UPDATE: Scratch that – it didn’t work for me.  I can’t say it’s “broken”, but I’m not about to troubleshoot how to get it to work correctly.

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Overview

I finally broke down and jailbroke my iPhone.  My motivation was that June Fabrics developed PdaNet for the iPhone, but it was rejected by the App Store, so they released it on Cydia.  However, once I jailbroke, I found a wealth of apps out there that fill in most of the missing pieces.

Keep reading for the full details.

What is “jailbreaking”?

Jailbreaking is a type of PWNing an iPhone that lets you install applications on it other than those in Apple’s official App Store.  “PWN” more generally refers to any iPhone hack that allows you to do things with your phone that Apple didn’t intend (keep it clean – you know what I meant).  PWNing includes unlocking (i.e., using on different carriers), modifying the baseband, and changing the IMEI number.

Once you jailbreak, there are two apps that are installed that function similarly to the App Store – Cydia and Installer. Cydia and Installer are essentially catalogs of applications that can be installed on a JB’d iPhone.  They can co-exist with no adverse effects.  Installer came out first, then it seemed Cydia had the lead for a while, but now both seem to be actively developed and have current repositories.  I mostly use Cydia, so here is a walk-through of how Cydia works.  For most people, that is all you need to know.

For the more inquisitive, if you want to learn exactly what they are and how they work, read this post.  Actually, read pretty much everything Saurik writes.

What’s the risk?

The downside is that JB apps have full access to everything.  The Apple SDK sandboxes each app  – each app only has access to read and write to its own folder, and apps aren’t allowed to access many core system functions or run in the background.

JB apps aren’t bound by these limitations, so they can read/write anywhere, access any system functions, and run in the background.  So, while an App Store app can only destroy itself, a JB app can destroy itself and the OS.

That said, I don’t think the concern is something malicious, because everything is distributed through the repositories.  If you use a trusted repository, you shouldn’t be exposed to anything dangerous (but, of course, there are no guarantees).  However, the consequence of working outside the SDK is that sloppy code can have more of an impact with JB apps than App Store apps.

So, that’s pretty much the “why” of it.

How do you do it?

There are a number of apps that will let you do various types of PWNing.  If all you want to do is to jailbreak (again, installing custom applications), there is a ridiculously easy way to do it, thanks to a tool called QuickPWN.  That’s all I wanted to do, so that’s what this post focuses on.  You could also use tools such as ZiPhone and WinPWN, which will jailbreak, in addition to custom firmwares.

No, really, how?

You can find step-by-step instructions via Google, but here’s an example.  Note the following:

1. Make sure you select the option to install Cydia during the jailbreak process.  I also selected “Installer” – they can run together with no known issues.
2. As of October 4, 2008, you cannot unlock a 3G iPhone.  Accordingly, you can skip the steps (and downloads) for bootloaders.
3. If you have already upgraded to the latest firmware, you don’t need to download the firmware – QuickPWN will find the firmware already downloaded on your PC.

OK, now what?

Start installing apps! Find the Cydia icon and run it – it will download the latest list of applications.  I suggest starting with the “Featured Packages” link on the main page of Cydia.  You can also install programs by using the Search button on the bottom.

Here’s what I installed to get the screencap above:

• Five Icon Dock – Adds 5th app to the dock
• AT&T Carrier Logo – replaces the AT&T logo with the globe and “at&t”
• StatusNotifer – show email/call notification icons in the tray bar
• Winterboard – install custom icons, wallpapers, etc.
• OpenSSH – full access to the file system via a SSH or SFTP client
• MobileTerminal – full access to the file system from the iPhone

And, of course, there is an almost limitless number of other things you can do:

• Run any application in the background (Backgrounder)
• Tether to a laptop (PDANet)
• Use an application launcher (QuickGold)
• Display calendar/email/etc. data on the lock screen (IntelliScreen)
• Download and save locally files via Safari
• Use the built-in camera for video recording (Cycorder)
• One-stop preference setting (BossPrefs)
• Video game system emulator (NES)
• Offline Google Reader (GRIS)
• Download files directly to folders via MobileTerminal (curl or wget)

Where did you get the app icons?

