George Hotz, the 20-year old hacker who originally unlocked the iPhone, has released a jailbreaking application for the iPhone 3GS codenamed “purplera1n.” It’s currently Windows-only (Windows 7 not supported), and requires the latest iTunes installed, and an iPhone 3GS with the 3.0 firmware.
Update (6 July 2009): it’s now available for Mac too, and there are updated version for Windows too.
Hotz mentions in a blog post that the jailbreak for Mac is “coming soon.” The iPhone Dev Team did release a unlock for 3.0 which did not work on the iPhone 3GS, but Hotz’s version does (although it doesn’t free you from your current carrier).
Hotz goes over the process of the jailbreaking on his blog:
Connect your iPhone normally. Click “make it ra1n”. Wait. On bootup, run Freeze, the purplera1n installer app.
Hotz does warn users that you’ll need to backup your data just in case, and emphasizes that the tool is still in beta. Hotz also mentions that normally he does not make tools for the public, and rather have the iPhone Dev Team figure out the unlock process. Hotz continues by explaining that Apple will probably find a fix for the loophole, release an update, and he will go back to work on finding the next loophole.
Update: John Biggs over at CrunchGear goes through the process of jailbreaking his iPhone 3GS using Hotz’s program.
Congrats on your first TC post Daniel!
Wow, I didn’t the young hacker who has managed to unlock the iPhone few years become famous again this time.
Didnt waste no time there then
Any guesses as to how long it takes Apple to fix the loophole???
I guess this guy is looking for his next break. Free apps anyone??? http://www.appgiveaway.com
Well…seems to be easy?!:-)
Cross posted to gdgt here: http://discuss..../tips/unlocked/
Thanks for the hot tip!
Good story. And in the UK, a retailer has started selling pre-unlocked iPhone 3GS handsets for almost £1000 (about $1800). We reported on it a earlier this week, but there’s no question this tool offers better value for money!
There was me thinking how I would never pay the early unlocking fee to O2, and now this?!?!
Purplera1n is not an unlocking tool, but rather a jailbreaking tool. That’s quite different. You’ll be able to run homebrew software, but you won’t be able to use your iPhone 3GS with other SIM card rather than the vendor’s one.
Thanks for the information, nice to know
Thanks for the heads up – fixed.
Actually, you can install ultrasn0w after it’s been jailbroken, and voila, unlock!
Mmmm… I wouldn’t bet my life on that. As far as I know, ultrasn0w only works on 3G at the moment. The 3GS has a different baseband, so I wouldn’t try on that one, but if someone has done it, please confirm!
just purplera1n-ed my 3GS and ultrasn0w-ed it to unlock the phone.
as a result, ultrasn0w will unlock 3GS to accept other telecom sim card. but after you ultrasn0w-ed the phone, the 3G signal will become unstable, it will connet a few times and then the anttena will just become only 1 bar for a while, during 1 bar status, internet connection is out. wait a few time, it will come back full bars again but a few connections, it will go 1 bar again.
it will be the same even if you put back the original sim card. possible explaination should be that ultrasn0w is for 3G and not totally compatible with 3GS.
by removing ultrasn0w from Cydia the 3G connection will back to normal and stable. thus the conclusion is that for jail-breaking, purplera1n is working great, but for sim unlock, still have to wait for one that made for 3GS.
R
No problem!!
@javipas… the master of the universe:)!!
As much as I support such breaks, I personally think Apple should just open its iPhone to all carriers or at least more than 1. I am not trying to put these hackers out of business nor do I have anything against them but simply put if they have the brains to come up with such hacks I know they have brains to use those skills to develop something else that would probably support a Global iPhone as well. Please – no hate mail
just sharing my thoughts.
How can you put out of business people that hack for fun and not for any type of payment?
Tomas – thats the thing I am not trying to say anything against them or put out of business. Thanks to these people a lot more people can use the iPhone and I support them. Just saying, Apple should consider opening it to other carriers and maybe hire these brilliant hackers to make the iPhone better
Congrats on your first TC post Daniel! Well done!
Just one correction – it’s important to clarify between “unlock” and jailbreak. Hotz’ version isn’t an unlock, but rather just a “jailbreak”. Regardless, it means you can now run Qik on the 3G S, also good news for you!
