It's been a busy few days in the iPhone 1.1.3 hackathon. After the Geohot software unlock, yesterday saw the release of the Zibri command-line and unlock.no Windows GUI versions of an all-in-one software jailbreak, activation and unlocking script for 1.1.3 iPhones. Just in the past few minutes, aCujo reminded us of the bootloader downgrade from 4.6 to 3.9, completely in software. Comments below also remind us that iJailbreak, the "bar mitzvah project" of iPhone utilities (both developers are 13 years old), has released both an automated jailbreak mobile tool and a Mac-compatible (Leopard-only for the moment) desktop utility for 1.1.3.At this point, it seems that third-party application users are good to go on the new firmware, and overseas or non-AT&T iPhone owners are pretty well set for getting unlocked and rolling on native cell networks, noting as always that the hacks are not finished works and even the experienced few sometimes do themselves harm. (Wondering how to tell an unlock from a jailbreak? Check out Erica's iPhone hack glossary post from a while back.)
For those who consider themselves economically and intellectually distanced from the whole unseemly business of hacking iPhones and unlocking them from AT&T's network, consider these two BusinessWeek stories on the iPhone gray market. Not only is the iPhone unlock a money-making engine for thousands of opportunity-minded retailers and middlemen all across the globe, but the status of a functional software unlock means feast or famine (both essentially unwanted) for the maker of the TurboSIM adapter that enables a hardware unlock when software is foiled. It's astonishing that one little device can cause so many ripples in a worldwide chain of commerce and underground innovation.
Thanks to everyone who sent these in.











Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
2-13-2008 @ 5:48PM
Pete said...
If I'm not mistaken, ZiPhone has an IMEI changer which is illegal in US and EU. It's illegal to even have one...not only use it.
Just a word of caution.
Reply
2-13-2008 @ 7:13PM
mentalsticks said...
Sheesh... and guns are legal, stateside.
People need to get their priorities straight.
2-17-2008 @ 5:38PM
pscs said...
na, i think the IMEI changer is for when you bricked your phone and lost signal, wifi, imei and all the other things... then you can put back your original imei (can be found at the back of the iphone) :)
2-13-2008 @ 5:55PM
Dennis said...
The downgrade to 3.9 via software has actually been out for a few days. Even ZiPhone v2.0 "-b" param will do that for you. It's work Geohot has done and has been available for a couple days. Also ZiPhone wasn't released yesterday, it was released on the 11th (2 days ago).
Also 1.1.3 not 1.13 (some places say 1.1.3 some say 1.13, keep it consistent).
Reply
2-13-2008 @ 6:13PM
riscky said...
I first saw some of these hacks reading a few iPhone hacker blogs and MMI (which BTW is a slow site... stay clear for now)
I have also noticed that iNdependence 1.4b1 is now up and supports 1.1.3 jailbreaking along with 1.1.3 unlocks... the helps section states "iNdependence works will with firmware 1.1.3. You don't need to do any special steps when upgrading. Just upgrade as usual using iTunes and then activate/jailbreak/SIM unlock easily using iNdependence."
Me thinks I will upgrade tonight... Monday I received my Kinddle, Tuesday ATV Take 2, Wednesday 1.1.3 unlocks... what will the rest of the week hold? I'm waiting on that led backlit MacBook... maybe maybe :)
Reply
2-13-2008 @ 6:48PM
Sam Gross said...
You missed iJailbreak........it's a Mac-only GUI Jailbreak/Unlock solution. And it works with Bootloader 4.6. www.ijailbreak.com
Reply
2-13-2008 @ 7:34PM
jasperc said...
Yeah, the iJailBreak is a big miss. I consider myself very savvy & banged my head against Zibris commandline util for quite a while. iJailBreak was less than a handful of clicks & my 1.1.3 iPhone was jailbroken. Very nice
Reply
2-14-2008 @ 1:00AM
Sam Gross said...
yes. I also like the fact that it was broken, and Ari fixed it, twice, in the space of 24 hours. I was pissed because 0.5.1 made me completely restore. 0.5.2 jailbroke without complaint.
2-13-2008 @ 8:39PM
robhim said...
if 1.1.3 OTB is software unlockable/jailbreakable
why would you want to downgrade the bootloader?
Reply
2-14-2008 @ 3:34AM
Vinod Ponmanadiyil said...
So the hackathon is over and finished yet?.. Do we have any tricks left out for 1.1.4? ;)
Reply
2-14-2008 @ 8:00AM
Cowfodder said...
iJailbreak is Leopard only huh? Then why did it unlock my 1.1.3 on Tiger (10.4.11 with latest software update)? I was also wondering why it took so long for you guys to report on this? I had to find out through iPhonealley about both the Ziphone and the iJailbreak releases. What gives?
Reply
2-14-2008 @ 9:10AM
Michael Rose said...
Cowfodder: See the iJailBreak home page --
"0.5.3 will be pushed as an update in the next few hours to our current install base, but if you'd rather use iJailBreak 0.5.3 now, you can download it here. Enjoy!
UPDATE: Intel/PPC Tiger systems don't work with 0.5.3 anymore. We'll attempt a fix soon."
Maybe you used 0.5.2, but according to the guys 0.5.3 is not working with Tiger.
2-14-2008 @ 9:47AM
Dead Robot said...
HackintOsh has been down for nearly a solid 24hrs. I guess the admins got tired of answering "I have 1.X.X with a X.X_X bb, can I upgrade using X?" over and over again. Curious to see why it's been down so long.
It's curious to watch the widening gap of upgrade options relative to coder's egos over small start up software companies bottom line.
Reply
2-14-2008 @ 12:53PM
Dead Robot said...
Back up but slow!
2-14-2008 @ 10:22AM
Rob said...
There is NOW an ZiPhone OS X version. Why use other third party apps (like iJailbreak) which just uses ZiPhone?
ZiPhone is the magic that does the jailbreak / unlock.
ZiPhone OS X version is at
http://www.ziphone.org/2008/02/ziphone.html
Download:
http://rapidshare.com/files/91630964/ZiPhoneOSX-2.0.tbz.html
Reply
2-14-2008 @ 2:09PM
Dennis said...
whats the difference between this "true" unlock method verses the other recent jailbreak that was released not too long ago?
Reply
2-14-2008 @ 4:29PM
Wayne Pascoe said...
Sorry to bug, but can anyone tell me where to get a terminal application for 1.1.3? I had one on 1.1.2, but I can't see any sign of it in the installer app on 1.1.3
Reply
2-14-2008 @ 4:57PM
Paul Sanchez said...
Every time i Click the link at unlock.no I get a TrojanDownloader:Win32/LameWeb.0_2 in windows live OneCare. What is up with that?
Reply
2-14-2008 @ 7:02PM
Ian said...
Thanks for the heads up. I'm on T-Mobile and I used this info to upgrade my 1.1.1 phone to 1.1.3. The only thing I lost was custom app data (to be expected).
Reply
2-15-2008 @ 1:26AM
Jim said...
I've tried several of the jailbreaking methods for 1.1.3 and none have worked until I tried the ziphone 2.0 version for Macs. [The 2.0 version for windows didn't work for me, crashed mail] The mac version did the jailbreak flawlessly and all the Apple apps work just fine and all the 3rd party apps I've installed so far work fine. iFlix would load at first but it was a simple fix of changing permissions on it and now it runs fine as well.
Reply