What is Jailbreak, Why to Jailbreak & History Of Jailbreaking

There is a huge excitement around as far as the jailbreaking is concerned. Every time Applecomes up with a new device, the first question we ask the developers of the jailbreakcommunity is: Can this device be jailbroken? And most of the time the answer has been yes, but on very few occasions, they have told us to wait, until they come up with a better solution. Jailbreak has become a very essential part of people who own iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch or Apple TV. So here we are going to talk about what the jailbreak is, why do we want to jailbreak, and the history of jailbreaking.

What is Jailbreaking?

So let’s start with what jailbreak is? Have you guys ever wondered that what technology revolves around the process of jailbreaking, don’t worry no one cares about that unless it works fine. Let me tell you a little story so that you can understand what the jailbreak is. Consider Apple as the owner of a prison. Once you buy Apple product you are in that prison. A person in there can only use the things that are currently present in the prison. You cannot access anything that is outside the prison unless your break out of it. Now comes the jailbreak team, they are trying to help you out of the prison so that you can access anything that Apple doesn’t control. Once you are out you can use anything or have anything you like on your Apple device.

So the scenario is similar to that of jailbreaking Apple device. You can only install those appsthat are Apple approved. After you jailbreak, you are out of the prison and can install apps that are not approved by Apple. After this process you are blacklisted by Apple.

Though the jailbreak is legal, but Apple, from time to time releases a patch that could createhindrance in this activity of jailbreakers. Just like road blocks, when a prisoner is escaped. But they are very smart in finding an alternate way, like a hidden shortcut while playing Need for Speed.

Why to Jailbreak?

In more technical terms, jailbreaking is referred to as ‘hacking’; to have access to the locked files in order to unlock your device so that you can run it on any carrier. It installs an app store like Cydia, which contains a number of apps that you won’t see at the App Store. Thus allowing you to gain full access to your device and unlock new features. If you want to know what Cydia offers, you might want to check out our posts on topic Cydia from here.

History

The history of jailbreaking starts with the release of the first iPhone back in June, 2007. After few months the iPhone hackers gained root access to the file system of the iPhone OS. This allowed them to add their own code. Not even a month later the first third party app was released.  A year later, with the release of OS 2.0 for iPhone, iPhone Dev Team was originally formed. They released a tool known as Pwange Tool, which was the first ever GUI based tool to jailbreak iPhone at that time. Since then, the iPhone Dev Team has been at the forefronts of the jailbreaking technology.

The release of OS 3.0 thwarted all the jailbreakers, because the tools at that time failed to jailbreak the newly released OS. But as said earlier, the jailbreakers are very smart; they released a newer version of Pwange Tool (3.0) and Redsn0w, the first ever tool to jailbreak OS 3.0.

This rivalry between the iPhone Dev Team and Apple heated up when George Hotz(GeoH0t) enters in the battle and joined the jailbreakers side. With his release of Blackra1n, the OS 3.1.2 released by Apple was successfully jailbroken on iPod Touch 3G.

The release of OS 3.1.3, once again created an atmosphere of frustration for the jailbreakers, as it prevented the third-gen iPhone and iPod from downgrading, if they are already jailbroken. Comex released a video which shows a promo of the untethered jailbreak known as Spirit. After that the jailbreakers start working on the new technology of untethered jailbreak. (Geohot on Limera1n).

So, now Apple releases the iPad. With this the Comex’s Spirit (which was same as Blackra1n – single button jailbreak) was released that worked on all the iPhones, iPods running on OS 3.1.3 and iPad running on OS 3.2.

With the release of iOS 4, the iPhone Dev Team released Redsn0w and updated the Pwnage Tool. At this time Sn0wbreeze – one of the most famous jailbreaking tools for Windows was also released. These tools were a success for the jailbreakers on all the devices other than the iPhone 4 initially.

The jailbreakers were at large, and Geohot was out of the jailbreaking act, soon after that jailbreaking was declared legal in US. But no one care that if it’s legal or not, and since then people were more likely to jailbreak their devices. The strong iOS 4 on iPhone 4 was withstanding the jailbreaker’s hits to get hacked, until Comex releasedJailbreakMe 2.0. This was the first browser-based(works only on safari) jailbreaking tool. Apple released an updated version of iOS 4 which made this tool useless, as Apple closed the PDF exploit. So once again Apple won for a short period of time. This made the jailbreakers to think of alternative solutions as before. Many of us, got their iPhone dead.

