Jailbreaking

Jailbreaking is a process that allows iPhone and iPod Touch users to run unofficial code on their devices bypassing Apple’s official distribution mechanism, the App Store. Once jailbroken, iPhone users are able to download many applications previously unavailable through the App Store via unofficial installers such as Cydia and Icy. It’s estimated that 4 million (out of 40 million) iPods and iPhones are jailbroken.

Jailbreaking is distinct from unlocking, which is the process by which a mobile device is made compatible with telephone networks it was not specifically licensed to be used with. So in turn jailbreaking is just  hack that gains access to areas of the iPhone or iPod Touch that users aren’t supposed to mess with. Typically, this is an immediate prelude to either installing cool programs, unlocking the handset for use with another cellular network, or both.

History

The first jailbreaking method was released on July 10, 2007, which initially was meant to provide a way to use custom ringtones. On August 6, 2007 the first third-party game was released for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

On October 10, 2007, about 3 months after the original iPhone was released, another method to jailbreak the iPhone was discovered. Apple and hackers then engaged in a battle to patch up security holes and to exploit them. Hackers eventually released a tool to permanently jailbreak iPhone OS 1.0.

On the release of iPhone OS 2.0, the iPhone Dev Team released PwnageTool, a jailbreaking application that used a graphical user interface.

In January 2009, the iPhone Dev Team commenced work on jailbreaking the iPod Touch 2G. “redsn0w lite” was the code name for a tethered iPod Touch 2G jailbreak, and in April, redsn0w 0.1 was released.

On March 10, 2009, the untethered jailbreak was released for the iPod Touch 2G utilizing an exploit found by the Chronic Dev Team, and developed with the help of iPhone Dev Team member “planetbeing”. It was released as a rough patch, and was not implemented into a GUI until next month, when planetbeing made “redsn0w” based on QuickPwn sources.

On March 17, 2009, Apple announced the release of iPhone OS 3.0. Three months later, the iPhone Dev Team released PwnageTool 3.0 and redsn0w 0.7.2, which allowed users of the original iPhone, iPhone 3G, and iPod Touch running the OS 3.0 to be jailbroken on both Macs and PCs.

Below are some screenshots of Pwnagetool and Redsn0w created by the iPhone-Dev Team which jailbreak your iPhone easily: