A few weeks ago I did a top 3 Apps for your Jailbroken iPhone article where we showed you our picks for the 3 must have Apps from the jailbreak community. We thought it would be a good idea to do a follow up to that article with a “how to” on Jailbreaking your iPhone. Gizmodo reported on Monday that the new Verizon iPhone was “breakable”  with the technique that I am going to lay out below so no matter if you’re a seasoned AT&T iPhone owner, or a brand new Verizon iPhone user, we’ve got you covered.

Before we begin I want to lay out a few things for you. Thousands of people including me have Jailbroken their iPhones with no issue. As a matter of fact I have Jailbroken quite a few iPhones and iPads without ever having an issue. With that being said, you jailbreak at your own risk, the Best App Site takes no responsibility for your phone. While we’re on the subject of iPads, this technique will work on your iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad all in the same way. So read on, follow along, and free your iDevice to perform at its full potential.

A few terms to know

The term Jailbreak really means removing Apple’s restrictions on what type of Apps you can put on your iPhone. As it is when you buy your iPhone you can only download approved Apps from the iTunes store. These Apps have been approved by Apple and have to meet their terms of service. This is good for some reasons, but bad for some other reasons. On one hand, when you download an App from the iTunes store you KNOW that it will work without issue because it has been rigorously tested by apple. On the other hand, Apple has been known to be very restrictive at times about what Apps can do, and what features are allowed on the iOS devices. The only way to get flash on your iPhone for example is with a Jailbroken App.
Unlocking is the term used to describe the process for allowing you to use your iPhone on carriers other than AT&T. This only applies to AT&T phones since the Verizon iPhone doesn’t use a sim card and currently the other CDMA networks (Sprint) haven’t announced that they will be activating unlocked CDMA (Verizon) iPhones. This article will not describe how to unlock your iPhone, but it’s important that you know the term because many people get Jailbreaking and unlocking confused.

Cydia is the name of the Jailbreak community’s App store. At the end of the outlined procedure Cydia will be automatically installed and you will be able to access Jailbroken Apps there.

 

First thing’s first

While I have confidence in the jailbreak program it’s always a good idea to make a backup of your iPhone before Jailbreaking it (a quick note: the entire procedure will work with the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, but for the purpose of this article I will just be referring to the iPhone). Plug your iPhone into your computer and let iTunes do a sync and backup. If you run into problems later in the process, or if you ever want to revert back you simply plug in your iPhone to your computer and click restore.
To start the Process you need to visit www.greenpoison.com. This site is put together by the Chronic Dev Team which is a group of developers who have made it their job to find the weaknesses of the iOS software and jailbreak them. On the splash page of the site, you have to choose your OS (Windows, Mac, or Linux). When prompted save the Zip file to your computer. Once downloaded, unzip the files and open the folder. There is a read me file, and an icon titled “green poison”. You can read the readme file or follow along below.

  • Step 1: double click the icon to launch green poison.
  • Step 2: plug in your iPhone (when/if iTunes launches close it)
  • Step 3: Click prepare to jailbreak (you will you be prompted by onscreen commands, follow along and do what they commands say. If you miss a step don’t worry the program will know and allow you to prepare it again)
  • Step 4: Click Jailbreak
  • After the process is done your phone will boot with text on the screen (this is normal). The device is installing the jailbreak (Sometimes this process can take up to 5 minutes so if it seems like it is “hanging” don’t worry just give it time). The phone will reboot on its own.
  • Step 5: Once rebooted you will see a green icon on your springboard titled “loader”. Tap this icon. You will be shown a screen with the Cydia App. Tap the Cydia installer App. This will install Cydia on your iOS device.
  • (Remember that Cydia is the Jailbreak community’s version of the App store. This is where you access your jailbreak Apps)

Your first time in the Cydia Store

There are a couple of things that you want to do the first time you access the Cydia store. You will get an upgrade message upon launching Cydia. You have three options. You can either upgrade essential, complete upgrade, or ignore. I suggest Complete Upgrade. This will load the latest info to Cydia. The next thing to do is to read through the frequently asked questions section. There is some good information in there (much more than we have space for in this article).
 

An extra tip

It’s inevitable that at some point Apple will release an updated version of the iOS software. Beta iOS 4.3 has already been sent to developers so it’s just a matter of time. If you want to continue to upgrade to the latest iOS and be able to rejailbreak, make it easy on yourself. Download PkgBackup. It costs $7.99 but is worth every penny. This one App will save all of your Jailbroken Apps, settings, and themes. This saves a ton of time when you upgrade to the latest iOS software and have to “rejailbreak” your phone. All you have to do is reinstall this one App, click “restore” and all of your Jailbroken Apps will be reinstalled, your settings will be restored, and themes put back in place. The other option is to write down every App that you have installed from Cydia and manually reinstall them one by one. Trust me when I say, this App is worth its weight in gold.

There you have it, a step by step guide to Jailbreaking your iOS device from start to finish to upgrading and rejailbreaking. Don’t forget to read back on my Top 3 Must have Jailbroken Apps, and enjoy your new freedom!

 

Here's an example of why you might want to Jailbreak your iPad