Jailbroken Apple iPhone 3G Part One
One of the main reasons I bought the iPhone, aside from its looks, was the ability to customize the unit. Based on my experience with customizing previous phones, this is always a very good thing, because users out there will always come up with customizations and softwares that the manufacturer could’ve never dreamed of. And based on accounts out there, the iPhone seems to have a lot of customization and software options out there.
And how damn right I was.
‘Jailbreaking the iPhone’
iTunes offer a lot of applications out there, but they are mainly superficial types of application that does not really allow you to customize the phone at a deeper level.
If you want to have more customizations that are not only cooler, but also free, then you will need to “jailbreak” the phone. Fortunately, jailbreaking the iPhone these days is relatively simple. It’s just a matter of checking what firmware you have, downloading or installing the required necessary applications, and then using a software called “QuickPawn” to jailbreak the phone.
First, you need to check your iPhone’s firmware and moderm firmware versions. This can be easily done by going thru SETTINGS >> GENERAL >> ABOUT.
With the information in hand, here is a step-by-step procedure on how to jailbreak the phone.
‘Customization Options’
After jailbreaking the phone, I found the available options for customization and softwares to be simply ….. overwhelming. It turns out, that the users out there have found ways to hack the unit with almost unbelievable detail. Themes, Icons, Screens, SMS, Keyboards, etc., there are so many options that you end up not knowing where to start.
For example, as of today, here are the customizations I was able to install on the phone:
- Made my home screen look like a vending machine (Winterboard Vending Machine theme)
- Information on outside air temperature and weather on my status bar (Weathericon)
- Changed signal bars to a retro Apple icon (Retro Apple Icon)
- Changed Edge icon to a blue Apple icon (Blue Apple Edge Icon)
- Changed lockscreen wallpaper every hour (Time of Day Lockscreen 24H)
- Changed Wifi signal bars to industry standard Blue / White Wifi logo (Blue Wifi Logo)
- Changed network carrier text to my initials (Makeitmine)
- Changed battery icon to numeric (Extended Preferences)
The list of available customizations can go on, and on, and on, and on ….. its just amazing. In all the years I have been modding phones, the only one that sort of compares (but not necessarily come close) in terms of modifications available would be the Smart Amazing Phone One.
‘Cydia – The Good News’
When the unit is Jailbroken, an icon named “Cydia” appears on the menu page. “Cydia” turns out to be the portal on which all the available applications are listed. What I like about this setup, is that everything is on the phone already, which is very convenient. Instead of going around the net looking for softwares, downloading them on your PC, hooking up your phone and transferring the softwares to phone, everything is in one place. Its just a question of reading thru which you want, and then downloading them directly to the phone.
This is the best setup I have found so far after years of modding phones. This in general I think is better than what Motorola, Sony Ericsson and Nokia has come up so far in terms of ease, and convenience.
‘Cydia – The Bad News’
The bad news, though, is that you need a steady internet connection to take full advantage of Cydia, which is not always available. You see, Cydia offers literally hundreds of options out there, and each one requires an internet connection to preview, and download if necessary. So you will end up literally hours on end just poring over the available options, and in the process draining your battery quickly. LOL.
I tried to look for ways to manually install apps from the PC, but they have not been as common, and of course, using Cydia on your phone is much easier and hassle-free to do.
You can use 3G or Edge, but these costs in terms of airtime, and as described above, you will end up costing a considerable amount of money if used constantly because of the length of time required. Another issue, is that I often experience problems like being “timed out”, or that “host is unavailable” when using the carrier internet connection.
The ideal setup, would be a free Wifi connection, as it won’t cost you anything. And I also found using Wifi to be very reliable, much more reliable than 3G or Edge, with no broken or interrupted connections whatsoever. This is probably why you will see some iPhone users poring thru their iPhones for hours on end on free Wifi hotspots. Of course, the problem then is that while free Wifi hotspots are becoming common, there will still be large gaps of areas out there without it.
Another option is if you have a DSL connection at home, then it would simply a question of routing that connection to a wireless router, so then you would be able to use your iPhone with it.
(To be continued)
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