Jailbreak
A few weeks ago, some intrepid programmers unleashed JailBreakMe.com, a way to easily and painlessly “unlock” the iPhone and Touch and allow installation of third party applications. [For the iPhone, this also means you can use the iPhone with T-Mobile or any other (European) carrier that uses GSM]. I was reluctant at first to try out this method. Not only might it irreversibly break my Touch, it most likely would void the warranty, and any new firmware updates would most likely render the Touch unusable [Apparently, the same intrepid programmers already figured out how to "jailbreak" the iPod/Touch with firmware update (1.1.2) Apple released last week.]. Furthermore, the method these programmers used to unlock the Touch/iPhone is to exploit a known vulnerability in the software, and voluntarily allowing other people knowingly exploit a security hole in any of your devices seems a bit risky, to say the least.
However, after a few days of reading and researching about JailBreakMe.com, and noting that nothing sinister had been reported, my inner geek got the best of me, and I broke my Touch out of jail. The initial act of Jailbreaking was easy enough. You visit JailBreakMe.com with your Touch and click a couple of buttons. Nothing to it. The more involved part comes after the Touch is free of its Apple imposed shackles. JailBreakMe.com installs an application called “Installer.app”, which allows you to allows you to install an assortment of third party applications, themes, and games, and tweaks. But to get to do really cool stuff – or add applications that might not be included in Installer.app – one must sftp into the Touch.
If you are even slightly technically inclined, the act of setting up an SSH server on your Touch and figuring out how to sftp into it is not so difficult [the hardest part for me was finding a simple and decent sftp and SSH client (Filezilla and Putty)]. Nevertheless, it does require some technical knowledge and a certain level of comfort with a command line interface. Another issue with installing the SSH server on your Touch is that it is now accessible by anyone with a laptop and an SSH client [the password to login to a Touch is publicly and widely available (root/alpine)]. So say you’re browing the web on your Touch at the local Starbucks. Someone with a laptop could identify your IP, SSH and or sftp into your Touch, and possibly do horrible and nasty things to it. Therefore, it is important that the master password is changed after the installation of the SSH server, and changing the master password can be complicated. Some methods require the installation of more applications and having to upload/download the passwd file from your Touch. Other methods require using an SSH client and using a *nix command line interface to change the password. And of course, you have to remember the new password, which might be a problem later when you’re trying to replace the Touch for that 60 GB model Apple will eventually release.
Even taking the screenshots accompanying this post took me close to an hour, as I don’t have full understanding of chmod, sftp, and ssh.
Nevertheless, I spent a good long time tweaking my Touch, time I probably should have spent with Esmé or sleeping. But now my I can play Super Mario Brothers on my Touch [thanks to the NES Emulator], as well as Blackjack and Minesweeper. I’ve also installed a patch that enables me to add events and reminders to the Calendar [something that Apple strangely disabled for the Touch], and other iPhone applications that Apple left out. Furthermore, using an app called [appropriately] Customize.app, I modified system icons, system text, and various other tweaks to personalize my Touch. Really, some of these things should have been enabled by Apple in the first place. I understand the need to cripple the Touch in order to differentiate it from the iPhone, but I believe they went too far in some instances.
Finally, I received much assistance from the folks at iPodTouchFans.com with some of the issues I encoutered. If you are thinking of unlocking your Touch [or iPhone], I would suggest visiting that website and reading some of the useful tips, hints, and tricks. I know it helped me out a lot.
