Technology: Jailbreaking? Unlocking? Firmware? FastRa1n RC3?

Jailbreaking? Unlocking? Firmware?  FastRa1n RC3?

What are these words? Well, I guess probably I'm one of the few who are still asking this question. If you have owned a Apple product. I guess you are no strangers to the first 3 words.

Image from senseiphone.com

Jailbreaking, according to Wikipedia, "is the process of removing the limitations imposed by Apple on devices running the iOS operating system through use of custom kernels. Such devices include the iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, and 2nd Gen Apple TV. Jailbreaking allows users to gain root access to the operating system, allowing iOS users to download additional applications, extensions, and themes that are unavailable through the official Apple App Store."

In a less technical rephrasing, after you have jailbroken your phone, you can download free apps and do all sorts of software changes to your phone.

Image from Google

In the PSP era, this is known as PSP hacking.

Till now, it is unclear as to whether jailbreaking or PSP hacking is illegal, which is why so many people are doing it, this is called "the benefit of the doubt".

Unlocking is slightly different, because it simply removes the carrier restriction setting from your phone, everything else in your phone remains unchanged. This is because some phones are locked by their carriers (mobile network operator) and so these phones are not usable with another carriers. For example, if you have got your iPhone from Vodaphone and if it is locked, then you can't use it with CSL or PCCW (Hong Kong carriers).

Image from blogtechnika

To prevent people from jailbreaking and unlocking their phones, Apple (and also SONY) releases update versions of the firmware periodically to block these loopholes in their software. These firmwares are basically a complete replacement of the old operating system (OS) and they come with version numbers, for example, Apple released iOS 4.3.3, then 4.3.5 and soon iOS 5.0. The companies will of course try to attract you to update your firmware with additional functions, like the Siri in iOS 5, but hackers work as teams to exploit these firmwares to allow more freedom for users.

I didn't know anything about Jailbreak a night ago, and when I finally got hold of my dad's iPhone 4, and I saw some blogs teaching people how to Jailbreak, I didn't think much, didn't do backup and I went straight into upgrading the phone from iOS 4.0 to iOS 4.3.5 and attempt to jailbreak it. It worked, but because of my inadequate research I paid the price.

I didn't know there is a difference between "tethered jailbreak" and "untethered jailbreak".

Tethered jailbreak is not a true jailbreaking, and once the device is switched off, one needs to plug the device back to the computer and repeat the almost the entire jailbreaking process which is inconvenient, time-consuming and troublesome.

Untethered jailbreak is the real deal! And the phone remains jailbroken unless one upgrades the firmware. Till yesterday, it could only handle up to iOS 4.3.3, and it is as easy as visiting a website called www.jailbreakme.com through your phone.

Image from Firmware Umbrella

And what did I do? Because I upgraded directly from 4.0 to 4.3.5 and I skipped the backup process of the 4.0 (SHSH) using Tiny Umbrella, I could only use tethered jailbreak. I could have been able to perform an untethered jailbreak had I upgraded it to 4.3.3 and not 4.3.5. Now that I have made my mistake, I can never go back.

I was so owned!!!!! I felt so stupid.... until this late afternoon .....

Here's the great news!!!!! (From 1888PressRelease)

FastRa1n RC3 Jailbreak iPhone 4 4.3.5/5.0 and Unlock With 1 Click


FastRa1n Rc3 has been released to jailbreak iphone 4 4.3.5/5.0 and unlock iphone 4 4.3.5/5.0

New York, NY (1888PressRelease) October 10, 2011 - FastUnlockiPhone.com Team has released FastRa1n RC3, which is an update to a 1-click unlock and untethered jailbreak iPhone 4 4.3.5 and ios 5.0 that adds activation options and an add-on fastsn0w, which unlocks iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS any baseband version. To Unlock and Jailbreak your iPhone Visit The Official Website www.FastUnlockiPhone.com It is pretty easy to use and worked perfectly with any iPhone 4 and 3Gs. Besides the tool, there's a fastra1n application that gets automatically installed on the iPhone after jailbreak, which gives you option to install Cydia and some other alternatives like RockYourPhone and the 'sn0w' option to use fastsn0w unlock solution as well. Another day, another successful iPhone jailbreak story to report to you. Today, on the heels of purplera1n, iPhone OS www.FastUnlockiPhone.com delivered fastra1n to the masses. With it, Windows and Mac users will have available to them a jailbreak iPhone 4 4.3.5 and unlock on all iPhone and iPod touch generations. Installation is pretty simple: Download and install the app on your PC, then plug in your device. Yesterday Apple pushed a new firmware update for all iPhone and iPod touch users which brought some important security and bug fixes. Features wise, there was nothing new to be seen in the firmware. Since this firmware updates the baseband on iPhone 4 3GS and 3G, therefore you can update to this firmware if you want to preserve your unlock on iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS. Jailbreaking will also work with iPod touch 2G(new MC models) and iPod touch 3G. The only devices which can be currently jailbroken using fastra1n RC3 is iPhone 4 and 3Gs 4.3.5 and ios 5.0. While fastra1n does the jailbreak part and unlocks the iPhone's baseband for use with any carrier's services, including pre-paid cards. Those looking to hack their devices start out by downloading their appropriate version of fastra1n. Available for both Mac and Windows, the tool currently provides the fastest untethered jailbreak iphone 4 4.3.5 and 5.0 process, although it doesn't support the latest iPhone 4S. And while it is able to jailbreak devices running iPhone OS 4.3.5 and 5.0, it doesn't pave the way for a software unlock in the future, so it's not too recommended for people who don't know much about these two aspects (jailbreak / unlock). After jailbreaking with FastRa1n, the user is required to connect their device to the Internet via WiFi and download some more stuff, which, ultimately, will allow them to unlock their phones. At the moment, www.FastUnlockiPhone.com tools work only for any versions of the iPhone OS inluding the latest ios 5.0. ###

How how does FastRa1n RC3 look like?

Image from 1888pressrelease

I'm really excited to see how this works! I'm definitely going to try this tonight. Let's hope I can reverse my mistake and make it even better!!! What is even more exciting is that, iOS 5 is not even officially out and this software can already jailbreak it!

It should be free right?

I think I do like this kind of electronics modification activities!

Vocabulary:
jailbreaking
unlocking
firmware
hack -- (vb)  [I usually + adverb or preposition] to get into someone else's computer system without permission in order to find out information or do something illegal
(give sb ) the benefit of the doubt -- to believe something good about someone, rather than something bad, when you have the possibility of doing either
carrier -- (n)[C] a mobile network operator
loophole -- (n)[C] a small mistake in an agreement or law which gives someone the chance to avoid having to do something
inadequate -- (adj) too small in amount
pay the price --  Fig. to suffer the consequences for doing something or risking something. 

Resources:
PSP Hacks
http://psp.dashhacks.com/

Dev -Team Blog
http://blog.iphone-dev.org/

JailBreakMe
http://www.jailbreakme.com/

Tiny Umbrella
http://thefirmwareumbrella.blogspot.com/

FastRa1n RC3 Jailbreak iPhone 4 4.3.5/5.0 and Unlock With 1 Click @ 1888 Press Release
http://www.1888pressrelease.com/fastra1n-rc3-jailbreak-iphone-4-4-3-5-5-0-and-unlock-with-1-pr-341115.html

Fast Unlock iPhone
http://www.fastunlockiphone.com/

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/hack_2
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/give+the+benefit+of+the+doubt
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_carrier
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/loophole?q=loophole
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/inadequate?q=inadequate
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/pay+the+price