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The unofficial version of PwnageTool for iOS 4.1 on iPhone 3GS has been released. It can jailbreak iPhone 3GS (with old bootrom only) using iOS 4.1 custom firmware. For those of you who don’t know, PwnageTool for Mac enables iPhone users to upgrade to the new firmware without upgrading the baseband, hence making it possible to jailbreak and unlock the phone using the Ultrasn0w software. This version of PwnageTool unfortunately doesn’t support hacktivation, so you will have to either use officially supported SIM, or the phonebook SIM card method to activate the phone before unlocking it with Ultrasn0w.

Follow the instructions below to jailbreak iPhone 3GS (old bootrom) on iOS 4.1 with PwnageTool.

Step 1: Download and install the latest version of iTunes.

Step 2: Now start iTunes and sync your iPhone with your PC or Mac so that it backs-up all your important data including settings, apps, music, contacts and photos.

Step 3: Download PwnageTool and the original iOS 4.1 for your version of iPhone. Move all these files to your desktop.

Step 4: Start PwnageTool and select your device

Step 5: PwnageTool will now automatically detect the correct firmware for your device.

Step 6: Click on “No” when PwnageTool asks you “Do you have an iPhone contract that would activate normally through iTunes?”

Clicking on “Yes” will update your baseband to the latest version. Click on “Yes” only if you are on an officially supported carrier like AT&T.

Step 7: PwnageTool will now create the custom .ipsw file for your iPhone which will be jailbroken.

Step 8: While creating the custom firmware, PwnageTool will ask you to authenticate your account on Mac, ignore this prompt for now and install iOS4.1 Jailbreaker installer package which is included in the .zip file you downloaded in Step 3 above. Once this has package has been installed, go back to the PwnageTool password prompt which you previously ignored and enter your password so that PwnageTool completes the custom firmware building process.

The following “ihaz Success” screen will confirm that the requested .ipsw file has been created successfully.

Step 9: You will now have to restore your iPhone to this custom firmware 4.1 file. Start iTunes, click on your phone icon from the sidebar in iTunes. Now press and hold left “alt” button (“Shift” button on Windows) on the keyboard and then click on “Restore” (Not “Update” or “Check for Update”) button in the iTunes and then release the “Shift” button.

This will make iTunes prompt you to select the location for your custom firmware 4.1 file. Select the required custom .ipsw file and click on “Open”.

Step 10: Now sit back and enjoy as iTunes does the rest for you. This will involve a series of automated steps. Be patient at this stage and don’t do anything silly. Just wait while iTunes installs the new firmware 4.1 on your iPhone. Your iPhone screen at this point will be showing a progress bar indicating installation progress. After the installation is done, iPhone will restart automatically and you should now have a fully jailbroken iPhone running on iOS 4.1.

NOTE: If iTunes throws 1004 or 1015 error at you. This is normal, just ignore this error as the firmware has already been successfully installed on the device. But your iPhone at this point will be stuck in Recovery Mode, showing that “Connect to iTunes” screen.

To exit your device from Recovery Mode, download this program called TinyUmbrella (Windows / Mac). Run it and the click on “Kick Device Out of Recovery” button. Your device will now restart normally.

In case the Cydia icon on the homescreen is in white with no repositories added, simply add http://apt.saurik.com/cydia-3.7 repo in Cydia to get going! If Safari crashes, add http://repo.woowiz.net repository and install Safarifix.

Disclaimer: Since this is an unofficial release, I wont recommend using it as it may have bugs that in some cases might result in malfunctioning of your iPhone. This guide is for testing & educational purposes only. Follow it on your own risk. I’m not responsible for any loss of important data or malfunctioning of your iPhone.

Listening to an all-star podcast interview which involved iPhone devs like Comex, Planetbeing, Chpwn and iH8sn0w who are working on jailbreak and unlock scene, there was this question which the hosts asked the devs about when is the iPhone 4 and iOS 4.x jailbreak is expected to be out. While no specific release date was given, they did said that jailbreak is “pretty close to done”. They are now waiting for Saurik (creator of Cydia) to fix couple of loose ends before it is released. iPhone 4 unlock on the other hand is 100 percent done and is waiting for jailbreak to be released.

The exact answers were..

Question: When is the iPhone 4 Jailbreak and Unlock is going to be released?

Comex: You will have to ask Saurik if he’s done with that bootstrap yet. Like I hate to say this because people will be complaining, but it is pretty close to done.

Chpwn: The jailbreak definitely needs a lot of testing before it is released, to make sure it works on everybody’s phone, and that there are no issues like Spirit had where it deleted all of your photos in the first few days of the release.

So there you go.. it is nearly finished, and hopefully will be released very soon. You can listen to the whole interview on iTunes here, or just skip to 43:45 to hear the part where this question was asked.
[via Redmondpie]

Comex has released the source code to the Spirit jailbreak for other developers to take a look at.

This is painful. But. *sigh* http://spiritjb.com/spirit-source-n-stuff.tar.bz2. (To preempt any questions: this is not a new jailbreak or anything useful to non-developers.)

When asked why he was releasing it comex replied, Because I promised to.

In regards to the new firmware releases by Apple comex says, 3.2.1 and 4.0.1 out. if you want an unlock, DO NOT UPDATE. No, the jailbreak is not ready yet.

[via iClarified]

There is now an unofficial version of PwnageTool out in the wild which can jailbreak iPhone 3GS (with old bootrom and already pwned on 3.1.2) on the latest iOS 4.0.1 firmware. The creators of the original PwnageTool has confirmed that this version has been modified and redistributed without their permission, and most importantly, it doesn’t patches some important files which are required for the ultrasn0w unlock to work properly.

I haven’t tried this tool, and wont recommend using this. I have posted this for informational purposes only. But if you want to give it a go, you can do so at your own risk by finding the download link here: (http://www.megaupload.com/?d=700HE23I). Also, iPhone 3GS users who are jailbroken using Spirit on 3.1.3, and with new bootrom should avoid upgrading to iOS 4.0.1 until new jailbreak tools are available.

[Via Redmondpie]