IPHONE- what is "jailbreaking" and "unblocking"

[thekidd]

I am thinkiong about getting an Iphone. I had plans to go out and purchase one today, but some people said some things about "unblocking" and jailbreaking", maybee I should buy a slightly used one that is unblocked and jailbreaked. I have no idead what this means. They told me that unblocking the phone means that I can used T-Mobile (anyother ones?) and jailbreaking is some other free things (What are those other things?) Is this worth it? Has anyone ever done this? How would it work if I went into AT&T, and just bought an I phone. Had it unblocked and jailbreaked, and went to T-Mobile, and bought a plan. How would that work? I have no idea how this works, is it worth it, or anything about this. Any insight on the matter would be greatly apprerciated.

[island911]

Also know what it means to "Brick" your iPhone.

If you want an 'out of the box' world phone check out the HTC Touch Pro2. Much better than the iPhone.

[gr8fl4porsche]

I can't help you with the T-Mobile portion but here is the scuttle on the rest.

Unlock means to free the phone from ATT's grasp. You can now use the phone on any other GSM network. In the US, I believe T-Mobile is your other choice. Not sure how this is done.

Jailbreak simply allows you to install applications that are not approved and distributed by Apple through Itunes. The other apps are not necessarily free, just like the app store. Some are, some are not. There are cracked apps available but that is another discussion.
Jailbreaking installs a secondary app store called Cydia. The Cydia apps can be more useful than the official apps in that they allow access the internal file system of the iphone. Apple keeps you from this file system without Jailbreak.

The bad news.

Iphones are now running OS 3.12 As of this typing - no jailbreak or unlocking has been developed for public use. Jailbreaking should be any day now but unlocking has not been talked about much.

The older phones with the 3.0 OS are still Jailbreakable and Unlockable.

I hang out on the iphone forums all day long - cannot remember anyone who 'bricked' an iphone with the latest jailbreak tools.

[island911]

Originally Posted by gr8fl4porsche

...
Unlock means to free the phone from ATT's grasp. You can now use the phone on any other GSM network. In the US, I believe T-Mobile is your other choice. Not sure how this is done.....

Does that also allow data (internet) or just voice?

[HHI944]

It allows data, but I believe it doesnt work with t mobiles 3g, different basebands as I recall. I still run OS 3.0 because of the issue jailbreaking the current OS.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by island911

Does that also allow data (internet) or just voice?

Yes data, one of the primary reason to jailbreak. AT&T prohibits tethering, they want to sell it as an additional upcharge but have not figured out the pricing yet and I think they are afraid it will hurt their networks capacity.

My iPhone, non jailbreak running 3.0 has the tethering hack.

I've always hated AT&T for this kind of crap.

Last phone was a Nokia e62, Symbian. Great smartphone but ATT crippled the firmware so that any attempts to use data apps outside of ones that ATT charged extra for would invoke a security pop up that had to be dismissed every time. And I mean every time the app tried to fetch data, not just on initial launch. Made google apps and 3rd party GPS features completely useless.

Replaced the firmware with the code for Rogers and everything worked but the phone was now Rogers branded, then found the "generic" firmware code for the US and hacked that in. Life was good after that.