Hello guys! I've never used an Apple product before so I need to learn some basics. My GF has an iPhone 3GS which is not jailbroken. As far as I know it's version 3.1.2 and she bought it unlocked. Now she wants to upgrade it. But she just can't do it the "Apple way" because it's unlocked and I know that Apple will mess up the iPhone once she upgrades it. Now I'm asking 2 things:

Is the 3.1.3 latest version out there? And is it really worth upgrading to it. (I checked the changelog and only saw 3 things there, they must be kidding or the info is wrong)

If it's worth upgrading, where can I start considering we don't want to jailbreak(Because I see most of the threads here are for jailbroken iPhones.). Should we upgrade it normally from iTunes or w/e then unlock? If so, how? I want to add again that I never used an Apple product, and not familiar with their DRM tricks. However I got average linux knowledge.

Thanks

Originally Posted by Antarktikali

Hello guys! I've never used an Apple product before so I need to learn some basics. My GF has an iPhone 3GS which is not jailbroken. As far as I know it's version 3.1.2 and she bought it unlocked.

Is it an official, factory unlock? This is an important question. Depending on where you purchased it, it may have been jailbroken and soft-unlocked prior to your receipt. I ask because this impacts your answer heavily...

Now she wants to upgrade it. But she just can't do it the "Apple way" because it's unlocked and I know that Apple will mess up the iPhone once she upgrades it.

If it is a factory unlock, she should have no problem upgrading to 3.1.3 (which is the latest OFFICIALLY released version, iOS 4.0 GMRC has been released as of yesterday, but is not stable and not recommended for daily use yet.) If it is software unlocked, that is correct, upgrading to 3.1.3 would re-lock the phone and the baseband is currently not able to be unlocked.

Is the 3.1.3 latest version out there? And is it really worth upgrading to it. (I checked the changelog and only saw 3 things there, they must be kidding or the info is wrong)

Yep. It's the latest version, and yep, they really only fixed 3 things -- one of them being a jailbreak hole. Unless you have a severe problem with the iPhone battery life being reported incorrectly, I don't recommend upgrading to 3.1.3 -- there's no benefit.

If it's worth upgrading, where can I start considering we don't want to jailbreak

I don't think it is, personally. Up to you, but the only benefit is the increase of the version number and MAYBE more accurate battery life reporting.

Originally Posted by n1ckn4m3

Is it an official, factory unlock? This is an important question. Depending on where you purchased it, it may have been jailbroken and soft-unlocked prior to your receipt. I ask because this impacts your answer heavily...

No it's not a official factory unlock... What do you mean by it may have been jailbroken and soft-unlocked? It's not jailbroken afaik but just in case, how can I determine if it's jailbroken?

If it's unlocked presently, it 99% has to either be factory unlocked or hack-unlocked/soft-unlocked. If it was soft-unlocked, it has to have been jailbroken in order for the tools to have been run on it. If it's jailbroken, there's a possibility you have an SHSH on file, which gives you the ability to restore to 3.1 or 3.1.2, which you cannot do via other means at present.

There are a few ways to tell if your phone is jailbroken, programs like Forecast will let you know. Also, you would likely have an icon in your home screen either for Installer, Cydia, or Rock. You may also have a custom boot logo (pineapple vs. apple, etc.). Not sure of any other ways to detect, but I'm sure there are some.

Well It's not jailbroken... So I guess it's hard unlocked or factory unlocked. She told me that she tried to update with iTunes in the past but the phone got locked after trying it. (Told something like "Enter a valid sim" as far as I remember). Now, how can I update to iOs 4.0 once it's released? (From your post I see it's RC for now)

OK, the info you're giving me isn't really matching up... A hard unlocked phone cannot be re-locked (factory unlock or unlock codes from the carrier are permanent from my understanding and upgrading cannot impact that) -- so an upgrade wouldn't cause a lock if the phone was truly a hard unlocked or factory unlocked phone.

If the phone says "Insert Valid SIM", then the phone *is* carrier locked, which means it was previously jailbroken in order to be unlocked. Upgrading the phone CAN jeopardize the unlock. If she's on 3.1.2 now, the baseband on that version is still capable of being unlocked. If she has gone to 3.1.3, she is out of luck -- that baseband is still locked and can only be used with a legit SIM on the assigned carrier.

Once iOS 4.0 is released, there will be the standard set of tools that work with it -- you'll either use PwnageTool to create a custom firmware bundle that doesn't include the baseband, or you can use the method linked to in the 4.0 area of these forums that describes how to upgrade an old bootrom 3GS to 4.0 GM while keeping your old baseband, but that only works on old bootrom devices -- so you may not be able to do that -- depends on the current status of your phone...

I see thanks for your help a lot... But I see that it was jailbroken in order to unlock. But how come it's not jailbroken atm? I don't know anything about iPhones, the only portable device I hacked is PSP. There's HEN mode, which the OS run from the memory stick. You mean that jailbreak was something like that? Just a temporary hack to gain root access and then drop root after it's unlocked?

how do you come to the conclusion that it is not jailbroken ?

She told me that when she bought it they said it's not jailbroken and I don't see the pwnage pineapple at boot... Sorry guys, I really don't know anything about this. But I can check if there are some certain ways to do that(like a button combo to get into debug mode at boot or anything else).

Sorry for double posting but she has Cydia on it. It means it's %100 jailbroken right? Soo... how can I now add repo's for "free" apps? Also I remember that there was a toolchain for linux for compiling jailbreak apps, are there any sources/tutorials for it? I really want to make a hello world

Thx for your help lads