I have yet to see the fascination with 'hacking' the iPhone. Why not just wait till the SDK comes out and not worry about bricking the phone?

If you don't like the fact you can't do X, don't buy the freaking thing. Geez.

because its kind of fun. and some people don't want to wait.

I had my day for this stuff with PalmOS handhelds and later running homebrew and emulation on the PSP.

It's very fulfilling when you can make your equipment more useful or more entertaining, and helps to make it uniquely your own, which is also very cool.

I say hack on my brothers, may it serve you well!

@BishopNeo I agree with you. I've yet to see anything that would warrant risking my iPhone.

Perhaps I should rephrase. I understand the hacking part especially to, as Strider says "make it uniquely your own", the part I guess I don't get is why make such a big deal of it now when the chance of rendering the phone totally useless is so much higher. Hacking to replace or enhance features, run newer different programs I get. I did it with my 8525, putting on WM6 when AT&T took forever.

The different in my mind is that there were more development kits and less unknowns with hacking that phone or the PSP then there currently are with the iPhone.

After Feb., I say go for it. Turn the thing into whatever you want. There will be better understanding of the system then.

Hell, I won't be surprised to see someone port Linux to the thing by March.

stop being such a bunch of pussies. it doesn't damage your iphone. if anything goes wrong you can always restore it back to factory settings. the way some of you people talk about your phones like its made out of gold. its a computer. if you mess it up you just reinstall stuff. if you have a valid AT&T contract and you're not trying to make the phone work with third party sims......... if all you want to do is install programs and fully enjoy the phone, stop being a pussy and have some fun.

Unleash the fury of the "help my iPhone is locked and I can't restore, and don't know how (too lazy) to search on the internet to get my answer" posts.

P.S. It doesn't make you a hacker when you follow step by step directions to get something to work. Especially when you can't fix what you might have just broken. On that note, "hack" away n00bs.

@Mayor McRib: Agreed.
The players should know and understand the rules and the stakes, absolutely.

@Mayor McRib: I also applaud your work and that of your administration.

...if you dont want or are afraid to do it DONT... but dont question other people that do... we paid $$ for hardware thats locked, its like having ferrari with a 35MPH limiter.

If you're scared dont do it.... you're just want apple wants a sheepish customer that just follows straight lines.

It's frankly sad and pathetic to see all this energy wasted just because Apple is doing the wrong thing. Just build and release a great and complete SDK and open up the iPhone!!! Let's use our energies for building new and fresh things. This makes Microsoft look like the most open company on the planet!

Does this work for the iPod touch?

@MacAddict21: Right and all the people who now have useless iPhone because they can't restore are idiots I assume. Very intelligent.

@Lithivm: I have the right to question anything I don't understand, and I don't understand the philosophy of buying a phone you KNOW is locked and bitching when you can't do X or Y. Comparing it to a Ferrari is just stupid.

@strider_mt2k:
Thank you, I am hoping for a platform filled with trans-fat.

Anybody got Summerboard working on a "Jailbreaked" 1.1.2 iPhone?

I think ima buy an iPhone, anyone know any "Must-Have" apps that i can use?

@altus: Actually M$ has just as locked down phones as the iPhone and more. The hacks are just further along as they have been around longer.

Ok alot of importers here have the iPhone for sale with version (1.1.1), is there a difference between 1.1.1 and 1.1.2 other than the Languages available and the keyboard ??

This is THE most convoluted, confusing, potentially error-prone hack I've seen in a very long time. Jailbreak with 1.1.1 was a snap, but the procedure shown here is just plain ridiculous. I too like hacking and installing software on my iPhone, but this is beyond the pale for getting to that point. Geez!

Does this end up downgrading it to 1.1.1 or does it stay at 1.1.2?

@timerider42: stays at 1.1.2. What's the point otherwise?

Can all these applications like the lucasarts games be installed on the itouch as well?

why would I need to bypass activation if I already had an AT&T contract?

I don't know... the ScummVM software for Maniac Mansion and Zak McKracken looks pretty sweet.

If somebody finds an easier way to install apps on 1.1.2, then I'll do it, but until then, I'll just play games on my PS3 or Wii. I don't see Madden coming out for the iPhone any time soon.

Jesus, good job. What did you do the production using?

So if I were to buy an iPhone and was planning on using AT@T, at what point would I activate the phone/sim/plan? Are any of the steps be left out or different if using AT@T?

@Cleverboy: "What did you do the production using?" What do you mean? What did I use to cut it? iMovie'08. Which btw, I think it's great for the stuff I do (cut, cut, cut, no stupid transitions) despite all the criticism.

I really liked the Scarlett Johansson references. Very funny. It made the video much more interesting. Nice edit too. Agreed about Madonna, not so pretty in person.

Will I be murdered if I ask what song is playing?

@jesusdiaz: sry, didn't watch the rest of the video until now.

@Rain-man: she is horrendous in person. Unless you like women who look like men.

@NcSchu: It's called Exploration. You can find it in Ministry of Sound - The Chillout Session Ibiza 2002. It's a great double album, worth getting, full of old chill out and dance classics (including my favorite series At Night/Beautiful/Lazy/Point of View.)

@jesusdiaz: yeah it's a great song, i was actually just listening to it yesterday before i saw this video

BUT I do need some help. I have followed the instructions pretty well, and I can't get AppSnap to install from the website (i can access it and click the "install" link and everything...then the phone either quits safari and does nothing or freezes). I have let it "do its thing" for a while thinking it was just installing in the background but no such luck.

