlocking", although you can get there too via the process I'm about to describe). So how do you do it? Is it hard? Is it dangerous?

Note: I cannot tell you that the same method I used will work for you. It worked for me, which is all I can guarantee. I did this on a Windows 7 machine with the latest iTunes software.

• Go here and download this executable. It's called "blackra1n" and, yes, it does all the work for you. So the answer to "Is it hard?" is "It's not supposed to be."
• Get the latest iTunes.
• Plug in your iPhone.
• Back it up via iTunes just in case something happens. Just right-click on your phone in the menu on the left of the iTunes screen and select "Back up".
• Make sure you are using the latest iPhone firmware (3.1.2). If you don't know, you can find out by going to your iPhone and ->Settings->General->About... and it will tell you what you're running.
• Find where you downloaded blackra1n and run it, but RUN IT AS ADMINISTRATOR!!! Right-click on the thing and select "Run as administrator," otherwise you may have problems. Again, don't just double-click it. I've seen lots of "how-tos" for jailbreaking the iPhone, and lots of them forget to mention this little tip.
• Just sit and wait. It takes only a couple of minutes to finish and, once it reboots, you've got a jailbroken iPhone.

Here's a video that seems to more or less follow the steps I used:

Now that you've done that, you'll notice that there's a new app on your phone called "blackra1n". Open it up and install Cydia. This is your third party app store, and will allow you to take advantage of the iPhone development community. Note: there's also an option in blackra1n to install something called "Snow" which will unlock your iPhone for non-AT&T service providers. I haven't played with that, but it's there if you want it.

Finally, to get back to Skype, the key to getting the most out of the service is to install two apps through Cydia: 1.) backgrounder; 2.) insomnia. Backgrounder allows you to send any app to a background process just by holding down the home key for a second or so (if you just push the home key, the app will close like normal). Insomnia keeps the wifi from shutting off when the phone is locked. I used this as a reference. Boom! Eternal Skype service is at your fingertips.

There are other cool things you can get to customize, play, and take advantage of your newfound hardware access. Just to name a few, how about a NES emulator? Fuck, how about a Playstation 1 emulator?

Yes, it's slow, but that's not really the point, now is it? Note that the 3GS iPhone offers significant improvements over the performance of a 3G iPhone on things like this.

To give an example of what your newfound hardware access does for you, check out an app called "Cycorder". You may want a 3GS for the better hardware, but you don't need one to take videos. Cycorder allows you to do it with a 3G.

Want to customize the look of your iPhone? Try an app called "Winterboard".

As always, there's more. Right now, that's where I am save for the addition of a Terminal app. By the way, you need to change the root and user passwords after you jailbreak. It's easy to do, and keeps everyone from knowing your password is "alpine".

More to come. Stay tooned.