
If you've been waiting for Apple to officially open the iPhone and iPod
touch for development, you may have been disappointed to find out that
you won't get third-party applications until June. That means that if
you've been aching for those killer third-party apps
already available to folks with jailbroken iPhones or iPod touches,
you've still got a few more months of waiting to go. However, by
downloading and running one simple application, you could be up and
running with a jailbroken iPhone or iPod touch in just under a minute.
Sound appealing? Here's how it works.
The Special Sauce is ZiPhone
The application that does all the heavy lifting for you is a free, open source, cross-platform application called ZiPhone,
and it can do everything from quick and simple iPhone and iPod touch
jailbreaks to unlocking the iPhone for unofficial carriers (i.e., not
AT&T). I'm going to cover the very basic jailbreaking of the iPhone
and iPod touch, but the process is the same no matter what device
you're jailbreaking and what level of unlocking you want.
When you're done using ZiPhone you'll be running a jailbroken
iPhone or iPod touch with the latest 1.1.4 firmware. Since using
ZiPhone is so simple, the purpose of this post is more to demonstrate
just how easy it is to jailbreak and run those third-party apps until
Apple finally gives its official, official blessing in June.
Prepare Your iPhone or iPod touch for Jailbreak

First, let's talk preparation. If you're working with a fresh,
up-to-date device, there's really nothing to it—you're ready to proceed
to the next step. If you've already jailbroken your phone once
before—especially a 1.1.3 iPhone jailbreak using one of the older
methods—then you should restore your iPhone or iPod touch to the latest
factory firmware (1.1.4) before continuing. When you restore, tell
iTunes that want to set up the restored iPhone as a new phone rather
than restoring the settings from the previously jailbroken phone. (I
can't speak for the iPod touch on this front, but the first time I used
ZiPhone on my previously jailbroken iPhone without taking this step,
the jailbreak resulted in some bugs.)
Now that you're working with a fresh device, it's time to move on to the easy part: jailbreaking.
Jailbreak Your iPhone or iPod touch in Under a Minute
Now head to the
ZiPhone blog and click through on the "Click here to Download ZiPhone" link to grab the latest Windows or Mac version.

Once
you download ZiPhone, you're ready to go. When you run the application,
you'll see a window like the one of the two images to the left. (The
first one is the Windows version, the second is the Mac version. Click
the image for a larger view.)
The simple jailbreaks (that is, the ones that don't unlock your
iPhone for other cell phone carriers) are pointed out in the screenshot.
Quit
iTunes. (This may not be strictly necessary, but it's a good practice.)
Choose the option that applies to you: iPod touch jailbreak or iPhone
jailbreak. ZiPhone will cycle your device into recovery mode, perform
the jailbreak, and in 45 seconds your iPhone or iPod touch will be
officially and completely jailbroken.
Now
you can go through iTunes, set up, and sync the device just as you
would if it were fresh out of the box. (Just remember not to restore
your old settings if you were using a 1.1.3 jailbroken iPhone.) When
you head to your home screen for the first time, you'll notice two new
icons: the Installer.app icon—which is the application that allows you
to install the best iPhone apps currently available—and a web clip icon that will take you to the ZiPhone homepage (which you can remove if you don't want it).
Should I Jailbreak with ZiPhone if I've Already Jailbroken?
If you've already jailbreakon your iPhone or iPod touch, there's no
hugely compelling reason to do it again with ZiPhone. However, I had
been using a 1.1.3 jailbreak on my iPhone prior to jailbreaking with
ZiPhone, and the ZiPhone jailbreak did fix the common Google Maps faux-GPS problem. Additionally, it's always good to run the latest firmware if and when you can, jailbroken or not.
That's all there is to it. Simple, quick, and effective. If you've
been dying to run more apps on your iPhone or iPod but the long wait
until June is more than you can stomach, jailbreaking your device is
easier than ever with ZiPhone. (Okay, maybe not quite as easy as the one-click jailbreak for 1.1.1, but still really easy).
If you're rocking a ZiPhone jailbroken iPhone or iPod touch or a
device you jailbroke using another method, let's hear more about your
experience in the comments.
Adam Pash is
a senior editor for Lifehacker who's not sure he'll stop jailbreaking
his iPhone or iPod even after Apple opens it up, and who likes the
iPhone so much he wrote an iPhone book. His special feature Hack Attack appears weekly on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Hack Attack RSS feed to get new installments in your newsreader.