Sébastien Page

Sebastien is the Founder and Editor in Chief of iDB. Once a BlackBerry user, Sebastien instantly fell in love with the iPhone when it was first announced in 2007. Shortly after, he decided to start sharing his knowledge of the iPhone and its nascent ecosystem, which led to the creation of this blog. Sebastien currently owns 14 iPhones, 4 iPads, a MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, a MacBook Air, 2 Apple Watches, 3 Apple TVs, countless HomePods and AirTags as well as a few pairs of AirPods.

BlackRa1n Confirmed to Work On OS 3.1.2

GeoHot confirmed on Twitter that BlackRa1n still works on the new 3.1.2 firmware as he successfully jailbroke his iPhone 3GS running the latest OS 3.1.2.

That is a big relief for many of us but that doesn't mean you should rush to update. As we wrote a few minutes ago, jailbreakers and unlockers should stay away from 3.1.2, at least for the time being.

There is obviously some more work for GeoHot and he notified us that there will be a delay in the release of BlackRa1n, which was initially expected to be available today.

More to come, so stay tuned!

UPDATE: BlackRain has been released. You may want to read my BlackRa1n guide & tutorial to learn how to jailbreak your iPhone or iPod Touch.

iPhone OS 3.1.2 is Out. Jailbreakers Beware!

Not even a month after 3.1 was released, Apple has just released an update to the iPhone OS firmware  by upgrading it to 3.1.2.

According to TUAW (see image above):

This update fixes the widely reported issue where the iPhone would not wake from sleep, and also fixes an issue involving video playback and cellular service. This update is available for the original iPhone, iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS, and the iPod touch.

As usual when there is a firmware update, jailbreakers and unlockers should stay away from it!

Damn you, Apple! GeoHot was very close to releasing his new BlackRa1n jailbreak for iPhone and iPod Touch. I guess GeoHot will be back to the drawing board.

More info will be added to the site as we learn more about this situation.

BlackRa1n is the New iPhone and iPod Touch Jailbreak

We already knew that GeoHot was up to something but we now have confirmation that he is this close to release a new jailbreaking tool called BlackRa1n.

First, he wrote a short blog post titled "I'm just going to leave this here". The post has no text besides the title and shows what could be mistaken for an iPhone running a bunch of codes that most of us wouldn't understand. Well, it's not an iPhone. It's an iPod Touch 3G. You can tell by simply looking at the location of the image, which reveals its name: ipt3_jailbroken.JPG. You can also tell by zooming in the image.

What does this mean? Well, this is a teaser to tell us that he has successfully jailbroken the iPod Touch 3G, which could be considered as the hardest device to jailbreak these days. And from what I understand, he's using the same exploit on both the iTouch 3G and the iPhone 3GS. According to this tweet, he's pretty much done with these 2 devices and will now get to work on the 4 others, which shouldn't take too long.

GeoHot also gave us 2 interesting clues about the name of his new jailbreak. First, he said his new website was up, asking who could find it. Then he gave it all away by saying that "black is the new purple". Have you connected the dots yet? His last jailbreak was called PurpleRa1n. If black is the new purple, then his new jailbreak is BlackRa1n (see BlackRa1n.com).

We still don't know exactly when to expect BlackRa1n to be available but according to GeoHot's own ETA, it should be sometimes today. One thing is sure though, I will be refreshing GeoHot's Twitter page like a maniac for the next 12 hours.

This BlackRa1n jailbreak will be a huge release for many of us jailbreakers, especially those stuck at 3.1. Are you one of them?

UPDATE: BlackRain has been released. Refer to the following tutorials:

BlackRa1n RC1 tutorial BlackRa1n RC2 tutorial BlackRa1n RC3 tutorial BlackSn0w unlock tutorial

Action Menu Considerably Improves Your iPhone Copy/Paste Experience

Action Menu is one of those mods that once you try it, you simply can't live without it anymore. I've had the opportunity to use Action Menu for about a month now, and it has quickly become my favorite Cydia app. So what does Action Menu does?

Action Menu takes a stab at enhancing the copy/paste function of your iPhone by adding a bunch of add-ons to it. The lite version is free but for $2.99, you can get the full-featured app, which I think is well worth the money (even though I have to admit I didn't pay for it since the dev gave me a promo code).

In addition to the stock cut/copy/paste functionality, the app has many features that are very useful, such as:

Select all - select all the text at once Dial - dials any number that you select To top - scroll all the way up the page To bottom - scroll all the way down the page

Very helpful but not "ground breaking" features, right? Well, this is just the tip of the iceberg because Action Menu also comes with some very useful features that I use every day:

History - all your copied or cut text is saved to a clipboard for easy access. You can edit the clipboard to delete them and move them up and down the list, just like hClipBoard and Clippy used to do. Favorites - this is my top fav of them all. If there is text that you have to paste on a regular basis, just add it to your favorites for quick and easy access. That favorite text could be an email signature for example, a phone number, a website URL, etc... I currently have 6 favorites. I use this all the time. Lookup - don't know what this word means? Want to know how to translate this word in French? Just select a word or sentence and hit the "lookup" button. You will have the ability to search this word in Google, Wikipedia, dictionary, or even translate it in the language of your choice. Very handy, especially for a Frenchman like me... Tweet - Select some text and hit the "Tweet" button. It will open your favorite Twitter app and copy the text into it.

