ziPhone route not for me, what's the other?

Originally Posted by dhendriksen

Alright, I will put in my two cents. I have unlocked dozens of phones, maybe even hundreds. I have helped numerous members here in the forums get their phones going, and I know one of my iPhones has been unlocked at least 20 times, probably closer to 40. With all that being said, I think ZiPhone is the best way to go, by far. I would use the first release, command line tool. If you cannot find it, let me know and I can email it to you. I have unlocked probably 10 phones with it, and only had one slight hiccup (mail app crashed) but a simple restore fixed it. Here is the alternative:

Download firmware 1.1.1, 1.1.2, ibrickr V 0.91, and the 1.1.2 jailbreak. (takes 10 - 90 minutes depending on internet connection)
Put your phone in DFU mode and restore 1.1.1. (takes about 7 minutes, if you can enter DFU mode properly. If not, could take an hour.)
Do the previous step a second time. (takes about 7 minutes)
Boot the phone with iBrickr (if it wont boot, restore a third time).
Jailbreak 1.1.1 with the *#307# trick (too many steps to list here. Takes about 5 or 7 minutes and requires a WiFi connection).
Install OkToPrep. (takes 1 minute)
Upgrade to 1.1.2 through iTunes. (takes about 7 minutes)
Jailbreak 1.1.2 with the previously downloaded software. (takes about 10 minutes)
Dev-Team soft update to 1.1.3 (really buggy, should probably stay at 1.1.2, but thats no fun. This step takes 30 - 60 minutes).
Install bsd subsystem (takes about 3 minutes, but is network dependant)
Run the Geohot Unlock. (takes about 5 minutes, if it works right).

That will take you at least 60 minutes, but probably more like two hours (if all goes well the first time). When it is all said and done you will have 1.1.3 firmware, 04.02.13_G baseband (the baseband for 1.1.2, not 1.1.3 - so Google maps locate feature will not work), and bootloader 4.6 (sucks for too many reasons for me to list here).

With ZiPhone it will require less than 5 minutes (literally), you will end up with an iTunes upgraded 1.1.3 that is not at all buggy like the dev teams soft update, 04.03.13_G baseband (the one intended for 1.1.3. Google Maps locate will work), and you will have bootloader 3.9 (SWEET, that is iPhone perfection).

If you think ZiPhone is not worth it, go the other route. I can guarantee you one thing though. You will spend hours on the first method, almost certianly make at least one mistake along the way and have to start over (we all do, I am not assuming your an idiot or anything), and have a very frustrating day, with much less than ideal results (if everything works right).

With ZiPhone you are right, you may have to restore 1.1.3 again and re-unlock because it had a weird little quirk, but you could do that 5 times and spend less time than with the first method, and it is a much better unlock and includes the bootloader downgrade.

I think you should strongly reconsider your decision to stay away from ZiPhone. Thats just me though.

Originally Posted by RonaldMcdonald

After spending nearly a whole day reading about all the pros and cons regarding ziphone and watching COUNTLESS YouTube videos,I have decided to not go the "ziPhone route". There are some people that are experience NO problems at all, however it seems that there is a a lot MORE people who are experiencing issues (such as mail not working, Youtube not working, some reporting their phones stuck in Vibrate with no sound, etc).

So with that being said, what is the method that was being used PRIOR to ziPhone. I read something about iNdependence but I am not familiar with it. I also came across this:

http://iclarified.com/entry/index.php?enid=649

Which I believe is called the geohot method.

That method is all well and good but that tutorial says that it "assumes that you have already jailbroken the particular firmware you would like to be on"

So regarding that, here in front of me I have my brand new, factory sealed iPhone in front of me (Yup, I havent even opened it yet. I am building up the excitment). I am going to go the GeoHot method but I need to jailbreak it first. What is the best method to do this?

I really wanted to go the ziPhone route and I think it is an EXCELLENT app that has great potential, but I believe it is still a little unstable.

Originally Posted by tenorsaw

The ziPhone method is great. I recently used it on my new 16GB iPhone and it worked like a charm in just a couple of minutes.

