We discuss a lot of wacky ideas in the CrunchGear chat room every single day. Most of the time, though, these ideas come to nothing and we just get on with being mildly informative. Not today! Presenting, um, a t-shirt we designed! It’s on CafePress, because that’s all we know how to use.

We here know that the jailbreaking movement is alive and well, and that many of you are avid supporters of the whole movement… how else to install GV Mobile on your iPhone? This shirt, featuring the famous “pineapple escaping” logo from one of those jailbreaking apps, is something we whipped up in the chat room last week. (There’s a lot of idle nonsense in the chat room, as you might expect.) And if this goes well, maybe we’ll look into putting some of our other ideas to paper or cotton or whatever.

Yeah – we realize how odd that headline might seem. Apple doesn’t exactly endorse jailbreaks, so the idea that any jailbreak method is “official” may seem strange. But with just about every major release coming from one group, certain releases inherently just have more cred.

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The iPhone is due for an update and Apple likely has a bunch of the current crop stored in a warehouse. Sounds plausible, right? So Jobs & Co. – or Buy.com – must get rid of this generation before the new model launches soon. We’re not sure how AT&T feels about the unlocked edition, but the $799 price tag must carry a huge profit margin on the 16GB edition.

Buy.com via 9to5mac

1. Download unofficialsn0w 2.0 for Windows from here
2. Get the 2.2.1 iPod Touch Firmware here
3. Rename the 2.2.1 ipsw to OriginalFW.ipsw and place it in /IPSW
4. Run IPSW.bat (It will take a while)
5. Right click on the jb.ispw and either open with Winrar or 7.zip
6. Go into Firmware\all_flash\all_flash.n72ap.production\
7. Delete the LLB file.(optional since it will be replaced by the new one)
8. Replace (by dragging) with the LLB file that’s in the same folder as the jb.ipsw.
9. Exit, continue to step 6
10. Place your iPod Touch 2G into DFU mode, plug it in and run RUNME.exe
11. Shift + Restore to JB.ipsw in iTunes and your done!!!

via Technology by Danger

Cydia, the little app that you use to download homebrew apps to the iPhone, got paid apps last night, opening the door for an entire secondary market for app developers including, as Dan at Giz points out, porn.

In all honesty, I haven’t found much compelling in the homebrew app store since the launch of the official App Store. But now that developers can get a little cash for their efforts I foresee a flowering of content that may not get a second look at the official store.

Check out our jailbreaking coverage here including this handy info on the latest firmware.

Long before the launch of Apple’s official App Store, Jay Freeman (otherwise known as Saurik) unleashed Cydia, an open repository of third-party applications for jailbroken iPhones and iPod Touches. If you knew the right server addresses (or “Sources”), you could get just about anything. Sure, some folks use it for getting around that whole “paying for stuff” thing – but for most users, its primary use is the distribution of applications that Apple won’t allow in their store. It’s the only way to get recording or streaming video apps (Cycorder and Qik, respectively) or tethering apps (PDANet) onto your iPhone, for example. The only snag: if developers want to sell their application, they have to handle payments themselves. But that’s about to change.

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MuscleNerd has posted a video showing how he jailbroke the iPod touch simply by connecting a microcontroller – in this case a DefCon badge with some crazy chips in it – and sending eight characters to the iPod Touch during boot, thereby allowing the new firmware to be uploaded.

It’s not quite ready for prime time but it’s a cool look at how the DEV Team operates. Amazing work by a group of dedicated nerds. Bonus points: check out MuscleNerd’s terminal.

You’ll need a jailbroken iPhone for this but it appears that a developer called MeDevil is hot on the trail of facilitating Bluetooth file transfers between the iPhone and other compatible devices.

The above video shows a demo of the application, complete with some of today’s hottest tunes from one or more of the Now That’s What I Call Music! CDs. According to the iSpazio website, the iBluetooth application isn’t finished yet, but as soon as it is it’ll be hosted in the iSpazio repository in Cydia (which is like the App Store for jailbroken iPhones).

[via Gizmodo]

YellowSn0w is out and it’s ready to rock. Here’s how to become SIM-independent.

NB: Install the latest 2.2 firmware before beginning this process.

1. First, download quickpwn and jailbreak your phone.

Pick your device. We want the iP3G, obviously.

2. Use the latest firmware to pwn your phone (download it from Apple here). This will allow you to install Cydia or Installer. If you just updated your phone or updated your phone on the computer you are running quickpwn on, you probably won’t have to download the firmware.

Rebuilding the IPSW

Sending the firmware

2. Then, add the repositories (DO NOT ENTER THESE URLs INTO YOUR BROWSER per Dev Team’s instructions).
For Cydia enter: http://apt9.yellowsn0w.com/
For Installer enter: http://i.yellowsn0w.com/

3. Install yellowsn0w. Run it.

5. Turn on the phone. Wait until your carrier pops up. If it doesn’t, take the SIM out and reinstall it.

Note: This is all in beta and there is no guarantee of success. You will have to jailbreak your phone for this to work, as well. All of the sources above are lagging like crazy right now so wait a few hours before you begin. I’m following these steps as we speak and will post screenshots shortly.

UPDATE – I haven’t been able to get it to work on two iPhone 3Gs, both with fresh 2.2 firmware and baseband. I’ve heard plenty of people HAVE had luck, however, so it seems to be an either/or thing. I suspect some cells aren’t accepting the iPhones as valid equipment.

