The iPhone 3.0 software update has been out for about 10 days now and the iPhone Dev team provided hungry iPhone owners with the redsn0w tool and ultrasn0w very quickly to help us jailbreak and unlock out iPhones.

Disclaimer: Messing around with stuff like this usually voids your warranty. It’s also possible to completely brick (ruin) your phone while trying to do this. I’ve done it plenty with no problems, but use this information at your own risk.

Why jailbreak?
The biggest reason to jailbreak your iPhone is to open it up to a lot of new features. For me, the idea of customization and theming was a huge draw, but the two things my jailbreak provided me were access to my shell (as well as SFTP) and a video camera. These things are available as third-party apps installed through Cydia and you can’t get them without jailbreaking. Jailbreaking is also how you install ultrasn0w to unlock the phone.

Why unlock?
The unlock is to break free from AT&T. I have AT&T and I’m in a contract, but if you want to move to another provider like T-Mobile, you’ll need to unlock the phone. I’ve really only tried it with T-Mobile and you lose 3G when you move.

How to Jailbreak and unlock
1. Make sure your iPhone is already upgraded to 3.0
2. Back up your iPhone with iTunes!
3. Download the firmware upgrade and redsn0w (see links on the YouTube video page)
4. Plug in your iPhone via the USB cable.
5. If iTunes is up, eject the phone in iTunes and close iTunes.
6. Turn the phone off.
7. Extract and run redsn0w (follow instructions – see video).
– You are jailbroken at this point –
8. Open Cydia and let it update.
10. In Cydia, click “Manage” at the bottom. Then click “Sources”, then “Edit”, then “Add”.
11. The source is http://repo666.ultrasn0w.com (that’s a zero)
12. Once the repo is added, click “Search” and search for “ultra”.
13. Install the ultrasn0w package.
– You are now unlocked at this point –
14. Turn off 3G
15. Throw in a T-Mobile card and try it out.

I’ve also thrown all the steps in a couple videos. The download links are in those videos, too, so don’t forget to go right to the videos (part 1 and part 2). While you’re there, subscribe to my videos and rate them both 5 stars.

That’s it. Enjoy. If this how-to helped at all, share the link on Twitter, StumbleUpon, Facebook, etc. and if you have problems, questions or just a comment, leave it below.