Well, it’s true. You can jailbreak (hack) your iPhone by navigating Safari on the phone to http://jailbreakme.com/. I successfully did this but let me throw out a few warnings and some tips.
First, a warning: After hacking my phone, I get periodic application crashes. In example, the iPod app crashes every so often. Not while playing music, but just after initial startup when it displays all my playlists. It takes about a second or two and if I click on a play list, the crash doesn’t happen. This also isn’t a “hard crash” per say. The app just closes. Safari was doing the same thing when browsing certain community websites. As annoying as this was, I was more concerned about the permanence of the situation. It seems that a soft reset solved the problem. If it happens again, I’ll post something and let you know if the reset continues to be a work around.
[Edit: The cause of the crashes is summerboard. Uninstalling summerboard solved this problem]
Ok, now for a couple of tips/instructions.
1. Back up the phone before doing this. I did, thankfully, because I had to perform a restore before the hack went through.
2. After backing up the phone, perform a restore bringing it back to it’s initial 1.1.1
3. Connect to wifi network. Don’t do this over EDGE. It’s too slow. I tried it and had to try a restore before doing so.
4. This one is probably the most important and most overlooked: turn off the auto lock feature on the phone.
5. Hack the phone by going to http://jailbreakme.com/ and following the instructions.
6. Some sites say that you may have to power cycle the phone after the jailbreak is done. I highly recommend this. Computers have to reboot after an upgrade
7. Now perform a sync and everything should be back to normal. I got all of my settings back including my GMAIL settings and texts. Oh, and I’m syncing to a PC.
After all this is done, I highly recommend installing SummerBoard with the Icarus theme. Then disable the transparent status bar and wallpaper. They’re hideous. I hope this helps some people. Also, if you’re worried about hacking the phone and then another firmware update breaking or ‘bricking’ your phone… I wouldn’t worry too much, unless you hacked the SIM. As much as I hate at&t and love the iPhone, I don’t recommend unlocking the SIM. This will most likely end up bricking your phone. If you break your shit, don’t blame me. This is what I did to get hack my phone and it works. Try at your own risk*
*Standard disclaimer. I don’t want to get sued.
**I’m using the ugly kid photo again cause I think it’s funny. And apparently there are 3 degrees of separation from me to this guy… weird.
Love this, great blog, thanks.