This is by far the easiest way to jailbreak your iPhone or iPod Touch. And yes, this works with all device models out as of the date of this post.

Applying a jailbreak is safe and will not and can not permanently ruin a device. Even if you screw it up halfway through and brick the unit, there’s a way to undo it: How to fix a “bricked” iPhone/iPod Touch

1.) Backup your entire device in iTunes.

Applying this jailbreak won’t delete any of your stuff, but in the event something goes awry, or you brick the unit, it’s good to have a snapshot of the device exactly the way it was before you started. Just right click the device on the menu listing on the left and select “Back Up”. This doesn’t take too long, and will save everything on the device – texts, pictures, contacts, apps, everything – minus the music.

2.) Download the 3.0 Firmware.

Even if OS 3.0 is already on your device, you still need to download the ipsw file since the jailbreak utility needs to patch it.

• iPhone 2G Users – iPhone1,1_3.0_7A341_Restore.ipsw
• iPhone 3G Users – iPhone1,2_3.0_7A341_Restore.ipsw
• iPhone 3GS Users – iPhone2,1_3.0_7A341_Restore.ipsw

As for you iPod Touch users, Apple hates you and wants to charge you $10 for the OS 3.0 upgrade while the iPhone users get a free ride, which is complete bullshit. Minus the phone, it’s the same thing and just as expensive, so there’s absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t get it for free as well. Luckily, doing a Google search on the files needed brings back a ton of places to download it from.

• iPod Touch 1G Users – iPod1,1_3.0_7A341_Restore.ipsw -  (or download from Megaupload)
• iPod Touch 2G Users – iPod2,1_3.0_7A341_Restore.ipsw – (or download from Megaupload)

3.) Download redsn0w 0.8 below based on the OS you use, extract the files, and run the .exe inside.

• Windows
• Mac
• Linux

4.) Browse and select the ipsw that you downloaded in Step 2.

Once you do, redsn0w will display “Processing Firmware” and then “IPSW successfully identified.” Click next, and redsn0w will begin patching the IPSW file.

5.) Select “Cydia” on the following screen once the patching process is completed. You could add Icy as well, but for the sake of simplicity, I’ll just stick with Cydia. They are both package management systems that allow you to install various utilities and system tools, such as Open SSH, onto the device. Click next.

6.) Put the device into recovery mode.

On the final screen, redsn0w actually gives you detailed steps on how to do exactly that, but I’ll go over it anyway

• Unplug any cables connected to the device
• Hold the SLEEP/WAKE button at the top until “Slide to Power Off” appears – then slide it to do just that. It might take 10 – 20 seconds to power down.
• Wait at least 5 seconds after the device is completely off.
• Press and hold the HOME button, and at the same time, plug the USB cable back into the device. Once you see the following image, it’s okay to release the home button.

7.) You’re done!

At this point, redsn0w should have automatically detected the device in recovery mode and started the automated process of uploading the new stuff. It might take an additional minute or two and a couple loading screens, but you should be back at your home screen once the process is completed and the Cydia icon (and/or Icy if you chose it) should be hanging out there somewhere.

First, it’s impossible to permanently screw up the software inside (at least, I haven’t heard of any “permanently bricked” units). In fact, I hosed a jailbreak the other night and recovered from it just fine.

Second, it’s insanely easy to unbrick.

1.) Plug the USB cable from your computer into the device and open iTunes.

2.) Put the device into “recovery mode”.

This is done by holding down both HOME and SLEEP/WAKE buttons (shown below) for 8 seconds, then simply releasing the SLEEP/WAKE button while still holding the HOME button for another 8 seconds.

If you did it properly, iTunes should display a message that it found a device in recovery mode. Your computer may also make the “new device found” sound. If this doesn’t work, simply repeat the process of holding both buttons down for 8 seconds, then releasing the top one while still holding the bottom one for another 8 seconds.

This built in failsafe is what actually “unbricks” the device, just with the small catch that you have to restore the device. There’s no actual way (that I’m aware of anyway) to take it out of restore mode once it’s active other than by restoring a backup through iTunes.

3.) Restore the device.

In iTunes, select “Devices” in the menu on the left, and click “Restore” on the summary screen. iTunes will prompt you that it has to download and apply the latest firmware, but from here on it’s a typical basic restore and you shouldn’t have any issues.

If you don’t already have the firmware, iTunes will download it for you. It’s around 300 megs, so it’ll take a few minutes depending on your internet connection.

You will be at “Restoring iPhone software” and “Restoring iPhone firmware” for a while, so that part takes a little time with waiting. (Same should apply to the iPod Touch as well).

4.) Restore your backup.

That is, if you have one Once everything is restored, there should be an option to restore from a backup right there on the main summary page.

Your iPhone/iPod should now be restored back to exactly how it was before it was bricked!

If by some chance you encounter an error during restore, especially the annoying-as-hell 1604 error, read “How to fix the iPhone/iPod Touch 1604 error in iTunes“