So a need of another way was in demand by the jailbreak fans, and therefore SHAtter, an exploit by Chronic Dev Team, from which a device once jailbroken will always be jailbroken was under in progress. But this lead to some complications and pod2g, who discovered SHAtter exploit, left the Chronic Dev Team. In the meantime, iH8sn0w came up with the newer version of Sn0wbreeze, which was capable of jailbreaking the iOS 4.1, but still the fourth-gen iPhone and iPod Touch withstand the force of the jailbreakers, thus they were impregnable from jailbreaking.

The Chronic team at that time was known to be working on the exploit they had found earlier. They released a new jailbreaking tool known as Greenpois0n, which was based on SHAtter; was able to jailbreak the fourth-gen iPhone and iPod Touch, along with the iPad.

Geohot returns with release of Limera1n for Windows. Shortly after this release Limera1n for Mac was also released to jailbreak iOS 4.1. The Chronic Dev Team which was supposed to be working on the Greenpois0n that time released it too after a short period of time (for Mac). This made all the jailbroken devices working on iOS 4.1.

After that Apple released iOS 4.2.1 and later version (iOS 4.3.x). Since then Sn0wbreeze,Redsn0w and Pwnage Tool came in newer versions to tackle the newer iOS, and in all the cases jailbreakers seemed to have pretty much control over the jailbreaking and unlocking. Some of them are untethered and others tethered. Ultrasn0w was updated too to unlockbasebands.

Now Apple is at the verge of releasing its new operating system known as iOS 5. We have seen in the past that all the beta versions of this OS have already been jailbroken. And for those people who are still using iOS 4.3.3 can use JailbreakMe 3.0 to jailbreak their devices. JailbreakMe 3.0 was released a week back and is known to be the easiest jailbreak of all time.

The Dev Team up till now has always been in lead and on the other hand Apple at every turn uses tactics to avoid the jailbreak at any cost. If you are more of a jailbreak fan than of Apple, hope for the best and just wait to see coming more and more.

That is all you need to know about the jailbreak, if you have anything interesting to share don’t forget to write about it in the comment section below.

Google Nexus Prime Info Leaked by Samsung

Samsung Romania’s Twitter account seems to have tweeted information and specifications of the Google Nexus Prime which is said to be manufactured by Samsung.

The device reportedly has a 720p HD (1280×720 pixels) screen (Super AMOLED HD) and will be the firstphone to run Google’s Android Ice Cream Sandwich OS Version 4.0.

Prime is the codename but it might end up being launched officially as the Nexus Prime itself.

There might be more than one Ice Cream Sandwich device launched at the same time with rumours indicating that Motorola and LG might launch their devices on networks such as AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, T-Mobile etc.

Droid Bionic sign-up page now live, coming this summer

Droid Bionic was announced by Motorola at CES 2011 and they decided to redesign it because they weren’t satisfied with the design, and recently we saw leaked shot of it and the phone really looks promising. We recently reported that Verizon will be launching it on August 4th and it looks like the leaked information was true because Verizon Droid Bionic sign-up page is now up and you can now sign-up to get latest information about the Droid Bionic. Verizon is only telling us that it will be launched in summer but they didn’t tell us when, but as August 4th is the rumored date, my guess is that Verizon will be launching it in the first week of August. Droid Bionic is a dual-core device featuring a huge 4.5 Inch display with qHD resolution, and it will also come with new version of MotoBlur with some 3D effects.

Well folks, that’s all we know about the upcoming Motorola beast. You can sign-up here if you want to stay up to date with Verizon’s new flagship device. So who’s going to grab one later this summer or you already got your hands on the recently launched Verizon Motorola Droid 3?

Sony Ericsson Duo specs and press shot leaked, launch in September?

In past few months, Sony Ericsson launched some amazing looking devices and Xperia Arc is worth mentioning. Xperia Arc is not the best Android device available but personally I think it’s one of the most beautiful looking devices. Last month, we saw first ever leaked shot of the Xperia Duo twice but it was blurry. Now another leaked shot of Xperia Duo is posted on a Chinese forum known as IT168 and it’s also a press shot, but this is currently the best and the most clear shot of it, and trust me the device looks sexier than Arc. Well, beauty is there but what’s under the hood of this beast?

