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How to Jailbreak your iPod Touch 2G or iPhone 3G iOS 4.0 with redsn0w

Guest Poster

iphone jailbreak

Today, 40Tech is pleased to present a guest post by Tony Hue from LonePlacebo.  Tony's post is especially timely, in light of the U.S. Library's of Congress ruling that jailbreaking an iPhone does NOT violate copyright.  Apple, of course, says that jailbreaking does void your warranty, and that it can cause the iPhone to become unstable and not work reliably, so proceed at your own risk.

Since this article was published, our guest author, Tony, has sent us this link to a video that shows a new two step method for jailbreaking your iPhone.  Here it is, embedded:

Jailbreaking is the process of reconfiguring the restrictions Apple places on the iPod Touch and iPhone firmware to allow you to gain access to any code on your device. One familiar case is with Apple's App Store. We all know that all apps must undergo an approval process before it is available to download at the App Store. The applications that are not approved, however, sometimes end up at third-party application installers like Cydia.

Photo by Gonzalo Baeza Hernández.

 

Why should you jailbreak?

Jailbreaking is completely safe and won't harm your device. Sure, Apple will warn you that doing so will void your warranty. If you somehow manage to brick your device, a simple restore to factory settings can fix things instantly. The biggest reason to jailbreak, of course, is the ability to download a wealth of incredible applications from Cydia. For example, one of my favorite Cydia app is SBSettings, which is a greatly-improved Settings app and can, among many things, hide any app(like Weather and Stock), add a date to your status bar, and is accessed with a simple swipe of a finger across your status bar.

 

Why should you not jailbreak?

I'm not sure if this applies to everyone, but after I jailbroke my iPod Touch, the device ran much slower. Apps weren't launching immediately nor closing right away. Things just seemed to load much longer than usual. Also, apps were more prone to crash, probably because of a hardware memory deficiency.

 

What are the requirements?

In this tutorial, I'm using an iPod Touch 2G that is a non-MC model, running on iOS 4.0. iPhone 3G owners with iOS 4.0 can also jailbreak using this method. For iPhone 4 users, this tutorial does not apply to you.

According to Redmond Pie,

Redsn0w beta has been updated to hacktivate iOS 4.0 for iPhone3G (in addition to jailbreaking the iPhone3G and iPod Touch 2G). For now, the redsn0w beta release supports only the iPhone3G and iPod Touch 2G at today’s 4.0. It’s still a beta, so you’ll need to let Cydia reorganize, reload, and update after using redsn0w.

 

Here's a list of everything you'll need before we start:

 

Let's begin…

1.  Plug your device into your computer and then turn it off

You can do this later but iTunes usually takes quite a while to backup and sync your device.

 

2.  Launch redsn0w 0.9.5b5-3

redsn0w-0.9.5b5-3

 

3.  Click on Browse and then locate and select your downloaded iOS 4.0 firmware file

ipsw

 

4.  Tell redsn0w whether your device is a newer MC model

To determine whether your device is a MC model, go to Settings > General > About. It should say either MC or MB.

system-info

 

5.  Click on Next after redsn0w confirms your firmware file

preparing-jailbreak

 

 

6.  Select jailbreak options and then click Next

options

 

The default selected options should be sufficient. I prefer to leave it as is.

     

    7.  Follow the on-screen instructions to enter DFU mode

    In this step, you must follow three instructions as follows:

    Yes, I know. Not exactly user-friendly. But the good news is that this is the hardest part of the entire jailbreaking procedure and the last thing you have to do.

     

    • Hold down the power button for 3 seconds.
    • Without releasing the power button, also hold down the Home button for 10 seconds.
    • Without releasing the Home button, release the Power button but keep holding the Home button for 30 seconds.

     

    8.  Wait for redsn0w to finish jailbreaking your device

    Now, redsn0w will start doing its share of the work and you can see its progress on your screen. If you look at your device, it will also indicate that the jailbreak is underway. You'll first see a loading screen with a picture of a hard drive with a green arrow pointing down. Lastly, you'll this lovely running pineapple: Now your device will reboot and once it's finished, you can enjoy the wonderful world of a jailbroken device.

     jailbroken-ipod

     

    Have you jailbroken your iPhone or iPod touch?  Tell us about your experience in the comments.

     

    Tony Bio: Tony Hue is a broke college student mired hopelessly in mountains of debt. Send him a check by visiting his blog LonePlacebo, where he writes about social media, technology, and design. He’s also on Twitter @loneplacebo.