BLiNK, I'm still not thrilled with my battery life after JBing and then putting b4 on top of b2 (I know I got the phone doing more stuff than before -- way better stuff though) but still the life of the battery is not what I would like. So you are saying to Restore the phone as a new device in iTunes first. Do you then Sync it in iTunes to get your stuff back, and then JB using the most recent GP build? Or JB it then Sync?
correct. do not restore from back up at all. the only time consuming part should be if you have multiple emails set up, in which case take notes
in fact, right after i "restored as new" i jailbroke right away just in case something were to go wrong.... then go ahead and
sync your photos, music, apps etc
My iphone is a 3GS running 4.2.1 and wasn't previously JB. Started with b2 version of GP then I did the b4 build on top of that due to claims of better battery life.
i did the same thing and at the time.. it seemed ok but every time "i restored as new" it got better
Next question is I assume that I need to make notes of what Cydia stuff I've installed (and purchased) so that I can redo them after the JB and sync? I assume that Cydia keeps up with my purchases (biteSMS, etc)?
yes, any apps/tweaks you have bought will recognize your device and then can be loaded back without any issues
typically, when i do any type of restore i will hand write all my apps/tweaks from my packages section in cydia and manually load them. some people use backup apps and such but i ran into issues in the past
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i have noticed a BIG difference every time i "restored as new" in regards to my battery life. i am glad that this is the final release of greenpois0n (4.2.1) as my device is set up perfectly..
after you do this please let me know how it worked out for you