With my recent How To articles, I have been asked WHY someone should jailbreak their iPhone. But when it comes down to it, I did it because I wanted access to all the functionality possible with this device. The technology included in this phone has great possibilities. My iPhone has more options and apps than all of my previous mobile phones combined. However, there are still some areas where apple could improve the functionality of the iPhone.
I would truly like this phone to replace all of my daily gadgets. The GPS in my car has turn by turn navigation, my digital camera has a video recording option and my net book allows copy and paste. These are just some of the software based functionality that Apple has refused to include in the current firmware for the iPhone. Apparently others feel the same way I do and they have created apps to add this functionality to the iPhone. But, given the strictness of the App Store, all of the apps with these options have been turned down by apple.
The reason for jailbreaking your iPhone is pure and simple – to have the ability to install 3rd party apps not sold in the App Store. I know there are thousands of apps available in the app store, but apple has been very restrictive with their rules regarding which apps can be made available to users. A few of the functions that jailbreaking can supply include, video recording, tethering, multi-format video playback, copy/paste, turn by turn talking GPS navigation, Bluetooth file transfers, power management, MMS, Voip over 3G, instant messenger in the background, brighter flashlight, customized menus, and stolen phone recovery. I will add a list at the end of the article detailing which apps can be used for each type of functionality.
After all the Apple bashing I may do in this article, I have to admit, the iPhone has the potential to become the best possible phone on the market. And Jailbreaking brings the iPhone out as the leader of the pack.
If jailbreaking is so great, why doesn’t everyone do it? Well, in a world of OS X and Windows, we are used to using non-customizable and unstable computer environments. Given these issues with computers, we all fear our devices crashing, so we try never to fiddle with it too much. But instead of just telling you that the iPhone is different, why don’t we go over the most common reasons I hear on why people do not jailbreak their iPhone.
1. I don’t like to break the warranty.
While jailbreaking your iPhone does break the software licensing agreement, it does not break the warranty of the phone. And technically once it is restored back to it’s standard configuration (unjailbreaking), you are no longer invalidating any agreements. If you ever have any hardware issues, just unjailbreak your phone and send it in. As of yet, jailbreaking your phone is not illegal.
2. I’m afraid it will kill my phone and lose all of my information
As for jailbreaking being the cause of a bricked phone, I have found less than a dozen instances of people having unrecoverable issues and they happened with older jailbreaking methods. From the research I have done, even the worst jailbreak failures can be easily fixed by putting the phone in recovery mode and recovering with iTunes. Then you just re-jailbreak. Regarding information loss, you should always backup your contacts through iTunes or through Gmail.
3. It is only for people who want to be different
Jailbreaking is not only for people that want to be different and personalize their phone. While it offers many options to customize your menu and tailor it to your personality, there are many apps that offer basic functionalities. I do not think that being able to record video, copy/paste, or talking turn by turn navigation is a matter of trying to be different.
4. It’s only for people with too much time on their hands
Jailbreaking is not for people with too much time on their hands. Once you have jailbroken your phone and you have it set up, it takes the same amount of time to install an app from Cydia as it does from the app store.
5. Only total tech savvy hackers can jailbreak without help
To be honest, jailbreaking is extremely simple. If you have a newer computer and a high speed internet connection, it takes a half hour to do the whole process. Most of that time is waiting and the instructions in the jailbreaking programs are extremely simple to follow. My mother was able to jailbreak her phone in no time by following the instructions.
With the new options coming to us in iPhone firmware 3.0, a few of the jailbreaking perks are obsolete, however there are many options to personalize your phone that will never be included by apple.
Here are a few examples of functionality that can be added by jailbreaking and apps that will add this functionality.
| Functions | Apps |
|---|---|
| Video Recording | Cycorder |
| Tethering | PDANet, iPhone modem |
| All Format Video Playback | VLC for iPhone |
| Copy/Paste | CopiercIN |
| Turn by Turn GPS | xGPS |
| Bluetooth file transfers | ibluetooth |
| Power Management | SBSettings |
| MMS | SwirlyMMS |
| Voip over 3G | VoipOver3G |
| Run Programs in the Background | backgrounder |
| Brighter Flashlight | Flashlight by bigboss |
| Stolen Phone Rcovery | iLocalis, findmyi |
| Themes Manager | Winterboard |
These are not the only functions that can be added with jailbreaking. These are merely the most popular replies I have been given when I ask why people jailbreak their iPhones. These are also not the only apps available, just the ones I personally use.
