'Tonight there's gonna be a jailbreak:' A poor man's guide to the first iPhone

Posted:
in iPhone edited June 2017
It was 2007, and I really wanted a first-generation iPhone, but I did not have a lot of money. I did, however, have the technical knowhow necessary to save a few bucks.




Editor's note: June 29, 2017 the 10th anniversary of the iPhone. AppleInsider will be posting stories, testimonials and anecdotes on the history of Apple's groundbreaking device throughout the day. Feel free to chime in with your own in the comments.

A year out of college and not particularly prosperous at a job as a newspaper reporter covering local county government, the cost of the iPhone hardware itself wasn't my main deterrent (though it certainly played a factor). The main stumbling block was the Cingular/AT&T data plan.
I lusted after that first iPhone.
At launch -- and for many years afterwards -- the iPhone in the U.S. was exclusive to AT&T. It was a brilliant move by Apple cofounder Steve Jobs, giving the company leverage to control the hardware and software on its fledgling platform.

It also made for an expensive investment, particularly at a time when consumers were not used to paying for mobile data plans.

Back in 2007, I was a T-Mobile customer on a family plan, paying a basic rate for an allotment of minutes for calls (remember those?), as well as a handful of SMS text messages. I had been with T-Mobile since the days of VoiceStream Wireless, and for primarily one reason: It was cheap.

But I lusted after that first iPhone. When it was unveiled at Macworld in January of 2007, I watched the announcement video countless times. When my friend bought one on launch day that June, I couldn't stop being wowed by the finger-based touchscreen, vibrant color display, and brilliant slide-to-unlock gesture that ensured it wouldn't make phantom calls from my pocket.



The turning point for me was twofold. First, after just a few months on the market, Apple dropped the price of the first iPhone by $200. The company also phased out the 4 gigabyte model and dropped it to a $299 bargain price. Now that was something I could afford.

The second shoe dropped when the iPhone had been jailbroken, and hackers figured out a way to not only get it to operate on T-Mobile's network, but to gain compatibility with the carrier's budget Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) service.
All I needed to know was that I could get the internet on my 4-gigabyte iPhone with T-Mobile for a measly $5 a month.
In the early days of smartphones, WAP was like a limited, slow version of the mobile internet that only worked with HTML. Thrifty hackers, however, found ways to make smartphones, including the first-gen iPhone, route all data through WAP protocols via port forwarding.

But forget all of the technical mumbo jumbo. All I needed to know was that I could get the internet on my 4-gigabyte iPhone with T-Mobile for a measly $5 a month.

None of this was particularly by the book, and I'm not especially proud of it. Buying the phone at the AT&T store, I had to tell the retail employee that I was purchasing the handset as a gift, because otherwise they wanted proof that I was an AT&T customer (the phone, at $299, was fully subsidized, but users activated it on their own at home).




When I got it home, the first iPhone jailbreak process was not for the faint of heart, requiring me to connect to the device via a Windows box and SSH, and then manually enter a series of Terminal commands. If I recall correctly, the entire process took me about an hour and a half, but it worked the first time -- I popped in my T-Mobile SIM and I was good to go.

Jailbreaking: A necessary evil



Over the years, jailbreaking developed a bad reputation (some of it rightfully so), as some users relied on the process to steal content from the App Store.

For me, the jailbreaking experience and intent was very different. Over that first year, there wasn't even an App Store, while jailbreakers were already creating third-party apps that ran natively. One of the more impressive early options was an app that allowed me to display a series of photos on a virtual table, and to use multi-touch to expand or shrink the pictures as desired -- a gimmick replicating what Microsoft had shown off on its jumbo-sized Surface table at the time.

Living with a jailbroken iPhone on an unapproved carrier was dicey. A cat-and-mouse game took place, with Apple looking to patch security holes while hackers looked for new ways to exploit the iPhone operating system. You couldn't just install new updates as they came out -- you had to wait a few weeks for jailbreakers to crack them open, otherwise I could lose my phone, text and data access with T-Mobile.