Action Menu is available from Cydia and if your iPhone is jailbroken, I really suggest you at least try the free version. I bet you won't be able to live without it anymore after trying it.

I also bet you that Apple noticed this application and they will implement these features in the next 4.0 OS next year. Take that as a prediction.

What are you still doing here reading this? Launch Cydia and download Action Menu now! Then come back here and tell us what you think about this application :)

New Tool by GeoHot to Jailbreak All iDevices

You remember GeoHot? He was the 18 y/o kid who was the first to unlock the first gen iPhone back in 2007. More recently, GeoHot released PurpleRa1n, which was the first jailbreak method for the iPhone 3GS running OS 3.0. In other words, the kid is a little genius...

Lucky for us, GeoHot is back at it and this time, he decided that just jailbreaking the iPhone 3GS was not challenging enough so he took on the task to release a tool that will jailbreak all iDevices: iPhone 2G, 3G, 3GS, iPod Touch 1G, 2G, and 3G.

In a blog post called "Meet the Family"  (see picture above), GeoHot says it all in just a few words: "And prepare to meet the program that will jailbreak them all."

This great new comes just a few days after the Dev Team released its own jailbreak for the iPhone 3GS 3.1 and iPod Touch 2G 3.1.1; a jailbreak which still prevents iPhone 3GS users to jailbreak if they updated their iPhones to 3.1 without pwning it first. This is obviously a big problem for many users who had updated to 3.1 and are now stuck there without being able to jailbreak (even though there are some tricky workarounds).

GeoHot doesn't have a name for the tool yet. We actually don't know much about what it will do besides that we know it will "jailbreak them all". Will it work on both Mac and PC? We don't know but I do think it will.

The big question is "when". When will this tool be released? GeoHot said on Twitter he's got an ETA of 2 days. I really can't wait to see what he's got up his sleeves and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

As usual, I will keep you updated as the news come. You can always refer to our jailbreak section for the most up-to-date info on jailbreaking.

Isn't that some good news?

How to Unlock iPhone 3GS 3.1

This step-by-step guide and tutorial will show you how to unlock your iPhone 3GS running OS 3.1 using UltraSn0w. This is a very simple method that requires only a few steps.

Step 1: You have to jailbreak your iPhone 3GS by following one of these tutorials.

Step 2: Once jailbroken, follow these steps:

Launch Cydia. Add the following source to Cydia repo666.ultrasn0w.com (note there is a “0″ in sn0w, not an “o”). After installing this source in Cydia, search for “ultraSn0w”. Install UltraSn0w and reboot your iPhone.

Tha'ts as simple as that!

How to Jailbreak iPhone 3GS 3.1 on Windows Tutorial

This step-by-step guide and tutorial will show you how to jailbreak firmware 3.1 for iPhone 3GS using a Windows PC. If you have a Mac, you might as well follow this tutorial.

This guide is just a workaround as there is no official iPhone 3GS 3.1 jailbreak tool for Windows yet. We are going to get a custom firmware cooked on a Mac machine and install it on your iPhone 3GS on a PC. This is a safe and simple way to update your iPhone 3GS to a custom jailbroken 3.1 firmware.

Jailbreak iPhone 3GS 3.1 PwnageTool Tutorial

This tutorial is a step-by-step guide that will show you how to jailbreak OS 3.1 for your iPhone 3GS using PwnageTool for Mac OS X.

PwnageTool will be used to create a custom firmware (also called custom IPSW). After creating the custom firmware, we will restore your iPhone 3GS in iTunes using this firmware. A custom IPSW is needed in order to avoid updating the baseband, which would render any software unlock impossible, at least for the time being.

Please read the next 2 notes over and over and over again... Seriously, please make sure you read and understand the following:

Note 1: PwnageTool does not support the 3GS out of the box. If your iPhone 3GS has 3.1 preinstalled and is not Pwned then there is no tested jailbreak solution at the moment. In other words, if you are on a pwned version of 3.0 or 3.0.1 (either using PwnageTool, RedSn0w, or PurpleRa1n), then you are fine; just follow this tutorial. If you updated to 3.1, you will have to wait for another method. We don't know when this other method will be available.

Note 2: there is no Windows version at the moment. We have no indication about when a Windows jailbreak will be available.

This post was written on 10/02/09. For the latest information about jailbreaking, visit our jailbreak section.

