Can My Device be Jailbroken?

Not every iDevice can be jailbroken, but most any of them that run the iOS firmware (iPod touch, iPad, and iPhone) can be jailbroken to some degree or another. Not all iOS devices are made equal, your mileage may vary. For instance, each iteration of the iPhone comes with faster hardware, different processors, memory, and other internal components. Your device is limited in the degree it can be jailbroken based on its hardware. The iPod classic and older iPods, iPod Nanos, Minis, and Shuffles do not run iOS and therefore cannot be jailbroken in this fashion. There are alternate OSes, games, and other things that can be done to those, but that is outside of the scope of this series.

Two Types of iOS Jailbreaking

Tethered – Each time your device reboots, you will need to connect the USB cable and use special software to boot it back to a jailbroken state, or else third-party (non-App Store) apps will not function, nor will the Cydia app store.

Untethered – No special requirements, each reboot should take the device to a jailbroken state. This is the ideal way to jailbreak, but requires a bootrom firmware exploit – generally the jailbreaking community waits until an untethered jailbreak is available before upgrading to Apple’s latest firmware release.

How Do I Know if My Current Device Can Be Jailbroken?

Visit JailBreakMatrix.com – we aren’t going to re-invent the wheel here, and they have done a simply amazing job of breaking down which models can and can’t be jailbroken on which particular firmware version your device is running. Check in iTunes with your device attached, click on your iDevice in the left pane and then read what version of iOS you are running and what model of device you have. JailBreakMatrix shows you if it’s jailbreak-able, which firmwares you might need, which exploit method to use, and often a written or video guide on how to do each of the above configurations. Just click on your model under the firmware version you are running, and maybe note whether or not you can safely upgrade to the latest firmware before jailbreaking. Bookmark this site and check it before any software update to your device on iTunes.

Incidentally, this is an Apple jailbreak Q & A, but I thought it was worth mentioning people are attempting to “jailbreak” the PS3, with some products already released in the wild on USB keys for a small ransom.

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Apple Jailbreak Q & A: What Devices Can Be Jailbroken?

The Overview

Apple devices – sometimes referred to as “iDevices” – include the iPad, iPod Touch and other iPods, iPhone, etc. along with the Apple TV. These devices all operate on basically two levels. The outermost level is generally referred to as the firmware. In mobile devices, firmware is the equivalent of the operating system on your computer, like Microsoft Windows or Mac OS X. However, in a mobile device – this OS is actually stored in flashable (programmable) memory within the device rather than on the storage medium (such as a hard drive). On iDevices, this firmware is often referred to as “iOS.” The most current version of the iOS is 4.2. as of the time of this writing.

The innermost level is sort of like your computer’s BIOS. These are the built-in functions of the iPod that allow it to be programmed and updated when Apple releases new features for your device. The most notable update was the change from the old iOS 3.x to the newer iOS 4, which brought features like multitasking and better performance for most devices.

The Nitty-Gritty

Most Jailbreak programs make the entire process pretty simple. We’ll go into what programs are available and which is best for your particular iDevice and firmware revision in a later post. What’s interesting is what goes on behind the scenes in the entire process (Well, if you’re a geek like me and want to know how things work).

First, the jailbreak program will generally send a command to your iDevice while it’s plugged up to your computer. The command tells the iPod to reboot and enter “Recovery Mode.” If your iDevice had suddenly crashed a horrible, horrible electronic death and would not start (even though it was charged) – Apple Care Support would probably have you start your device in this mode and let iTunes re-flash the firmware to it. This is usually a last resort method (as it wipes your media completely off the device). In this case, jailbreaking acts more like a software “upgrade,” and maintains your media usually without a clean wipe.

Once your iDevice is in this mode, it’s become willing to accept changes to its programming by applying a firmware package. These are usually files that iTunes downloads from Apple to get updates for your iDevice. Most jailbreaking programs will modify iBoot on your device to accept customized firmware packages (commonly referred to as IPSW files, since that’s the extension the file uses).

When iBoot has been successfully modified, the jailbreak program will either automatically patch your existing IPSW firmware file or have you download a fresh one that it will modify and apply to your device. If all goes successfully, the iDevice will reboot and have a new app installed, usually one called Cydia or Rock (two of the most popular). From there, the sky’s the limit! Your device is now considered “jailbroken” and can install apps from either the Cydia or Rock app stores. A lot of the apps are free, but some are still for purchase. After all, the point of jailbreaking is to get your iDevice to download and install unofficial apps, not just get them for free.

Why Jailbreak?

There are plenty of interesting applications out there that add functionality to your iDevice that Apple either didn’t approve of or the author decided not to submit their app to the App Store. For example, people are using apps to unlock their iPhones to use on a different carrier (GSM networks only, for now, CDMA are not supported in hardware), or turn their iPhone into a wireless access point. Jailbreaking opens up your device to a monumentally larger selection of apps.

