The wonderful world of all things Mac has been fairly quiet this weekend — there hasn’t been much news to post on. So in my spare time, rather than search for funny videos on YouTube or keep changing the wallpaper on my Mac, I decided to jailbreak my iPhone so I could let you all know how it went.

I haven’t been too bothered about jailbreaking my iPhone. I’ve never really been interested in anything a jailbreak can offer. Everything I’ve wanted has been available either from the App Store or has already been built-in to the iPhone by Apple. At least that’s what I thought, until I started playing around once the process was complete. Another thing that put me off jailbreaking was it seemed there was always a chance that something wouldn’t be quite right. Last time I looked in to jailbreaking, on firmware 2.0, I had read many comments from people who had experienced problems with WiFi, received no signal and many other issues following a jailbreak that, to me, just didn’t seem worth it. However with this version of QuickPwn from the iPhone-Dev Team, there were very, very few comments from users experiencing problems. So I decided to give it a try. After all, if I didn’t like it, I only had to restore my iPhone and send it back to basics.

To start, I downloaded QuickPwn for Mac. Now I must point out, there are various warnings on the iPhone-Dev Team’s website about using QuicPwn if you wish to benefit from a soft-unlock in the future. It is advised that you use the more advanced, PwnageTool if you want the chance to soft-unlock later. However PwnageTool is currently only available on Mac, whereas QuickPwn is available for both Mac and Windows.

I am using an iPhone 3G, firmware 2.2 on O2. I am in the UK on an O2 contract so I have no need for a soft-unlock and therefore was happy just to use QuickPwn. I must also point out there is another warning with regards to QuickPwn on the new, late-2008 MacBooks/Pros — there seems to be a problem with the iPhone entering DFU mode on these systems. However I gave QuickPwn a try on my new MacBook just to see how it went. I should have trusted the warning — my iPhone failed to enter DFU mode and would not turn on. I was just stuck with the Apple logo. One restore later and one lesson learned, I decided to boot up Windows XP in Boot Camp and see if QuickPwn in Windows would be successful.

The process was surprisingly simple, and successful on XP. I plugged in my iPhone, waited for QuickPwn to recognize it, then switched it off whilst still connected to USB. I then started my iPhone back up holding down the home & power buttons, then releasing the power button, keeping the home button depressed for a short period to enter DFU mode. It worked fine in Windows and started to build a custom IPSW file from my iPhone 2.2 firmware bundle. Once this process was complete, the custom firmware was installed on my device and once the iPhone started up, Cydia and Installer were present on my home screen.

Cydia and Installer are two applications that allow you to download and install other third-party applications from various sources. Most of the applications available aren’t allowed in the App Store for various reasons, however most are really quite useful.

So far, the applications I’ve found to be most fun and useful are:

• Cycorder — records video, and the quality is pretty good.
• Make It Mine (MIM) — changes your carrier/operator name to anything you want.
• WinterBoard — applies themes and various other tweaks to your iPhone’s appareance and operation.
• MxTube — search and download videos from YouTube directly to the iPhone.
• NES — a Nintendo “NES” emulator that allows you to play ROMS.

And those are just a few. As I previously said, I couldn’t really see a whole lot of point in jailbreaking before, however until completed the jailbreak and started playing with my iPhone, I didn’t realize what I was missing out on. Also, since jailbreaking my iPhone, I have experience no issues whatsoever. Everything works just as it did before the jailbreak only my iPhone is a bit more fun! If ever I need to reverse the jailbreak process, all I need to do is restore my iPhone through iTunes and it will be back to normal.

Unfortunately I didn’t take any screenshots of the QuickPwn process, however here are three screenshots of the iPhone after the jailbreak; one of the NES emulator, one that gives an example of how you can change the “theme” of your iPhone and it’s carrier name, and one that shows a Family Guy modified SMS theme:

I’ve had a great experience with the iPhone 3G jailbreak and the iPhone-Dev Team really have done a fantastic job. However I’m sure there are people out there who haven’t had such a great experience and may have caused serious damage to their iPhones, not to mention the fact that if you had any problems and took the iPhone back to the Apple/O2 store without restoring it first, your warranty would be void. So please, if you try this, be careful and read all instructions and warnings over and over and over again! Mactropolis does not recommend jailbreaking and is not responsible if anything goes wrong.