Article Notices

If you start reading reading articles all over the Internet about the iPhone, you’ll find some terms that these bloggers take for granted but are difficult to understand for a novice. We want to list all these terms and try to explain them as simply as we can.

First, you’ll find that iPhones are categorized as a version number and something like OTB, like, for example, 1.1.2 OTB. OTB means “Out of The Box”. This means it’s the version of your iPhone as you purchased it. If you change the version through iTunes and upgrade it or download it, which means you get to a lower version through software, your running iPhone version changes but the OTB version remains the same as it is the one your iPhone had when you bought it.

Now, this number we’re talking about is the firmware version. This is the version of the operating system, the one that gives the interface to you. The first version was 1.0.2, then we had an upgrade to 1.1.1, then 1.1.2 and now 1.1.3 which was released on January 15th.

The major problem that appeared when 1.1.2 OTB began to be sold is that another version changed: it’s the bootloader version. The bootloader, like says its name, is the software that care of the boot process. It’s normally present in the modem, the hardware that allow you to make the phone calls, and load both the firmware and another software, the one that allow to make the call which is the baseband. The big problem for hackers is that the baseband is also present in the modem and can only be accessed through the bootloader, viw encrypted communication.

When version 1.1.2 of the firmware appeared, the bootloader also changed: it passed from 3.9 to 4.6. This last version has not appeared to have a backdoor that allows hackers to make it run with any SIM card. That’s why there is still no software unlocked version of the 1.1.2 OTB iPhone.

Now, it is possible to have an iPhone 1.1.2 running and have a bootloader 3.9, which allow you to make phone calls with your iPhone. The only way was to have bought a 1.1.1 OTB iPhone, but they are becoming very rare, as people that bought this version of the iPhone on time have nearly sold everything.

On the forums, you’ll also read about jailbreaking and unlocking. So, what is this about:

• When an iPhone is first taken out of box, it is not activated. The jailbreak process activates your iPhone as well as makes your iPhone ready for 3rd party applications.
• Unlock is the process to get your iPhone to accept carriers (SIM cards) that your iPhone did not accept originally.

So, with this article, we should now know about the following concepts:

• iPhone firmware version (1.1.3 OTB by now)
• iPhone baseband version (4.02 on the new ones)
• iPhone bootloader version (4.06 - the bad guy)
• iPhone Jailbreaking (activate it)
• iPhone Unlocking (make it allow your SIM card)

But, you read even more about Jailbreaking your iPhone and get more iPhone News on our site.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 9th, 2008 at 11:02 am and is filed under Electronics, Products, Technology .