Jailbreaking the iPhone 3GS revisited

When we last visited this subject I updated my used 3GS to iOS4.2, jailbroke and unlocked the phone.

Well now about a year later, I am doing it again...why? To take advantage of a couple of new features...and allow some apps to work/better.

Since it had been so long, and there had been numerous iOS updates since then (5.0.1 is the latest) I had to research the subject all over again, and re-learn the terminology.

Key words: iOS version, untethered, unlocked, radio or baseband or 'modem firmware', Hacktivate.

Once you have definitions for those, then you can decide how to proceed.

(in no particular order) I knew I wanted to unlock the phone, the 3GS was an AT&T phone, but I use my own sim, and only use the phone part outside the US...so I need the phone unlocked to use a phone service other than the one who sold the phone.

I had previously unlocked it, so the 'Modem Firmware' (Settings-General-About) is 05.13.04, a known unlockable version.

I don't want to have to hook it up to a computer every time it restarts...since I rarely travel with a computer anymore...so the Jailbreak needs to be Untethered.

With that info I can start deciding what iOS I can use.

Well the answer is 4.3.3 (for now)...nice link here. (list at top of page)

The newer iOS Jailbreak are all tethered. (for now)...so I can't go any higher.

So know I know that I will be doing a iOS 4.3.3 untethered Jailbreak with an Unlock, (and a computer running windows) that forces me to use Sn0wbreeze (that is a zero in place of the 'O').

Sn0wbreeze edits the iOS restore file for the OS you will be using to not allow iTunes to mess up your device. In my case it will stop iTunes from upgrading my 'modem firmware', so I can later unlock it.

Here is the guide I followed, the link for Sn0wbreeze changes with updates, but go to ih8sn0w.com for links to recent version. (2.7.3 right now.)

If the descriptions are confusing, here is a different guide, (same iOS but different phone) with pictures that should help...I don't know if the text is the same, but the pictures are what I saw.

Now before I did anything, I did a 'transfer purchases' and 'backup'. (and made sure the phone had a decent charge)

I won't go through all the steps of Sn0wbreeze, but I will explain two of them.

First, I want to maintain the "Baseband' (modem firmware) so in the Expert mode of Sn0wbreeze I make sure the upgrade to 6.15 option is UNCHECKED.

Second, I don't have an active AT&T sim card (I have the card that came with the phone, but not with me right now), so I will need to Hacktivate the phone. That means iTunes will assume the phone has been properly registered with AT&T, and therefore will continue installing apps and things.

The whole process took almost half an hour from Sn0wbreeze editing the file, to iTunes installing it on the phone. Then probably another half hour to restore all my data and apps from backup.

The last step, after everything is restored and iTunes is done syncing, is to launch the Cydia app (Sn0wbreeze installs that too) and install Ultrasn0w.

Guide here...Ultrasn0w is what unlocks the phone to allow you to use whatever carrier's SIM card you want. I didn't have to do any editing (like the instructions show) I just searched for Ultrasn0w, installed it, and launched the app. After a few minutes the phone rebooted, and I was successfully on the T-Mobile network.

There are so many options, that it is hard to figure out what applies...but the most important thing is to not upgrade the Baseband (Modem Firmware) until you figure out if the one on the phone is an unlockable version. (hint, nothing above 5.13.04 is unlockable until 6.15.00, and that version has questionable results with the 3GS GPS) If your version is not unlockable, and you are above 5.13.04, then you have to upgrade to 6.15 to be unlockable...

Good luck!

Windows Phone 7 and ringtones

My wife has the Winphone7 and although it is a fine phone, if Sprint had the iPhone 4S when we were out looking, I probably would have gotten that one...

Anyway, my wife likes the Fur Elise by Beethoven. Her first basic phone from years ago had that as one of the default choices, and she stuck with it through the next phones.

The first one was just a normal electronic version that a phone could generate. Her next phone (well really next two) was a win6.5 phone that could play certain audio files. (I don't remember what format it needed, but it wasn't obscure)

So now a few years later, with all modern phones playing MP3s and her new WP7 smartphone with that ability...surely it would be simple to add that Fur Elise MP3 as a ringtone...no.

The original WP7 did not have that capability...it had a bunch of ringtones, and it could play MP3 files, but you could not add to the ringtone list.

The greatly anticipated Mango WP7.5 was supposed to have that capability, and finally was pushed out (without problems) to the users.

So I already had that MP3 on her phone...pulled up the ringtone list, and couldn't find an option to add it...so I went to the list of files on the phone...but found no option to make a song a ringtone (like you can with most other phones).

Off to the internet.

Ok it is a simple process to put an MP3 as a ringtone...but not straightforward like in every other smartphone.

First your MP3 has to be under 40 seconds, next it has to be less than 1Meg in size, finally in its properties you have to ID it as a ringtone...

I pulled up Audacity to edit the ringtone length (and while I was at it, compressed it a bit, did a high pass filter on it, and raised the volume...for extra credit).

Then I had to pull that file into Zune (the WP7 uses Zune exclusively for everything sync related, updates etc).

Within Zune I looked at the properties of the file, and went to the Genre and had to type in Ringtone.

At this point I didn't think it would work. But I sync'd her phone, and sure enough that file showed up on her ringtone list, and from that point was a normal ringtone.

So she is happy now! Therefore I am happy now!

But I honestly would think that in this modern century, a 'smart' phone could use any file as a rintone...

Mozilla Thunderbird and Google calendar.

A few months ago I got fed up with my other email software (I don't even remember what I was using) so I started using Mozilla's Thunderbird, another open source application from the Firefox folks.

I hadn't used a calendar on my pc except to upload my work schedule to Google Calendar. I hadn't really looked into using calendar software...the last one I used was with Outlook about a decade ago.

I have been using Google calendar because it easily syncs with my iPhone and Android phone.

So fast forward to today. I start up Thunderbird, and the autoupdater goes through its thing, and as usual an additional tab opens up to announce what is new with Tbird. (it uses tabs a lot) This time I happen to actually read the tab, and it says there is a calendar plugin called Lightning. So I installed it (download file from Mozilla, open it with the Tbird Tools-Add On- menu.

I restart Tbird, the calendar tab is there with my email tab (it is all about tabs). I right click on the calendars to add mine...and oh, iCal etc are supported, but those are read only. So I can view the calendar but not sync it...

A quick search leads me to Calendar:GDATA Provider . It is compatible with the Lightening calendar plugin of course.

The only hard part about the setup is for any calendar you use, you need to get the web address of the actual calendar...for that, if they are part of your Google Calendar, Google will supply the address. Just log into Gcalendar, go to the settings (gear icon) get to the tab with the list of calendars you use, click on the appropriate calendar on the left side, then click on the XML icon to use the sync option of a calendar you own, or click the iCal icon to use a public calendar. the popup will give you the web address you need.

It is straight forward, copy paste at this point.

I will admit I haven't yet synced a calendar, but it should work.

(no screenshots because all they would show is personal data...but if necessary I can add some sanitized pics)