Upgrade to 2.0 - Complete

18th August, 2008 - The time is 9:14 AM IST as I write this blog but I havent slept the whole night thinking about what was in store for the morning. Yes, I was going to "upgrade" my first-gen iPhone to 2.0

If you have not been living under a rock, you probably know what a gamble it has been for the first-gen users to "upgrade" their phone to Apple's new offering this summer. Apple launched the 2.0 3G iPhone in the markets on July 11, 2008 packed with a brand new software with host of features. The 3G phone itself had a problem with activiation for almost a month, coupled to that desperate geeks who couldnt wait to "upgrade" their phone with the new software had not-so-good-things-to-talk-about Apple's latest offering. Every imaginable problem, from data loss to network to flawed software was talked about in the community. Obiviously, I held on to my dear phone, coz apart from costing me a bomb I had no option to send it back to anybody for a replacement and the fact that it was jailbroken made me even more apprehensive about upgrading and losing everything that was in there. But all of that changed today.

PS: This is a firmware/software UPGRADE for the first-gen (jailbroken) iPhone running version 1.1.4. This is NOT a jailbreak for the second-gen 3G iPhone

I have been keeping a tab in the forums on how the upgrade has been coming up and I finally found a video tutorial that guided users to upgrade the firmware from 1.1.4 to brand new 2.0.1
I decided to go for it. I suggest you say a little prayer before you start this (even if you are an atheist), I did.

The complete tutorial is here, credits go to one Mr. iPhone Fan from Canada. I'm just going to highlight the essentials in this Post.

1. Download and Install iTunes 7.7.1 (the latest), if you have an earlier version.
2. Once you have downloaded and installed iTunes, connect your first-gen iPhone, iTunes will prompt you that "a new software update for the iPhone is available, would you like to download and install it?", Click "No". This update is the same as indicated in the tutorial above, you can download it with other essentials
3. Backup the settings and data on your existing iPhone. Click here for details. You will need this to restore Contacts, Mails, SMSs etc...after the "upgrade". You can now also Backup your Media in Itunes 7, click here. Remember, your third-party apps (themes, games, wallpapers, ringtones) will vanish, basically the iPhone will go back to factory settings with a new software version but most importantly, it will still be jailbroken, you will need to again go back to Apps like Installer and start "pimping" the phone from ground zero

Thats about it, this upgrade was made possible by a software called WinPwn (only for Windows), there is a different software for Mac users, Pwnage. By the way, if you wanted a dictionary defination of "pwn", here it is...

"Pwn (/poʊn/, /puːn/, /pəʔˈoʊn/, /pɔːn/, /piˈoʊn/, /pwəʔˈn̩/) is a leetspeak slang term, derived from the word "own",[1][2][3] that implies domination or humiliation of a rival, used primarily in the Internet gaming culture to taunt an opponent who has just been soundly defeated. Past tense is sometimes spelled pwnt (pronounced with a t sound), pwned, pwnd, pwn3d, or powned (with the standard d sound). Examples include "pwnage" or "You just got pwned!"

It took me approx. 40 Mins to get the "upgrade" going and like every installation process, you have to be patient and let the hardware and software do its thing. I must admit, it felt like forever when the screen would go blank on the iPhone when it was processing but the result was worth the wait. I got the "upgrade" in a single attempt and was amazed how the software coupled with the instructions went like a knife on the butter, smoooooth.

Well, I'm already planning the next post called "Upgrade 2.0 ke Side-Effects", the title is apt I believe and you should look forward to it...until next time, signing-off for a lazy and a satisfied sleep in my bed...yawnnnnn, good nite.

19th August, 2008 - It is 24 Hours from the time I upgraded my first-gen iPhone to 2.0.1 and I see that Apple released a 2.0.2 version. Man, it is crazy how updates keep coming in and even crazier is the fact that we try to keep up with it, so now I got to find what is in this latest update and then wait for a tutorial to perform a new "upgrade" all over again. Seriously, I'm going to hang on for a while with the 2.0.1

Disclaimer: "If the instructions on my page work for you, I know you and if they dont, I dont know you"