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Should I jailbreak? Need advice for a very specific case

T

thedtrain989

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 26, 2011
1
0
Hey guys, I'm an American student studying abroad in Germany until the end of July. I consider myself somewhat tech-savvy, but don't really have technical knowledge or experience with jailbreaking an iPhone. It's too difficult searching online for a specific case like mine and the internet is cluttered i don't know what site to trust or not, so I would really appreciate it if someone here in this expert community would be kind enough to give me some advice.

I have an iPhone 4 on At&t (firmware 4.10.01), but the intl plan is way too expensive to use. For the last month or so, I've been using a cheap piece of crap prepaid phone and using my iPhone as an iPod basically. It's annoying to carry two phones and not being able to use my iPhone to call text and internet. Some of my friends in the program jailbroke their iPhones (but they have 3GS, not 4) and are using it fine with a european sim card and have texting and internet etc. I'm thinking of doing that too, but how easy is it to jailbreak an iPhone 4? Do I have to revert to a lower baseband and would this affect performance in any way?

However, is it worth it for me to jailbreak the phone since I'm still on my 2-yr at&t contract (it only started last october)? what happens to that contract once I jailbreak the phone, do i keep paying my monthly bill?

Also I'm going back to the us at the end of july and will want to continue using my phone normally. I assume my european sim card will no longer by usable. How do i restore regular american usage without? If jailbreaking and using it in europe for the next 4 months means i'll trouble with it back in america, I may not want to do this.

If you think I should try to get it working in Germany, any program suggestions / links to trustworthy guides would be appreciated. Thanks for reading, and hope to hear back from you all.
 
If you have baseband 04.10.01, then you're either on 4.3 or 4.3.1 (haven't checked if baseband was updated in 4.3.1), for which there are no reliable untethered jailbreak options. There is also no unlock available for that baseband yet.
 
thedtrain989 said:
Hey guys, I'm an American student studying abroad in Germany until the end of July. I consider myself somewhat tech-savvy, but don't really have technical knowledge or experience with jailbreaking an iPhone. It's too difficult searching online for a specific case like mine and the internet is cluttered i don't know what site to trust or not, so I would really appreciate it if someone here in this expert community would be kind enough to give me some advice.

I have an iPhone 4 on At&t (firmware 4.10.01), but the intl plan is way too expensive to use. For the last month or so, I've been using a cheap piece of crap prepaid phone and using my iPhone as an iPod basically. It's annoying to carry two phones and not being able to use my iPhone to call text and internet. Some of my friends in the program jailbroke their iPhones (but they have 3GS, not 4) and are using it fine with a european sim card and have texting and internet etc. I'm thinking of doing that too, but how easy is it to jailbreak an iPhone 4? Do I have to revert to a lower baseband and would this affect performance in any way?

However, is it worth it for me to jailbreak the phone since I'm still on my 2-yr at&t contract (it only started last october)? what happens to that contract once I jailbreak the phone, do i keep paying my monthly bill?

Also I'm going back to the us at the end of july and will want to continue using my phone normally. I assume my european sim card will no longer by usable. How do i restore regular american usage without? If jailbreaking and using it in europe for the next 4 months means i'll trouble with it back in america, I may not want to do this.

If you think I should try to get it working in Germany, any program suggestions / links to trustworthy guides would be appreciated. Thanks for reading, and hope to hear back from you all.
Click to expand...

Your ultimate goal is to temporarily unlock your phone until you come back to the states in July. Your iphone has the latest baseband which can't be unlocked at this time and no one knows when the unlock for it will be coming out.

There is a thread in this forum about the Gevey sim which i believe can unlock your phone. you might want to look into it, it costs around $75. Why don't you search more on this Gevey sim and it might fit you for the short time.
 
That Gevey SIM card thing is said to be extremely unstable and near unusable. Sorry, but it doesn't look like you can unlock your phone as of now.
You can, however, jailbreak via a stable tethered jailbreak.
 
A couple of things since you're too lazy to research the forums:
You can not downgrade bb
JB gives you the option to unlock, but it doesn't unlock
Unlocking your phone doesn't affect your AT&T service. You still have to pay for it. Unlocking gives you more carrier options. If you're trying to get out of your contract, pay the ETF.
iOS determines jb
Baseband determines ability to unlock.

