abwaters 2.0

More Adventures in Jailbreaking or “Help! I own a $300 brick!”

Posted on the February 23rd, 2008 under Software,Technology by Bryan Waters

Until my last post, I didn’t realize how popular the iTouch really was. I also didn’t realize how frustrated people are that Apple is not opening up the OS for the iTouch and iPhone and letting users install 3rd party apps. I have gotten two types of responses to my previous post. The type that I really appreciate are the ones where individuals are relieved to have finally found a coherent description of the steps for jailbreaking their iTouch. The other type is interesting. I have actually had individuals blame me for their iTouch not working. I’ve approved the comments that I could. Some of them were so inappropriate that i couldn’t approve them.

But it seems obvious to me that there is some risk in doing this. In fact, I made a point in my post of how nervous I was in the beginning. The bottom line is that you assume the risk when you do something like this…but honestly, the risk is not that high. The iTunes sync interface allows you to “Update” and “Restore” your iTouch (iPod, iPhone…whatever). What is not obvious is that you can also backup your iTouch. So here you go.

On Windows, you can go to the device sync screen below:

On this screen, the Restore button is what you would use to restore your device back to the most recent firmware upgrade. At worst case, this will erase all the music you have sync’ed and remove any other settings you may have changed and set your device back to a default configuration. This is not all that bad as an option for those of you who didn’t do a backup before you tried breaking your iTouch out of jail!

But…if you want to save yourself even the time involved in recreating settings and resynching your music, then try Ctl-Clicking on the restore button. You will get a dialog like the following that gives you the option to do a backup of your device and your settings before you restore the firmware.

So backup up your device! Try jail-breaking it…turn it into a brick a couple of times, restore it. Take a deep breath because were sure just a few minutes ago that you would never see your iTouch again. Then…start the entire process over again! And just remember…i’m not making you do this! But…good luck anyway!