/* for the sake of simplicity, iPod touch, iPhone and the iPad shall be known as iDevices */
according to the US Copyright Office on 26 july 2010 [cnet.com], jailbreaking your iDevice does not contravene federal copyright law anymore. in practice, it basically states in legalese that it is now okay for American iDevice users to break out of apple's walled garden model of apps from the appstore only. suffice to say, people in the rest of the world don't have to deal with all these..
do note, however, that this still doesn't absolve the user from apple's software licence agreement - apple will void your warranty if you jailbreak your iDevice. but well.. at least it's not a statutory crime to do whatever you want with what you bought anymore. it is also important to note that should you require warranty service, the process of restoring your iDevice to factory settings is easy as pie...
that said, i'm not saying that jailbreaking is for everyone. the process comes with inherent risks, such as loss of data or even bricking of your device. for me though, the risks are actually minimal as the actual occurrence of a catastrophic scenario is very unlikely. also, in my opinion at least, the benefits from jailbreaking your device actually *enhance* the user experience.
if you've made it this far, i suppose you're probably seriously considering jailbreaking your iDevice. the steps are actually pretty simple, and are as follows:
at this point, run Cydia, and let it install all the packages as necessary to bring Cydia up-to-date, if you will. the great thing about this jailbreak is that it also automagically patches the iDevice, so that the PDF exploit will no longer work. we certainly do not want anyone with malicious intent messing around!
after that, Cydia will ask if you would like to make things easier, and simply select "make things easier for me". by so doing, a copy of your iDevice's SHSH blob will be saved on saurik's server.
woah, woah, woah.. what's an SHSH blob, and who's saurik, you might ask. haha.. you're not the 1st to ask, and you wouldn't be the last, i assure you. SHSH blobs are basically identifier files that are unique to your iDevice. if you do not have it stored and stowed away safely, if for some reason you decide to upgrade to an unjailbreakable next iOS update, there's no way to restore your iDevice to a jailbroken state. it's like your passport back to the wild west... machackpc has a good write-up and faq [machackpc.com] on this subject.
as for saurik, he's this chap (jay freeman) who's the creator of Cydia store. go ahead and tap on his name in Cydia to find out more about him :-)
there are several more advanced and technical steps to secure your iDevice after the jailbreak, such as changing the root password from 'alpine' to something more personal ;-) however, i believe that those are for the more technical users amongst us, and so i shall not cover them in this post. nonetheless, should you have any queries, do leave me a comment or drop me a note in the shout box on the left!
according to the US Copyright Office on 26 july 2010 [cnet.com], jailbreaking your iDevice does not contravene federal copyright law anymore. in practice, it basically states in legalese that it is now okay for American iDevice users to break out of apple's walled garden model of apps from the appstore only. suffice to say, people in the rest of the world don't have to deal with all these..
do note, however, that this still doesn't absolve the user from apple's software licence agreement - apple will void your warranty if you jailbreak your iDevice. but well.. at least it's not a statutory crime to do whatever you want with what you bought anymore. it is also important to note that should you require warranty service, the process of restoring your iDevice to factory settings is easy as pie...
that said, i'm not saying that jailbreaking is for everyone. the process comes with inherent risks, such as loss of data or even bricking of your device. for me though, the risks are actually minimal as the actual occurrence of a catastrophic scenario is very unlikely. also, in my opinion at least, the benefits from jailbreaking your device actually *enhance* the user experience.
if you've made it this far, i suppose you're probably seriously considering jailbreaking your iDevice. the steps are actually pretty simple, and are as follows:
 |
| "starry sky" screen on jailbreakme.com |
- ensure that your iDevice is jailbreakable - you can check your device's software version under settings > general > about > version. the current crop of jailbreak vectors work beautifully for iOS 4.0.1 and iOS 3.2.1 for the iPhone and the iPad, respectively
- once you're certain that your iDevice is jailbreakable (e.g. iOS 4.0.1 or below; that is, iOS 4.0.2, 4.1, or even 3.2.2 will not work!), back up your iDevice in iTunes!!!
- proceed to www.jailbreakme.com in Safari browser of your iDevice
- the webpage will load, with a purple starry sky and an inviting "slide to jailbreak" bar at the bottom. go ahead, slide it
- //geekish// in the background, jailbreakme.com will direct your iDevice to download a rigged PDF file which contains an exploit - it basically hijacks the system to run some code, assuming control of the system as a user with "administrator" privileges, if you like. the code then directs your iDevice to install Cydia, the appstore for jailbreak apps
- if this step is done successfully (shouldn't take more than a few minutes), your iDevice should revert to the home screen and you should see a brown colored Cydia icon
- congratulations! your device is now jailbroken!
at this point, run Cydia, and let it install all the packages as necessary to bring Cydia up-to-date, if you will. the great thing about this jailbreak is that it also automagically patches the iDevice, so that the PDF exploit will no longer work. we certainly do not want anyone with malicious intent messing around!
after that, Cydia will ask if you would like to make things easier, and simply select "make things easier for me". by so doing, a copy of your iDevice's SHSH blob will be saved on saurik's server.
woah, woah, woah.. what's an SHSH blob, and who's saurik, you might ask. haha.. you're not the 1st to ask, and you wouldn't be the last, i assure you. SHSH blobs are basically identifier files that are unique to your iDevice. if you do not have it stored and stowed away safely, if for some reason you decide to upgrade to an unjailbreakable next iOS update, there's no way to restore your iDevice to a jailbroken state. it's like your passport back to the wild west... machackpc has a good write-up and faq [machackpc.com] on this subject.
as for saurik, he's this chap (jay freeman) who's the creator of Cydia store. go ahead and tap on his name in Cydia to find out more about him :-)
there are several more advanced and technical steps to secure your iDevice after the jailbreak, such as changing the root password from 'alpine' to something more personal ;-) however, i believe that those are for the more technical users amongst us, and so i shall not cover them in this post. nonetheless, should you have any queries, do leave me a comment or drop me a note in the shout box on the left!
nice post, thanks!
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