Adventures in unlocking the iPhone up to 1.1.3

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Saturday, 23 February 2008 09:18

Your IT - Mobility

The latest super easy way to unlock 1.1.2 and 1.1.3 iPhones has arrived, and I’ve just successfully used it to safely upgrade to 1.1.3 and all the cool features contained within – but I did have a couple of hiccups along the way!

Ever since I purchased an iPhone in August 2007, before the iPhone could actually be unlocked to be used as a phone, I’ve marvelled at what a fantastic little device it is, and wondered when they would be officially available in Australia.

That’s because everyone that sees it almost universally asks me to help them to get one. They’re available on eBay, and I actually purchased it from a friend who used the eBay route to buy it.

Of course, an official iPhone will get here (and other countries) eventually, likely before the end of 2008, and hopefully a 3G iPhone at that, but until then, buying an iPhone from overseas (whether from eBay or from an Apple or authorised phone store) or having someone bring one back for you is the only way to get one here.

At the time, the only unlock possible was to transform the locked iPhone into the equivalent of an iPod Touch – something that hadn’t yet been launched at the time.

My friend was very keen to use it as a phone first, and iPod second, and when he realised there was no phone unlock yet, he decided he was going to re-sell it on eBay. At this point I stepped in and said ‘hey, sell it to me!’, which happily, he did.

It wasn’t until around September 13 that the first true free iPhone unlock to unleash the phone component so any SIM card could be used first appeared, and naturally, as soon as it was possible, I tried unlocking it, and succeeded.

At the time, my iPhone was on 1.0.2 firmware, and it didn’t take too long before 1.1.1 appeared, which meant waiting for the hackers to do their magic once more. As soon as the ‘jailbreakme.com’ website launched, I bit the bullet, restored the iPhone to 1.1.1 firmware, and enjoyed success again in getting the iPhone unlocked.

Then 1.1.2 firmware appeared, and a few weeks ago, Apple upped the ante to 1.1.3, with 2.0 firmware rumoured to be coming soon.

But my iPhone was happily working in 1.1.1, and although the last few weeks had seen a few ways to take already unlocked iPhones and upgrade them to 1.1.3, I knew that waiting a bit longer would see a really simple iPhone unlock appear that required no special technical knowledge other than the ability to download software and click a button with the mouse.

Well, the hackers have done it again, making the unlocking of the previously unlockable 1.1.3 firmware an absolute cinch. What I did, and how you can do it too, is on the next page! Please read on...