May 22, 2010

Since the Spirit jailbreak was released 2 short weeks ago, I have had a great time jailbreaking other people’s iPhones. Once my students discovered that I could do it, and was willing to do it…they started popping out of the woodworks. Teenagers whose names I didn’t know, whose faces were largely unfamiliar to me, were showing up at my door between classes asking if I would jailbreak their phones. My own students would show up for classes and start with the old line “I have this friend…” and hand me an iPhone.

I have then been amused as, with few exceptions, they look at their newly jailbroken iPhones and with wide eyes ask “now what do I do?” And I began to wonder why people jailbreak in the first place. It occurred to me that some jailbreak just because they can. Some have very very specific reasons. Some just want to be able to mess around with things, the same way some children will take apart radios to see how they work.

I thought it might be a nice idea to give a very brief overview of what you can do once you jailbreak, and a few reasons to do so. This is in no way meant to be a jailbreak software guide, rather a few ideas as to what you’ll be able to do once you’ve jailbroken that you couldn’t before.

Cydia

If you use Spirit to do your jailbreak, you’ll know you were successful because on your first free spot you’ll now have a new app icon that says “Cydia.” Your first logical question, then, is “what is Cydia?” Cydia is the j/b equivalent of the iTunes app store. It is from Cydia that you purchase, download, install your jailbreak apps. Please note that I did say purchase. Jailbreaking may not be okay with Apple, but it does not equate to piracy by any means.

The first thing you need to do then, is to tap Cydia and allow it to update. To do this, you need to have an active data connection. Once it has updated, your iPhone will respring, not only having updated the Cydia app, but adding this new term to your lexicon. Respring is like reset, but without actually turning the phone off. You will find that you have to respring when you do things like change your theme, wallpaper, or font.

Now that you are jailbroken, you will find that you can access the very core of your iPhone. Please don’t add or delete files without knowing exactly what you’re doing – you could permanently brick your phone. There are, however, some files that you will want to add or change in order to add/edit themes or even ringtones. There are two ways of doing this, both of which require a download from Cydia.

SSH is the first method, and can be installed right from Cydia’s home screen. You will also need an FTP client to use SSH. My friend Ally over at TiPb has done a great guide on using SSH. Remember, if you are going to use SSH, it is essential that you change your root password immediately. Because if you can SSH into your iPhone, so can anyone else on the same network connection.

If you are uncomfortable with SSH, or don’t have a network, there are alternatives. I use a program called DiskAid. This will allow you to access your root directories via USB. Using this method, you don’t have to worry about someone else getting into your iPhone, or wasting battery life. You will, however, have to install one more thing from Cydia to use it, and that is a tiny utility called afc2add. This simply adds the afc service for file browsing to your iPhone.

Now what?

You are now set to do things. But what things do you want to do? Here is my short list of reasons to jailbreak:

1. Add themes
2. Change the sms and email notification sound
3. Be able to read and reply to sms without quitting your current app
4. Multitasking
5. Tethering

I understand that some of these issues will be taken care of with the upcoming iPhone 4 firmware…sorta. You won’t be able to theme, per se, but you will be able to set wallpaper behind your icons. Honestly, that’s all I need here. I don’t have any overwhelming need to change the icons provided by the developers. Some multitasking will be available in 4, as well. And most of us really only want to be able to listen to streaming audio (other than iTunes!) while reading email. If you live outside of the US, you can already tether, so it’s a non-issue. The latest rumors are that AT&T is finally ready to allow tethering, so my reasons for jailbreaking are diminishing. It’s important that you know why you want to jailbreak – you’re  not the guy who climbed the mountain just cause it was there. (Or are you?)

Theming

In order to start theming, or even setting your own wallpaper, you will need to load Winterboard from Cydia. Winterboard controls what goes on your springboard. So if all you want to do is set your own wallpaper, just load up Winterboard, and under “Select Themes,” check User Wallpaper. When you exit Winterboard, you will automagically respring, and your wallpaper will now be behind your app icons.

If you want more than just wallpaper, in Cydia, tap on the icon at the bottom labeled “Sections.” Here you will find dozens of themes. Some of them are free, some cost a few dollars. If you have any artistic inclination, you can create your own. (I did this for a while, but I got over it.) Don’t go crazy loading themes. They each give a screenshot, so look through them, pick one, and then load it. You will then have to enable it in Winterboard. Some of the themes also come with sounds, including phone calls, sms, calendar, and keyboard clicks. There are also lock screens, battery indicators, and lock screens. This will keep you very busy when you first jailbreak!

SMS notification

There are a few audio themes in Cydia that are just for sms and calendar notifications. These are easy. There are also a few apps in Cydia to create and load custom sms ringtones. It’s fairly simple to create your own for free, just by following the steps found here in the TiPb forums. There’s nothing worse than being in a room full of people with iPhones and having them all grab their phones when the single email notification sounds, or when a text message comes in because they’ve all chosen amongst the same few options.

SMS replies

A biggie for me, this does require making a purchase from Cydia. However, even here, you have choices. There’s QuickReplySMS and BiteSMS. Unlike buying from iTunes, Cydia gives you a trial before purchase. (Sweet!) So load one, try it. If you like it, buy it. If you’re not crazy about it, try another. I had already purchased QuickReplySMS when I discovered BiteSMS, and I really prefer BiteSMS because it gives you contact pictures within the SMS inbox.

Multitasking

Download Backgrounder. Yes, it’s just that simple. There are a few other apps that really take advantage of Backgrounder, but you can background anything. When an app is running that you want to keep open (like Pandora or Last.FM), just press and hold the Home button to close the app instead of just pressing Home. It will continue running in the background. A little wheel will show next to the running app in case you forget what you have running. I don’t recommend this on anything but the iPhone 3GS. It takes a lot of power and can really slow down the 3G and 2G. It’s also important that you remember to close (not just background) any app to avoid crashing your iPhone.

Tethering

Once upon a time I used PdaNet on my Palm Treo, so I’m comfortable sticking with it on my iPhone. And it’s still a far cry cheaper than what I paid on Palm! I have heard raves about MyWi, which creates a mobile hotspot right from your iPhone. I’ll probably test this out in a few weeks.

These are just a few of the things that I like to do, and the reasons that I jailbreak. Your wants and needs may differ. I encourage you to read up on jailbreaking before doing it. See what it can do. See what you want to do.

It’s a whole new world out there!

Share This

---

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
•