Any other methods of installing appsnap, like through telnet (the download has been taken off the jailbreak website, so i would need a 1.1.1 copy)

you should leave appsnap do its thing and it should work without problems.

Forgive me, but I'm not able to get iNdepence MobDev Tool working. I don't have a PrivateFrametools folder on my MBP running 10.5.1. I'm usually very good with tweaking my system, so I'm really confused. I'm really at a loss here, and any help I'm given would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Scratch that. I was stupid. Maybe the guy who always reads the instruction manual no matter what should have read the instructions on the navigation bar. Boy was that pathetic. *shakes head*

I have tried this a dozen times I always get error 1 instead of error 1015 when I try to down-grade to 1.1.1
So iNdependence won't touch it.

when i try to downgrade to 1.1.1 i am not able to see the emergency call screen. is it possible to downgrade for the phones which are already activated?

Some tips to speed things up:

1. You don't need to enter contacts' name.
2. You don't need to enter "prefs://11" - "prefs:" will do
3. You don't need to go back to "emergency call" screen after adding URLs. Just click the first one, going to Settings.

Clip is nicely made and pleasing to the eye, but you're talking too quietly and some parts of it are too quick.

GJ, tho :)

Yeah I have now done this 4 times, on diffirent peoples iphones and ipod touches. I dont even own either. i was reccomended by somebody to downgrade the baseband of the iphone if it had come with firmware 1.1.2 i did this and it didnt get service when in 1.1.1 i didnt try updating to 1.1.2, I had trouble with independence so i just used Apptappinstaller to get the iphone to the activation emergency dial screen. that also works like a charm. Every person i know that has been skeptical about unlocking their iphone has changed their mind after seeing the ridiculous amount of apps that have already been developed for it for free.

Great video, really temptating specially for guys like me that still don't have one :(
Does technique work for new new iPhones with the latest 4.6 bootloader?

At 3:46 my iPhone just went on and now it wont activate so I'm stuck with a broken phone..

oh never mind.. workin now?

www.macmate.org

See? my problem is that I dont see the "emergency call" slider onscreen. My phone was activated already when I tried the steps above so I guess once that happens you cant (dont need to?) use that emergency menu.

I found out my problem! The jailbreak process is fairly different from the video tutorial IF YOUR PHONE HAS ALREADY BEEN ACTIVATED (AT&T, O2 or T-mobile). A little common sense helped me successfully jailbreak my 1.1.2 PREVIOUSLY ACIVATED iPhone by tweaking some steps and totally omitting others but it finally worked out for the best.

Thanks guys

@sleepy_ghost: So what steps did you tweak and/or omit? I'm curious 'cause I'm in the same boat as you, already activated.

hi!!im irish and i bought an iphone and it wont work!!!when i turn it on the itunes icon comes up with a cable!when i slide it across none of the tex,calendar,photos,camera,phone ect!!!what is wrong with it plz help!!!!!!!!!!

The great thing about activated phones is that you can skip several steps in the process, making it a lot easier.
I'll follow the steps in the video guide (which was awesome by the way) and set up diverse paths to take once the different steps come along (this guide is for mac users only):

- Download iNdependence, Jailbreak, apple firmware 1.1.1 and if necessary update your iTunes v7.5 to work with independence (check independence read me files)
- Launch the iPhone in restore mode (turn off phone, hold both the home button and the power button until the apple logo appears. Once the logo appears release the power button only)
- Once the phone is on again, you will see the Connect to iTunes screen. Follow the video guide and downgrade your phone to 1.1.1
- Launch independence and wait for it to connect to the phone. HERE IS WHERE THINGS START TO CHANGE FOR PREVIOUSLY ACTIVATED PHONES. Once you launch independence, it might or might not connect immediately to the phone. Do not close it until your iphone is either back to the screen where you can slide for emergency calls or back to the apps screen (normal page you see after you slide to unlock). You might need to launch independence a couple of times until it finally recognizes the phone.
- If you have the emergency call slider, go ahead and follow the steps on the video guide.
- If you are back on your normal apps screen, then you are pretty much done with the hard part. Go to Settings, select your wi-fi network, then travel to the general settings and set the phone autolock mode to "Never". Now, go to the phone section > contacts. From here on, follow the video guide to set up your jailbreak without placing any emergency calls (example: Add Jailbreak contact then add both urls, save then select the second url from your jailbreak contact and install the installer. A very important thing to note is that because there are many times when the phone is going to restart on its own, this will also cause iTunes to start every time. Make sure you either disable itunes from starting every time the phone is detected or close the application as soon as it launches every time the phone restarts. Otherwise, iTunes will halter whatever process you are trying to complete and it will make things even more confusing.
- Once the jailbreak is done (you will see a successful jailbreak message) launch iTunes and update your phone to 1.1.2. Please note that iTunes might not offer the option to update but rather it will only allow you to restore. This is OK. Get the phone back to 1.1.2 (the previously installed Installer icon will disappear but don't worry, this is normal). Once the update is done, run Jailberak 1.1.2 on your iphone and the installer and the SSH icon will reappear on your phone once the program is done. There you have it! Your phone is now free!

Once you go through the tutorial yourself please feel free to add anything that might support /complete/clarify it.
Thanks.