what is a jailbreak

[rockstar99]

ive had my iphone 3g for a few months but i keep hearing about jailbreak
what is it
how do i install it
what benifits do i get
what do i lose
is it worth it
is it hard to install
will it work on an iphone 3g bought on launch

 

[littlestevie]

Jailbreaking opens the device up so that the file system can be written to,
thats traditional jailbreaking anyway, these days it includes patches to bypass codesign_ and related protections.
information relating to the software can be found here you lose nothing but the ability to take it into apple (which comes back once you restore back to factory firmware) its easy to do, and it will work on all current released devices (excluding the rumoured ipod touch to be unveiled in the next 24 hours)

 

[rockstar99]

ook thanks for the info
so are there like homebrew apps n stuff?
and how do i put it in my iphone?

sorry im a n00b in this

 

[SifJar]

Yes there's homebrew, thats the whole point of jailbreaking. And to jailbreak any current iPod touch/iPhone, use redsn0w (I think)

 

[Dialexio]

No jailbreak tools exist for 3.1 just yet (it shouldn't take long, the exploits used are stuck in the hardware). If you want to jailbreak 3.0(.1), there's not much incentive to as 3.1 was released today, but as mentioned above you can use redsn0w to jailbreak.

IF YOU WANT TO SOFT-UNLOCK AN IPHONE 3G/3GS, DO NOT UPDATE TO 3.1.

 

[anaxs]

on the ipod touch u can also buy apps and games and themes for free( ususally u have to buy them )
well u can steal them

 

[nicholas9576]

I am very happy with jailbreaking, it opens up a lot of oppritunites for your iPod or iPhone, but use quickfreedom, it uses redsnow but in a wayy more stable way. When i tryed to use redsnow 0-7.2 and 0.8 it crashed everytime. Also what firmware do you have on your iPhone? 3.0 and 3.0.1 can be jailbroken with quickfreedom 2.0 no problem, and No data loss of any kind everything stays the same.

 

[wyndcrosser]

Jailbreaking is easier on the ipod touch (there is no itouch, that's a DS flash cart), than a GS/GS2. The benefits are amazing, you are able to download software for free, there's a bunch of russian sites that have them, because the way to crack .IPA was released years ago. It's actually really easy once explained. You can download torrents, play emulators (GBA,PSONE,SNES, etc. mostly at full or decent speed), word processing, powerpoint (u can just view it for now), excel etc. As mentioned by Apple, it's a full computer in the palm of your hands, and even better when hacked.

If you're interested I can help you out, by PM.

Wynd

 

[jazvdb]

In simpler terms...

-Free Games and Apps and unofficial stuff
-The ability to change your themes....

 

[sportscarmadman]

Jail breaking unlocks the ipod so it can be used and customized to your liking it quite easy really ive done it myself

 

[luke_c]

Jail breaking unlocks the ipod so it can be used and customized to your liking it quite easy really ive done it myself

mmhm....

Jailbreaking "free's" your iDevice from the Apple restrictions and allows you to use any carrier, and basiclally download Homebrew and themes.

 

[DanTheManMS]

Jailbreaking "free's" your iDevice from the Apple restrictions and allows you to use any carrier, and basiclally download Homebrew and themes.

Not exactly. There's a distinct difference between jailbreaking and unlocking. Jailbreaking just means you can install homebrew programs, while unlocking is the act of making it work on any carrier. For instance, the 3.1 firmware came with an update for the baseband (the part of the phone that deals directly with connecting to the phone network). This new baseband has not yet been hacked, and you cannot downgrade it to the previous version. Thus if you update to an official 3.1 firmware, you cannot use your phone with anyone but AT&T, even though you can jailbreak it using either BlackRa1n or PwnageTool [*]. If you have a jailbroken and unlocked phone at 3.0 firmware or below, you can use PwnageTool to create a custom update file that doesn't change the baseband, allowing you to update the firmware while still retaining your unlocked carrier status. I personally have a 3GS that came with 3.1 (and thus already had the new baseband pre-installed), but since I'm an AT&T customer anyway this doesn't really bother me that much, as long as I can jailbreak to get homebrew apps running on the device.

[*] This isn't entirely true either, as in the past couple of weeks there have been 3GS models rolling out that cannot be jailbroken at all, since the exploit used for BlackRa1n and PwnageTool was fixed in hardware. This marks the first time Apple has altered the hardware to close an exploit without waiting until they release a new product line.