Wired Pig's Lifestream

I have become a Wazer, Wazian… a Waze user. Waze is a social GPS navigation system for iPhone, Android, WinMo and Symbian phones. Waze offers turn by turn navigation and road condition updates.  From the Waze site – Waze is a social mobile application providing free turn-by-turn navigation based on the live conditions of the road. 100% powered by users, the more you drive, the better it gets. Here is a video about Waze by Robert Scoble featuring Di-Ann Eisnor, community geographer of Waze.

I installed the application late yesterday on my iPhone. So far, I have to say, its a very ‘fun’ GPS Navigation application that, most of the time(1) , can get you where your going. Waze is FREE(2) . Here are some screen shots from the three main platforms-

You can get Waze here (or just to learn more). Footnotes are for reference only and may have little, if anything to do with the text from the post. I have run into a few instances where the app did not know or could not find a valid street number. Free as in BEER. Exciting, huh?

Here are a few custom iPhone boot and restore images that will be in my next custom ipsw. These images can be added to your Custom IPSW using Pawnage Tool for Mac.

iPhone 3G Boot and Restore Image by Wired Pig is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

I’ve had my iPhone 3G for quite awhile now and, when I got it originally, it was just the standard – out of the box – Apple product. Not being a tech newbie, I knew that people were running all over Jailbreaking(1) their phones. I waited… until iPhone 3.0 came out. Then I unlocked it. I kept it at 3.0 even after the SMS Vulnerability was disclosed. I kept it that way until this last weekend. My house is a Multi-O home(2) and I have access to an iMac running 10.6.x and a PC running Windows 7 RTM. I, being the smug guy I am, was SURE I could get my already Jailbroken(3) phone updated to the even better 3.1 version without a problem. I was wrong… I did my due diligence and used my best online friend, Google, to search for ‘Howto Jailbreak iPhone 3G 3.1′. I got lots of hits and read the articles on various blogs and had it down pat. I downloaded Pwnage Tool (3.1(4) ) for Mac and also the Apple 3G 3.1 .ipsw restore(5) . I built my super custom restore .ipsw(6) and tried to update the phone on the iMac… Did I mention that all my computers at home are running iTunes 9.0.1? Yeah… I didnt think it would matter. None of the posts I read mentioned anything about 9.0.x being a problem… not a  one… Anyway, I start getting iTunes Error messages. I get 16XX series messages and think, great, it wont even try and update. Whats going on? It appears that iTunes 9.0.1 was the problem on both machines. I ended up, late Saturday night, thinking I had killed my phone from all of my attempts at flashing it. During one attempt on the Mac, when it was nearly done, I accidentally unplugged the phone… I was able, a few hours later, to get the PC to flash the 3.1 stock ipsw, after trying and failing miserably to get it to rollback to a 3.0 ipsw. Yesterday I did some reading on Jailbreaking the 3G under Windows. I found the post here and, following the directions, was able to get the phone running my 3.1 custom ipsw. Huge thanks to bbrian017 over at SEOMKT.com for his original post that I’ve added to below. According to bbrian017, “I have done this on 3 3G iPhones and can confirm that this process absolutely works. I hope this helps all of you that have been waiting on a windows version of redsnow that jailbreaks 3.1. This process may take more time but it will work.” I agree. This is a great way for those without a Mac, or those to stupid to use the one they have(7) , to get their 3G Jailbroken. Commenter Joe over on bbrian017’s post added, “This is the trick (at least it work for me): When i used the first line´s procedure all what i got was the iphone with 3.1 jailbreaked! I could not make any phone call. That´s is because i upgraded from 3.0 to 3.1 with itunes official. When this happens the procedure modify the base band of the iphone. SO te trick is back to the original Band. How to doit ? (this is the magic). With your iphone on 3.1 jailbreaked, you go to cydia and install a apps named: FuzzyBand (search it on cydia). This app restore the base band previos to the upgrade. When you install that, you have to go to springboad and execute it. After that, the iphone is ready for ultrasn0w… and THATS ALL!!!!!”(8) NOTE: I have taken the original tutorial from bbrian017 and added my own experiences to it. This tutorial is for a Windows system with iTunes 9.0.1 installed. Though, in theory, this should work on a Mac running iTunes 9.0.1 as well, since I got the iTunes 16XX error on both Windows and Mac. This tutorial is for a phone that will be used with an ‘Authorized’ carrier, i.e. AT&T. I have added pictures because, being male and stubborn, I know its easier for me to SEE whats happening.

The Steps Are(9)  - Obtain -

Download iTunes 8.2 (You can get copies from here and here.) A copy of  iPhone1,2_3.0_7A341_Restore.ipsw (The 3G 3.0 software.)

