Jailbreak for free. Protect your personal information & privacy!

Here it is folks. Make sure you have downloaded all the required files from the links in my previous posts. Be careful what you download from the internet. For example, the 'Spirit Fixer' program is originally only a 22kb file which has now ballooned to a wonder 6.9mb file. Go figure what other delicious extras have been hidden in it. Take the original, and download the much smaller, original file from the link provided.

Note: This jailbreak is not for iPhone 3G & 3G(S) owners who need to unlock their device. This program only jailbreaks, it does not enable unlocking! If you use this to jailbreak, you might lose your unlock and be dead in the water.

Preparatory Steps
1. Turn off any anti-virus software.
2. Any version of iTunes can be used, beginning from version 9.0.3.
3. You have completed grabbing your SHSH.
4. For current jailbroken devices using Blackra1n, please restore to the stock version of your current firmware. To do so, please ensure you have modified the 'hosts' file found in C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc. Open the file (as administrator if using Vista, 7) using notepad, at the end of the file, add in this line "74.208.10.249 gs.apple.com". Save and close the file. When you restore, hold down the shift key and left click on 'RESTORE' in iTunes and it will connect with this Cydia server thinking it is Apple.
5. Backup your data with iTunes! Always Backup! And do not encrypt the data.

Step 1
Run the 'Spirit' program after you have connected your device via its USB cable.

If you are running on Windows XP, simply click on Jailbreak. Before you can even blink, it's done. Simple. Now wait for the newly jailbroken iPhone to reboot. The initial reboot will take about a minute.

If you are running Vista or 7, before running the 'Spirit' program, right click on it and select properties.

Under Compatibility mode, select 'Windows 98 / Windows Me', run as administrator, Apply and close the window. Now run the program and proceed with the jailbreak. 

That's ALL!

There's no step 2, no more steps. Go back to my very first blog entry and follow the following basic steps.

1. Run Cydia.

2. Install Terminal to change your root and mobile passwords.

3. Install 'Installous' & AppSync.

4. Install 'PrivaCy' to protect your personal information and privacy.

Whatever else you wish to install, please be careful. Not all extensions and Cydia apps run well together. For more advice, I am available via email, feel free to contact me on the topics posted here. I can finally get back to working on my own scripts and the Kuro theme packs. Here's a few screen shots of some new additions and settings I will make available. 

More options made available to settings. 

Enabled Emoji without having to install any programs, more precise custom brightness and auto-dimming to save battery power, short cuts to favourite applications and more!

(above 'Spirit' program screen capture credits go to www.redmondpie.com, bookmark them for updated information on iPhones and more!)

Using Auto-SHSH Grabber to protect your jailbreak

Who needs to perform this task?

1. Your iPhone, iPod Touch , iPad has never been jailbroken and you have decided to jailbreak it.
2. Your device has previously been jailbroken but you did not store your SHSH on Cydia. Now you wish to perform the new jailbreak using Spirit.
3. Your device has previously been jailbroken but you are not certain if you had stored your SHSH on Cydia.
4. You want to perform the jailbreak, however, you are not sure if your 2nd hand device has ever been jailbroken and has its SHSH stored on Cydia.
5. You have no bloody idea what SHSH means, you just want to JAILBREAK!

More importantly, why does anyone need to perform this step?

Apple now controls what firmware you are allowed to install on your device. It also controls what version of its firmware is allowed. How does it do this? Whenever you need to perform a restore, iTunes will announce it needs to check for updates and will instruct iTunes what is allowed to be installed. This enables Apple to disable your jailbreak by forcing you to only restore to its newest firmware, which might be patched to disable jailbreaking. It will also upgrade your baseband, making it almost impossible to unlock the iPhone if it was not previously in an 'Factory Activated' state.

This is accomplished by your device's unique signature, and this signature can be captured by you and sent to another server by Cydia, which mimics Apple servers. Therefore, once you store your device SHSH on Cydia, you will forever be able to restore back to the current firmware, bypassing Apple servers.

Next time you need to do a restore, you will enable your iTunes to contact the Cydia servers, which will allow you to restore to your current firmware, against Apple's instructions. iTunes will 'think' it is actually contacting Apple, but it is not.

Auto-SHSH Grabber

Step 1
Download the software from the link above. Run the program.

Step 2
Place your device in recovery mode. This is done by turning off your device, holding down the 'Home' button while connecting its USB cable, all the while keeping your the 'Home' button pressed. After a short while, the message 'Connect to iTunes' will appear on the device.