Again, well done and congratulations.
Thanks, Jesse! We’ve made the changes – thanks for the heads up!
Its a NO GO for COCO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Worked for me under Windows 7 32-bit, but I had to run it twice. The first time, the phone rebooted into recovery mode. I restarted the phone into recovery mode and re-ran purplera1n. This time, I saw the image, the phone rebooted, and I was able to run Freeze.app
Also, ultrasn0w installed just fine. I don’t have a non-AT&T SIM to verify with, but folks on the ra1n blog mention it is working for them, albeit flaky.
Thanks Oliver, your tip worked just fine (win 7 32 bit for me also).
purplera1n won’t detect recovery mode at first so just re-open it and click on ‘make it ra1n’ again. I had to reboot the phone for Cydia to show up.
nice first post! please tell me you are replacing MG
Chris, how about MG AND Daniel? Now I reckon that would be a great combination of experienced blogger vs developing entrepreneur, and would make the content on TC a lot more interesting!
MG has just wrote too much crap in the recent past. His iphone vs pre and appstore vs app market articles where just horribly biased.
It’s about time
Congrats on your first TC post Daniel, move over Mike there’s a new sheriff in town
One strange thing with Apple’s policy that I dont understand though.
There is an enormous opportunity being missed by them.
So lets imagine that Apple’s kickback from the carrier over the 18-24 months of the contract is on average $250
Why not just sell the phone on the site for retail plus $250
I would buy it immediately (am not a fan of locked phones) and Apple would definitely inherit another huge revenue stream
Yeah, people seem to have been talking about this idea for a while, why haven’t Apple done it, too much connection to the networks I guess!
Only 5% of people purchase their phones direct in the US, without a subsidy (i.e. unlocked phone). It is for this reason that Apple needed a tight telco carrier partnership to go_to_market. Apple also needed to collaborate closely with their carrier to get ‘visual voicemail’ working (and maybe a few other things). This was the best channel strategy here in the US, and these relationships don’t just fall apart overnight. I’m surprised this is so difficult to understand, but there you go…
So you’re saying if I bought my iPhone from Apple.com that AT&T would refuse to connect me?? bull, I would have the exact experience as any other iPhone user plus remeber the world doesnt end at Plymouth Rock, the Irish carrier O2/Telefonica (exclusive partner for iPhone Ireland) still hasnt figured out how to get visual voicemail working.
Worked fine on XP but needed to retsart manually after jailbreak. Just also run Ultrasn0w on cydia and unlocked 3GS to T-mobile.
Result!
where can I get the unlock for iPhone 3G or 3GS (free from carrier)
He’s really a good hacker!
any one else winterboard not working after jail brake?
Nope, no winterboard. From the bigboss:
4) The jailbreak is incomplete. The kernel vm_mem patch is not present so Winterboard will not work as some other critical tweaks. (SBSettings does work!).
Mine didnt work until i downloaded a video theme from cydia. It automatically downloaded winterboard before it downloaded the video theme. Try that n c if that works dude =)
If you want a truly unlocked new iPhone directly from apple with no hacks or voided warranties, just buy one in Italy where they are sold unlocked. It will cost approx $1000.
so i decided to try it….
connected iphone 3gs….ran the app….phone then goes to itunes restore mode….i then shut the app and reopen it and run it again….then the phone displays the purplera1n man pic……i then shut the app again and reopened it and ran it again….my phone then reboots and freeze is on the dashboard…..i close the app…..i’m now d/l’in cydia as we speak on my phone…..
p.s. I didnt immediately shut the app each time…i did wait a min or two inbetween each app closeure etc
p.p.s. cydia taking tttime to d/l…tho that cud be my crap sky wifi
Where can i find jailbreak for iphone 3g with os 3.0?
thanks
http://www.icla...x.php?enid=4301
man, this guy is back at it again. I guess he’s just trying to get famous again and all the power to him. As much as I would love to jailbreak my iphone, there isn’t an app that I absolutely need to jailbreak the iphone for
http://ziggytek.com/
Tru Dat. Im just in the jailbreaking for the cool themes…=/
good good. thanks
I don’t see why the heck Apple can’t secure the iPhone OS better. It’s almost as if they want people to hack it!
apply 3GS web,I agree it! it is very good!
I am useing it!