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iPhone Hacking: Tips and Considerations When Jailbreaking Your iPhone

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Have a jail broken phone? Make sure to check out our picks for the best jailbreak apps and games.

Jailbreaking your iPhone could very well be the ultimate slap-in-the-face to Apple’s precious smartphone. And for those of you current jailbreakers out there, we know you mean no real harm—you just need a break from Apple’s overbearing protection of its device. Jailbreaking is like the iPhone users teenage rebellion against their semi-self-serving patriarch. But don’t rebel too quickly: If you are looking to jailbreak your iPhone, you should always consider the pros and cons of the situation. Now, if you’ve weighed your options and decided jailbreaking is for you, here are some hacking tips for you. And if you’re not sure yet, then take a look at our “tips and considerations” to help you decide the pending future of your iPhone.

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iPhone Hacking Tips and Considerations…

Goodbye warranty. Jailbreaking your iPhone will usually void your warranty

Rick Astley ruins everything. The first iPhone worm appeared in Australia this November on jailbroken iPhones that have installed SSH on their devices—setting your wallpaper to a headshot of 80’s pop sensation Rick Astley.

rick-astleyBlock the Rick Astley Worm. Properly secure your jailbroken iPhone with a non-default password because this worm is not as harmless as it looks. If you are on a jailbroken iPhone, make sure that you immediately change your iPhone password from ‘alpine’ to something else. Try this:

  1. Install MobileTerminal.app on your iPhone via Cydia.
  2. Launch MobileTerminal.app. Type su then tap .
  3. You will be now asked to enter current password. Type alpine then tap .
  4. Now change your password.Type new password then tap return.
  5. Type your new password. Type then tap.
  6. Retype new password. Retype then tap.

Careful of hackers and irony. Don’t celebrate right away after you hack or jailbreak your iPhone, make sure your newly free iPhone is secure from other hackers. Make sure no one hacks your hack.

Updates may break your jailbreak. Installing an iPhone update on your newly jailbroken phone may negate the initial jailbreak and erase all of your hard-earned hacked apps, customization and plug-ins.

Great iPhone Hacks…

apple-iphone-3gs-00

Tethering Hack

This simple hack will enable tethering on the iPhone OS 3.0. This process only takes minutes and does not require jailbreaking and after you will be able to tether very easily, via Bluetooth or via USB. Here are the quick steps to perform this hack:

  1. Go to http://help.benm.at/help.php using your iPhone’s Safari browser
  2. Then click on Mobileconfigs on that page
  3. A list of countries will appear—select your country from the list
  4. Once you have selected the country, then select the provider
  5. Tap on the Install button, then tap on the Install Now button that appears
  6. Tap on the Done button
  7. Then go to Settings -> General -> Network -> Internet Tethering and tap on the toggle button to enable tethering

Turn Off Your iPhone Accelerometer

If you get irritated with the flipping reading or watching something on your iPhone while laying down, you’ll appreciate this hack.

  1. Jailbreak your iPhone
  2. Go to Cydia.
  3. Search for Boss Prefs and install it.
  4. Go back to Cydia and search for Rotation Inhibitor and install it.
  5. To toggle rotation on and off, simply open up Boss Prefs, and you’ll now see a Rotation option in there.

Add a 5th Row to Your Keyboard

This a handy little hack—it adds an extra row of numbers to your iPhone’s keyboard, changing the top row into a bunch of useful symbols like !@#$%^&*().

  1. Jailbreak your iPhone
  2. Go to Cydia
  3. Search and download 5-Row QWERTY

Use Skype, SlingPlayer Mobile and Fring’s VoIP on Your iPhone

Guess what iPhone users—there’s a way to hack the iPhone in order to use SlingPlayer Mobile, Skype, and Fring’s VoIP over 3G without AT&T’s Wi-Fi getting in your way.

  1. Jailbreak your iPhone 
  2. Launch Cydia from the SpringBoard
  3. Go to “Manage“
  4. Search “Tricker ThreeG“
  5. Install the application. 
  6. Press “Confirm“
  7. Use SlingPlayer, Skype or Fring

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Dena Cassella
Dena Cassella
Former Digital Trends Contributor
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