iPhone Unlocking

The announcement regarding the new version (2.0.2) of the iPhone Pwnage tool, which is presumably just hours away, brought with it the news that it would not contain an unlock for the new iPhone 3G. The DevTeam, however, has indicated they are still hard at work on developing an unlock for the new iPhone's 3G/GSM baseband and given their long record of success, one can only assume it is only a matter of time before the 3G unlock arrives.

According to a post on the "unofficial, official" blog of the iPhone DevTeam, the latest version of their jailbreaking and unlock tool Pwnage is due to be released sometime today. Though the post did not specify when the release would occur, it did state that the new version of Pwnage is "undergoing final checks and will be packaged, signed and should be uploaded within the next few hours." The post also indicated that individuals could "count on it being released sometime on Thursday" (8/7).

The new version of the Pwnage tool will provide iPhone owners with the ability to jailbreak the latest release of iPhone firmware, a bug fix release made available earlier this week. Though the official stated reason for the iPhone OS 2.0.1 update was "bug fixes", it also rendered ineffective previously released tools that were able to effectively jailbreak phones running iPhone OS 2.0.

Unfortunately, the new version of Pwnage still does not offer

A new video of an iPhone running iPhone firmware 2.0 has surfaced. Posted on Gizmodo earlier, the video shows an iPhone running a fully hacked iPhone firmware 2.0 (or 1.2, depending on who you're asking) and demonstrates many of the new features found in the updated firmware.

The 2.0 hack was completed by the iPhone Dev Team, and the hole that was found is described by the Dev Team to be considerably difficult for Apple to close. According to Gizmodo, the hole may be considered "impossible" to close.

The hacked 2.0 firmware allows any GSM carrier and the installation of any third party software. Watch the video below to see the 2.0 iPhone in action

When 1.1.4 was released, many were surprised to hear the good news that they could still jailbreak their iPhone on 1.1.4 using ZiPhone designed for 1.1.3 and earlier. The bad news was that the activation and unlock capabilities of ZiPhone were not effective on 1.1.4 and even jailbreaking 1.1.4 sometimes was unpredictable. All of these concerns are now a thing of the past, thanks to the release of ZiPhone 2.5.

A new version of iNdependence, a well-known and easy-to-use GUI iPhone jailbreak/unlock/activation/customization tool for Mac OSX, has been released. This latest version, 1.4 beta 5, offers full support for the new version of iPhone firmware, 1.1.4.

When 1.1.4 was released a few days ago, the good news shortly followed that Zibri's ZiPhone jailbreak, released originally for 1.1.3, also worked on 1.1.4. Usually, when a new version if iPhone firmware is released, early adopters have to wait for a new jailbreak method to be released before being able to enjoy third party applications on their iPhone. This time, such was not the case.

Earlier this week, ZiPhone was released and was the first tool available that provided not only a direct jailbreak for iPhones running 1.1.3, but did so in one step. Though pretty darn convenient, ZiPhone was still a command line application, which can scare off some of the less technically inclined iPhone owners out there.

For those who dare not utilize their command shells and others who prefer a GUI application comes good news in the form of iJailbreak version 0.5.3, albeit only for

More details have emerged regarding the 1.1.3 direct jailbreak/unlock, called ZiPhone, created by Zibri. ZiPhone, which is being referred to as a "true" 1.1.3 jailbreak, specifically the method that the iPhone Dev Team was trying to keep protected until the release of the Official iPhone SDK by Apple, was released yesterday.

Earlier today, Zibri - a member of the iPhone Elite Team - released a new jailbreak utility for iPhone firmware 1.1.3. This latest jailbreak is rumored to be the same method that the iPhone Dev Team has been guarding in anticipation of the iPhone SDK release - the "true" jailbreak (as some have termed it). Zibri's jailbreak utility, called ZiPhone, is said to have been created without the assistance of the iPhone Dev Team and as such was released without their cooperation/consent.

ZiPhone will apparently take care of jailbreaking and unlocking your iPhone running firmware version 1.1.3 without requiring you to downgrade to an earlier version of firmware. What's more , Zibri claims that ZiPhone can actually 'revive' many phones with dead basebands.

Both Mac OSX and Windows versions of ZiPhone are available and can be downloaded

It has been widely reported recently that iPhone sold as "unlocked" via Orange in France are not truly unlocked. Early reports indicated that this was because of a SIM country lock in effect on the unlocked phones. As it turns out, there is no actual country lock in effect, but due to either intentional crippling on Apple's part or simply a lack of proper support - unlocked 1.1.2 French iPhones crash when attempting to make calls or send text messages when a foreign SIM card is inserted. Now, thanks to a new tweak called iWorld, these phones can be freed up for use anywhere in the world using any SIM card.

Like all other third party tweaks and software, installing iWorld requires that you jailbreak your iPhone. Owners of 1.1.2 iPhones can jailbreak their phones by downgrading to firmware version 1.1.1, using the jailbreakme.com (or AppSnapp) 1-step jailbreak process, and properly upgrading to 1.1.2. Once jailbroken, users can quickly and easily install iWorld via