Unlock Apple Iphone

Are you confused by the various iPhone terms that are being used in the
iPhone community today? Then you will need this dictionary to help you
understand these words. What is:

Activation: Whenever you first purchase an iPhone the only thing
that you can do is call 911. In order to be able to place other phone calls you
will need to actually activate your phone. In order to be able to activate
through iTunes you will need to use an official Apple carrier carrier. Otherwise
you will need to perform what is known as a hack. Once your phone is activated
it will become an iPod touch with camera and bluetooth. At this point you may
want to proceed to jailbreak and unlock your phone so that you can use it on
other carriers as well.

anySIM: This is the GUI version of the unlocking program that was
developed by the iPhone Dev Team. The program is also similar in function to the
unlock.app. With this program you will be able to use any SIM in your iPhone.

Apptapp Installer: This program has jailbreak functionality,
which aids with the installation of a program that allows you to access an
online directory that is filled with third party programs that are available for
the iPhone. This is available for both the Mac and Windows versions of iPhone.
Once this begins to install, you will notice that the program itself is called “Installer.”

ARM Core: The Operating System (OS) is ran by this processor. This
is actually a scaled down version of Mac OS X.

Baseband: This is the processor. Its job is to manage all of
the functions that require access to your phone’s antenna. The GSM phone, the
Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are all controlled by the baseband processor, which has its
own RAM and flash resources. These are separate from the ARM core resources as
it is a resource for the operating system.

Bootloader: This really small program is located somewhere in your
phone’s non-volatile memory. Its job is to ‘bootstrap’ the processor’s startup
and call up the main program, which is usually much larger than the bootloader
itself is. The bootloader also provides a way in which to obtain and store an
updated version of your phone’s main program. Usually your bootloader will not
be updated since it is the main program that gets the updates, not the
bootloader itself. The reason for this is because if something were to go wrong
whenever you were updating your main program, the bootloader will be able to
restore your main program with the one that you actually prefer to have. You do
need to be careful though if you ever choose to update your bootloader because
if anything goes wrong here your bootloader will become corrupted, which means
that your processor will not ever be able to restart. For all intents and
purposes, at this point your phone is actually dead.

Bricked: This means that your phone is completely dead and thus
unusable. The phone will only be good for parts at this point since nobody will
ever be able to fix a bricked phone. Some people will say that a phone is
bricked whenever it is unusable for a short period of time, but these people
simply do not know any better.

Bypass activation: Via this process your phone will no longer
be linked to AT&T’s service contract. This is done by using a program such
as iNdependence, wiNstaller or PACAY. These programs allow you to bypass the
procedure that has you sign up for the contract with AT&T. By using these
programs you will be able to use any feature on the phone but not the phone
itself.

EDGE: This term stands for Enhanced Data rates for GSM
Evolution (EDGE) or Enhanced GPRS (EGPRS). It is a digital mobile phone
technology through which you can increase your phone’s data transmission rate
and thus improve your phone’s data transmission reliability. Technically, a 3G
network is classified as the unofficial standard. However, since 2003 2.75G has
been introduced into GSM networks around the world because of its slower network
speed.

Firmware: This is similar to the operating system that you have
on your computer. With newer firmware versions new features are added, bugs are
fixed and stability is improved. The very first version of iPhone firmware was
1.0.x. However, today 1.1.4 and version 1.2 (2.0 Beta) are available.

GSM (Global System for Mobile communications): This is the most
popular standard for mobile phones, being used by 82% of all phones on the
market today. This is more than 212 billion people in more than 212 countries
and territories. It was created by the GSM Association to make international
roaming easier so that people can use their cell phone whenever they are
traveling internationally. The largest providers for this technology include AT&T
and TMobile. AllTell, Sprint and Verizon use a competing technology called CDMA,
which is uncomputable with GSM.