There were concessions, of course. One of the first iPhone's defining features, Visual Voicemail, didn't work at all when used on an unapproved carrier. And man, was the WAP cellular data slow.

The 4-gigabyte capacity didn't bother me, however. I have always had a massive music collection, and for years (until iTunes Match debuted), I relied on a 160-gigabyte iPod classic to keep my collection with me.

I kept the first-generation iPhone as my primary daily phone for another three years. By that point, I had begun working at AppleInsider, and staying on the old hardware was no longer realistic.

My jailbreaking days came to an end, I bought an iPhone 4, and I switched to AT&T in 2010. Total sellout.

Finding a second (and third, and fourth) life

I have always hated letting old technology collect dust, so my first-generation iPhone wasn't officially retired.

Though that first iPhone lacked a GPS radio, and the Bluetooth connectivity on it was severely limited, through the magic of the Cydia jailbreak application store, I found an app that let me connect my iPhone to a Bluetooth GPS receiver. With a smartphone vehicle clip, I mounted the 3.5-inch, low-resolution iPhone on my car's dash, and used it as a poor man's TomTom navigation system.

That first iPhone had a good second life as my car's GPS, but even that had to come to an end. I eventually replaced it three years later, in 2012, with a cheap Google Nexus 7 tablet I mounted in my dash for a cleaner aesthetic. And I rooted Android on it, naturally.

My first iPhone wasn't dead yet, though. At that point, I began searching to see what else I could do to extend its shelf life. I installed mods that brought new iOS features added long after the first-generation iPhone was no longer being updated, including app folders and video recording capabilities.




I even discovered a program that allowed me to install Android on it, in a dual-boot setup known as iBoot (blasphemy, I know).

My iPhone's last run came a few months later, in late 2012, when a relative's phone died, and they were in need of a temporary device to hold them over until they could afford something else. I offered my now-ancient iPhone, and they accepted. It still made calls and sent texts and allowed her to browse the web. It still got the job done.

10 years later, it still works, and it still wows

Finally, the iPhone was put into retirement, powered down and placed in a drawer. I dug it out this week, charged it via a 30-pin cable and booted it up. It still worked.

It still has Android and iBoot installed. I opted for iOS upon launch, and found that text messages and calls from the last owner remain intact. Even the battery has held up -- after sitting idle on my desk for a night, it fell from about 90 percent to 66 percent the next morning.



Today we tap and swipe and pinch to zoom like it's second nature, but in 2007 it was a revelation. Or maybe witchcraft.
Using the first iPhone again, it was nice to appreciate how far we've come. The design is solid, though chunky. The original iPhone's display is extremely low resolution, and just reading small fonts in Maps was difficult. Loading content on the web and scrolling is extremely slow.

And yet, as I played with it, I was amazed at how many of the basic tenets of modern smartphones that we now take for granted were all baked into that first-generation device. Today we tap and swipe and pinch to zoom like it's second nature, but in 2007 it was a revelation. Or maybe witchcraft.

Apple's first iPhone was a landmark achievement, a device that irreversibly changed the very way we communicate with each other. Ten years later, it stands as a turning point in our modern society, a seismic shakeup that changed our world -- and yes, even changed our monthly cellular budgets.

I'm just glad that, way back in 2007, I found a way to afford it.
Solitallest skilsuperklotonlamboaudi4

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 14
    peterhartpeterhart Posts: 156member
    Great story, Neil. Reading this, it could have been me as well. I didn't get the iPhone until January 2008 when Apple debuted the new 16GB model, but I was also on T-Mobile. I did the whole jailbreaking and unlocking thing, sometimes several times a month. I used Cydia to change everything about the phone that Apple didn't want you to change or that Apple did not include. Additionally, I had a 160GB iPod Classic - that click-wheel scrolling thru Cover Flow was my favorite thing. I recall showing it to my mom that summer, making a test call, and telling her to simply touch the glass to answer it; she pressed and then pressed harder, lol. Explaining that a single touch was needed once again, she was just amazed. Ten years later, she has a 7 Plus, and I have my 7, having had every iPhone each prior year as well. I was hooked. Thank you, Apple.
    nhughesjony0lolliverwatto_cobra
  • Reply 2 of 14
    indiekidukindiekiduk Posts: 380member
    Hi in 2007 I followed Geohots live blog of the first ever jailbreak and sim unlock for the iPhone 1. I posted the story on my dev blog:

    https://www.malhal.com/2016/05/14/welcome-to-my-developer-blog/

    ...Then in 2007 the iPhone came out. That summer, during my job at Microsoft as a lowly intern we bought iPhones for “research”.
    Given it was initially a US only product and SIM locked to AT&T I followed Geohot’s live blog on jailbreaking for purposes of SIM unlocking. We used Microsoft’s micro-soldering equipment to attach the wires for the hardware jailbreak, then performed the SIM unlock and then I could begin using the iPhone on a network the UK, must have been one of the first!

  • Reply 3 of 14
    anantksundaramanantksundaram Posts: 20,402member
    I bought mine ten years ago today (it's still in pristine condition!). And have owned almost every iteration since. It is easily the most significant, far-reaching, growth-enabling physical product to have entered our lives in the past few decades. 

    The more important date to me was six months prior, when SJ unveiled it. It was an epiphany, a watershed moment, a revelation. I took all the spare cash I had and bought AAPL with it. That decision has helped me improve my home, put my kids through college, buy new cars, give more to charity, take better vacations, and improve the prospects for higher quality of life for me and my wife in retirement.

    I am not sure what more I could ask for from a company and its products.
    edited June 2017 badmonkjony0watto_cobra
  • Reply 4 of 14
    anantksundaramanantksundaram Posts: 20,402member
    Neil, it would be GREAT if you could re-post a couple of the old AI threads, with all of its comments too: one on the date of the iPhone intro, and the other on the date of actual availability of the product.

    That is such a fantastic slice of modern CE history!
    edited June 2017
  • Reply 5 of 14
    nhughesnhughes Posts: 770editor
    Neil, it would be GREAT if you could re-post a couple of the old AI threads, with all of its comments too: one on the date of the iPhone intro, and the other on the date of actual availability of the product.

    That is such a fantastic slice of modern CE history!
    Here's the thread from the Macworld announcement:

    https://forums.appleinsider.com/discussion/70264
    anantksundaramjSnivelylolliver
  • Reply 6 of 14
    nhughesnhughes Posts: 770editor
    Our hardware pics from the Macworld event:

    http://appleinsider.com/article/?id=2370
    jSnivelylolliver
  • Reply 8 of 14
    retrogustoretrogusto Posts: 1,106member
    nhughes said:
    Neil, it would be GREAT if you could re-post a couple of the old AI threads, with all of its comments too: one on the date of the iPhone intro, and the other on the date of actual availability of the product.

    That is such a fantastic slice of modern CE history!
    Here's the thread from the Macworld announcement:

    https://forums.appleinsider.com/discussion/70264
    This is so funny. It's interesting to see the range of reactions, from "I'm so disappointed" to backtomac's "RIM, Moto and Nokia; I feel sorry for you. Your marketshare is about to evaporate.

    Yup.
    lolliverwatto_cobra
  • Reply 9 of 14
    nhughesnhughes Posts: 770editor
    nhughes said:
    Neil, it would be GREAT if you could re-post a couple of the old AI threads, with all of its comments too: one on the date of the iPhone intro, and the other on the date of actual availability of the product.

    That is such a fantastic slice of modern CE history!
    Here's the thread from the Macworld announcement:

    https://forums.appleinsider.com/discussion/70264
    This is so funny. It's interesting to see the range of reactions, from "I'm so disappointed" to backtomac's "RIM, Moto and Nokia; I feel sorry for you. Your marketshare is about to evaporate." 