As usual, proceed with caution. You are doing this at your own risk...

iPhone 3GS 3.1 Jailbreak is Out

It is official! The iPhone 3GS jailbreak for OS 3.1 announced yesterday and confirmed earlier today is out, compliments of the Dev Team.

The iPhone 3GS is now supported in PwnageTool 3.1.3, assuming the phone was pwned at 3.0 or 3.0.1 - PwnageTool does not support the 3GS out of the box. If your iPhone 3GS has 3.1 preinstalled and is not Pwned then there is no tested jailbreak solution at the moment.

This means that if you updated to 3.1 or if you bought your iPhone 3GS with OS 3.1 already installed, you will not be able to jailbreak. However, if you are on a pwned version of 3.0 or 3.0.1 (either using PwnageTool, RedSn0w, or PurpleRa1n), then you are fine.

Good news for iPod Touch 2G users! PwnageTool will also support this device.

The iPod 2G is now supported in PwnageTool 3.1.3, assuming the iPod 2G was pwned at 3.0 or 3.0.1 - PwnageTool does not support the iPod 2G with 3.1 software out of the box.

PwnageTool is for Mac OS X only. There is no Windows version yet but let's hope the Dev Team works on this in the near future.

I will be working on a tutorial and post it on the blog asap. Visit the Dev Team blog for full information on the release.

iPhone 3GS 3.1 Jailbreak Coming Soon

It seems that the Dev Team finally managed to jailbreak OS 3.1 for the iPhone 3GS! Dev Team member cpich3g tweeted the following info earlier today:

3gs 3.0 pwned->3.1 pwned. Props to Musclenerd, Wizdaz and thanks Bumble-Bee & ToddJG for testing. tinyurl.com/y8sr4p3 tinyurl.com/y8z277l

The 2 links take you to screenshots (see image above) showing firmware 3.1 running along with baseband 04.26.08. In other words, it means that they managed to jailbreak 3.1 without updating the baseband, which means that the iPhone 3GS can also be unlocked using UltraSn0w.

So what's next? I guess the Dev Team will write an official post on their blog soon to announce the iPhone 3GS jailbreak for OS 3.1. Then they will most likely release an update of PwnageTool and UltraSn0w.

Of course, I will post more info as it becomes available.

iPhone MMS or How to End Up A Marriage of 6 Years

Congratulations, today is your 6 year marriage anniversary. Like every good husband out there, you woke up extra early to prepare breakfast and serve it to your lovely wife in bed before she gets ready and goes to work.

You talk about how you met and how lucky you are to be together. She starts getting all kinky on you. Everything is doing great until you receive this MMS... Your iPhone is on the nightstand, she grabs it to find out who is contacting you so early, and there... SURPRISE!

I'll admit I'm very bad at telling stories but you get the idea. The first time I received an MMS (thanks to this simple MMS hack), I was really surprised to see the full image being displayed on my screen. I thought "what if it was something I didn't want people around me to see?" Luckily for me, it was a picture of Lars the dog with a stupid birthday hat on (kinda cute).

I'm pretty sure many people will find themselves in very embarrassing situations because of MMS or SMS being displayed on their screen for everyone to look at. Fortunately, there is a simple solution if you are running OS 3.X. You can hide SMS or MMS preview by going to Settings > Messages > and turn “Show Preview” off.

Have you ever had such an awkward moment because of an SMS or MMS showing up on your iPhone? If so, please tell us in the comments.

How to Downgrade iPhone 3.1 Baseband From 05.11.07 to 04.26.08

Every time there is a new firmware coming out, updating puts you at risk of updating your baseband as well, making it impossible to unlock your iPhone. This time is no different than the others and many people accidentally updated their iPhone to firmware 3.1, updating their baseband to 05.11.07 at the same time.

Fortunately, there is an easy way for iPhone 3G users to downgrade their baseband from 05.11.07 to 04.26.08. Note that this is for iPhone 3G users only. If you have an iPhone 3GS, then read my article on how to downgrade the iPhone 3GS firmware from 3.1 to 3.0.

Note that this trick only works on iPhones that have the 05.08 (5.8) bootloader from the factory, which is just a very limited amounts of iPhone 3G that were released in the first few weeks of the production cycle. If you don't know your bootloader version, you may run Fuzzyband and it will tell you what version you have and whether or not you can downgrade your baseband.

1. First, your iPhone 3G has to be jailbroken. For more information, read my iPhone 3.1 jailbreak article.

2. Launch Cydia and search for the Fuzzyband app. Install it and reboot your iPhone.

3. Launch the Fuzzyband app and tap "downgrade" to start downgrading your baseband from 05.11.07 to 04.26.08.

4. Reboot your iPhone. You should now be on baseband 04.26.08 and be able to jailbreak and unlock your iPhone using UltraSn0w.