Jailbreak Your iPhone or Lose Your Street Cred

Photo from: http://blackra1n.com

I've owned an iPhone since the original V1 came out in 2007. I remember not really knowing a lot about "jailbreaking" and never really messed with. I eventually gave in and have used quite a few different jailbreaking programs that have flooded the underground. At first, it was really a pain in the ass to jailbreak your device and back then there really wasn't much to do once you were jailbroken. It's quite a different story now. Jailbreaking your iPhone 3G or 3GS today is really the simplest it's ever been. Ever. Thanks to George Hotz (alias geohot) the process takes about 20 seconds and a total of around 1 minute, considering your iPhone has to reboot. That's it. You click one button and it's done. Your dog could do it.

This post is not intended to walk you through the jailbreak process. In fact, you don't really even need to dedicate an entire post to it. Here it is in a nutshell:

1. Go to http://blackra1n.com.
2. Download blackra1n for your operating system (supports Mac and PC).
3. Plug in your iPhone and close iTunes.
4. Open up the blackra1n application.
5. Click on the only button in the application, "Make It Ra1n."

No, literally, that's it. There is a bit more to it though. Apple decided to update the bootrom version of the iPhone 3GS around week 40 of 2009. That means for iPhone 3GS owners who have the third, fourth and fifth digits of their serial number 940 or higher will have what is called a "tethered jailbreak." This means that if your iPhone 3GS ever runs out of battery or needs to be rebooted, you'll need to connect your iPhone to a computer and run blackra1n to boot up your iPhone. It's not too bad but definitely a reason for some not to jailbreak.

At any rate, I have an untethered jailbreak and would like to share some sweet (I think) things I've done. Here is my current homescreen as of this past Saturday (it has not changed yet).

My iPhone 3GS springboard

Not only can you change your layout, icons, add widgets, etc. you have access to programs Apple strictly forbids. With jailbreak, you can have Multi-tasking via Backgrounder and a nice GUI overlay for it called ProSwitcher. With a double press of your home button (or really any other gesture you please) you have a beautiful view of all your actively running applications in a card-like view. Swiping through them is graceful and allows you to switch between programs without having to exit to the springboard first.

ProSwitcher in action

That really is only a peak at what you can do by jailbreaking your iPhone device. It truly opens up an entire new world of applications and system modifications that you'd otherwise be stuck without. If you haven't done it yet, give it a shot, it's very easy to do, safe, stable and completely awesome! And if you don't do it, well.... you've lost your street cred.

About Shane Holland

I am avid web developer and techie. Your all-around, not so typical, geek.