A copy of RedsnOw 0.8 (though I’ll bet 0.75 will work) from ( Here or here.) A copy of iPhone1,2_3.1_7C144_Custom_Restore_WO_ACT.ipsw (No link, use Google or another search engine. I built my own copy on my Mac.) Lastly, download a copy of iTunes 9.0.1 from Apple to use after your done.

Steps -

Sync and backup your iPhone under iTunes 9.0.1 Shutdown iTunes 9. In your MyMusic/iTunes folder, rename ‘itunes library.itl’ to something like ‘itunes library.itl.old’. If you don’t rename or move the file durring this process you will get a ‘itunes library.itl’ iTunes error when you run iTunes 8.2. KEEP THE FILE. You’ll need it at the end. Uninstall your copy of iTunes 9.0.1 if thats what your running. Reboot your PC as required. You want to have iTunes 8.2 on your system, not 9.0.1. Install iTunes 8.2 and run it. From this point on, DO NOT EMPTY the trash. More later on this. Make a mental note of the time as well. With your phone connected via USB to the PC, place your iPhone in DFU mode. Your iPhones screen will either be blank, or show the iTunes and USB screen(10) .

When iTunes says it’s found a phone in recovery mode, click OK.

Now, hold the ‘Shift’ key while clicking the restore button.

Locate the .ipsw firmware downloaded above.

iTunes will now try and restore the previous .ipsw file onto your phone. When the process is complete you MAY get an iTunes 1015 error. This is normal. iTunes does not like to downgrade iPhone firmware. The phone will now, with the 1015 error, be showing the iTunes/USB screen. Keep iTunes OPEN.

Open up RedsnOw and run it. Follow its directions and use the same 3.0 ipsw file used above.

During the jailbreak process for 3.0, you will notice that it seems to freeze at the “installing activation bundles” part. Don’t worry, it is not frozen. Just give it a little while and it will finish(11) . RedsnOw may also hang for a long time at the hard drive screen (on your phone). This to is normal and it will eventually move past this. Once RedsnOw is finished, you should be back at the, now familiar, iTunes/USB screen. This is normal.

DO NOT PLACE the phone into DFU mode. Keep it as it is, with this screen. iTunes should again say that its found a phone in recovery mode. All is well. Click OK. Again, hold shift and click Restore. This time find the Custom 3G 3.1 ipsw that you downloaded after your Google search.

Once you select the file, as in step 9 and 10, iTunes will begin to verify and restore the Custom ipsw. Once its done you should see a screen like this. This is good. It means your phone is working but needs activation via iTunes.

From here we have only a few more housekeeping functions to get your iPhone and iTunes 9.0.1 up and running as it was.

Disconnect your iPhone from the USB cable. DO NOT TURN YOUR PHONE OFF. Shut down iTunes and uninstall version 8.2 from your PC. Reboot as needed. Install iTunes 9.0.1 BUT DO NOT LAUNCH iTunes once the install is complete. From Step 3, restore the ‘itunes library.itl’ file from wherever you moved it or from whatever you changed its name to. In Step 5 I told you to leave the PC’s Trash alone, remember? This is why. When you installed and launched iTunes 8.2, iTunes moved two iTunes library files into the trash.

Open your Recycle Bin/Trash can and sort by date. Look for two iTunes library files that were deleted about the same time as you making the mental note of the time. Select both (either control-click each or shift-drag to get both of them) then right click and select restore.

Now, launch the new iTunes 9 install. With iTunes running, connect the phone to the USB cable from Step 17-1. iTunes will now activate the phone with your authorized provider. You can then select to setup your freshly Jailbroken phone as new or restore the backup you made in Step 1.

Footnotes are for reference only and may have little, if anything to do with the text from the post. This is different than unlocking. Jailbreaking is the process by which you are able to install 3rd party apps on your phone. Unlocking is the process that allows you to use the phone with another carrier, like T-Mobile. Thats short for Multiple Operating systems… clean up your mind. Jailbroken but not unlocked. By my accidental upgrade to the straight Apple 3.1 update I have effectively locked by phone to AT&T. Read the iPhone Dev blog post here for more information. Not version 3.1.3 as that one is for the 3GS and I KNOW that 3.1 works with the 3G. The 3.1 restore was sitting on my hard drive. Custom in that it was Jailbroken and had my OWN boot and restore screens added. Like me. I cannot verify this as I have not tried to unlock my phone and dont plan to. Added for your reference. These have been modified based on my experience. I had no need to enter DFU mode because my phone was looking like this image… sad I know. From the site I found. Exciting, huh?