Earlier, I showed you a way to fix the “Different SIM Detected” error after hacktivation with the phonebook sim. That method does resolve the error but it involves quite a lot of manual procedures. Probably, iPhone beginners will find it difficult to follow.

Thanks for PushFix to bring us an easier way to fix the issue. You no longer need to manually copy the Lockdown folder via iPhone Explorer as described in step 5 to 10 of the earlier guide. PushFix has released a cydia package called “Hacktivation Patch” that automatically patches a system file on your iPhone.

Simply install the patch and the “Different SIM Detected” error will vanish. The patch supports iPhone 3G/3GS running iPhone OS 3.1.2, 3.1.3, 4.0 or 4.0.1, as well as, iPhone 4 running iOS 4.0 or 4.0.1.

Here is the complete procedures to apply the fix.

1. After jailbreaking your iPhone with JailbreakMe, insert your phonebook sim card to activate the iPhone.

2. Launch cydia. Tap “Manage” -> “Sources”. Then tap “Edit”, followed by “Add” to add a new repository source.

3. Enter “http://cydia.pushfix.info” for the cydia/APT URL and tap “Add Source”.

4. Tap “Done” and go to “Search” to search for “Hacktivation Patch”.

5. Install the “Hacktivation Patch”.

6. Reboot your iPhone to enable the patch.

That’s it. Once you have rebooted your iPhone, the patch should fix the “Different SIM Detected” error. Let me know if the fix works for you.

The TiPb forums are naturally a great place to talk, commiserate, celebrate, get help, and offer advice to your fellow iPhone users. In order to create a new thread of your own or reply to any of the existing threads, you must be a registered member. Becoming a member is easy and free so if you haven’t already head on over and register now!

• For those of you using an iPhone 3GS and updated to iOS 4, how has your battery life been treating you?

• Some of our forum members are reporting their iPhone 4’s are heating up to a uncomfortable level. Have you had any heat issues with your iPhone 4?

• With the latest web-based jailbreak many of you are just beginning to learn about all of the great apps available if you jailbreak. If you want to find more or simply want to share some great apps you are aware of, do so here: Top 5 Jailbreak Applications.

• The comparisons between Android and iPhone are inevitable. But more specifically for those who have used both, why do you prefer one or the other?

See you in the forums!

iPhone 3GS & iOS 4 battery life, iPhone 4 heat, Top jailbreak apps, Android vs iPhone – From the Forums is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

I have just tried out the Frash hack that we have covered yesterday. As you can learn from the version number (i.e. 0.0.2), the hack is still under testing. But it does work as promised and lets you view Flash-based content (e.g. banner) on most websites.

If you want to be an early adopter of Frash, you can now install it on your iPhone via cydia.

Apparently, the hack only works on jailbroken iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4. If you haven’t jailbroken the iPhone, check out this guide and use JailbreakMe to jailbreak it first.

If you are ready, here is the procedure to install Frash on iPhone.

Procedures to Install Frash on iPhone

1. Launch cydia

2. Tap “Manage” -> “Sources”. Then tap “Edit”, followed by “Add” to add a new repository source.

3. Enter “http://repo.benm.at” for the cydia/APT URL and tap “Add Source”.

4. Tap “Done” and go to “Search” to search for “Frash”.

5. Tap “Frash” and install it.

6. Once installed, reboot your iPhone.

That’s it. After reboot, you can now run flash in mobile Safari.

How to Use Frash in Mobile Safari

To use Frash, just go to any website with flash content to test out. If there is any flash content in a website, Frash will automatically detect it. You can simply tap on the “Flash” label to play the flash.

As Frash is not official released yet, it may not work with all types of flash content. Sometimes, it may even crash the mobile Safari. If you find the Frash hack impact your Internet browsing experience, simply uninstall it using cydia, followed by rebooting the iPhone to completely remove Frash.

Thanks for @comex, the developer of Frash, to bring Flash to iPhone. Now, this is the best reasons to jailbreak iPhone.

As always, remember to leave us comment and share your experience on the Frash hack.

In late July, we covered a way to activate iPhone with a what-so-called Phonebook SIM card. Early adopters reported that the method worked great and they could easily hactivate the iPhone without an official sim. Lately, however, it was reported the phonebook sim card does no longer work.

What it turn out is that the phonebook sim hack has brought up to Apple’s attention and they immediately developed a fix to block it out. Recently, if you use phonebook sim card to activate an iPhone, you will get a “Different SIM Detected” error and are prompted to connect to iTunes.

That’s really discouraging when you encounter this kind of error. However, someone has already developed a fix to resolve the “Different SIM Detected” issue.

Procedures to fix the “Different SIM Detected” Issue

1. Restore your iPhone to iOS 4.0.1 via iTunes

2. Once it is restored, insert the phonebook sim card to activate the iPhone.

3. After the activation, remove the phonebook sim card.

4. Open Safari and go to http://jailbreakme.com. Slide the “slide to jailbreak” to kick off the jailbreak process.

5. After the jailbreak process completes successfully, launch cydia. Install both “afc2add” and “ultrasn0w”.

Note: The “afc2add” is a service for USB file browsing and the “ultrasn0w” is to unlock your iPhone.