    Yup.
    At least all of the complaints about Cingular/AT&T were accurate.
    tallest skiljSnively
  • Reply 10 of 14
    avon b7avon b7 Posts: 7,592member
    Just a curiosity. Did you have a lot of Thin Lizzy in your collection? Was the article title a nod to Phil and the boys?
  • Reply 11 of 14
    anantksundaramanantksundaram Posts: 20,402member
    nhughes said:
    Neil, it would be GREAT if you could re-post a couple of the old AI threads, with all of its comments too: one on the date of the iPhone intro, and the other on the date of actual availability of the product.

    That is such a fantastic slice of modern CE history!
    Here's the thread from the Macworld announcement:

    https://forums.appleinsider.com/discussion/70264
    Haha!! What a great read! Here's my first post in that thread:
    "Ya, it seems pretty funny now, doesn't it? Can you imagine what the guys over at Palm and RIM are thinking this afternoon? Oh! to be a fly on the wall in those meetings! Their stocks tanked upon Apple's announcement!"

    Here's @SpamSandwich's post:
    "OK... I was wrong! Steve did it! Pretty incredible device. A computer+phone+iPod. Wow.... but no Leopard info!"

    Here's @Solipsism's (now @Soli) first post in that thread (the guy already had over 25K posts by then!):
    "We know that the iPhone exists, and that it's features are much better than we expected, now we need to discuss the details....
    - How much space does OS X for iPhone take up?
    - Will OS X use up some of the 4 or 8GB of NAND, or it stored separately?
    - What CPU does the phone have?
    - Could be ported over to other smart phones?
    - Will it require iTunes 8 to function?
    - How will it sync with address books on Windows?
    - Will it work with T-Mobile snce it has a sim card?
    - How are they able to keep the iPhone name in light first-to-market and trademarking by Cisco?
    - Can I use Skype for Wi-Fi calls or will iChat supply a similair, seamless function?
    - Will there be developer notes from creating 3rd-party software?
    - Can the accelerometer work like Nike+?
    LET THE SPECULATION BEGIN!!!

    And, @Melgross (needs to be read in context):
    "Genetech produces the air dispersed drugs that make the RDF possible."
    edited June 2017 nhughestallest skil
  • Reply 12 of 14
    nhughesnhughes Posts: 770editor
    avon b7 said:
    Just a curiosity. Did you have a lot of Thin Lizzy in your collection? Was the article title a nod to Phil and the boys?
    Absolutely, love Thin Lizzy. Live and Dangerous is one of the greatest live albums ever.
    avon b7dachar
  • Reply 13 of 14
    badmonkbadmonk Posts: 1,278member
    I bought mine ten years ago today (it's still in pristine condition!). And have owned almost every iteration since. It is easily the most significant, far-reaching, growth-enabling physical product to have entered our lives in the past few decades. 

    The more important date to me was six months prior, when SJ unveiled it. It was an epiphany, a watershed moment, a revelation. I took all the spare cash I had and bought AAPL with it. That decision has helped me improve my home, put my kids through college, buy new cars, give more to charity, take better vacations, and improve the prospects for higher quality of life for me and my wife in retirement.

    I am not sure what more I could ask for from a company and its products.
    Likewise me too (though not every last dollar went into AAPL).  I was a first day adopter and my wife about two months later.  I still have her OG iPhone because it is flawless (mine got scuffed).  I plan on returning the iOS on her iPhone to it's original 1.0 state, reboxing it and treating it like a religious relic.

    Perhaps like the ancient Egyptians, we will bury it with us so It can guide us into the next life.
    nhugheswatto_cobra
  • Reply 14 of 14
    dachardachar Posts: 330member
    nhughes said:
    avon b7 said:
    Just a curiosity. Did you have a lot of Thin Lizzy in your collection? Was the article title a nod to Phil and the boys?
    Absolutely, love Thin Lizzy. Live and Dangerous is one of the greatest live albums ever.

    Great to see the Thin Lizzy quote. I was playing some of their music recently. The music has lasted well. They were a great band. RIP Phil Lynott, you left us too early.
    nhughesavon b7
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