DigiTech is reporting that it will feature a dual-core 1.4 GHz processor, and it will be either QualcommMSM8260 or ST-Ericsson’s U8500 or A9500 dual-core processor, but most likely it will be Qualcomm or maybe SE will launch it with their very own processor. It will feature a powerful 12 MP camera with a next generation Exmor R CMOS sensor, and you all may know that Xperia X10 and Arc camera is also amazing, so I am sure that Duo camera will be breathtaking. It will also offer 1080p HD video recording along with image stabilization. It will feature a huge 4.5 Inch touchscreen display with qHD display and Sony Mobile BRAVIA engine which will make the viewing experience even better. It will also feature NFC capability, and it will feature 1.5 GB of RAM, 8GB of internal memory, and a huge 2500 mAh battery. It’s rumored that Sony Ericsson will be launching it in September, but still take this all with grain of salt, because rumors can’t be trusted.

Well, that’s all we know about this device so far but if it’s true, then I am sure this device will be a very big challenge for devices like Samsung Galaxy S II and HTC Sensation. So who’s looking forward to it?

Samsung Wave 725 leaked, coming in September

Samsung Android devices are famous worldwide but what about their Bada powered devices? Well, they are also famous and one of the best selling Samsung devices. Bada is Samsung’s very own OS and Samsung Wave was first one to run it, and then Samsung launched the Wave 2 and it’s known as one of the best selling Samsung devices. It looks like Samsung is working on another Bada powered device.Folks over at BadaWorld got their hands on a render image of a new Wave device and they discovered it in the Bada 2.0 SDK. The device is codenamed as Wave 725 and final name is still unconfirmed. The image above is just a render but I am sure that the real device is not much different. It’s probably the same device which was leaked a few weeks ago and it was scheduled for September.

The device comes with a 3.65 inch touchscreen display with the resolution of 320 x 480, it has a 5MP camera with a front facing VGA camera, and it will also feature NFC, and features like WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0 and other common features. It’s coming in September so stay around as we will keep you updated with it. Anyone looking forward to the new upcoming Bada device?

HTC launching unlocked bootloader update in August, limited to select devices

HTC Sensation was launched a few weeks ago and people who love hacking and rooting their devices didn’t like it because it comes with a locked bootloader. Then HTC made an announcement on their Facebook page that they are considering their bootloader policy and then they announced that their devices with locked bootloader will receive unlocked bootloader update but HTC didn’t tell us when it’s officially coming out but now they finally made an announcement on their Facebook page that they will be launching it in August for specific Android devices. They made it clear that global version of Sensationwill receive it and then in USA, Sensation 4G and EVO 3D will be the first one to rock on this update.

That doesn’t mean other HTC devices are not going to receive it as HTC announced that they will continue rolling it for other devices. I think that’s really good news for all HTC fanboys and girls out there, right? So who’s looking forward to the bootloader update or you are happy without it?

Apple Files Second Complaint Against HTC

Apple has just filed a second patent infringement complaint against HTC. The first complaint was issued for infringement of 20 patents.. Apple has asked to block the import of “personal electronic devices” manufactured by HTC.
The complaint was filed on July 8th at the International Trade Commission. Apple has been issuing complaints against companies using Android OS.
A judge is expected to give a judgement by August 5th. The court will be able to block imports if they find that that the patents have been infringed.
HTC hasn’t seen the details of the complaint and no comments have been made yet. HTC’s own complaint against Apple is pending and a result is expected by September 16th.
source

Four Nokia 1GHz Phones Leaked

The two pictures leaked indicate four new upcoming handsets from Nokia equipped with 1GHz processors. They are codenamed Helen, Zeta, Cindy and Fate.
The first is Helen  (Nokia 701). It is described as being the successor to the Nokia C7. The specifications are as follows:

• Symbian Belle (Next Version of Symbian after Symbian Anna)
• 3.5″ Clear Black LCD Display
• 8 Megapixel Camera

Next is Zeta (Nokia 700) which is described as being the thinnest smartphone ever. We are not sure if this is the thinnest smartphont by Nokia or in the world but either way, it should be quite slim. The specifications are:

