iPhone unlock and more….

The awesome guys from the Dev Team have release today Yellowsn0w, their soft-unlock tool for the iPhone 3G with the latest baseband (iPhone OS 2.2 and baseband 02.28.00). Congratulations!

I just tried it… and it works… rather more than less!

So for you guys who want to unlock your iPhone 3G, there are a few steps to follow to accomplish this:

- With iTunes, update (or restore, if you want to loose all your settings) your iPhone to the latest Firmware (2.2)

- Then, quit iTunes and download QuickPwn 2.2 from here

- Launch QuickPwn 2.2 and follow the onscreen instructions. This software will basically activate your iPhone, allow read/write access (jailbreak) and install Cydia, the equivalent of the Appstore for unofficial apps

- After your iPhone has been cracked by QuickPwn (it takes a few minutes), you will have new icons, including Cydia. Launch it.

- It will work some time and you will have to relaunch it. Also, do the updates if any are available.

- After that, in Cydia, go to “Sections” and select “Repositories” and add the “iClarified” and “iPhone-notes.de” repositories. It will take some time to refresh the sources.

- Go to “Manage”, tap “Edit” and “Add”. You will then enter the Dev-Team repository: http://apt9.yellowsn0w.com. It will again refresh.

- Go back to “Sections” and select “Tweaks”. Install “APN Editing”. This will allow you to manually edit the data connection settings for your operator.

- Finally, go to “Search” and type “yellowsn0w”. Install the unlock tool. NB: currently, the tool does not support SIM cards with PIN codes. So remove your PIN code (quit Cydia and change it in “Settings”/”Phone”/ “SIM PIN”) BEFORE installing Yellowsn0w!!

- Quit Cydia, go to “Settings” / “General” / “Network” / “Cellular Data Network” and put the correct settings for your GSM operator (Swisscom: APN=gprs.swisscom.ch, leave User and Password empty / Orange: APN=internet, leave User and Password empty / Sunrise: APN=internet, leave User and Password empty)

- Reboot your phone and that’s it!

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(Edit) Be very careful with your data traffic if you don’t have a specific data plan including some traffic!! If you want to avoid any traffic, leave the APN settings empty!!

(Edit 2) I couldn’t have 3G working correctly with the unlock tool. Data network is working, the 3G icon is visible, but I only get GPRS/EDGE speed… Hope they will fix the bug

(Edit 3) I seems to work better, if, once you’ve finished the steps above, you do a few more:

- Once you’ve rebooted the phone, reset the network settings (in Settings / General / Reset)

- Then turn on Airplane mode… wait 30 seconds… and turn it off again

- Take out your SIM…. wait 30 seconds… and put it back in

- wait 30 seconds…

With these steps, my phone was working correctly on Swisscom Network with an Orange SIM locked phone

(Edit 4) View the original blog post from the Dev Team to get more info!

So, here is the tutorial I promised. It is for Macintosh, but the Windows version is similar.

First, as it is said in the title, this tutorial is only for the upgrade and unlocking of original iPhones (with metallic back) to iPhone OS 2.0. The process for 3G is slightly different and I will post the tutorial soon!

And, obviously, you do all this at your own risks!!

So, where to start?

1. You need to get the OS system file (iPhone1,1_2.0_5A347_Restore.ipsw). To do that, start iTunes 7.7 (if you have an earlier version, please update), plug your iPhone in and check for update. iTunes will find an update and ask if you want to update your iPhone. Click “Yes” and once the download has started, UNPLUG YOUR IPHONE!! Wait until the download has completed and then quit iTunes.

2. (Optional) If you don’t want to be annoyed by iTunes all the time, kill iTunesHelper (open Activity Monitor (in Utilities) and “Force quit” the iTunesHelper process). iTunes will stay quiet until next time you restart your machine…

3. Plug again your iPhone to your computer, start Pwnage Tool 2.01 (download Pwnage_2_01, including the bootloader files) and select “Expert mode” and the iPhone image on the left. Then click on the right arrow.

4. On the next screen, Pwnage will search (and find ) the 2.0 system file that iTunes downloaded in step 1. Click on the right arrow to continue.

5. On the next screen, double click on “Custom Logos” if you don’t want the application to replace the “Apple” boot logo with a pinapple….

6. Deselect “Boot logo ” and “Recovery logo”.

7. Click on the blue arrow to go back to the main menu. Select “Build” and click on the right arrow to start the building of the new system file. You will be asked to save the new file on your disk.