ETA: your case isn't unique. Learn to read/search the forums.
 
Last edited:
Prodo123 said:
That Gevey SIM card thing is said to be extremely unstable and near unusable. Sorry, but it doesn't look like you can unlock your phone as of now.
You can, however, jailbreak via a stable tethered jailbreak.
Click to expand...

Completely untrue, I own one and have been using it for over a week without a problem. Where are you getting your information?
 
Prodo123 said:
http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/23/gevey-sim-provides-janky-but-jailberak-free-unlock-for-iphone-4/
I trust Engadget.
Click to expand...

Well, I'm not here to convince you, and I can't make a video for 2 weeks showing that it works fine, so I guess you will just have to keep believing wrong information.

The fact of the matter is using the Gevey is just like having a jailbroken unlocked phone. The major inconvenience is if you reboot or power down your phone, then you have to redo the process.

There may be concerns regarding the legality of how it works using the emergency number. If that is a concern, then fine. But if it's a concern about functionality then you're just mistaken.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDSHuzDLdyo

So all these people with unlockable basebands, can either wait more, maybe weeks, maybe months, maybe never, or they can sell their phones and go buy factory unlocked ones, or take a $75 chance that they can have their phones unlocked. If you're phone has just been sitting around as an expensive iPod touch for the past few weeks or months then you have lost more than $75 of use out of it already. IMO, it's worth trying.

And where in your Engaget article does it remote say that it is "unusable" or "unstable":

If you've updated your iPhone 4 to iOS 4.2.1 or above, you might be aware that there is currently no unlocking software available for the accompanying basebands. Naturally, we'd imagine the Dev-Team will soon provide a remedy for this lack of freedom, but for now, Gevey has you covered... somewhat. For $70, this imposter SIM promises to unlock, without the need to jailbreak, all the current basebands found embedded within 4.0 - 4.3. In the video after the break, it appears multiple -- and frankly, just plain inconvenient -- steps are required to get the kit working on your iPhone. What's more, apparently you'll need to do all of this again if you switch off the phone. Oh, and we should mention this involves snipping off a corner on your SIM card, and carriers tend not to like that. Our recommendation regarding this contraption? If you're absolutely in the need of a carrier unlock and have the cash, proceed with caution. Otherwise, patience is your answer.
Click to expand...

Nothing in there says that. It says it's inconvenient to start up which is something you know going into it. Just because you don't like the device, don't exaggerate the case. Moreover, they aren't even reviewing the Gevey sim, they are basing their opinion ON A VIDEO. You want to base your opinion on someone else's opinion because they watched a video of it?

The article also make it seem like it's a big deal to cut a small corner of the sim card. If you're trying to unlock, YOU WOULD HAVE TO CUT THE ENTIRE SIM CARD TO A MICRO SIZE ANYWAY. So this complaint is ridiculous. The article to my mind anyway simply an opinion, not an objective review, an opinion to wait. If that's what you rather do than use your phone, go for it.
 
Last edited:
You tell them Zermelo!

I don't know if you recall, but we had a brief chat on Youtube yesterday on your video. Once again, thanks for the tut. and my Gevey should arrive by Tuesday or Wednesday.

OP: Either shell out $75 or continue your reliance on an unlock which may never arrive.
 
eastercat said:
A couple of things since you're too lazy to research the forums:
You can not downgrade bb
JB gives you the option to unlock, but it doesn't unlock
Unlocking your phone doesn't affect your AT&T service. You still have to pay for it. Unlocking gives you more carrier options. If you're trying to get out of your contract, pay the ETF.
iOS determines jb
Baseband determines ability to unlock.

ETA: your case isn't unique. Learn to read/search the forums.
Click to expand...

This was absolutely unnecessary, rude, and completely out of line. The OP was asking legitimate questions about his specific case and trying to get targeted answers. He obviously didn't know where to begin when it comes to jailbreaking and, despite what you and your fellow "do a search" brethren like to think, this forum is unorganized and confusing to someone that's new to this.

Get a life.
 
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