6. After running ultrasn0w, it is supposed your iPhone is unlocked but you will still receive the “Different SIM Detected” error. Next, download iPhone Explorer, which is a freeware for browsing iPhone’s file system. The software is available for both Mac and PC.

7. Connect your iPhone to computer via USB and launch iPhone Explorer.

8. Browse to the folder /var/root/Library and delete the “Lockdown” folder.

9. Download the patched version of lockdown folder from here.

Note: You need to register before you can download the file.

10. Copy the “Lockdown” folder to /var/root/Library (i.e. the same location as the Lockdown folder you have just deleted in step 8).

11. Restart your iPhone to activate the fix.

That’s it. I hope this fix works for your iPhone. As always, feel free to leave comment and share your experience.

JailbreakMe, the latest version of jailbreak tool, is the first browser-based jailbreak tool. Unlike the earlier jailbreak tools such as Spirit, Redsn0w and PwnageTool, you are not required to download any software for the jailbreak. All you need to is to point the Mobile Safari to jailbreak.com and the entire jailbreak process is done within the browser.

I believe many of you have jailbroken your iPhone using JailbreakMe. But you probably do not know what’s going on behind the “Slide to jailbreak” button.

How JailbreakMe works

As widely reported today, VUPEN, a security research company, identified the security flaw in PDF rendering that allows hackers to gain complete control of iPhone. The JailbreakMe actually takes advantage of this PDF exploit found on iOS 4.0/4.0.1 and iPhone OS 3.1.x to make web-based jailbreak possible.

Security researcher from F-Secure Corporation found that the jailbreakme.com site includes 20 separate PDFs for different combinations of hardware and firmware. Depending on the model of iPhone and the OS version, you will download the corresponding PDF file from jailbreakme.com. The PDF file with a corrupted font embedded triggers the PDF exploit that allows full access to the iPhone OS. Jailbreaking and installation of Cydia are the rest of the story.

How to Avoid PDF Attack

While the security flaw allows iPhone Dev team to develop JailbreakMe for iPhone jailbreaking, the bug can also be used by hackers for malicious purposes. Apple said they are aware of the exploit and investigating the issue. However, as of now, there is no fix yet.

To avoid your iPhone from this security flaw, an iPhone developer has developed a utility called “PDF Loading Warner” that displays a warning when mobile Safari loads PDF file from the Internet. It is not a patch for the PDF exploit. The tool is just intended to give you a second thought before opening the PDF file.

If your iPhone 4 is locked to AT&T or another carrier, good news — the ultrasn0w unlock is now available to set you free.

Those who ponied up full price for an international, factory unlocked iPhone 4 direct from Apple need not apply. Those who chose subsidies and the lock that came with it, get your Jailbreak on and head over to Cydia. If ultrasn0w doesn’t show up immediately, search for repo repo666.ultrasn0w.com.

Version 1.0-1 of ultrasn0w works for:

• iPhone4 baseband 01.59
• 3G/3GS basebands 04.26.08, 05.11.07, 05.12.01 and 05.13.04

Remember, you’ll need a microSIM card if you plan on jumping to another carrier, and in the US that means manually cutting down your T-Mobile SIM to microSIM size.

As always, Jailbreak and unlock will void your warranty and could cause other problems with your device. If you don’t know what you’re doing, don’t do it. If you decide to go ahead, let us know how it works for you.

[Dev Team]

ultrasn0w carrier unlock now available for iPhone 4 is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Probably you have already jailbroken your iPhone using JailbreakMe. But some users reported that they are stuck at purple screen after slide the “Slide to jailbreak” slider.

I also experienced the same problem when I used JailbreakMe for the very first time. What I did was to restart my iPhone and then I could go through the whole jailbreak process smoothly.

If you are still stuck at the purple screen after reboot, iPhoneDownloadBlog mentioned a more detailed solution that you needs to clean up the browser cache. Here are the procedures:

1. Go to Settings -> Safari and then tap “Clear Cache”. Tap again to confirm the cache clean up.

2. Tap “Clear History” to clean up the browser history

3. Tap “Clear Cookies” to clean up the cookies

4. After you clean up the browser cache/history/cookies, reboot the iPhone

5. Once rebooted, point the mobile Safari to http://jailbreakme.com and try again.

If jailbreakme.com doesn’t work for you, you can also try http://jailbreakme.modmyi.com. For detailed instructions of jailbreak procedures using JailbreakMe, you can refer to the earlier post.

Remember to leave us comment and let us know if the solution works for you or not.

As you know, the iPhone Dev team has released a browser-based jailbreak tool known as jailbreakme that is capable to jailbreak all models of iPhone including iPhone 4, 3GS (both old and new bootrom) and 3G running on the latest version of iOS (i.e. 4.0 or 4.0.1).

