Have total control of your jailbroken iPhone with Activator

If you have used an iPhone long enough, you may experience the dreaded unresponsive home button problem. There comes a time when you pressed the home button so many times that one day it gradually became non-responsive to your touch. You can have it fixed at any mobile phone shop for about 80 ringgit or so or you can use free jailbreak app launcher from Cydia called Activator to control your iPhone using everything from the volume, mute or power button and also multi-touch gestures.

Jailbreakers should be familiar with Activator because it is automatically installed and it's there when you look up in Settings. If it's not, just search for Activator in Cydia and install the package already.

Once installed, you can set Activator to use the volume button for example to do pretty much everything from unlocking the home screen, opening messages, restart the phone or launch any of your apps. The possibility is endless.

For example you can set double tap on the home screen to launch the camera app very quickly without unlocking the phone which I find really-really useful.

There are a lot more ways to customize Activator like double clicking or holding any of the buttons or using a myriad of different gestures on the home screen. You can even set the Activator to do something just by shaking the iPhone or holding the volume button for a few seconds.

Activator is an extremely powerful app launcher and control mechanism for your iPhone and especially useful when any of your iPhone's buttons turns faulty. This free package should be installed automatically with Cydia when you jailbreak your iPhone. Else you'll just have to curse your luck and go to the nearest mobile phone shop and get your iPhone fixed. Head on to iClarified.com to learn how to jailbreak your iDevices.

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Get untethered jailbreak for your iOS device with Greenpois0n

From one of the world top iOS jailbreak community, Chronic Dev team has released Greenpois0n jailbreak app which provides the long-awaited untethered jailbreak ability for your 4.21 iOS devices.

Previously, jailbreakers using Pwnage Tool or Redsnow will only have a tethered jailbreak with their devices meaning they have to rerun the jailbreak all over again whenever their iPhone/iPod/iPad turns off or restarts. Not anymore with Greenpois0n which comes in two flavors each for Windows and Mac. I tried the jailbreak myself for my iPad and it runs smoothly using my Windows 7 PC but not with my other Windows XP box. The Mac version of Greenpois0n requires at least Mac OS X 10.6 so no luck for Leopard and older versions. Since Greenpois0n's own website is almost always down, I took the liberty to provide a mirror below. The jailbreak process is fairly simple. Follow the instruction to get into DFU mode and it should be done in less than 5 minutes. After that you can proceed to unlock your phone by installing Ultrasnow in Cydia (does people even buy unlocked iPhones anymore?).

Greenpois0n RC5 for Windows

Greenpois0n RC5 for Mac
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The easiest way to jailbreak & unlock your iPhone

This is the easiest way yet how to jailbreak your iPhone. This method works only if your firmware is 3.13 or older. To find out what is your current firmware see here. iClarified has some excellent tutorials on how to jailbreak or unlock all firmware versions up to 4.10.
First open your iPhone's Safari browser and go to http://jailbreakme.com . JailbreakMe is a userland jailbreak by @comex that is quick and simple. It does not require reinstallation of your iPhone firmware if you are running a supported firmware version and can be performed right on the iPhone via MobileSafari. It is advised to you sync and backup your iPhone first before proceeding. Slide the button to jailbreak.
The website will do all the jailbreaking for you using a PDF exploit that was discovered for version 3.13 and older. Your jailbreak is finished when you see the Cydia icon on your homescreen.
If your iPhone is carrier locked, the next step is to unlock it. Open Cydia, wait for the updates download to finish and tap Manage. Tap Sources and add http://repo666.ultrasn0w.com/ to the repository (if it's not already added). The "0" in "sn0w" is the number 0 not o. Next install Ultrasnow to unlock your iPhone. You should see the message "Your phone is activated".
After that you might want to install Installous to be able to download and install cracked & free iPhone apps. Go to Manage > Sources and add the Hackulous repository: http://cydia.hackulo.us . After that search for Installous and install the app.
You should see the green Installous icon on your homescreen. From here on you can browse and download any apps for free. Please be reminded though that you may lose all those downloaded apps if you sync your iPhone with iTunes. To overcome this you might want to download your ipa files from websites such as Apptracker.org, drag the files to the App section on iTunes and sync them from there. Either way, Installous is needed to overcome the DRM limitation imposed with officially purchased apps.
Again, iClarified has everything you need to know about jailbreaking or unlocking your iPhones and iPod Touches.