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Apple Jailbreak Q & A: What is Jailbreaking?

Hiring employees is a lot of hassle. You have to deal with a bunch of legal requirements and taxes. A much more economical solution is an independent contractor. And in this day and age, a virtual assistant is a great way to go.

A virtual assistant (VA) is essentially an assistant that does not work in my office. In other words, they are not an employee, but an independent contractor. They provide their own material and they work remotely, doing whatever you ask them to do. With the technology we have today, there really is no reason that you HAVE to have people in your office. In my case, I operate out of a home office. Even if the VA needs to work with your own software, you can give them remote desktop access and they can use a computer in your office while sitting anywhere in the world. Hence the name virtual assistant.

Virtual assistants can be hired online and can either be local or on the other side of the world. You can hire them for as cheap as $5/hour all the way up to much higher rates. Often, the rate varies depending on where they are in the world. For instance, you can usually hire somebody from India a lot cheaper than you can hire somebody from the United States. The thing to consider, though, is the cultural nature of it. You will be dealing with a language barrier and a significant time difference when dealing with somebody overseas. Also, just being from different cultures can lead to issues with communication. Sometimes, dealing with assistants from right here at home makes more sense despite them being, overall, more costly.

A very well known book by Tim Ferris is called 4-Hour Work Week. This book is all about the use of remote labor to run a business and (as the title shows you) in as little as 4 hours per week. That might be a best-case scenario for many, but the principles in that book hold true for anybody looking to get more time in their day and still get the work done.

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Day 24: The Secret To Having More Than 24 Hours In a Day

I can tell you from experience that it can be very hard to make the transition to outside labor. The following things are in play:

1. The feeling that nobody can do it as well as I can.
2. The time it takes to train somebody else to do the things you can do very quickly.
3. The fact that this other person probably doesn’t really care too much about your business and is only doing this for you as a J-O-B.

It can be frustrating, but the one thing you absolutely HAVE to have to EVER outsource anything is documentation.

It would be a wise move as you build up any business (as well as an online one) to take the extra time to document your procedures as you go. Write the documentation such that it is easily followed by somebody else. You want that person to be able to go through the documentation and be able to start doing things just as YOU would do them.

By creating this documentation, it will keep you from having to train every new person who comes down the pike.

You can use text documentation. You can also use video. Using a program like Camtasia to simply record your screen and make a movie out of it can allow you to quickly show people how to do things. And those videos are reusable later on for other people (as long as the procedure doesn’t change, of course).

If you are just getting started, start taking the time to write down your procedures as you develop them. If you are already in business, then start systematizing things into easily followed steps and then document it. You want to make your post occupiable by somebody else.

That is the key. Do this now and you’ll be much happier down the road. Take this advice from a person who didn’t know this when he got started.

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Day 23: Do This Now And You’ll Be Happy Later

A lot of business people online think it is best to charge for everything, but it is hard to argue with Eben Pagan when the man is generating around $20 million per year in sales.

One of the important principles to recognize in marketing is that of reciprocity. It means that when you do great things for people, they often feel the need to give something back. Using that principle, you can see that giving a lot of real, quality content to your potential customers is going to lead to higher numbers reciprocating when it is time to actually sell them something.

Not only that, but giving away quality information sets you up as an authority in your market. It trains your market to recognize you and to know what the information you provide is good stuff. It makes selling them something down the road all that much easier when they have seen your stuff in the past and know it is good.

Image courtesy of Entreprenuer’s Journey, where Yaro Starak has a great article on this subject.

Using the image above, you can imagine that free line being pushed down the funnel. That stuff you might have sold for $27? Give it away instead and this can lead to great numbers of sales of more expensive items down the road.

You might have noticed that, here at PCMech, we provide a TON of free content every day. But, we also have premium content in that mix, available only to our paid members. The premium stuff is good stuff – really good stuff. But, if we charged for everything, there is a high chance you would have never found PCMech in the first place. You found us because of the volume of free information we post every day. Yet another example of the free line in action.

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Day 22: Why Giving Things Away is Smart Business

For example, let’s say you have a product you would like to promote. You have a mailing list. You have a website. But, there are others online who cater to the same market you do and they have their own mailing lists and clientele as well. There are two choices here: (1) You look at that other person as pure competition and you work to out market them, or (2) you look at that other person as a potential partner.

So, you can work up a relationship with that other party and you can offer to do a JV deal. A JV deal can take a lot of different forms, but a very typical arrangement might be “You promote my widget to your mailing list and I will pay you XX% commission for every product sold.”. This allows you to get your product in front of that person’s database and it allows them to make some coin in the process.

