So you have a spanking new jailbroken iPhone and raring to see what it can do. Here are a few tips to get you started

1. Install openSSH from Cydia. This is ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL if you want to play around with your iPhone.

2. If you wish to installed cracked apps directly through iTunes (which is the easiest way), just install AppSync for OS 3.0/3.1 from hackalo.us repo. For those folks who can’t access hackalo.us, use this repo instead: http://repo.beyouriphone.com

3. Get SBSettings through Cydia. You simply can’t live without it.

4. Install Backgrounder from Cydia. iPhone doesn’t allow third party apps to run in the background by default. Backgrounder lets you do that. Simple.

5. If you use an unofficial carrier, Apple decided that you shouldn’t be let to edit your GPRS/EDGE APN settings. To fix this, follow this post

6. If you are facing the infamous “No Service” problem after jailbreaking/unlocking your iPhone, give this a shot

7. This is for a non-jailbroken phone as well. Make ringtones easily right from iTunes – http://cnettv.cnet.com/create-free-iphone-ringtones-using-itunes-8-0/9742-1_53-50003920.html

This is on an iPhone 3G 16GB running OS 3.1 and jailbroken

1) All apps are a bit sluggish to start. Maybe cleaning up unwanted language files will improve things

2) Not really liking safari. No data compression so higher data bills

3) No Opera Mini!

4) Turning off images in Safari (using ImaSafari) doesn’t really stop the images from downloading (correct me if I’m wrong)

5) Interface rocks!

6) Sound from speaker is just too mild. They really need to have a better speaker in the next version

7) Good for developers or someone wanting to mess around with the internals (openSSH a must)

No Opera Mini (again)

9) Decent battery life under light usage. If you really make a lot of calls or browse extensively, look else where. But you can get a lot of juice if you listen to music a lot and use the phone sparingly

10) Great keypad for typing (the horizontal keypad suits me better cause of my bigger fingers).

11) Very good predective spelling correction. It really works

12) Breeze to install apps (even the cracked variety if you know how)

Dislcaimer: I’m NOT responsible in ANY way if you damage your iPhone. This will require you to open up the iPhone to verify the SIM slot which will void Apple Warranty. So DON’T do it if you are unsure.

If you are  among the unlucky ones who happen to jailbreak and unlock your iPhone 3G to get cellular network access, you might have come across this annoying problem. For most, installing ultrasn0w and a simple reboot works. But for many, it just doesn’t! No matter what you do, you will be facing the dreaded “No Service” or “No SIM card installed” problem.

I have been playing with my iPhone 3G for about a month now, and was suffering the same fate. No matter what I tried, it JUST WOULDN”T WORK! I knew I was following the jailbreak and unlock steps correctly, so I decided to give it to a service center and get it checked. And voila! A piggyback unlock chip i-Smartphone was soldered to the SIM slot inside the phone! To complicated the matter, it was done in the sloppiest way possible with wires hanging all around (apparently some old technique). This seems to be the issue with many phones originating from Australia and the middle east (as mine did), so if you got your iPhone through the Grey channel and are facing problems, this might be it.

How do you fix it? Simple – After removing the soldered chip, I restored my iPhone with a custom OS 3.1 firmware using pwnage tool, installed ultrasn0w, and it just works! The problem is the conflict between software and hardware unlock techniques. Hardware unlock is buggy, troublesome and not recommended especially because ultrasn0w works perfectly now!

So there you have it. If you are sure that you are doing the jailbreak/unlock right but still aren’t able to get into your network, try this. If this helps anyone, leave your comments and experiences please.

P.S: If you take it to an Apple store to get it fixed, they will reject it outright as any hardware/software modding on the iPhone violates the warranty. So my advice is to avoid Apple, and get your friendly neighborhood mobile service guy to check it.

Update 1: If after doing all this you still get “No Service”, goto Settings -> General -> About and check the field “Carrier”. If it shows your service provider (ex: Airtel 5.0) then there maybe some problem with automatically selecting your network. To do it manually, Goto Settings -> Carrier and let the list populate with the service providers in your area. Then select your network from that list. To verify, reboot the phone and see if it sets automatically.

Update 2: If you use pwnage tool to jailbreak and install custom OS 3.1 (which you should, if you don’t want to lose your unlock) the name of the carrier will not show up at the top left, right next to the signal indicator. It is a known bug and you can simply set your custom carrier label using a tool called “MakeItMine” which you can install through Cydia.