Today we are thrilled and excited to introduce GuruChristine. A lover of technology since an early age, Christine has blossomed into a full-blown geek. She owns, and is obsessed with, her iPhone, and, from time to time, will be sharing that love with us in the form of editorials and reviews. Please help me in welcoming her to the Cellular Guru team.

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Sometimes in a relationship there is the need to spice things up. I found this was the case with my iPhone. Not that I’m comparing my cell phone to a relationship with a significant other but they do have their similarities. (I spend more time with my iPhone than most, I think)

When in a long term committed relationship things start to seem monotonous. As individuals we try to search out ways to keep things interesting. Sometimes it’s a romantic dinner, others it’s a scandalously short French maid’s outfit (I’m a huge fan of both). These things are the “tools” that assist us in keeping relationships fresh, interesting, and most of all going strong.

Jailbreaking your iPhone is a tool that keeps your relationship from becoming monotonous. It offers the iPhone user the ability to personalize and inject their own experience into a rather bland, corporate unit. As consumers we look for versatility and staying power. Jailbreaking allows for that in so many ways.

For those of you who don’t know what Jailbreaking is and how it will improve your iPhone experience I’d like to explain:

Jailbreaking is the process of adding code to your Apple (iPod/ iPhone/ iPad) that will allow the installation of third-party applications normally not available on iTunes. This permits you to customize your iPhone in terms of look, productivity and entertainment.

Once any unit is jailbroken an Application named Cydia is added. Cydia is the iTunes alternative offering a wide variety of 3rd Party applications including Apps for productivity, customization, and just plain fun.

For example when the iPhone 3G was released it didn’t have a video camera option, but a Jailbroken phone could download and install an application called Cycorder and, Voila, they were able to use the iPhone’s stock camera as a video camera! Wicked, No?

I consistently change the way my PC looks, so why not have that same power over the iPhone? Cydia offers a host of themes including total customization that can change your lockscreen, wallpaper and even App icons.

Themes offered by Cydia are the most interesting and simple things one can do to personalize an iPhone, and it’s the first thing I did after Jailbreaking.

Some of my personal fashionista / GeekChic favourites are the Louis Vuitton, Gucci, and Coach themes (Although I wish some one would come up with a Tiffany & Co. theme to match my iPhone case, business card holder, and notebook. I’d never change it again).

In order to use themes you will first have to download an application called Winterboard (found in Cydia). Winterboard will act as the settings protocol for your themes and will allow you to switch between them once downloaded.

Jailbreaking is quite simple. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist. YouTube offers a plethora of tutorials to choose from.

You’ll need to know what iPhone OS version you’re running. You can find that out in the Settings of your phone, or in iTunes.

I always suggest watching the tutorials first, then backing up and restoring your iPhone, and last going ahead with the Jailbreak.

If your OS is 3.1.3 Spirit is the way to go. You can download the Spirit Jailbreaking app from: http://spiritjb.com/