Updating and Jailbreaking iOS4 on iPhone 3G
First of all, I have a previously jailbroken iPhone 3G (MB version, jailbroken with PwnageTool) with OS 3.1.2. As the iOS4 upgrade didn’t have many things in store for me (iPhone 3G, you see), I wasn’t so excited about it. But I finally spared some time to install it on my (now spare) iPhone.
As always it happens to me, the PwnageTool 4.01 didn’t work for me as expected/described. I got the famous error 1600/1604 every time I tried to restore the custom firmware. iTunes threw error 1604 after spending a lot of time trying to restore the custom image in Recovery Mode. I also tried DFU mode, but it wouldn’t work. I searched the web/forums for similar issue for iPhone 3G. I found many people having it on 3Gs, but unfortunately none for 3G. Anyway, I tried all the suggested solutions for 3Gs without any luck.
After spending approximately 2 hours trying to figure out the issue, I decided to give redsn0w 0.9.5 beta 5 a go as it works differently than PwnageTool. The catch is, I had to upgrade to the new baseband. Anyway, after a couple of retries, it worked. Ultrasn0w unlock works as expected. iOS4 seems slower than 3.1.2 initially, but I’ll reserve my opinion till I spend a lot of time with it. Yes, you guessed it. The review is coming. 
Upgraded my iPhone 3G to OS 3.1
After yesterday’s release of the new PwnageTool 3.13, I decided that I should upgrade my iPhone to the new OS 3.1. The problem was, this method of jailbreak doesn’t yet support Windows. For patching of OS 3.1 firmware, the Leopard Hackintosh (Actually, a Hackintosh VM) came in handy. Moved the patched firmware to windows and flashed it using iTunes in traditional way.
The upgrade took about 5 minutes as usual and voila!! I now have OS 3.1 with all my settings and apps restored by iTunes. I had to install the sim unlock (ultrasn0w) and other jailbreak apps again. But, that’s fine I guess.
Regarding the major features, home screen customization from iTunes is neat. Makes it easier to organize the app icons. App Genius suggestions are okay. Can’t really test Safari’s newest fraud protection and anti-phishing filter but, it’s supposed to be good. I have to monitor it for couple of days for any improvements in battery life.
Update: Battery life hasn’t gone worse, if not improved. I found Anti-phishing filter in safari quite irritating as pages seem to load slower when it is on. App Genius is not what I expected it to be. It does’t always give satisfactory results.