Hey guys, a similar post may be out there somewhere, but the search feature turned up nothin. I was just curious on the exact definition of the terms we are using here on the forum. This is what I think they are. Please correct me if I'm Wrong.

jailbreak: Break some sort of protection in order to install apps... ect
unlock: Unlocks the default (AT&T) SIM card.
activate: Activates your new SIM card of a different carrier.
virginize: use a program developed to wipe the iphone to complete factory defaults. (Including making your iphone forget it ever was on a different wireless carrier)

Thanks for the help guys.

Virginization only restores the seczone to a factory-like condition. Nothing else.

Is the seczone the area that deals with SIM cards? (different wireless carriers)?

If thats the case... I'm assuming if you use the default carrier you would never use a virginizer?

Part of the seczone was overwritten unintentionally by iUnlock and anySIM 1.0.2 during the unlock process. This resulted in your phone being bricked after an update to 1.1.1. The virginizer rebuilds this part(*) of the seczone that was corrupted.

(*) this part contains data specific to the phone (like for example, chipID), but it has nothing to do with the lock.

Originally Posted by seantana

Hey guys, a similar post may be out there somewhere, but the search feature turned up nothin. I was just curious on the exact definition of the terms we are using here on the forum. This is what I think they are. Please correct me if I'm Wrong.

jailbreak: Break some sort of protection in order to install apps... ect
unlock: Unlocks the default (AT&T) SIM card.
activate: Activates your new SIM card of a different carrier.
virginize: use a program developed to wipe the iphone to complete factory defaults. (Including making your iphone forget it ever was on a different wireless carrier)

Thanks for the help guys.

Hmm...close.

Jailbreaking is the term we use to describe how we gain access to the root file system on the iPhone. Normally, we can only see a certain folder within this filesystem because of Apple's locking methods, called a chroot jail. This folder houses all the media stuff from iTunes, but not the juicy stuff, the iPhone's OS. Through several different methods, we can "break" out of this little sandbox, allowing us to modify files and perform all these cool hacks.

Unlocking has nothing to do with the original AT&T sim. There is no way you're going to be able to use your iPhone on another carrier without a sim from said carrier. Unlocking refers to the process by which we make the iPhone accept a sim from another carrier. If you took an out of the box iPhone and stuck, say, a T-Mobile sim in it, you'd get error messages up the ass. After unlocking, the iPhone loses it's addiction to AT&T monopoly, so you can use any GSM sim you want.

Activation is more of an iPhone specific thing. Basically, Apple doesn't want you using the iPhone without an AT&T contract, so their first line of defense, before the SIM lock, is the activation lock. When you first open your iPhone and turn it on, you'll get a "Connect to iTunes" screen, and you won't be able to access much of anything else, short of dialing 911, helpful if someone's trying to steal your iPhone . If you connect to iTunes as it says, you still won't be able to get music/videos/photos on it or surf the web or anything. Why? Because Apple has a certain gun pointed to their head by a certain cell phone carrier. Not to fret, this lock is easy to bypass, but even if you do hacktivate, you can't use a non-AT&T sim until you unlock.

Virginizing is more about getting to a state where you can upgrade a 1.0.2 unlocked phone to 1.1.1 without disabling it (please, for the love of god, do not use the term bricking, it is a huge misnomer). If you already have a 1.1.1 phone that is unhacked, you do not, at this current point in time, need to familiarize yourself with the concept. You can proceed as usual.

Okay, I'm not usually the kind of person to ask for rep points, you can look back at my other posts to confirm that, but, c'mon, .

Ah hah! Perfect! Thanks so much thecompkid. You nailed all my questions on the head.

Might be a good idea to try to get that response stickied. I bet alot of us newcomers have the same question. It certainly is alot easier to figure out these instructional threads when you know exactly what the terminology is.

Originally Posted by seantana

Ah hah! Perfect! Thanks so much thecompkid. You nailed all my questions on the head.

Might be a good idea to try to get that response stickied. I bet alot of us newcomers have the same question. It certainly is alot easier to figure out these instructional threads when you know exactly what the terminology is.

Yeah, I was thinking maybe we should write up a glossary of commonly used terms and get it stickied. I'm on it.