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No QuickPWN? No Problem! 3.0 Jailbreak for iPhone 3G

UPDATE: Still awaiting a QuickPWN release? Maybe you got punked! Did QuickPWN.com Rip Off The Dev Team’s iPhone Jailbreak? Just some food for thought. On with the show…

Like many of you, I counted the days until Apple released OS 3.0. I knew the Dev Team had been churning out the jailbreaks for the beta versions of OS 3.0, so I was pretty confident it would be released quickly, but just to be safe I went and glanced at the QuickPWN blog. Yep. It’s out. All set.

Oops… Yeah, so I went ahead with the OS 3.0 update only to realize that in my excitement and haste I had misread the blog and there was no QuickPWN for OS 3.0 yet!!! This was disheartening, but I was sure it would be available any day. Well, to make a long story short, it isn’t out and it isn’t coming, atleast not from the Dev Team. Although QuickPWN’s blog says they will have something out soon, I can’t wait any longer… I’m going in to deep jailbreak withdrawals and need a fix ASAP! So, here’s the result of my digging around to figure out a solution…

Here’s the usual disclaimer… you could turn your iPhone inside out and upside down and maybe make it poop on itself. That said, you’ll probably be just fine if you follow these instructions. And if not, it’s highly probably that a restore in iTunes will fix your problem and get you back to normal. What fun would gadget cracking be if you couldn’t potentially brick you expensive high tech toys? THIS IS NOT FOR IPHONE 3GS! Only 3G. I will verify this on my girlfriends iPod Touch 2G later and let you know if I had to buy her a new one or not :P I don’t mean to make this sound so risky, it really isn’t, but I don’t want angry iPhone users pissed at me because something went awry.

Step 1 – Preliminary Work (read: boring stuff):

Go to this entry on the Dev Team’s blog and READ the entire post. Make sure you understand what they’re saying (okay, this basically more disclaimer). While your there download RedSn0w for your OS of choice (I am jailbreaking mine on a PC). As of right now I think everyone running OS 3.0 is using revision 7A341, but to make this article future proof I need to tell you how to check this on your iPhone to be sure. It is very important to use the correct firmware for the jailbreak! Don’t worry, it’s easy and doesn’t merit a sub-totorial. Just go to Settings > General > About. You will see the firmware version at the bottom of your screen, like so:

See it downthere at the bottom? That was simple enough.

Step 2 – Select the right firmware:

Run redsn0w. The first thing it does is ask you to locate the iPhone firmware. This must be the same version that you are running on your phone! It will have the file extension .ipsw and on my Windows XP system it resides in:

C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR_WINDOWS_USERNAME\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes\iPhone Software Updates\

Notice the full path and filename of the appropriate file!

Take care to make sure you select the proper .ipsw file! If in doubt run a search for *.ipsw. or download it directly from Apple here [this file is for 3G only!]. If your using OS 3.0 (Which I presume you are) make sure to select the file ‘iPhone1,2_3.0_7A341_Restore.ipsw’!
It is important to note the 7A341 part of the file name, this is the revision of the OS 3.0 firmware and it must match the version we looked at on your iPhone during Step 1!

Okay, so you’ve selected the proper firmware file for RedSn0w, and you should be able to hit the ‘Next’ button now!

Step 3 -The fun and scary stuff:

If all went well in Step 2 you should see a screen like this now:

Okay? Good. Hit ‘Next’!

Oooh, sounds important! Better make sure you ‘Click next ONLY when your device is BOTH off and plugged in’! But wait! Don’t click ‘Next’ just yet! It makes this next step easier if you know whats about to happen. If you’ve used QuickPWN before this is the stage where you have to hold down buttons for the right amount of time and in the right sequence. If you haven’t used QuickPWN before, well… this is the stage where you have to hold down buttons for the right amount of time and in the right sequence.

It all happens kind of quick, but if you mess up you only have to try again. You can’t brick your iPhone just yet, so be patient :P

Don’t do this yet, I’m just priming you!

1. Hold down the Power (corner) button for 3 seconds
2. Without releasing the Power button, also hold down the Home (bottom center) button for 10 seconds
3. Without releasing the Home button, release the power button BUT KEEP holding the Home button for 30 seconds

Again, this is just a procedure to get the phone in a sort of debug mode, same as they would do at the Apple store, so just relax. If you do it wrong just hit back and try again! Here is what it looks like in RedSn0w:

Whew, you made it through that, right? Now you can release your clutch on the Home button and sit back & enjoy the pineapple show!

I apologize for the crap picture... I ran frantically looking for the camera, snapped a quick pic, and it finished! So it is what it is...

This is the part where your precious iPhone could brick in the very unlikely chance something goes wrong here! That said, I’ve gone as far as accidentally unplugging the USB cable in this step and seemingly bricked my phone, but it was an easy fix! I just put it back in DFU mode and let iTunes restore it to health (Google is your friend!). No problem!

I'm also using a cable that looks like this... I ain't scared! :P

Okay, so its probably done by now, huh? You can breath a sigh of relief and pat yourself on the back, because now your iPhone is  way more kick ass than most anyone else you know! At least for the moment… Wow, you know, that really was just as easy as QuickPWN, wasn’t it? Who needs QuickPWN…

Here are a few screen shots to prove I’m not just playing with your hopes and emotions here:

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! Please share Gadget Cracker with your friends and follow @gadgetcracker on Twitter!

Notes and sources:

1) Relavent Dev Team Blog & RedSn0w download – http://blog.iphone-dev.org/post/126908912/redsn0w-in-june

2) iPhone 3G OS 3.0 firmware – http://content.info.apple.com/iPhone/061-6578.20090617.VfgtU/iPhone1,2_3.0_7A341_Restore.ipsw