I hope I have shown you why you should jailbreak your iPhone and have alleviated your worries as to why you should not. This phone has the potential to take over the job of multiple daily used techno-gadgets. My iPhone has made my life more connected and jailbreaking has given me the chance to customize my phone to work best for me. I hope you can now see that compared to the minimal risk involved, jailbreaking offers many improvements to the stock counterpart.
Not to pour cold water on jailbreaking, but I’d just like to mention it’s not exactly a bonanza of apps and functionality. Outside of Winterboard/Summerboard, there’s just not that much to it, IMHO. But I didn’t know any better, and so after several months of reading gushing praise for jailbreaking, I took the plunge. Sure, skinning your interface is fun and there are a couple of apps that are interesting, but it just not worth consistently restoring the device (which means basically reinstalling the OS and all of your apps), not being able to update when new updates dropped. Why would you jailbreak, when the 3.0 release is just months away! If you are serious about jailbreaking, I’d wait until after a 3.0 jailbreak.
As for me, it’s been there, done that. Given all that’s coming to the iDevice (from the 3.0 update to open sourcing of Wolfenstein, Quake and Doom), it just seems like there’s not much incentive for me. I really don’t want to see my iDevice stuck on the pineapple logo or visited by a Steve Jobs caricature speaking German.
You’re an idiot. Did you even read the article? Tethering, Video recording (and live streaming to the net), and turn by turn GPS are just a couple of reasons you should jailbreak. You’re right, themes are a gee whiz thing but if that’s all you explored in Cydia then you need to go back and take another look. You’d be doing yourself a favor.
Bluetooth?? I am jailbreaking for it.
you can already do everything in that post from the apps store mabye take a look sometime
you are an utter noobfag. Go die in a fire, that way no poor souls will be misguided into taking your pathetic excuse of an opinion seriously.
Lol, this is an example of GOOD trolling. lol, over the top.
I think I’ll give it a go.. Though the main drive for me is ssh access to the phone. (*makes unacceptable references to self-sexual gratification*)
Apple has not said a thing about video on the iphone in 3.0, so jailbreaking is a must for me.
I agre
PDANet can be a real lifesaver. Even if AT&T allows tethering they are going to charge a fortune for it. That is why I keep by phone jailbroken.
Please don’t forget my favorite jailbroken app, TuneWiki!!!
I am a huge fan of TuneWiki and 3.0 is great news for the application. From my understanding the TuneWiki developers should now be able to develop a version for 3.0 that Apple will allow.
Are you just saying that it is possible, or that the developer has actually said he is making an app store version.
When you gave her the phone to replace her Nokia did you just activate it on her plan and not add a data plan for it? cause if you didnt that was your problem, she used it like it was ment to be used but was getting charged for every mb she used, and not a flat fee for a data plan. Great phones but you got to get a voice and data plan. good luck but I think you are gunna be stuck with that bill, they know which phone she was using since to use it on her plan im sure you had to add it to her account and take the Nokia off.
I got the 3G so I gave the 2G to my wife to use, for the first time I jailbreak the phone
for her. yeterday we got the monthly bill which left us hard to swollow…..almost 1k, is there anything I can use as an argument with them? do they know for sure she use an Iphone instead of her old Nokia? what company better to use with Jailbreak iPhone or how people do it without paying fortune in the monthly bill?
Ron
Hi Ron
I had a huge bill for the first month after I got my iphone. I had used £500 of internet. They had not transfered my new contract. They thought I was still using my Samsung phone. I rang them and they waived the bill. My internet access is now part of my contract. This is why I am considering jailbreaking my phone because I want to use it as a modem for my PC.
i am a cust. service rep for ATT. we do have a way to see what phone you are using. our system records the imei of the device that was used even if you have led us to believe you are on a different phone, system will record for the one used, not what is on the account. you have no argument you can use. the charges are valid.