Theming is a whole separate post, and there are plenty of guides out there already.  However, I culled my icons from these two sources:

• http://www.ipodtouchfans.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=71
• http://www.spaziocellulare.com/ispazio/themes/theme_categories2.php (registration required)

What happens when a new firmware upgrade is released?

• http://sleepers.net/news/2008/09/19/how-to-upgrade-in-itunes/

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This is handy in a couple of situations:

1. Where you don’t have wifi (like work), so you can’t SFTP.
2. Where the file is large (e.g., downloads from MXTube)

You need MobileFinder (or MobileTerminal) installed.  You do not need iTunes installed.  See the steps after the break.

Here are the steps:

1. Locate the file you want to transfer
   
   
2. Select the File button on the bottom, then select Copy (or Move)
   
   
3. Navigate to the DCIM directory (/private/var/mobile/Media/DCIM) and select Paste
   
   
4. Rename as a .jpg (make sure to “cancel” the autocorrect that tries to change “jpg” to “jog”)
   
5. In Windows XP, open the Apple iPhone camera folder (of course, this should also work in Vista and OS X) Note: you may need to refresh the folder to get the file to showup.
   
   
6. Copy the file to the desktop (which will use the USB)
7. Rename it to the appropriate extension

I downloaded a large video file (220MB) via MXTube, and the whole process took about 2 minutes.  Just beware that copying large files to the DCIM directory (as opposed to moving them) on the iPhone takes a while.

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• Voicemail: /private/var/mobile/Library/Voicemail/ (source)
• SMS database: /private/var/mobile/Library/SMS/
  • Either back it up, or
  • Export it using sqlite
• Camera pix: /private/var/mobile/Media/DCIM
• NES ROMs: /private/var/mobile/Media/ROMs/NES
• Cycorder videos: /private/var/mobile/Media/Videos
• Call history: /private/var/mobile/Library/CallHistory
• Winterboard themes: /private/Library/Themes (link to /private/var/stash/Themes.xxxxxx)
• Ringtones: /private/Library/Ringtones (link to /private/var/stash/Ringtones.xxxxxx)

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c:\sqlite sms.db
sqlite> .output messages.txt
sqlite> select * from message;
sqlite> .output stdout
sqlite> .quit

That’s it – now you can import the messages.txt file into Excel and view the messages.

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First, install MobileTerminal, run it, and then switch to root (or install OpenSSH and SSH in as root) – you can install from either Cydia or Installer:

su root

(default password is “alpine”, without quotes)

Then, use apt to download the package:

apt-get install <packagename> -d

The files are saved to /var/cache/apt/archives

You can back this file up via SFTP, and install from it using the following commandline:

dpkg -i <package.deb>

Note that <packagename> and <package.deb> will likely be different.

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Of course, you must jailbreak first.  Also, make sure you have terminal and curl installed.

1. Upload the new icon file somewhere and note the URL
2. Open Terminal
3. Change to root user (“su root”)
4. Navigate to Themes directory (“cd /Library/Themes”)
5. Navigate to the folder you want to put the file into (“cd ODS.theme”)
6. Use curl to download the file and save it locally (“curl http://www.place.com/file.png -o file.png”)

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I came across this article about the iPhone keyboard:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/cmp/20080503/tc_cmp/207500422;_ylt=Apr_sHbpkCOcVRnVDAijiZ.SxLEF

The following, I believe, is absolutely true:

In spite of all the well-deserved hoopla about the iPhone, RIM still has an impregnable position in enterprise and corporate markets — its tactile QWERTY keyboard is way more accurate than Apple’s glass keyboard, and corporate types are less tolerant of e-mail errors than rank-and-file consumers.

This, however, seems completely unsupportable:

On the other hand, RIM, which has been advertising for experienced Apple technology experts, may be able to replicate the Apple touch screen — other handset makers have similar handset touch screens — easier than Apple can come up with an accurate enough keyboard to satisfy corporate users.

Who could honestly believe that RIM can invent a touch UI more easily than Apple can slap a keyboard on its existing UI?  That’s just bunk.

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