How to jailbreak iPhone OS 3.1.3 using Spirit

I previously wrote an article about, how to jailbreak an iPhone, last year. If you had gone through the walkthrough you may have found that it was long and painful. Since then, I reverted to the unjailbroken default Apple iPhone OS and had been happy with it ever since. But in anticipation of my iPad arriving, I wanted to jailbreak again so I had a way to tether using my iPhone.

As I was on the latest OS, there weren't so many options. That is until Spirit was released. There is both a Windows & Mac client and can be applied to latest versions of OS for iPhone & iPad (3.1.2, 3.1.3 & 3.2). It does require an activated iPhone which should be the case for most people.

So let the Jailbreaking begin:

1. Very Important! Make a backup before doing anything. You can manually make a backup by connecting your phone, opening iTunes and right-clicking on your iPhone and selecting Back Up.
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Close iTunes.
   
3. Download a copy of Spirit from the website.
4. Extract the contents of the zip file and launch the application.
5. Double click to launch the Spirit application.
   
   Spirit
   
   
6. You will be given the option to Jailbreak. You know what to do.
   
   
   
7. The jailbreaking process starts up and lasts for about 30 seconds.
   
   
   
   
8. A new message will display indicating that the Jailbreak has completed.
   
   
   
9. The iPhone will reboot and display a funky background with a progress indicator completing the setup on the device.
   
   
   
   
10. After booting, just log into your iPhone and look for the Cydia icon and that is it.
    
    
    
    
11. I would suggest installing Rock as the first jailbroken application. Rock provides a nice interface for installing applications, and is much faster than Cydia.

After installing a few applications and a new theme, my iPhone currently looks like this.

At the very beginning i mentioned why I jailbroke my iPhone. It was to install the application MyWi. This application costs $9.99 but worth every penny. It allows your iPhone to become a wireless access point for other devices (such as an iPad) to connect to. If you have an iPad (especially WiFi only model), I highly recommend getting this application.

As a final note, the technique mentioned above is for information purposes. If you run into any issues, I am more than willing to help although I cannot guarantee this technique for your iPhone. Please use at your own risk.