• Symbian Belle
• 1GHz Processor
• 3.2″ AMOLED
• NFC Support

Cindy (Nokia 600) is supposed to be a youth and entertainment centric device. It will have:

• 3.2″ AMOLED
• 1GHz Processor
• 5 Megapixel Camera
• NFC, FM Radio
• It will also come pre-loaded with apps such as Skype, Shazam, Vlingo, F-Secure etc
• Attractive Pricing

Fate (Nokia 500) is a model in which the pricing is the main factor. It is said to be affordable, reliable and fast. It will have:

• 1GHz Processor
• 5 MP Camera
• Wi-Fi

source

Guide : Transfer all SMS from a Nokia Symbian Smartphone to Android Smartphone

So you got a  new Android smartphone and you want to transfer all important data from your old Symbian phone to it. We know how much important is that old data in your old Symbian phone. So generally there are many sites and online services which help you to transfer all the data like Contacts, Calendar entries, Notes, Images, Songs and even SMS to your new Android smartphone but at a very premium price.  Some charge more than $30

Well we can easily transfer Contacts, Notes, Calendar entries, Photos and Songs from Symbian to Android but real problem comes for SMS ! There is really nothing any easy application that will directly transfer all your valuable SMS from Symbian phones to Android phones for free! So what to do? Many of us including me faced this big issue for transferring all SMS to Android phones. Most of us either simply sacrificed all those SMS or some still use that old phone for accessing those important SMS !

I searched a lot on the Internet for the easy solution where Rooting is not required of Android Phone but didn’t get easy solution which can be used by any end user and for free! But finally found a solution from some archived threads of XDA Forums.

Steps for Nokia Symbian Phone:

1. Copy all your contacts from your old Nokia Symbian phone to Android Phone as it is by various methods like, Syncing to Outlook etc. If its already done please skip this step.

2. Now download and install Latest Ovi Suite for your Nokia phone from here. http://bit.ly/lB5bTn

3. After installing Nokia Ovi Suite and detecting your Nokia Phone, Please Sync all SMS in Ovi Suite. Remember Sync it and no need of OVI Suite backup of your Nokia Symbian Phone!

4. Disconnect your Nokia Phone and close the Nokia OVI Suite application. WATCH OUT! Nokia OVI Suite likes to minimize to system tray please be sure that its also closed from the System Tray of Windows.

5. Download Nokia2AndroidSMS from the given link and extract all files to Folder called Nokia2AndroidSMS. http://www.mediafire.com/?vmdddmp4ga9sq6x

6. Run Nokia2AndroidSMS.exe extracted from Nokia2AndroidSMS.7z; you will need 7zip for extraction. http://www.7-zip.org/download.html

7. The application should automatically find all Data-stores created by Nokia OVI Suite and automatically select the first one.

8. If it should fail to detect Data-stores then you’ll have to find it by yourself, you can either drag and drop Data-store file from Windows Explorer onto the Nokia2AndroidSMS window or use the Open button to find it.

9. You can change the Data-store in the 1st selection list if there is more than one.

10. If you have more than one phone in the Data-store than you can select for which you’d like to export the messages, they are listed by their IMEI number.

11. Press Convert button and now you should get an xml file in the same folder you extracted Nokia2AndroidSMS application.

Steps for Android Phone:

1. Install ‘SMS Backup & Restore’ from Android Market. Or check the link http://bit.ly/hSNLDmAuthor of the App: Ritesh Sahu.

2. Connect your Android phone to the PC by using supplied Micro-USB Cable. (You MUST select Disk drive as connection type).

3. Now copy the xml file (which was created after Step 11) into the ‘SMSBackupRestore’ Folder onthe phone, (Please create it if it’s not already made by the App in your Android phone’s Mass Storage or Memory Card).

4. Now simply Run SMS Backup & Restore and click on ‘Restore’ button to import messages.

5. After importing all SMS it will create threads as per contacts in your Android phone’s default SMS application.

6. Enjoy! 

I was able to transfer whopping 2141 messages (SMS) from my Nokia N8 to my new Samsung Galaxy SII within 10 minutes. What I liked with this Android app called SMS Backup & Restore that it also created accurate threads of my SMS conversations from my Nokia N8.