If you have used Spirit before, you should enjoy the one-click jailbreak process. But I can say “Jailbreakme” is even simpler and more user-friendly than Spirit. It is so simple that I wonder if I still need to write a guide for it.

Anyway, to let those who do not familiar with the jailbreak process, here is the step-by-step guide to show you the process.

Before kicking off the jailbreak…

Before you jump to the jailbreak procedures, please read through the points carefully:

• As usual, before kicking off the jailbreak, remember to backup all your iPhone data via iTunes. You can simply connect the iPhone to your computer and sync all the data. This step is crucial. In any case you are stuck in the jailbreak process, you can always restore your iPhone back to the original state.
• Though JailbreakMe should work with iPhone OS v3.x, this guide is intended for those running iOS 4. So, I suppose you have upgraded to iOS 4.0 / 4.0.1. If not, please upgrade it via iTunes.
• JailbreakMe should also work with iPhone that has been jailbroken with blackra1n or Spirit. But before using JailbreakMe, please restore the iPhone to iOS 4.0 / 4.01 via iTunes.
• JailbreakMe will not hacktivate your iPhone. Your iPhone should be activated before using the browser-based jailbreak tool. You can either purchase an official SIM card or simply borrow it from your friend to activate the iPhone. Alternatively, you can also try out the phonebook SIM card to activate it.

Jailbreaking iPhone with JailbreakMe

1. As JailbreakMe is a browser-based jailbreak tool, no software download is required. All you need to do is to launch the mobile Safari on your iPhone and point it to http://www.jailbreakme.com.

Tip: If the above link doesn’t work, you can also try out http://jailbreakme.modmyi.com.

2. Next, you can simply slide the “slide to jailbreak” slider to kick off the jailbreak process.

3. The whole jailbreak process will take several minutes to complete. Once done, the tool prompts you that cydia has been added to your iPhone.

That’s it. Is it the simplest jailbreak tool you have ever used?

After jailbreaking… and you need to unlock

For iPhone 3GS and 3G user, if you need to unlock the iPhone, you can launch cydia and install ultrasn0w.

For iPhone 4 user, the iPhone Dev team will release an updated version of ultrasn0w to unlock iPhone 4 in these two days.

Not Working? Try again!

For some reasons, you may be stuck after you kick off the jailbreak process. In that case, you can simply reboot your iPhone and go through the whole process again. Usually, the jailbreak should work normally for the next trial.

If you have successfully jailbroken your iPhone, I hope you can leave us comment and share the iPhone model & OS version. You are also welcome to leave us questions in case you find any difficulties during the jailbreak process.

Enjoy jailbreaking!

Update #1: If you are stuck at the purple cloud screen after sliding the “slide to jailbreak” slider, check out this solution.

Few hours ago, @comex, an iPhone hacker, has annouced a browser-based jailbreak tool for jailbreaking iPhone 4 running iOS 4/4.0.1. The tool should also work with older models of iPhone including iPhone 3GS, 3G and the original iPhone. Added to that, you can also use the tool to jailbreak iPad and iPod touch.

This is the simplest jailbreak tool you have ever used. No download is required. All you have to do is to launch Safari on your iPhone and point it to http://www.jailbreakme.com. Just slide the “slide to jailbreak” slider to kick off the jailbreak.

Early adopters mentioned the tool does work perfectly. But some reported the jailbreak tool affects Facetime and MMS on iPhone 4. Comex and the rest of iPhone development team are looking into issue. It is expected the issues will be fixed very soon.

If you have problems accessing the jailbreakme.com, you can also use the alternative link: http://jailbreakme.modmyi.com.

As reported earlier, the Library of Congress has made iPhone jailbreaking legal but Apple said it will still void your warranty. So, use it at your own risk.

I will further post a detailed jailbreak guide in the upcoming post. Stay tuned.

Update #1: You can check out the step-by-step guide for jailbreaking procedures using JailbreakMe.

Update #2: The Facetime and MMS bugs are fixed by the dev team.

On Tuesday, Apple released an update for iTunes pushing the version number to 9.2.1. As you can reveal from the version number, this update is just for bug fixes.

According to the release note, iTunes 9.2.1 comes with the following bug fixes:

• Disables older versions of some incompatible third-party plug-ins
• Addresses minor issues with dragging and dropping items
• Addresses a performance issue when first syncing to some devices with iTunes 9.2
• Addresses an issue upgrading to iOS 4 on an iPhone or iPod touch with encrypted back-ups
• Addresses other issues that improve stability and performance

As usual, you can download the latest version of iTunes from Apple’s website or via software update.

If you are using jailbroken iPhone, it is safe to upgrade to this iTunes version. There should be no problem for your jailbroken iPhone to sync with the updated iTunes.

However, if you plan to use Spirit tool to jailbreak the iPhone, as advised by musclenerd, you better stay away from the upgrade.

Have you updated to iTunes 9.2.1? Do you encounter any problem with your jailbroken iPhone. Please feel free to share your experience by leaving comment below.