Out of the blue, my mom decided that she wanted an iPhone. In her defense, her current phone, a T-Mobile Wing, was really acting up, not receiving calls, not wanting to make calls, shutting off randomly, etc. But an iPhone? C’mon. My mom is what I would call technologically challenged. Not to mention the fact that the iPhone is a) pricey b) not designed to work with any carrier besides AT&T.
But she found a good deal on eBay — a 3G iPhone and 120GB Microsoft Zune (yes, package deal) with a crap ton of accessories for $300. Everything was in near-new condition and came with original packaging and inserts. She gave the Zune to my brother for his birthday, and gave the iPhone to me to jailbreak and unlock. Not that I knew anything about doing either to an iPhone, but she assumed I would figure it out.
And figure it out I did. It took me nearly five hours (off and on; I was busy making hamburger cupcakes and writing and browsing Lavish and Photography Girls) and three attempts, and several spazzes with getting the iPhone into DFU mode and not recovery mode, but I did it. 
For anyone who is interested in jailbreaking and unlocking a 3G iPhone, here are the instructions that I followed.
Related posts:11 Comments
, on July 10 2009 at 9:52am:
You’re lucky. It didn’t used to be so easy as getting to the boot screen and running a program. Getting my 1st gen jailbroken was like a 14 step process that included manipulating back end files.
Hope she enjoys the iPhone… And you enjoy continuing to unlock it with every update. Just make sure to remind her NOT to update the phone till after any new firmware build has been proven unlockable or she’ll be without a phone till the iPhone Dev Team can figure it out.
, on July 10 2009 at 11:33am:
Nifty little gadget there, huh? I was too much of a scaredy cat to jailbreak mine. So I left it as is and went with AT&T. The service isn’t too bad. I actually like it more than T-Mobile. But the plan is pretty pricey.
, on July 10 2009 at 11:42am:
Yeah! I am glad you got it to work. I can’t wait to see it. Did your Mom give it to you to use or are you giving it back? I think the iphone is sweet. I wouldn’t mind one myself, but I don’t think you can jailbreak it for Verizonwireless 
Cant wait to see you guys!
, on July 10 2009 at 2:01pm:
Wow! I’m glad you got it! I hope they come out with iPhones for other carriers so that those who have Verizon can get them!!!
, on July 10 2009 at 2:43pm:
I soo want an iphone but I use Sprint. I don’t have the extra money to spend on an iphone or I would get one just to see if I could unlock it to work with Sprint. So I guess I will be getting the closest thing Sprint has to the Iphone that I can afford which is the Samsung Instinct. It’s one of their deals this month and I am so tired of my crappy Palm Centro…
, on July 10 2009 at 5:53pm:
Nice! My dad has an IPhone but they are on AT&T so it was easy for him to purchase it and get right to using…no unlocking required 
It sucks that AT&T is the only carrier “legally” allowed to have the phone right now but that may change…I hope it changes because I want one. I read an article not to long ago that Verizon Wireless MAY get rights to the IPhone sometime next year or the year after, not really sure if it was legit or not. Only reason I’ve heard that IPhone doesn’t work on Verizon is because it’s a completely different network signal or whatever that they use.
, on July 14 2009 at 1:51am:
The reason the iPhone wont’ work on Verizon is because Verizon doesn’t use SIM cards like T-Mobile and AT&T do. However, each time the iPhone updates, Apple makes sure to include something in the update that re-locks the phone and in some cases, bricks unlocked iPhones so they won’t work, so be very careful.
, on July 14 2009 at 10:49pm:
Glad you were able to unlock it.
Only think I don’t like about the iphone/ipod touches are the fingerprints that are left on the screen
As the domain name suggests, my name is Jenn, and I own this blog. I'm 26 years old and married to my one true ♥, Daniel. And while I have two kids (Alyssa is five, and Ryan is three), you won't find "mommy" in my username or email address, nor does my blog revolve around them. I'm a mother, but most importantly I am me, with a passion for love, blogging, reading, and photography. I'm also a busy freelance writer, web designer & SEO goddess.
LOL I did this for the blackberry storm & tmobile. Fun stuff being a rebel