When the original iPhone was first released over 12 months ago, it was immediately heralded as the harbinger of the future of mobile computing. In its sleek aluminum body you could store your music, watch movies, check your email, and browse the Internet in a way never before possible. Once the hype of this revolutionary device wore down, buyers were left with the reality of their purchase. It certainly was a great phone, but there were significant limitations that became immediately apparent. No video recording, no games, no 3rd party applications, no mass delete of emails. (I’m being kind by ending the list there).

Along came ‘jailbreaking’ which in layman’s terms hacks your iPhone to allow a myriad of unlicensed third party applications. Jailbreaking was not for the faint of heart initially, and a constant cat and mouse game with Apple made it even more difficult.  Countless novice iPhone users sat back with envy as they saw their ‘technically inclined’ friend and co-workers with their jailbroken phones. In early February 2008, their hopes were answered when a talented rogue programmer, Zibri, released the first graphical user interface based ‘True’ Unlock & Jailbreak method he affectionately codenamed ZiPhone. This game changing application opened everyone’s iPhone to third party applications and carriers besides AT&T.

ZiPhone is generously offered as a free download and is an easy to use, simple download from www.ziphone.org . Jon Rettinger, Co-Founder of jon4lakers.com was lucky enough to sit down and talk with the man behind ZiPhone.

JR: What drew you to the original iPhone? What made you decide to create ZiPhone?
Zi: Well, love at first glance, but I was very late in buying it. I got it in September 2007. Since I live in Italy, unlocking was a must at that time and jailbreaking would have been a nice plus. However procedures to unlock it or soft upgrade it already existed but took hours. Since I made many restores in a day of testing I started developing a utility to make it really fast. Then a friend looked at that and told me "release it! People will love it!" and I released the first command line version. Then the GUI came as asked by users…
Then... you know :)

JR: You were greeted as hero once your application went live. How does it feel to be famous? Has your life changed?
Zi: Well it has highs and lows because everyone is asking for support even to totally ZiPhone unrelated tasks. No, my life isn't changed, but surely my mood improved :)

JR: Are you planning on releasing a new version of Ziphone for the iPhone 3G or the 2.0 software?
Zi: ZiPhone is a real hack and unfortunately I see no way such a hack could be performed on 2.0 firmware. That's why the current solutions are software upgrades or euphemistically called "custom firmware." I don't know if a new version of ZiPhone will ever see the light but I won't stop studying this matter ;)

JR: All of us 3G owners can certainly hope! In your opinion, what was the most difficult part of hacking the original iPhone?
Zi: There were 2 really difficult parts:
1) Finding the decryption key (a.k.a. 837 key)
2) Executing the unlocking code in a safe environment (like booting a computer from a cdrom)

JR: Has Apple ever contacted you directly as a result of your work?
Zi: No. Apple has no interest in stopping me (by hiring or suing) .But I think they will get soon interested in busting people since apps are being cracked.

JR: Where do you see Zibri and the ZiPhone software in the next 12 months?
Recycle Bin ? :) Apple Museum ? Who knows ;)

JR: Can you tell to us some of the good, bad and ugly details about the iPhone hacking community?
Zi: Hmm... Too many fights. No real cooperation.
Geohot seems the only one interested in sharing information and he proved it lately with his wiki.

JR: Have you considered developing for the iPhone / iPod touch with the official 3rd party developers program?
Zi:No.

JR: If you could have any app on your iPhone right now, real or not, what would it be?
Zi: TomTom :) (But fortunately I already have one and I modified it for full features. Search google for "zibri tomtom" :) (I did that 2 years ago)

JR: We've read previously, from your own blog, that you have a few things to say about Apples approach to the iPhone. How would do have done it?
Zi: I had at that time. Commercially speaking I think Apple did quite a good job Anything else I will say to Apple only >:)

JR: What's your favorite iPhone / iPod touch app so far?
Zi: Labyrinth by Carl Lodberg. When I first saw the iPhone and it's accelerometer I thought, "If I were a programmer I would have coded that old wooden game..." the very next day labyrinth first beta was on installer.app! From that day me and Carl are friends :)

JR: If I may toot my own horn a minute, when did you become a fan of the site?
Zi: Well, I am used to browse for iPhone and ZiPhone words on technorati and I found your site. A few seconds after I entered your site you switched from the pre-recorded video to a live stream, so I was curious. Then I logged in the chatroom to say hi and congratulate for the post on the iphone 3g...You know what happened next.

JR: If you could go back and change anything about ZiPhone what would you do different?
Zi: Nothing. It had only one purpose and it accomplished it pretty well. Sure I could add many and many features, but ZiPhone main feature was speed and easy usage.

From a personal standpoint, it was quite an honor to speak to the man who influenced the technology community so greatly.  He talks nonchalantly about his application as if it were just another downloadable program. Truth is, ZiPhone was more than just another iPhone hack. In my opinion, it's THE iPhone hack. However it is more than just an unlocking tool. It put control back into the hands of the consumers, letting users be responsible for their own content, while breaking down Apple’s walled garden. 

Zibri is far too modest to ever make such assertions, but I can speak for the community when I thank him for truly groundbreaking efforts.

So what lies in store for ZiPhone and the iPhone 3G? Well, we'll just have to wait and see.