Hardware unlock: GeoHot created this method of opening the
iPhone to gain access to a circuit board simply by using command line programs.
In this manner an electrical jumper connection is made so that you can unlock
your iPhone. Unfortunately, this method did not survive the 1.1.1 firmware
update.

Installer.app: This is a UIKit based package manager that is
used for the iPhone. The way in which this works is by downloading packages over
WiFi (wireless networking) or EDGE. The Installer.app will support the
installation of, updates to and uninstalling of applications that come from
various sources. You will find that this is used to install a lot of your iPhone
applications.

iBrickr: This Windows based program allows for jailbreaking and
file management.

iNdependence: This is a Mac program that allows for
jailbreaking, bypassing activation, installation of SSH and managing both
ringtones and wallpaper. It also simplifies the process of changing SSH
passwords and installs programs.

iPhone Interface: This is a deprecated command line program
that is available in both Windows and Mac. It will allow you to either add or
remove files and programs from your iPhone’s file system. To start with it will
need to be jailbreaked before it can be used.

iUnlock: This command line version of anySIM was released by
the iPhone Dev Team. It is used for unlocking iPhones that are running firmware
1.0.2.

Jailbreak: This is a Mac and Windows program that allows you to
be able to run unsigned code on your iPhone. Since the iPhone runs in a sandbox,
you will need this jailbreak program to break out of this so that you can run
other programs than just what Apple has already installed on your iPhone, such
as third party applications. Other similar programs include iBrickr, AppTapp
Installer and wiNstaller.

Locked: A locked iPhone can only use a properly contracted AT&T
SIM to make phone calls.

Operating System (OS): The OS’ job is to act as a general
manager of your iPhone’s resources and to supervise the iPhone’s applications as
they run concurrently.

Secpack (Security Package): This is the password for the
bootloader which allows write access to the baseband.

SIM (Subscriber Identity Module): This is a removable smart
card that securely stores your service-subscriber key (IMSI), which is used to
identify a GSM subscriber. It also allows users to be able to change phones
simply by removing their SIM card from one mobile phone and inserting it into
another one.

Unlocked: This means that your iPhone can use any SIM from any
carrier throughout the world.

Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity): The Wi-Fi Alliance owns this
wireless technology brand. It is meant to improve the interoperability of
wireless local area network products that are based upon the IEEE 802.11
standards. The common applications include Internet and VoIP phone access,
gaming and network connectivity.

3G: This is the third generation of mobile phone standards and
technology. It enables network operators to offer users more of a variety of
advanced services, such as high-speed Internet and video telephony, while also
being able to achieve greater network capacity through improved spectral
efficiency. By the end of 2005 there were 100 3G networks operating in 40
countries. This is different from what is available in Asia, Europe, Canada and
the USA where telecommunication companies use W-CDMA technology, which supports
the operation of 3G mobile networks.

Recovery Mode: In order to do a “clean restore” of your iPhone
you will need to put it into recovery mode. To do this you will need to hold the
Sleep/Wake and Home buttons at the same time until your iPhone reboots. You will
then see the Apple logo. At this point you will want to release the Sleep/Wake
button and still hold down the Home button until the iTunes logo and the USB
cable appear on your screen. This is when you will be able to use iTunes to
restore your firmware.

SDK (Software Development Kit): This was recently released by
Apple. It is basically a library of software that will help you develop
applications and utilities that you can run on your iPhone.

DFU Mode (Device Firmware Update): If you are attempting to do
a restore while in the Recovery Mode and find that this does not work, then this
will be something for you to try as a last resort. You would know that Whenever
you do this the OS will not load before an attempt at restoration is made. In
order to start this process, you will need to hold down the Sleep/Wake and Home
buttons at the same time for 10 seconds. Right before you would usually see the
Apple logo, you will want to release the Sleep/Wake button while still holding
the Home button down until iTunes detects an iPhone that is in recovery mode.
You should know that it may take you a few attempts to get the timing of this
tricky procedure right. However, you will know that you are in DFU Mode because
your screen will be black and there will be nothing displayed.