Step 3
Now click on 'Grab my SHSH Blobs Automatically'.
After a very short while, a message will pop up asking you where to save your SHSH file. Store this in a  folder and keep it safe. The program will also send your SHSH to Cydia's servers. In future, when you run the Cydia program, you will be able to see a message on the top of the screen indicating this. However, as of this writing (7th May), such announcements are still being disabled due to high traffic.

That's all. Proceed to perform the jailbreak. The actual process of jailbreaking takes a mere minute or less!

(Credit for images above go to www.redmondpie.com, bookmark them for all your iPhone information updates!)

Jailbreak iPhone, iPod Touch - Preparatory steps & some downloads

Following is a description of how to jailbreak the iPhone on any version of firmware, with any version of baseband.

This guide is for educational purpose only. It does not serve to encourage nor perpetuate jailbreaking the iPhone or iPod Touch. You will also never find any information on unlocking the device. Jailbreaking is one thing, but unlocking it from the telco it was originally contracted with is quite another whole different issue.

Bear in mind the following:
1. This guide is assumes the computer used is running Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7.
2. Any version of iTunes may be used, beginning from version 9.0.3. There is no need to update to the newest version if iTunes if version used is the minimum tested vs 9.0.3.
3. Previously jailbroken devices must be restored to its stock OS. Meaning, if your iPhone is jailbroken now (most likely via Blackra1n), you will need to restore back to its original OS, be it 3.1.2 or 3.1.3. If you have to restore, please ensure you have backup all data and synced with iTunes. Read footnotes below.
4. Disable any other programs while performing the actual jailbreaking process. This includes your anti-virus programs.
5. Update Java running on your system from JAVA.

First of all, note that there are now phishers, hackers, spammers and trojans included in most of the software used now to perform the new jailbreak. Use the following link to download the original files untouched! The version of "Spirit" included is also the latest version as of May 5th, 2010.

You will be downloading:
1. Spirit - the program used to perform the untethered jailbreak.
2. Spirit Fixer - which corrects potential problems faced by some people when Spirit is unable to identify iTunes.
3. Auto-SHSH Grabber - this tool collects your iPhone's unique signature & sends it to another server for storage. This is vital because you will need this unique signature in future if you need to perform a software restore or downgrade to your current or older firmware.

SPIRIT

SPIRIT FIXER

AUTO- SHSH Grabber

All done with the downloads? Great. One final thing to download, your original stock firmware. Following are the links for firmware 3.1.3.

3.1.3 firmware for iPhone 2G
3.1.3 firmware for iPhone 3G
3.1.3 firmware for iPhone 3G(S)

3.1.2 firmware for iPhone 2G
3.1.2 firmware for iPhone 3G
3.1.2 firmware for 3G(S)

Apple and most possibly your telco knows everything about you!

How is this possible? It's been a hotly debated topic for some time in America, and I previously had briefly mentioned this topic. However, it did not seem to bother many people. Well heads up everyone, here is why all of you iPhone and iPod Touch users should seriously consider jailbreaking your Apple devices. Even if not for the myriad of things you enable your device to really do for you, but to protect your personal information, privacy and status (hint*).

Hidden within the many applications available on the App Store, both paid and free ones, are codes provided by several companies which enable the application to execute codes which collect the following information.

1. Version of Apple device.
2. Firmware installed, even the version of iTunes used to sync with the device, including if the system was jailbroken.
3. Names and versions of ALL applications ever installed on the device, including deleted ones.
4. Amount of time spent on the application executing the code. Sometimes as precise as when the application was turned on and when it was closed.
5. GPS location of the device running the code.
6. Identity of the owner of the device via its App Store ID.

There are 4 companies which collect such information.
1. Flurry
2. Medialets
3. Mobclix
4. Pinch Media.

They claim that the information they collect enable their clients to better improve their applications. Yupz, to 'better improve'.

Want some proof? Here is the 'ReadMe' text file from Flurry. Open it using wordpad.

http://www.mediafire.com/?awzwtqwoney

Is knowledge empowerment? Not in this case. Regardless whether you approve of it or not, your device will continue to collect the requested information from its client (your downloaded application) and send such information at such opportune times when your device is running the application and when there is network access available to process such uploads to the application's server.

Apple is a client of one of these companies, so are many of the applications on the App Store claiming to be 'Free' or 'Lite' versions.

There is hope yet. But only for jailbroken Apple devices. Once you have full access to what you have paid for, and have the full control of your device which you deserve, are you then able to protect your personal information. This protection is your right.

Enable your right to control your personal information from being collected, sent, analyzed and/or even identified through 'PrivaCy'.

Kuro Gloss Theme, BulletProof Springs back!