How to install free apps on your iPhone & iPod Touch

One reason why the iPhone, iPod Touch and the iPad is so popular is because of the software and apps. There are curently 185,000 apps and games to choose from at the App Store and so far people have downloaded more than 4 billion apps from the App Store giving Apple a revenue of 1 billion dollars a year. Yes there are a lot of cool apps and games at the app store and as they say there's an app for everything. What they don't say is there's a way to get all of that for free. One word: jailbreak. That is why people jailbreak their iPhones, iPods and iPads, to install free apps.
There are 2 ways to install free apps on your iPhone or iPod Touch, the easy way using Installous and the hard way using SCP. Here's the easy way:

Step 1

Jailbreak your iPhone! There's no 2 way about it. Jailbreaking allows you to install unapproved 3rd party apps like Cydia and Installous. Check out my previous post on how to jailbreak your iPod Touch (and iPhone).

Step 2
After installing Cydia, run the app - tap Manage > Sources and add the address http://cydia.hackulo.us to the repository.

Step 3
Search and install the Installous app.

Step 4
Run Installous and choose from the thousand of cracked and free apps from the repository. Make sure you have a fast and reliable Wi-Fi connection because some of the apps can be up to 250MB in size.


However if your WiFi service is unreliable or your Internet connection is really slow, you can always try the hard way. Here's how:

Step 1

Repeat Step 1 to Step 4 above. You need to install Installous as well to make the file transfer and installation process easier.

Step 2
Go to Cydia and install Mobile Terminal.

Step 3
Run Mobile Terminal and change your root password. You don't want people to hack into your iPhone and install some nasty viruses. To change your password simply type passwd and enter your new password twice. The old default password is alpine .

Step 4
Go to Cydia again and install OpenSSH.

Step 5
While you're at Cydia, install SBSettings too. This is a really handy app for all your jailbroken devices.

Step 6
Turn on your WiFi and OpenSSH connection. This is where SBSettings comes handy. Slide with both your fingers from the top left and right off the screen downwards to toggle SBSettings. Tap on Wi-Fi and SSH to turn them on. Take down the IP address of your iPhone. Here it says 192.168.137.157 .

Step 7

Now you'll need a program such as WinSCP to transfer apps from your computer to your iPhone. Go here to download WinSCP (Windows) or Fugu or Cyberduck (Mac). This example will use WinSCP. You don't have to connect your iPhone with the USB cable, just make sure Wi-Fi and SSH is on.

Step 8
Run WinSCP and enter the IP address that you saw from SBSettings (or from Settings > Wi-Fi). User name is root and enter the new password that you changed earlier on Mobile Terminal.
When this screen appears just click yes.

Step 9
Now you can copy all your free games and apps from your computer to your iPhone/iPod Touch. The apps will have a .ipa extension. You can simply google for your favourite app or you can visit Apptrackr.org or Pandaapp to download from thousands of free apps there. Copy the app (ipa file) from your computer on the left pane to your iPhone (right pane). Browse to the /root/private/var/mobile/Documents/Installous/Downloads/ folder on the right pane.

Step 10

Open Installous app and go to Downloads. You will find the copied app there. Install it and you're done!

The second method is a bit complicated but you download all the apps elsewhere first and just copy them to your iPhone later.
Of course if you're really good with terminals and command line, you can simply SSH and SCP all those apps into your iPhone.

Good luck!

Update
Alternatively, you can just drag and drop the IPA files into the Apps section in iTunes and sync it to your iPhone.

