First things first, the tutorials for the PC seem to actually be easier.  Also a lot of the Mac tutorials left off a key step - holding down the option key when clicking the restore function.  For someone who has never done this before the other tutorials mostly assume that you know what you are doing.  This tutorial will cover how to jailbreak your recently updated 2.01 version iPhone or iPhone 3g. 

Note: This tutorial is for iPhone running 2.01 version software, and for Pwnage Tool 2.0.2 on an Apple Mac.  While it may work for future releases the screens may not look the same.  A PC version of this tutorial will follow.  Make sure you have a backup of everything you have on your iPhone, and make sure that iTunes does a backup prior to starting this.

Why should I jailbreak?

I mean, with the App store, the main reason people did it before was because you couldn’t install other applications, now there are lots of applications and all developers can now get their software on it right?

Wrong.  Apple has strict, slow, approval process and quite often they remove apps without telling the developers - just look at the box office fiasco. Also, with jailbreaking you can customize what your iphone looks like, all the menus, icons, battery indicators you can individualize your iPhone which is a big factor for me. See screenshot below of how you can customize your iPhone.

Winterboad Theme program

How do I get applications on the iPhone?

There are two applications that install when you use the PwnageTool 2.0.2. Cydia and Installer.  Cydia is open source and Installer is not, Installer also has very few programs as opposed to Cydia.  Basically these two are like the app store, they connect to multiple sources and categorize applications and themes.  They also let you know when an update is made.  These two programs are the simplest tools to use.  I suggest installing Winterboard and Customize as well these are installed through Cydia and allow you to start your theming fun.

Ok so how do I do this?

1. You need to head out to the location of the Pwnage tool and download it.  Go here and download the latest tool.  (Also note you’re iPhone should be plugged in and on and iTunes should be ready to rock.)

2. Extract the PwnageTool to your desktop and double click it.

3. Say yes that you want to open the application.

4. Click “OK” to continue.

5. Choose your poison of iPhone and click the arrow for next.

6. Select your firmware (it should show up and just click on it) then click the arrow for next.

7. Click on yes to continue to create your image

8. The tool will need your login/pass so enter them and click continue.

9. Choose if you have Pwn’d your iPhone before.  If your first time just choose no.

10.  Now we get to the interesting part.  Basically you’re putting your phone into DFU mode.  This basically sets the iPhone to be ready to accept the new image you just made.  The phone will appear to be off when you’re done but your system will still see that it is turned on.  Follow the directions by clicking on both the home button and the top button. 

11. Next you choose to hold just the home button down.

12. If you held the buttons down correctly you should have put your phone in DFU mode at this point you’re done with the PwnageTool. 

13. Fire up iTunes (as noted above you should already have it running.  So just bring it back up.

14.  Here is where you need to hold down alt/option button and click on the restore button. 

15. Choose to open the image that was saved to the desktop by PwnageTool.

16. It takes a good amount of time - some tutorials say it could take 30 minutes or so.  Course if you miss a step like I did, you’ll restore incorrectly and 30 minutes turn into 2 hours.  But anyway.   So baring any unforseen circumstances you should see this screen.

17. Now you want to sync up your phone, restore your previous settings and sync your music, photos, etc etc.  You should have two apps installed now on your iPhone; Installer and Cydia.  

Postscript: You can do the expert mode on PwnageTool but this tutorial is more for people doing it the first time as simple as possible.  Once you know what you’re doing - then go back and fiddle with it if you need to.

In my previous tutorial I covered how to create ringtones using a Mac. Today I’ll cover creating ringtones using a PC and only free applications such as audacity. Download and install audacity and iTunes on your PC prior to doing this. I’m also using Vista but the same or similar screens exist for XP.

1. Open the piece of music or sound that you want to be your ring tone in Audacity and edit it down to under 40 seconds.

2. Go to File>Export and export the song as MP3. Audacity does not have the ability to export to AAC.

3. Give the file a unique name and save as .MP3

4. Once you have saved it you’ll next need to open the file in iTunes. Right click on the file and choose Open With>iTunes

5. Now that it is in iTunes you can convert it to iTunes native mp4 or AAC. Right click the file and choose Convert Selection to AAC

6. Now we need to rename this file to a ringtone format so browse to your iTunes music folder - in most cases its your default windows music folder.

7. By default windows Vista does not show file extensions. You’ll need to turn this off. Go to Tools>Folder Options. Un-check Hide extensions for known file types.

8. Once you have done this you should be able to change the file name to .m4r

9. Choose Yes that you are aware your computer will explode if you change the file extension.

10. Right click on the file and choose to open with> and choose iTunes.

11. Once you open it up in iTunes you should see it is now in its ringtone category. And you’re good.

Update: some of you have commented that you can’t move the song over to the iPod after it is created. You get a message like “unable to find file” others have had no problems.

First off when you get a message like that it is telling you something important. Try finding the location of where the file is supposed to be. Reimport it. Also you might verify that you renamed the file correctly by opening a command prompt and look at it in dos.