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When I decided to jailbreak my phone, I used Geohot’s Blackra1n to accomplish this. It was simple and to the point. It make jailbreaking a snap. I mentioned the other day that he had completed his unlocking patch and planned to call it Blacksn0w. He was going to release this on November 4th. Well, he’s decided to release it today, November 4th instead.

Today 11/3/09 is a sn0w day. School is officially cancelled, and all your iPhones will be unlocked. Remember getting those calls?

At Noon EST, 5 PM GMT, I will be making it sn0w, and I’m looking to see “#blacksn0w” trending. blacksn0w is the unlock for the latest 05.11.07 baseband, and will also enable official tethering. blackra1n, a jailbreak for 3.1.2, has been updated to RC3, with hacktivation support, 15 second speed improvement, Tiger+PPC support, and installation of the latest blackra1n.app. Here is how getting yourself some sn0w and ra1n will work.

Unlocking vs Jailbreaking

Jailbreaking and unlocking the iPhone are two different hacks which allow you to take control over your mobile device in different ways. Jailbreaking is a type of hack that lets you install unapproved third-party applications on your iPhone or iPod Touch from searchable repositories provided by apps like Cydia and Icy. Unlocking, on the other hand, is a hack that lets you use your iPhone on another cellular network. Here in the U.S., that means you can use the iPhone on T-Mobile instead of AT&T. You have to first jailbreak your phone before you can unlock it, but you don’t have to unlock a phone in order to jailbreak it.

Unfortunately, what once was a relatively simple process has gotten more complex over time as new iPhone models were introduced and new hacking tools were being put out by multiple parties, often with confusing names like the Pwnage Tool, Purplesn0w, redsn0w and the like. With each release of iPhone firmware, it seems as if there’s a whole new lexicon of terms to master and new procedures to follow. The 3.1.2 jailbreak is no exception. – Sarah in Tampa

What is Blackra1n and Blacksn0w?

Blackrain is an application that was put out by Geohot, the hacker that cracked the iPhone back when it 1st came out. Blackra1n is a VERY simple application that jailbroke OS 3.1.2 phones. Initially it only worked with Windows based machines, then both Apple and Windows. You simply download the app on your PC, connect the iPhone and then click “Make it rain”. It wasn’t any simpler than that.

Blacksn0w is now part of Blackra1n as of today. What Blacksn0w does is unlocks the iPhone firmware to enable use of other sim cards from other carriers on the iPhone 3GS running 3.1.2 OS. So if you are a T-mobile customer, the iPhone 3GS can work on your sim card with 3.1.2 OS. You can move on past 3.1.1 now.

Is this legal?

I will be honest, I don’t know really. In the Windows Mobile world, there is ROM cooking and such. Often times, you could grab a ROM not intended for your device that was cooked up to run on your device. These ROMs often include commercial applications that your phone is not entitled. This practice in my eyes was piracy and something I never approved of or participated in. This on the other hand, I see no issue with. You are not stealing software that is not intended for another device. You are simple overwriting the files that Apple has placed on the device with modified files that allow you to unlock the potential of the phone. To me it’s no different than reformatting your Windows box and putting Linux on it.

Apple and AT&T have tried to combat these efforts by making it harder to unlock or jailbreak, but they get shot down fast by guys like Geohot.

Enjoy your unlock and/or Jailbreak guys!

For more info, head over to Blackra1n.com

UPDATE: I have detailed the steps for this now as well.