A few weeks back the iphone4s came out.  And to my surprise I get more questions about jailbreaking and unlocking the iphone4. Since I have been using a jailbreak phone since the first iphone came out. I sometimes forget that with every new phone release, there is a whole new population of users that have questions about jailbreaking and unlocking and why they should at all in the first place. So lets go through some of the basics.  I’ll add to this as I think of more things or I get more questions.

What is jailbreaking?  This is where you change the restrictions on the phone, so you can run programs that use elements of the phone that Apple decided not to expose to outside programmers.There are tons of cools apps.  I try to keep an update to date list of my top 10 jailbreak apps.

What is Unlocking?  Unlocking the phone is where you change the restrictions on the phone to allow it to use other phone carriers. Most common desire for this is when you want to take your phone overseas.

I heard you can buy an unlocked iphone now.  Yes that is correct.  However, the iphone4s is the first one you can buy unlocked in the US. They are not available to Nov.  Check here at this link.

If I jailbreak my phone, will Apple or my carrier disconnect me?  Is it illegal? So far, I have not heard of anyone losing service. In fact, there was a court ruling stating that jailbreaking is legal.

Ok, HOW do I jailbreak or unlock my iphone? Ahh.. that is harder because there is a constant battle between jailbreak, unlock app and iphone OS updates.  So depending on the version of iphone you are using, and the last time you updated, there may more may not be a jailbreak app out there.  For unlocking, its even more difficult and thus you may be out of luck if you have a newer phone or updated your phone.