Jailbreaking refers to hacking your iphone to be able to run applications that are not available in the apple store.  Further, you can modify the look and feel of your iphone to, for example, modify the unlock screen of your iphone or even change the buttons and borders in your iphone home screen.  The full potential of the iphone is not reached until it is broken - and, oddly enough, it’s incredibly simple to do.
Pros of jailbreaking your phone :

• Impossible to brick/damage the phone. Worst case if you screw something up you restore to factory defaults, start over and do it right.
• Free applications
• Run apps not sanctioned by Apple (NES emulator, BossPrefs, Winterboard, and a ton of others)
• Themes/custom icons/backgrounds/lock screen
• SSH into the phone to change advanced settings or install cracked apps
• Can still buy/download free and pay App Store apps like normal

Cons of jailbreaking your phone :

• You’ll need to re-jailbreak after each firmware update
• You’re messing with your iPhone.  I’ve come to love mine like a child.

With that, let’s go over how to jailbreak your iphone.

Requirements:
Apple iPhone running software 2.1.  (If you’re unsure of what software you’re running, simply connect your iphone to your computer, start up iTunes, go to your iPhone within the devices tree, click on that, and it should bring up a diagnostic of your iPhone ranging from name, capacity, software, and serial number.)
Windows based PC (It is possible to jailbreak with an Apple computer, but, quite frankly, I don’t care about them.)
Quickpwn (This is the program that will do the nitty gritty of jailbreaking.  The coders of it worked hard so we don’t have to - consider donating to them.

Let’s do this!

Step 1.  Connect your iPhone to your computer, and run Quickpwn.  Upon loading, it will search for your iPhone.  Click on the green arrow to go to step 2.

Step 2.  Locate the iPhone IPSW on your computer.  The IPSW is essentially your iphone software (like an operating system).  It should already be highlighted.  Wait for the checkmark to appear over the iphone on your computer screen, and click next.

Step 3.  You will be given the option of installing three different programs:  Cydia, Installer, and Change of boot logo.  Uncheck change boot logo (unless for some odd reason you would like to change it from the ubiquitous apple logo to the quickpwn logo), and click next.  Details on Cydia and installer in a few steps.

Step 4.  This part is somewhat tricky.  Make sure your iphone is still connected to your computer and click next.  It will ask you to go into Recovery Mode.  Quickpwn will go sorta nutty for a few seconds while it restarts your iphone.  NOW THE TRICKY PART!

Step 5.  Quickpwn will tell you what to do on screen, but I’ll tell you here as well.  Hold down the power and home button together.  When Windows makes the USB disconnect sound, release the power button while holding the home button still.  Hold down the hold button until the quickpwn tells you to.  When it tells you to let go, let go and quickpwn will continue the rest.

Step 6.  There’ll be a bar on your iPhone screen detailing how far along it is.  After a few minutes, your iPhone will reboot, and you’ll have a brand spanking new jailbroken iPhone!

Now that we’re jailbroken…..
You’ll now have two new applications in your iphone.  One is Cydia, which is like the jailbroken version of the app store.  Here you can download nearly anything and everything you would need to modify your iphone.  It’s about as intuitive and self-explanatory as the app store, so just have at it in there.  I’d begin by downloading PDAnet.  PDAnet allows you to tether your iphones internet connection to your laptop computer, which is probably the most handy application ever.  No more paying for internet at Starbucks.  You could even surf the internet in your car if you wanted to.  Also, the NES emulator is a good app as well, for those days when you’re bored and itching to play Contra.

For ringtones, visit  http://www.audiko.com to custom create your own from mp3’s.

Finally, download Winterboard and Bosspreffs, via Cydia, to modify your home screen so you can go from the plain old wallpaper, not unlike this:

To spiffy new ones like this:

Cheers!

Websites of interest or reference:

http://blog.iphone-dev.org/

 http://www.modmyi.com/forums/general/

http://www.audiko.com

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