It can be work to set up a good joint venture partnership. You’re dealing with actual people here and they will need to be convinced to partner with you. Often, the successful people in a market are approached for JV deals quite often. You might be just another number to them. So, you need to exercise come tact when you deal with them and you need to have a product that is truly worthy of such promotion.

We have a full series on how to set up joint venture partnerships here at PCMech. This series is available to members only, and it will walk you through the pitfalls of securing JV deals.

JV deals can be the make-break point between an unsuccessful product launch and a very successful one. JVs are what allow some of the best known internet marketers to create these huge product launches and have million dollar paydays. Without JVs, they couldn’t do it.

It is that powerful.

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Day 21: Gold in Joint Venture Partnerships

For Windows there is no better text editor than Notepad++ (pronounced as it looks: “Notepad Plus Plus”). Once you start using it you’ll never use plain ol’ Windows Notepad ever again.

There are many perks to using Notepad++. Here’s a few of them:

• Syntax highlighting (color coding for specific programming languages)
• WYSIWYG
• Auto-completion
• Multi-document environment (as in tabs)
• Drag’n'drop support
• Zoom in/out
• Macro record/playback

There’s a lot more that this editor can do but you get the idea.

You can download Notepad++ from here. It’s free and ready to rock.

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21 Windows Apps – Notepad++

For those that are all about speed, speed and more speed when it comes to productivity, you can’t get much better than Launchy; it is an application launcher that does its thing 100% by keystrokes.

Launchy stays in the background, requires only a bare minimum of memory to run and can be executed at any time by the default ALT+SPACE keystroke.

An example of how Launchy works: You want to launch a Firefox web browser. ALT+SPACE, start typing firefox and before the e in fire you’ll see it. Then press enter. App is launched. If you want to launch Firefox with a specific url: ALT+SPACE, firefox, TAB, [url here], enter. Done.

I use Launchy so much that I can’t use Windows without it. This app launcher does the job better than any other. Google Desktop can’t touch it. Try it and you’ll see why.

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21 Windows Apps – Launchy

In my opinion, the fact that Twitter users get nervous when they see a “internet marketer” use Twitter is testament to the fact that many use it incorrectly. Twitter and any other social media platform is inherently a community. And that community is made up of real people.

And just like when people get annoyed when you walk up and knock on the door to sell you something during dinner time, people are going to resent you if you start marketing to them in their social settings online.

This is not to say that, as a business person, that you should steer clear of using such sites. Absolutely not. These sites are used by a LOT of people. And with a large group of people, it is inevitable that some of your potential clientele are using these social media sites.

The trick (if you want to call it that) is to treat people with respect. You need to actually participate as a person first, and a business second. You need to be a part of the community. Offer things of value. You might even just “shoot the crap” with people about things which have absolutely nothing to do with your business. If you build a reputation on these sites as a PERSON and not as a business, then when you send in the random plug every now and then for your business, people won’t really mind it.

These sites are called social media, and you need to place emphasis on the SOCIAL part of it.

If you find the social part of these sites to be a waste of your time, then do yourself a favor and don’t even start using these sites to begin with. You will do your business more harm than good by joining a site like Twitter for the purposes of building up a big follow list and then spamming them with your links.

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Day 20: Using Social Media For Your Business

And rightly so.

You ever watched television for hours on end? Even if it isn’t particularly exciting, your eyes are kind of glued to it until something else distracts you. Or have you ever experienced seeing something that really moves you and really tugs on the heart strings. You have the imagery, probably coupled with some appropriate music, and you really FEEL it. Now, you would have to be on incredible writer to get that kind of reaction from the written word.

There is something about seeing and hearing something that just draws in the human mind. People stick to it like glue.

As a person working online, you really do need to take this into consideration. Even if your videos aren’t really emotional, videos often will communicate to your audience better than the written word. Not always, of course.

If you look at your website, sit down and brainstorm potential uses for videos on the Internet. Also gather some equipment to help you create some videos. You can hire people to create videos for you. You can also make them yourself any number of ways.

Always include your website URL in your video.

When using sites like Youtube, you might want to try to make a viral video. A video that goes viral means that it spreads similar to a virus. One person “catches” it and passes it onto another. To get this effect, your video has to be truly interesting enough for a person to want to pass it onto their friends. It doesn’t take rocket science to determine what kinds of videos are most likely to go viral. Throw some humor into it, perhaps even with a hot woman in it, and it’ll go viral. Youtube viewers aren’t exactly a high-brow audience.

TIP: Youtube, by default, will pick the exact half-way mark in your video to use as the thumbnail for that video. Many video publishers take advantage of that to put something visually interesting at the half way point. Then, when casual viewers are looking for something interesting to watch, the thumbnail may get their attention and draw them in.

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Day 19: Using Internet Video To Build Awareness