While I was fairly impressed at the features of the new iOS 4 for iPhone and iTouch, I was equally as PISSED that people who have older models could not avail of THE most attractive features in the new software for Apple’s mobile devices (apparently you require out-of-this-world CPU to render a wallpaper and some shadows which is why it was omitted on the 3G). Also, I grew a bit tired to boot a VM of XP or boot Vista on the other partition, just to synchronize the phone with iTunes. For this reason, I sat down and wondered if iOS 4 can already be jailbroken.
And yes it can =)
So to make a long story short, follow these instructions and you can be a happy camper – if you care about things that others have on their shiny 3Gs’s and iPhone 4′s. These instructions are FOR THE 3G ONLY!!
WARNING: If you are looking to unlock (remove carrier restrictions), STOP READING HERE!!! This is only for activated iPhones using official carriers.
If you already updated to iOS 4.0.2, you might be out of luck… best to back up your phone before you try this.
1.) Download the IPSW of iOS 4, here.
2.) Download the Redsn0w jailbreak tool, here for Windows or here for Mac.
3.) To be on the safe side, close iTunes.
4.) Turn your phone off completely.
5.) Start Redsn0w and direct it to the firmware you downloaded earlier.
6.) Once the iOS firmware is verified, you’ll see a screen with some options – most of which you will want. Like “enable Multitasking” etc.
7.) Connect your phone. Best with the cable as you need to perform a certain procedure next.
8.) Redsn0w will tell you PRECISELY what to press and when to enter DFU mode. It is a very special technical mode meant for Apple engineers… Once you entered this mode of operation, Redsn0w will do the rest for you.
9.) If everything was successful, your screen will show up something like “Downloading Jailbreak Data…”. This will take a while, so watch some YouTube.
10.) Once it completes your phone will reboot. Everything will be left intact, the way it was! Except that now you have Cydia as additional App Store on the display. Rejoice!!
Cydia is the community powered App Store, in case you didn’t know. It contains thousands of apps that either have not been approved by Apple, or the developers can’t afford the 99$ Developer Membership to officially release apps on the real App Store. Most are free, but some are commercial. Those that are… Have a good reason for it. xPod and iFile for example. No matter what you install, you should get the “Backgrounder” app which enables multitasking for older apps and apps that don’t natively support the Apple way. That one is free.
Once it completes you will probably notice that the phone chose a random image as home screen background… you can change that like you can on the 3Gs and 4G through the settings =)
This is how I did it, and this my iPhone 3G:
Cool eh? Hope this helps some people.
PS: Icon animation with background enabled isn’t as sluggish as you might think.
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1 comment
Resender says:
August 25, 2010 at 8:10 pm (UTC 0)
With all the problems I read about iOS4 for the iPhone, I rather niot upgrade mine (even if its only the 3G model)