I have done jailbreaking on my iphone before.
It was pretty easy mostly the software does all the work for you.

But my main question is more fundamental in nature.

I have also as well root android phones in the passed basically all the rooting programs rely on commands adb ,fastboot

fastboot

Code:

usage: fastboot [ <option> ] <command>

commands:
  update <filename>                        reflash device from update.zip
  flashall                                 flash boot + recovery + system
  flash <partition> [ <filename> ]         write a file to a flash partition
  erase <partition>                        erase a flash partition
  getvar <variable>                        display a bootloader variable
  boot <kernel> [ <ramdisk> ]              download and boot kernel
  flash:raw boot <kernel> [ <ramdisk> ]    create bootimage and flash it
  devices                                  list all connected devices
  continue                                 continue with autoboot
  reboot                                   reboot device normally
  reboot-bootloader                        reboot device into bootloader
  help                                     show this help message

options:
  -w                                       erase userdata and cache
  -s <serial number>                       specify device serial number
  -p <product>                             specify product name
  -c <cmdline>                             override kernel commandline
  -i <vendor id>                           specify a custom USB vendor id
  -b <base_addr>                           specify a custom kernel base address
  -n <page size>                           specify the nand page size. default: 2048

Since android is mostly open source it is easy to write your own rooting program or even write another os or bootloader to the device if you are not concerned to much with bricking it.

But for the apple devices like ipods , iphones ,ipads ,...etc the rooting/jailbreaking program is pretty much closed source so you really cann't determine how the program or what commands the jailbreaking program is using.
That is why I believe only the developers that have the ability to see the source can release/write the jailbreaking code for the apple devices.


Just was curious about it.

Since in general it really just boils down into figuring out a command like fastboot but for apple products. However this is close sources.

I am also curious in theory if a command existed and they didn't have to hardcode it for each device (which I think it does exist simple by the fact hardcoding would waste time) Then knowing the command/procedure would allow you to not only jailbreak ANY of your apple devices but load a different OS or bootloader as well. (complete control)

Does anybody know more about the internal workings of how they flash the device.

In theory I have an ipod nano it runs IOS their is only stupid xml based hacks for it but I would think if the device's OS is modifiable / flashable then it to someday will have the same ability to install a new OS or bootloader on? ( It would just depend on the "COMMAND EQUIVALENT TO fastboot and somebody willing to build a linux distro for an arm base ipod nano"

Thanks