Jailbreak iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad

Several users report that Apple started allowing iPod touch owners to upgrade to iPhone OS 3 for no charge.

The information initially comes from PocketGamer’s Tracy Erickson:

Syncing a second generation iPod touch today with an older version of the software prompted me to accept the free upgrade. How exciting.

Just as when asked to download and install the latest firmware on an iPhone, iTunes simply asks for confirmation – no signing in to pay for the software.

Sounds like free a good price for iPod touch 3.1.3 upgrade.

PS: Jailbreakers: think before updating – you might lose the ability to jailbreak your device if you upgrade the firmware.

Update: Several users confirmed the free update. However a number of users report that they are still asked to pay for the update.

It looks like Apple has started banning iPhone hackers from the iTunes App Store.

A few day ago Sherif Hashim, the iPhone developer and hacker, tweeted that he had found an exploit in the latest iPhone OS 3.1.3, which could enable the unlock on 05.12.01 baseband for iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G. Yesterday he has been banned by Apple for the so called “security reasons”. It seems that Apple is quite angry! Here is what Sherif gets when he tries to access App Store from his iPhone:

Sherif Hashim’s Tweets:

“Your Apple ID was banned for security reasons”, that’s what i get when i try to go to the app store, they must be really angry ))))

and guess what my apple ID was, “sherif_hashim@yahoo.com”, what a fool was me not to notice )), can’t help laughing, they are babies ))

Another iPhone hacker named iH8sn0w, the developer of Sn0wbreeze (PwnageTool alternative for Windows), tweeted saying he was also banned by Apple right after he released an exploit known as XEMN:

@sherif_hashim lol, they did that to my ih8sn0wyday[@t]googmail.com too. (right after I posted XEMN)…

For now Apple isn’t banning Jailbreakers – they’re banning people who actively work to find exploits in the iPhone software to create Jailbreaks for the rest of us.

GeoHot recently posted a small message on twitter. He actually responds to many users who continue to ask him about the ability to run firmware 3.1.3 jailbreak using Blackra1n.

GeoHot has always been a bit reluctant to release new versions for various minor firmware updates. His advice is in fact once again to keep firmware 3.1.2, because the latest one does not have anything interesting.

GeoHot will be certainly back on the scene with the next release of firmware 3.2 in March / April or firmware 4.0 that is expected in July.

iH8sn0w released a new version of Sn0wbreeze, the Windows tool that allows to jailbreak the newest firmware 3.1.3. This is a small update that addresses several problems with YouTube.

You can download the new version of sn0wbreeze from here.

We still recommend to use DevTeam utilities – redsn0w (Windows and MAC OS) and pwnagetool (MAC OS only).

Fuzzyband is an application that can downgrade the baseband for iPhone 3G. Recently it has been updated to include the support for firmware 3.1.3 baseband 05.12.01. It works only with bootloader 05.08 (early iPhone 3G).

Why do users need to downgrade the baseband? The answer is simple: if they accidentally upgraded the new firmware and need to run unlock software (blacksn0w and ultrasn0w). Unlocked iPhones do not need Fuzzyband. iPhone 3GS users cannot downgrade baseband with Fuzzyband.

Fuzzyband is available for jailbreaked iPhones in Cydia (repository BigBoss, category “System” ).

Sherif Hashim has discovered an exploit which may allow unlock of the latest iPhone OS 3.1.3 baseband 05.12.01. Such unlock utilities for previous baseband versions were called blacksn0w, ultrasn0w и and yellowsn0w. MuscleNerd, the member of DevTeam, has already confirmed it is working. So the timing of the unlcok release is totally up to them right now.

Here is an official update from DevTeam:

“We’ve started to look at his crash but it’s a long road between any given crash and a fully working unlock, and we couldn’t put an ETA on it even if we wanted to. It’s not even guaranteed that an working unlock will come from this particular crash — it’s just too early to tell.”

According to the statistics just 14% of iPhone users have updated the firmware to version 3.1.3.

In particular 72.3% are still using firmware 3.1.2, less than 1% – firmware 3.1.1 and 4.6% have previous versions yet. The reasons for this are probably from the fact that 3.1.3 is only a minor update. Another reason could be the uncertainty of the jailbreak.

The iPhone Dev-Team has released PwnageTool 3.1.5 for Mac OS X. It allows iPhone and iPod Touch users to safely upgrade to firmware 3.1.3. With PwnageTool you can preserve jailbreak and ultrasn0w unlock. But if you’re using the blacksn0w unlock with baseband 05.11.07 you will need to stay at firmware 3.1.2.

PwnageTool 3.1.5 creates a custom 3.1.3 IPSW for the following devices:

• iPhone 2G
• iPhone 3G
• iPhone 3GS with early bootrom
• iPod touch 1G
• iPod touch 2G with early bootrom

Warning! Don’t try to use this tool if you have  iPhone 3GS with firmware 3.1.3 – it just won’t work. If you have iPod Touch 1G, iPhone 2G or factory unlocked iPhone 3G , try to use redsn0w – is would be much easier.

You can download PwnageTool 3.1.5. here.

H8sn0w has just released the new version of Sn0wbreeze 1.4. Sn0wbreeze is a jailbreak utility with functionality similar to PwnageTool. The new version supports firmware 3.1.3 jailbreak for the following devices:

• iPhone 2G
• iPhone 3G
• iPhone 3GS – old bootrom
• iPod Touch 1G
• iPod Touch 2G – non MC

Sn0wbreeze is a Windows application, so Mac users have to wait for the upcoming release of PwnageTool by the DevTeam. Alternatively, both Mac and Windows users can use Redsn0w to run jailbreak (no custom firmware though).

You can download the new version of sn0wbreeze here.

MuscleNerd continues to argue that we should not use sn0wbreeze. Especially users who have unlocked their iPhone with blacksn0w utility:

MuscleNerd, a member of the DevTeam, posted an interesting tweet. He claims that a new version of PwnageTool to jailbreak the Firmware 3.1.3 will be released soon.

However he also warns the owners of an iPhone 3G or 3GS, suggesting not rush for firmware update. In other words, the improvements of firmware 3.1.3 are minimal, so if you are comfortable with firmware 3.1.2 just stay with that.