Buying Cell Phones

PwnageTool and Quickpwn Jailbreaks your iPhone or iPod Touch. It also installs two app servers. One is call Cydia 2 and the other Installer 4. As of now, Cydia is the most popular server with firmware 2.0.x-2.2 and Installer 4 is buggy and often hang(may lead to restoring your phone). These two servers are like the AppStore but for free/trial and it provides apps that’s not on Apples AppStore. The servers also offer packages which can totally customize your iPhone/iPod Touch (Winterboard), turning it into your own unique looking device.

Before you proceed to JailBreak, please do a full backup with iTunes or manually backup your files with iPhone File Manager. (Only for Jailbroken iPhones)
Refer here for iPhone File manager recommendation: http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/779930
a) Contacts- var/mobile/Library/AddressBook/AddressBook.sqlitedb (contain the numbers) and AddressBookImages.sqlitedb (contain the contact pics)
b) SMS - var/Mobile/Library/SMS/SMS.db
c) Calender - var/mobile/Library/Calendar/Calendar.sqlitedb
d) Notes - var/mobile/Library/Notes/Notes.db
- Reboot your phone after SSH.
e) Photo Library - http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/687108/+360#entry21110268
f) Maps - var/mobile/Library/Maps (Bookmarks.plist, History.plist and Route.plist)

Can an unlock 3G iPhone from…
Belgium, Czech Republic, Greece, Hong Kong, Italy, Luxembourg, Macau, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Turkey, Taiwan etc works in Malaysia and upgradable to Fw 2.2?

Yes
Works with Maxis, Celcom, DiGi and UMobile.

Is there a software and service provided to Unlock 3G Locked iPhones(US, UK etc) in PJ/KL?
No Service Available.
DevTeam will be releasing the baseband unlock software. Refer to Cydia for the unlock script package. More info below on 3G Unlock.

Terminology: Meaning of Unlock, Jailbreak, Activate, Baseband, Firmware, Restore and DFU

1) Unlock - to enable the phone to use other that the intended telco.
2) Jailbreak - to open/hack the system so users can modify or access the filesystem.
3) Activate - to enable the phone from a ‘locked’ state i.e emergency call only to the springboard (where all the icons are). This ‘locked’ state is not the same as sim lock. Only after you activate that you can go to springboard.

Why we need to activate?

So that the phone will check whether we are using an authorize sim with the phone or not. If we are not using an authorize sim (lock phones), then we can get to the springboard and cant use the phone. We can only get to the emergency call part only.

OTB (Out of The Box) unlock iPhone still need to be activated so it can check the sim card if its valid. You might ask “Why it still need to check the sim if its already unlock and can accept any sim?”. Well this is just a process that all iphone need to go thru, locked or unlocked.

This goes the same with locked phones. We need to jailbreak the phone first so that we can access the filesystem. Then we ‘hacktivate’ or activate the phone by tricking it with a spoof activation. This bypass the itunes checking and let us gain access to the springboard. Only after that we can unlock the phone (if a software unlock is available). So to a locked phone, the most important process to do is jailbreaking. With it we can do the activating and unlocking.

Unlock phone need to:
1. Activate thru iTunes only
2. Jailbreaking is optional if user want to use 3rd party apps
3. No need to unlock
*Unlock phone can update/upgrade to any firmware without worry because it will remain unlock whereas locked phones have to wait for it to be able to jailbreak and if there is a baseband update, an unlock sollution must be present.

Locked phone need to:
1. Jailbreak so we can gain access to the phone (mandatory)
2. Activate the phone thru ‘hacktivation’ or activation spoof (also mandatory)
3. Unlock the phone with a software unlocking sollution to use with other sim (also mandatory)

Baseband
The baseband is a subsystem on the phone that handles phone line communication. Modifying this subsystem is how unlocks are achieved. These are updated in iTunes with new firmware versions. iTunes will not downgrade your baseband. Currently, an iTunes restore will not modify your baseband unless your baseband is erased or downgraded prior to the restore.

Firmware:
The firmware is the operating system installed on your phone. The firmware versions include 1.0.2, 1.1.1, 1.1.2, 1.1.3, 1.1.4, 2.0.0, 2.0.1, 2.0.2 and 2.1. All jailbreaking only affects the firmware, not the bootloader or baseband. This is why restoring will undo a jailbreak but will not affect an unlock.

Restore / Upgrade:
iTunes provides two options to change the firmware on your phone. Restore and upgrade. Restore is a full erase and reprogramming of your device. This will result in a factory fresh device. All songs and contacts are wiped out. Upgrade will only wipe out the smaller disk partition leaving all your songs and settings intact. Upgrade is only useful if you are trying to go from one version to the next version of firmware. It will not solve any problems on your phone unless they are naturally solved by the new firmware. I generally recommend using restore in all cases.

DFU Mode vs Restore mode:
DFU (device firmware upgrade) mode is a special mode that bypasses the operating system and lets you upgrade the device. When in DFU mode, the phone will have no display on the screen. Restore mode is more common. In this mode you can also restore or upgrade your device, but it is not as drastic as DFU mode. Many restore problems can be solved by using DFU mode.