Originally Posted by dhendriksen

Alright, I will put in my two cents. I have unlocked dozens of phones, maybe even hundreds. I have helped numerous members here in the forums get their phones going, and I know one of my iPhones has been unlocked at least 20 times, probably closer to 40. With all that being said, I think ZiPhone is the best way to go, by far. I would use the first release, command line tool. If you cannot find it, let me know and I can email it to you. I have unlocked probably 10 phones with it, and only had one slight hiccup (mail app crashed) but a simple restore fixed it. Here is the alternative:

Download firmware 1.1.1, 1.1.2, ibrickr V 0.91, and the 1.1.2 jailbreak. (takes 10 - 90 minutes depending on internet connection)
Put your phone in DFU mode and restore 1.1.1. (takes about 7 minutes, if you can enter DFU mode properly. If not, could take an hour.)
Do the previous step a second time. (takes about 7 minutes)
Boot the phone with iBrickr (if it wont boot, restore a third time).
Jailbreak 1.1.1 with the *#307# trick (too many steps to list here. Takes about 5 or 7 minutes and requires a WiFi connection).
Install OkToPrep. (takes 1 minute)
Upgrade to 1.1.2 through iTunes. (takes about 7 minutes)
Jailbreak 1.1.2 with the previously downloaded software. (takes about 10 minutes)
Dev-Team soft update to 1.1.3 (really buggy, should probably stay at 1.1.2, but thats no fun. This step takes 30 - 60 minutes).
Install bsd subsystem (takes about 3 minutes, but is network dependant)
Run the Geohot Unlock. (takes about 5 minutes, if it works right).

That will take you at least 60 minutes, but probably more like two hours (if all goes well the first time). When it is all said and done you will have 1.1.3 firmware, 04.02.13_G baseband (the baseband for 1.1.2, not 1.1.3 - so Google maps locate feature will not work), and bootloader 4.6 (sucks for too many reasons for me to list here).

With ZiPhone it will require less than 5 minutes (literally), you will end up with an iTunes upgraded 1.1.3 that is not at all buggy like the dev teams soft update, 04.03.13_G baseband (the one intended for 1.1.3. Google Maps locate will work), and you will have bootloader 3.9 (SWEET, that is iPhone perfection).

If you think ZiPhone is not worth it, go the other route. I can guarantee you one thing though. You will spend hours on the first method, almost certianly make at least one mistake along the way and have to start over (we all do, I am not assuming your an idiot or anything), and have a very frustrating day, with much less than ideal results (if everything works right).

With ZiPhone you are right, you may have to restore 1.1.3 again and re-unlock because it had a weird little quirk, but you could do that 5 times and spend less time than with the first method, and it is a much better unlock and includes the bootloader downgrade.

I think you should strongly reconsider your decision to stay away from ZiPhone. Thats just me though.

Originally Posted by XanderMac

Excellent post! I noticed that all the people that claimed to be able to do this old method in 15 minutes didn't bother to take me up on my $50 challenge.

Originally Posted by Lestat_d

No.

DFU is like restore mode, and many people confuse it with normal restore mode -- but its a lower level connection to the phone -- which makes restoring and hacking more 1-time successful. If you have a black iPhone screen while prompted by iTunes to restore -- that is DFU mode; if you see a USB cable icon prompt on the phone itself, that is normal restore mode (i.e. not ideal actually)

Originally Posted by RonaldMcdonald

I see. According to how I understand what dk posted (and please correct me if I am wrong DK), I am going to

1) Use version 2.0 to downgrade the bootloader using the command "ziphone -b -v".

2) Then use version 2.1 (GUI) to perform the jailbreak/activate.

FOR each of these 2 steps, am I to put the phone in DFU or RECOVER?

Originally Posted by RonaldMcdonald

I see. According to how I understand what dk posted (and please correct me if I am wrong DK), I am going to

1) Use version 2.0 to downgrade the bootloader using the command "ziphone -b -v".

2) Then use version 2.1 (GUI) to perform the jailbreak/activate.

FOR each of these 2 steps, am I to put the phone in DFU or RECOVER?

Originally Posted by success2be

ZiPhone uses Geohot's unlocking method. It just runs a script