Austin360 blogs > Digital Savant > Archives > 2008 > June > 27 > Entry
Jailbreaking the iPhone
I mentioned last week that in order to try out Qik’s video streaming software on my iPhone, I had to go through the process of jailbreaking my phone.
You don’t hear much about jailbreaking these days, but after the iPhone launched last year, tales of bricked iPhones (that is iPhones that were unsuccessfully jailbroken and then rendered inoperable) were plentiful and the mere thought of messing with the brains of a $600 were a little terrifying.
Now that the current iPhone is headed to the great Wall-E scrap heap of obsolescence and the new iPhone will start at a mere $199, jailbreaking doesn’t seem like such a huge financial risk.
For anyone remotely curious, it’s reassuring to know that the tools for jailbreaking have become safer to use and more user friendly. Some programs purport to jailbreak the iPhone/iPod Touch with one click. I didn’t find it quite that easy, but it did take me less than half an hour to have the phone unshackled, new software installed and Qik up and running in its alpha version.
So how did I do it? Inspired by this podcast on GeekBrief.tv, which made it look super easy, I downloaded iFuntastic for the Mac.
iFuntastic asks you to plug in your iPhone and then walks you through several options for jailbreaking/unshackling your iPhone (allowing you to install third-party applications). iFuntastic doesn’t unlock your phone (allowing it to work with carriers other than AT&T). I only wanted to jailbreak the phone, so good so far.
iFuntastic gives you several program options for jailbreaking programs. Based on their recommendation, I chose iLibertyX, which sounded like the easiest option.
I ran the program and suddenly my iPhone screen filled up with a bunch of text, which is a little worrisome, but perfectly natural for what’s happening.
After a restart, the iPhone was ready to go. It added a program to my home screen called “Installer.” Using Installer, you can download (over Wi-Fi is recommended) and install a variety of programs, from utilities to games. I had to add a special “SOURCE” address to get Qik (which is not yet publicly available), but otherwise I stuck to sources that were already available under the Installer.
Among the programs I’ve added to my iPhone are “iFlickr” which allows me to post photos directly from the iPhone to Flickr.com instead of having to send them through e-mail. I’ve installed “Tap Tap Revolution,” a cute touch-screen take-off of “Guitar Hero.” “PhoneZap” allows me to make my own custom ringtones using MP3 files on the phone on the fly. And “TuneWiki” turns my iPhone music library into a karaoke machine, complete with lyrics.
You can also find lots of themes to change your iPhone screen’s appearance several utilities for organizing contacts or using services like Twitter. There’s also a Video Recorder that I haven’t tried yet, but which is said to be able to capture audio and video with the iPhone camera, right now.
When Apple unveils its application shop next month with the rollout of iPhone 2.0 software and the 3G iPhone, most iPhone users won’t need to jump through hoops to access these kinds of programs. Some or all of them may be available as free or cheap downloads through the site.
But as long as jailbreaking an iPhone is relatively safe and easy, I can’t imagine that the underground third-party software market won’t continue to thrive.
A few quick things before I wrap up: there’s nothing illegal about jailbreaking an iPhone. The risk you run is not arrest, but merely voiding your warranty, the same kind of suffering you’d endure if you opened up your iPod to replace the battery or cracked open your laptop without a certified technician’s help. The danger you run is that the Genius Bar may not be willing to help you if your little jailbreak goes horribly wrong. On the other hand, it’s not difficult to completely restore your iPhone to its factory settings/software. You’ll lose any data that’s not backed up through iTunes, but your hardware isn’t going to burst into flames or blend itself.
If you’re going to jailbreak, I suggest your read up first and make sure you have a good exit strategy in case you decide midway through that this is the worst idea ever.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment Categories: Applications, Internet, Phones
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By Michelle Greer
June 29, 2008 7:46 PM | Link to this
Bummer. I would like to avoid the proprietary Apple stuff but heard the OpenMoko is nothing but pure pain. Sigh.