I am from Canada and am likely going to purchase an iPhone next week to use as a wi-fi iPod. As someone who is fairly new to the mac and isn't as tech savvy and as much of a power user as others, I was looking at simple GUI program to do all the hacking for me. There are two methods that I found (for the mac platform). So first of all, I wanted to know if there are any other programs other than the ones I am about to list that you would recommend to halk the phone and I want to know which methods you think are the best.

The two programs that i know about are iActivator (created by the good folks here at iPhone dev wiki) and another one that is being hosted at www.hacktheiphone.com
and is made by a guy named "spoonet".

http://www.hacktheiphone.com/iphone_...ctivation.html

The tool is called "iPhone Activator Tool".

One thing I am curious about. iActivator has like 10 steps to hacking the phone, and in addition to this, iActivator also uses a seperate folder the comes in the zip file where it stores necessary files to hack the phone as well. Although "iPhone Activator Tool" also has a similiar type "separate folder" that the program uses to activate the phone, there aren't ten steps to the operation. It's a simple one click. You literally click "activate phone" and it does the steps for you including the reset. So I'm clueless as to why his program is so simple. Is it a less stable hack? Am I better off using iActivator since it does many more steps. I'm curious if it's just a case of "spoonet" just taking more time to make the process more simple or if his method isn't reliable since I know the folks here at iPhone dev wiki are the hack masters and clearly know what they are doing...

Originally Posted by rbforever

I was looking at simple GUI program to do all the hacking for me. There are two methods that I found (for the mac platform). So first of all, I wanted to know if there are any other programs other than the ones I am about to list that you would recommend to halk the phone and I want to know which methods you think are the best.

I hate to say this again but: READ first, ask later. There are DOZENDS of threads explaining the various methods in details, there are links to various FAQs and instructions. READ, nobody will "put the stuff in your mouth and even chew it for you". No offense meant and I know it is easier to ask than to read through dozends of threads but READING the threads actually provides an insight to the various "hack" methods and you'll also learn what can go wrong and what you have to be careful about. READ and I promise that in a couple of hours, you'll have everything you need, even earlier.

i think rbforever should be given the benefit of the doubt... be gentle on him mate. I think he has read thru some of the threads. But frankly these threads is like dog's breakfast - information is everywhere even with search.

btw, rbforever, being simple does not mean it's always inferior. For example the Mac OS X, it's simpler to use than Windows (don't flame me ) but doesn't mean that it is unreliable. Things are simple because it's organised efficiently and elegantly.

Well, if you are on Windows I would recommend you to use this activation software.

http://www.pqdvd.net/iphone-unlock-toolkit.html

It's really easy to use.

I don't see a problem with people asking the same questions to be honest, thats what a forum is for.

I for one do find it frustrating having to adopt a "search and read" policy (even though I do) when I know there are plenty of people out there quite happy to re-iterate a answer, be it the same people all the time or new people that were previously helped .

With a flurry of excitement in a product like this, threads quickly become history, large and fragmented, often with a lot of off-topic stuff also between the important messages, making it really hard to follow things sometimes!

If your a MAC user, iPhoneActInstaller is a menu driven application that does it all for you. I tried it and it was pretty straight forward but I did find it didn't seem to restore a proper services.plist file and I had to do that manually!

Basically what that means is you end up with a 300Mb iPhone and iTunes doesn't sync properly. At first glance, it goes through the motions and isn't obvious that its gone through too quickly but nothing actualy gets uploaded to the phone :-)

The problem with people asking the same questions over and over again is that the forums get filled up with the same information over and over again, confusing people or even annoying them. I don't have much time on my hand, even if I seem to write much (I'm a speed writer ), I have to work all day in my office and then there is the family and the kids, reading through the same stuff over and over again really makes me mad.

The first sticky post actually says: READ FIRST, then post.
I agree, most people find it easier to ask and this is why forums are for, for asking. I bet however that most of the people asking the same stuff over and over again are actually too lazy to check the older threads.
Time is money for me (and I bet for others too) and it is very difficult for me to identify and seperate new information from old stuff. Even worse: moronic posts suggesting weird hacking approach methods which aren't only sense-/useless but very annoying too. Apparently everybody has something to say but half of the threads are just bla bla without any real value to us. Unless some people enjoy the entertaining part of such posts and have enough time at their hand to actually read them, reply to them and even to argue.

Sorry but at age 42, I learned to set priorities. I wouldn't earn a dime if I wouldn't do that.

Thanks for all the recommendations, sorry for the inconvenience, 997TT. Regarding the iPhoneActInstaller that you mentioned, healeydave, is there any way to correct the 300mb glitch?

Yes, its quite simple.

You need to use the put command from the iphoneinterface tool to copy back a good version of services.plist.

I'm just off to bed, so I will link to two guides below. The first one is probably what everyone should do if they ever want to hack the phone. The second one is a procedure for changing the carrier logo but it describes excellently everything you need to do from Step 11 and you only need to bypass Step 17.

I would recommend doing this:

http://www.hacktheiphone.com/iphone_...o_modding.html

You will then have all the tools, including the services.plist

Then follow the next link from step 11, just missing out Step 17.

http://www.hacktheiphone.com/iphone_...r_ID_swap.html

Cheers
Dave.