Guide to Jailbreaking your iPhone

The first time I got my iPhone I decided to jailbreak it a week after purchase. I had no regrets in doing so. Loved the fact that I could cooler apps than those found in the App Store and install themes, I even created a few themes for myself. Then after a 2.2.1 (if I recall correctly), I didn't decide to re-jailbreak my iPhone. Why? I can't really say. Could have been to do with the fact that it was a hassle to reinstall all the apps I download through Cydia as there was no way to save and restore them? Or perhaps because it became a secondary device after I started to use the BlackBerry 8900 as my primary device? Either way didn't jailbreak it again.

Until now.

Since I have been using the iPhone again a bit more than before, I thought I'd give the jailbreak another try. And I have just successfully jailbroken my iPhone.....again. Since the process of doing it this time around was so much smoother and easier than the first time around I thought I'd share the process with you.

WARNING: jailbreaking your iPhone does void your warranty. The guys at Apple will not be too pleased if you brought them a jailbroken iPhone to fix. That said, unjailbreaking your iPhone is easy, just restore your phone back to default and that's the jailbreak gone. Proceed at your own risk but as long as you follow the instructions you should be fine.

Another note to point out is that the process below only jailbreaks your iPhone, it does not unlock your iPhone. What's the difference? Unlocking your phone means that you would like to put another network simcard into your iPhone in the future. If you're not too fussed about your network then what are you waiting for? Follow the steps to jailbreak your iPhone.


Step 1 - Make sure that you have iPhone update 3.1.2 installed. I also recommended to backup your device, in case you want to unjailbreak your phone in the future.
Step 2 - Download the jailbreak program from blackra1n.com.
Step 3 - Connect your iPhone to you PC if it is not already connected. Run the blackra1n program. It is recommended that you run the program from C:\ drive, so move the file from where you downloaded it to to your C:\ drive. (Note: If you are running Vista or Windows 7 you should run it in compatibility mode and as "Administrator." To do this right-click on the file, go to Properties, then click the "Compatibility" tab. Makre sure the "run this program in compatibility mode for:" checkbox is selected and choose Windows XP Service Pack 2 from the drop-down list. Click "OK" to close the window. Right-click to run as the Administrator).  When you run the program you will get a very simple window with a button that says "make it rain", as shown below:

Step 4 - Click the "make it rain" button to start the jailbreak process. The message will than change to "entering recovery...", then "running...", leave your iPhone to do its thing. Once the jailbreak is complete you will see a picture of geohot's face (the creator of blackra1n), then your device will reboot.
Step 5 - Once your device has rebooted, launch the blackra1n app on your iPhone (it's a black raindrop icon). From here you can pick which installer program you would like to install. I recommended Cydia and Rock. Icy is for those who want to unlock your device (and this is near impossible if you've already updated to firmware 3.1.2)

Step 6 - Your jailbreak is complete. Once you have installed your preferred program(s). Launch any one of them from your iPhone and enjoy the apps.

The above procedure can be used on MACs too, there is a MAC version that can be download from the blackra1n website.

A couple apps I recommend downloading to get you going are:

• Winterboard - so that you can install themes
• Intelliscreen - allows you to see calendar entries, sms, email messages and other things from the lock screen
• Backgrounder - allows you to run apps in the background
  

I also recommended signing up to a RockID to allow you to save all the jailbroken apps you download so that these can be restored after an update (I haven't had to use it yet so I don't know if this works but I've signed up and enabled the save feature in the settings for the Rock app).

Other things to note: If Apple release a firmware update and you update, this will unjailbreak the device. You may have to hold off updating your device firmware if one becomes available. Always read the Cydia or Rock messages before updating the firmware as and when they become available. You may have to wait until there is an update to the blackra1in app before updating your device.

There you have it. A quick and easy process to jailbreaking your iPhone. Go ahead and liberate your iPhone now.