How to jailbreak an iPod Touch with Blackra1n

This tutorial will teach you how to jailbreak your iPod Touch with the Blackra1n jailbreak program. Jailbreaking will lets you install unapproved third-party applications on your iPhone or iPod Touch. Jailbreak is different from unlocking which lets you use your iPhone on another cellular network apart from the one registered with the iPhone. Jailbreaking with Blackra1n will not unlock your iPhone.
Anyway first thing first, the Blackra1n hack will only work with an iPod Touch installed with the 3.1.2 firmware no later or newer. It definitely won't work with the latest firmware 3.1.3. So if your iPod Touch is using any firmware other than 3.1.2, you'll need to upgrade to that version first. To check which firmware you are using, go to Settings > General > About and see the Version number.
To upgrade to 3.1.2 firmware, you can download it from this website here. Make sure you download the correct firmware for your iPod Touch. For example my iPod Touch version is 3.1.2 (7D11) so according to the list there, my iPod is 2G (2nd generation). If your iPod is older, it might be 1st generation (1G) or 3G for the newer models. Do not upgrade your firmware using iTunes because at the moment, it will only upgrade to version 3.1.3 which is not breakable with Blackra1n.
After downloading the 3.1.2 firmware, you need to restore your iPod Touch to that firmware using iTunes. Run iTunes and shift-click (Windows) or option-click (Mac) the restore button to choose the downloaded firmware. Just clicking restore will just upgrade your iPod to the 3.1.3 version. Make sure to backup your iPod Touch first with iTunes because restoring will erase all apps, settings, contacts and everything on it. Upgrading the firmware will take 5 to 10 minutes and after that you can sync back your iPod and retrieve all your old settings and apps.
Now that your iPod is version 3.1.2, go the Blackra1n website and download the Blackra1n jailbreak program. Choose between Windows or Mac (no love for Linux yet).
Close iTunes and Run Blackra1n and click the 'Make it rain' button. Your iPod will temporarily show Geohot's picture (the cool dude who made this possible) just like the one on his website and then your iPod will automatically reboot.
If everything goes well, your iPod will be jailbroken and you will see the Blackra1n app on it. Run the app and choose to install either Cydia or Rock app. You will need those to install all the 3rd party, unapproved apps.

There are several reasons why people jailbreak their iPods and iPhones. First they can install any 3rd party or unapproved apps on your device. There's an app to tether your iPhone to your computer and use the 3G connectivity to surf the Internet. Then you can install Google Voice which might never be approved by Apple and make free calls from your iPhone. Or you can install the Installous app and download millions of cracked free apps just like everything you see in the App Store. More on that on my next post.

A little reminder..

1. Vista and Windows 7 users should run it in compatibility mode and as "Administrator." Right-click on the file, go to Properties, then click the "Compatibility" tab. Check the "run this program in compatibility mode for:" checkbox and choose Windows XP Service Pack 2 from the list provided. Click "OK" to close the window. Right-click to run as the Administrator.

2. If the Upgrade is Stuck at "Running," Try the Following:
* Set airplane mode on.
* Move blackra1n to the C:\ drive and run it from there.
* Kill any iTunes-related services prior to running.
* While it's stuck on "running," do a hard reboot (push the home and power buttons simultaneously). The app will display a message that says it's done jailbreaking, but it's not. With the USB cable still plugged in, re-run the blackra1n app. This time it should work.

3. The Blackra1n jailbreak is an unthethered jailbreak meaning that should you restart or completely turn off your iPod, you'll need to run the jailbreak again which is as simple as one click but could prove to be a hassle for some.

4. Should you like to restore your iPod to it's original unjailbroken form, just do the restore to the downloaded 3.1.2 firmware earlier.

5. Blackra1n is not the only method to jailbreak your iPod or iPhone (just google 'jailbreak') but it is definitely the easiest. I tried pwnage and redsn0w but no luck so far.

6. Backup your iDevice first! I will not be responsible for any loss of data.

Credits to ReadWriteWeb.com and Geohot.