8. Wait until the process is finished. You will then be prompted to “Pwn” your iPhone. Click “No” to proceed.

9. You will be asked to switch off your iPhone and put it in recovery mode. Simply follow the on-screen instructions to make sure it works out!

10. Once this is all done, you can quit Pwnage Tool and restore the newly created system … with iTunes!

11. Start iTunes, click “Restore” while holding the “Option” key on your keyboard. Select the “.ipsw” file that was created by Pwnage Tool and let the magic happen!

12. Once the restore is completed, iTunes tells you that your phone will reboot. Quit iTunes quickly while your phone reboots.

13. Once it has rebooted, the iPhone starts a few applications that will unlock it. Just let it complete the process (it takes a few minutes), the iPhone will reboot… and that’s it!! Enjoy!!

An interesting one, that only applies to Orange Switzerland business customers…

As you may know, the Orange Switzerland offer for business customers is quite simple: you keep your current price plan and for an extra CHF 19.- / month, you get the iPhone package on top (1GB traffic + a couple of SMS).

The cool thing? They accepted to activate it for my 1st gen iPhone, without buying a 3G version!!

So I can now surf the web, sync my e-mails over the air (active sync), … all with my “old” iPhone, upgarded to 2.0 and unlocked!!

Might be interesting for you… if you are an Orange business customer.

Works well on Orange Switzerland

Here we go! The iPhone Dev Team has released his Pwnage tool v.2 that finally lets you update to iPhone OS 2!

But, be aware: the process is not as simple as ZiPhone… Be careful!

And, I have only tested it on my 1st gen iPhone. Haven’t received my 3G iPhone yet !

Basically, the principle of the Pwnage tool is quite easy:

1. You “PWN” your iPhone running system 1.1.4: this operation alters the phone’s bootloader and “breaks” the check of signed software. After this operation, the phone will let you install any unsigned ipsw file via iTunes.

2. You create a custom 2.0 system file that will activate, jailbreak (=make the system read/write) and unlock the baseband (allowing it to run on any GSM carrier).

3. You put your phone in recovery mode, and restore the custom IPSW file directly from iTunes

4. Once it’s done, the phone unlocks itself and here we go!

So far, everything worked fine on mine, including AppStore!

You can download all the stuff needed (for Mac…) here: Pwnage 2

A full tutorial (with screenshots) will follow soon!

Back to life!

The iPhone life was so boring waiting for the new iPhone 3G… All the speculations… the beta OS…. and so on!

So, now, back to life with some fresh and interesting news regarding iPhone in Switzerland!

News 1: … mmmhhh… no iPhones available anymore. Swisscom had 14′000 pieces and Orange 5′000 (Sunrise doesn’t distribute them). All gone at 11 am on Friday July 11. Nice shot!

News 2: If you order and iPhone and want it quickly, prefer the 8GB black or 16GB white one. Apparently the 16 GB black one is the most wanted… so you’ll wait longer!

News 3: FYI, I ordered my 16GB white iPhone today and Orange told me I could expect to receive it “beginning of August”…

News 4: Do not update your original iPhone to OS 2.0 yet!! Apparently the DevTeam or “yiPhone” will release an activation, jailbreak and unlocking tool… by tommorrow night (Tuesday evening, that is…). I’ll keep you posted.

As “Le Matin” announced a few days ago, Swisscom is going to be the official iPhone carrier in Switzerland. It’s certainly going to be the 3G version and it is going to be in 2008. That’s about all we know

Visit the announcement on the Swisscom website

EDIT: Orange is bringing it as well. This means no exclusive deal for Switzerland. Cool! Bt unfortunately, still no dates

Hi there! Long time no see (mmhh, let’s say… no read ): do you know how to write accents on your iPhone? In fact I got used to write… without accents and stopped bothering. But the function exists and is really handy: You want to write an “é”… hold down the “E” for a bit more of a second and you get all the options for the “E”: “é”, “è”, … Same for all other letters that can have an accent!

Barbatruc! Easy, but personally , I didn’t know!

The folks at SwirlySpace have released the version 0.3X of their SwirlyMMS app.  It can now also receive MMS!

Cool! I just wrote a little tutorial on how to install, configure and use it with Swisscom, Sunrise and Orange in Switzerland.

Click HERE