i'm debating whether i want to buy an iphone 3gs and jailbreak and unlock. i have been doing my research and have gotten a lot of answers from this site but there is one thing i haven't gotten any information on. if i jailbreak and unlock the iphone 3gs, is it possible to update it in the future? will the update mess up the phone due to the jailbreak?

its a tough question to answer, jailbreaks always take a little bit of time from the dev-team (geohot seems to be faster but less comprehensive with his jailbreaks) unlocking is touchier, i THINK oob 3.1 3gs's can't be unlocked yet, if unlock is important to you then updates will always take longer, but probably always eventually be possible. generally its crucial to wait for pwnagetool updates on that because it allows you to update the firmware without touching the baseband (each new baseband generally requires a new unlock exploit afaik) and as a note pwnagetool is currently mac only, (im not sure if that is ever going to change) so if you don't have a mac then that is another barrier to entry, i've heard its possible to get it running in windows through vmware, albeit pretty slowly.

> i want to buy an iphone 3gs and jailbreak and unlock.

I just tried that, it did not work, my 3GS came with FW 3.1 on it, which in case you cant understand the bottom line yet, let me spell it out for you..

1. There is NO UNLOCK for official apple FW3.1


now, if you are lucky enough to find a 3GS with FW 3.0 on it, then yes, you can unlock it, but, if you update the firmware and use official apple FW3.1, you will LOSE the UNLOCK

so, NO you cant unlock
and Yes updating your phone will screw up your unlock

if you want an unlocked iPhone, buy one that is already unlocked, like on ebay..

there are 2 kinds of unlocked phone on ebay
1. they rely on Ultrasnow and LOSE the UNLOCK if you update to apple firmware
2. iphones from places like Italy are FACTORY UNLOCKED, they CAN be updated to newer versions of official apple firmware, without fear.. Ultrasnow is just a temporary hack, that gets lost if you update to official firmware