Speaking about PwnageTool, the Internet is swirling with reports that the 10.5.6 Leopard update breaks the DFU mode needed for the jailbreak. The Dev-Team seems to think that stopping iPhone hacking wasn’t Apple’s intent, and has suggested some workarounds. Chiefly, use the Windows version for now. Blasphemy!

A cabal of tinkers have managed to get root access on the G1 using telnetd. Now, whether or not that constitutes “jailbreaking” (which is an awkward word to use considering Android is supposed to be an open source operating system from the get-go) or something a little less dramatic is another matter.

Or, to quote a Gizmodo commenter:

This reminds me of the Spongebob episode where they steal a balloon on free balloon day.

I think that says it all.

via Slashdot

We already know how Apple feels about tethering, which is sometimes Apple-legal and sometimes not. However, for jailbroken phones you now have what is promised as a quick and easy way (10 second-easy, that is) to tether your laptop to your iPhone.

On Saturday, Addition released iPhoneModem for iPhones using the Cydia package manager. Apple has been dragging their feet in responding to their application request, so now you can get it as shareware for only 10 bucks.

Ten bucks for ten second ease. Consider this your PSA for the day. Check out the forums over at ModMyiPhone for a quick rundown of how it’s working. (Hint: Very good)

via Gizmodo

iPod Touch firmware comes out. It is jailbroken immediately. Rinse. Repeat.

via Eng

Bam! Just 3 days after its release, the 2.0.2 firmware update has been made safe for jailbreak lovers by the always prompt iPhone dev team.

Find out more at MobileCrunch >>

This is pretty cool, and I hate damn near everything. It’s an application for jailbroken iPhones (and iPod touches) called uXM that lets you listen to XM Satellite Radio. Yes, XM is reportedly working on a proper application to launch with the App Store, but that’ll cost you money. This uXM is free, provided you already subscribe to XM.

You can find it in the iSpazio repository, or add this line to your Installer.app: http://www.millardsoftware.com/iphone.xml I have no idea what the previous two sentences mean, having used the iPhone for, maybe, two minutes in total, but I sure as hell like the idea.

There’s also a Sirius version, uSirius, if you swing that way.

via Orbitcast

With O2 and AT&T reporting contract signings at their respective sales points, I think the idea of an unlocked iPhone 3G will soon become moot. If you can’t get one without signing on the dotted line, what’s the value in pulling it off your local network? And why was the original iPhone cracked wide open weeks after launch?

I’m no conspiracy theorist, but I honestly believe that Apple, behind the scenes, offered solace and comfort to the iPhone hackers. While no one has come out to admit it, the fact that the iPhone SDK has been essentially a known quantity for almost a year I think official hands have been leaking – and cracking – iPhones in order to prepare the world for the idea of the App Store. Why else would Steve basically say “Let them eat web apps” last year? Why else would every version of the firmware open up like a tasty clam hours after launch? And why would the iPhone come unattached to service and the onus be on the user to activate it at home?

The original iPhone was a way to get the phone into as many hands as possible and to prepare them for more draconian rules to come. AT&T was probably not happy that Apple wanted it thus, but now they’re getting their 2-year contracts and reducing churn and Apple has an army of willing developers and users – soon in 70 countries. The iPhone 1 had to be as ubiquitous and desirable as the iPod. Recall that the iTunes store didn’t exist until years after the first iPod hit. Now with the App store, everyone gets a little green and we get stuck with Apple’s service provider of record. Sucks to be us.

All of you with a jailbroken iPhone should check out iSlsk (it’s on Big Boss), an application that connects your little wonderdevice to the SoulSeek file-sharing network. SoulSeek, for the uninitiated, has plenty of rare music files from which to choose; all types of files can be found on there, but music is definitely its forté.

While you can’t upload files using the application yet, it can download files—to /var/mobile/Media/Downloads—just fine. Not having an iPhone, jailbroken or otherwise, I can’t try it, but the above video looks just great. Just great!

[On a completely unrelated and off-topic note, comedian Bill Burr turns 40 on June 10 and he needs our help. His podcast, he says, only has 15 listeners. If the number of listeners cracks 20, he'll be much the happier. Do him a favor and subscribe. The man isn't too bright; he moved out to Los Angeles looking to "make it" in the midst of the writers strike. The language isn't SFW, obvs, but he's pretty good, I think.]

via TorrentFreak

I’ve been keeping up with jailbreaking the iPod Touch here on the Help-Keys, and I know its helped a lot of people to open up their hardware. Make no mistake, the iPod Touch is one of the most outstanding pieces of hardware I’ve ever seen, and the work the various hackers developers have been doing with it is amazing.

I also feel the iPhone is overrated and over-exposed, so I’ve sort of left it out. But when a friend of mine brought me an iPhone last night and wanted help activating it, AIM unlocking it, and jailbreaking it, I thought that would be a fantastic Help-Key.

I figured I’d do each part, step-by-step, like Bobby Brown. I thought it would be a hassle but with a reward at the end. I was wrong.

As our own John Biggs famously said, Apple might as well just start including the jailbreaking apps with the iPhone.

You seen, the people behind ZiPhone have put together an all-encompassing application that pretty much does it all with one click. In about ten minutes we went from having a virgin AT&T-locked iPhone to an unlocked, activated, jailbroken iPhone running on T-Mobile.

The only downside is EDGE isn’t working, even though I have it on my T-Mobile account. I’m going to try to make it work for next week’s Help-Key, isn’t that exciting?

I’ve even found a video of the app in action.

I’ve even found a video of the app in action, which you can see after the jump.