Here's my beta release of a theme pack for the iphone. It requires an OS of at least 3.1 for the extra enhancements made available to the Settings Panel. These include extra settings for a reflective dock, power savings via screen dimming, screen brightness in percentage choices, emoticon activation and many more.

On the UI side, its a beautiful sleek black interface throughout practically all of iPhone. Calculator, Weather, Phone Dialer, Internal Passcode Keypad, Status Bar and general stock icons and many more.

Included is a first stage release of a future complete soundboard replacement. All 6 sms tones have been switched. Lock and Unlock sounds more Zen, all to fit the sleek black (Kuro) look and feel.

There is an additional Ringtone addition, to be made available via personal requests. This first release, is still beta. However, I am already working on Kuro Matte Theme, with the complete UI Soundboard change.

Most certainly, the name will not appear on the release version. I will, however, make such customizations for personal friends if there is a request for it.

A host of surprises are hidden away inside this theme. Its a nearly truly complete theme, to be used with Winterboard. Do note that due to the fact it includes several extra extensions to the settings panel, this theme should be dragged to the very top of the Winterboard list. It will enable a clear dock, unlabeled dock icons as well as the popular reflective dock! All in one! Works very well with either a five row springboard or the 5 column springboard.

In addition, a very telling application, Grindr, will have its icon changed to something less conspicuous. How thoughtful! A future release, which is actually completed, has also changed the infamous msg received tone Grindr makes. Another tweak some of you might not want to miss out on.

Release date, will be within the next couple of days.

I am looking for beta testers for Kuro Matte Theme! Included are future language voice packs. Yes! Voice packs!

Screen Captures of themed iPhone

Something to ogle at, screen captures of the 'Glass Orb' theme on a jailbroken iPhone 3GS. Screen captures don't really do this theme justice, nor do the video files in the previous post.


You have to see it before your very eyes to appreciate just how beautiful these 3D video wallpapers + the glass orb icons make the iPhone look.

This shows the icons at 80% of normal size. The undocked icons are labelled whilst the docked icons below are not labelled.

Same theme, same 3D video wallpaper. However, the icons are now displayed at their normal 100% size.

This time, the undocked icons have their labels removed. Looks clean, less cluttered.

And this is a still capture of the 3D video wallpaper. It actually looks more like some organic cosmic twirling something something. There you go, I'm not sure how to describe it. Check out the video or do a search on youtube for video wallpaper (glass orb theme). It's really awesome.

Same theme, same unlabelled icons, but with a different 3D video wallpaper. 

Just the 3D video wallpaper. 


By the way, there is a way to have the iPhone play a video ringtone when someone calls in. For example, if your girlfriend or boyfriend calls, the screen doesn't just show the contact photo, but could instead play a music video of Mariah Carey singing 'Touch My Body". Of course, the ringtone would be the corresponding music video. And you can choose any music video stored in your iPod! 


No iTunes needed! Voila!


Have a great sunday everyone!

Theme your device

Been testing and using certain themes. They have been stable running on a jailbroken iPhone 3GS on firmware 3.1.2. 

A few short video clips on how a jailbroken iPhone may be themed to look like.

Glass Orb icons + 3D Wallpaper 

Just the 3D Video Wallpaper 

The next two videos have the same theme, same icons but a different 3D video wallpaper.

Another 3D Video Wallpaper + Glass Orb icons 

Just the wallpaper 


Cool? This is just the tip of the iceberg. I currently have 27 pages of home screens, each capable of displaying app icons with a configuration of 4x5 (standard is 4x4). My base dock holds 5 app icons as well. And in order to fully enjoy the theme, I shrank all the icons down to 80%. There is also the option of removing icon labels!

It's about time . . .

Aight, if you fit all of the following, you cannot jailbreak your iPhone device at the time of this posting. Perhaps in a month or so . . .


1. iPhone 3GS.
2. Firmware 3.1.3.
3. New bootrom (MC model). 
4. Device has never been jailbroken before.


Sorry boys and girls, all other devices, iPhone 3G, 2G iPod Touches running 3.1.3 are fine and can be jailbroken. 


Why jailbreak again? Let me show you a video of how a jailbroken iPhone can look like. As for what it can do, well, even an iPhone 3G can take videos! 


Will upload the video next post. 


Ice-cream time!

Top queries

1. How about jailbreaking non 3GS iPhones?
2. How to downgrade from 3.1.3?
3. When are you going to blog about the program which allows me to password lock anything on the iPhone including Photo Album, SMS, particular apps?
4. Jailbreaking + Unlocking my device.
5. The REAL reason why 3.1.2 3GS iPhone who have jailbroken their devices need to know how to do it themselves and why paying some other vendor to do it is dangerous.