HAHA!!!!!!!!!!!
3:)
I have considered jailbreaking my phone, but would I be able to keep the apps I bought from the app store? There are several I use all the time. Do you still have access to the app store?
Hi,
I have the same question as Patrick: do we have still access to the app store AND what happens with all the apps we already bought?
Thanks for answering!!
All of the apps I have downloaded are stored on iTunes. So if ilpse everything, I just have to sync in iTunes and everything will be reinstalled. All of my settings in iTunes are set at default.
Yes all your apps from the appstore still work. It just adds Cydia which is a 3rd party app store that allows you to download all the non apple approved apps. All it does is give you more variety. There is nothing that stops working after you jailbreak.
thanks guys!
I jailbreak my phone, and as you said, it’s just another app that allow you to install others (unapproved) apps.
there is just too much ads on cydia…. they make a lot of money from that business!
however it’s still nice to have the ability to install whatever you want.
also, I have noticed that my phone is a little laggy since I jailbreak it, sometime it freeze for few seconds… maybe I have too much apps on it? or maybe its just the jailbreak that does that… I think about restoring it cause jailbreak is nice but I don’t REALLY REALLY need it, so if I can make my phone more responsive by unjailbreaking it then I’ll unjailbreak it!
what about the unlock through cydia? use it with no contract?
jailbroken iphone3g is sooo much better than a boring locked up os.
clippy?
I can see why jailbreaking appeals to some people, but I have never been one of them. I wish all those iPhone hackers would put at least a little effort towards providing people with clean alternatives to their hacks.
By clean I mean trying to figure out how the direct unlock method that Apple itself uses to permanently unlock iPhones works. That in combination with a software that just emulates iTunes’s activation protocol, without unnecessarily modifying the phone software, would be a heaven sent for people like me, who just want the phone as it is, but permanently carrier unlocked without any fuss. An unlock that sticks regardless of what you do with the phone, including upgrading the FW, all you would need to do is activate it.
No hacker ever went that route, so I just bought a factory unlocked iPhone to replace my old locked iPhone. But I still have that old 2G locked iPhone in the drawer, if that direct unlock solution were ever to surface I would be all over it.
Yeah, you have a problem with how hackers want to jailbreak their phones? Do our methods not cater to your desires?
And who ever said we even have to share our hacks with you? We’re not going to waste time doing anything the clean, official way to pave an easy road for lazy asses like you. We take what we want, and you’re lucky we open that door to you too. If you want something, don’t bitch about it on the internet and hope we’ll do it for you.
We’re not here to make your life easier.
You see, I didn’t. I precisely chose to throw away my old iPhone and pay a huge sum of money to be freed from inelegant half assed solutions which seem to be the only thing produceable by the crippling lack of finesse that all hackers suffer from. Apple’s design philosophy in all of their creations seems to just fly above their head like so many Soyuz space craft over unknowing earthlings.
Speaking in aspect, the hackers that have jailbroken the iPhone are not coming up with half assed solutions. Writing slightly malicious content that affects apples products is nothing less than amazing. As far as truly unlocking the iphone goes…
in order to free the iphone completely it would be pretty simple actually. That is of course if you have an understanding of how apple thinks. The reason why apple has chose to lock these features, is simple, the longer it takes for the features to be available the more money they make. (DUH) If you truly wanna free the iphone download the iPhone OS via torrent and run it in a virtual machine to test. To be quite honest using mac or windows, theoretically you could install whatever OS you wanted to that would support the processor and other hardware. So i guess what im saying is that if you develop apples iphone os without the restrictions and change itunes directory to restore from your files rather than default …
Does anyone think that on the 3.0 update there will be “booby traps” for jailbroken users? Is there any possible way that Apple can come up with an update that will utterly destroy any jail broken iphone?
I’d like to see them try.
I really need to be able to initiate bluetooth dialing, and maybe other control, over my bluetooth headset. I cannot determine if this is coming in 3.0 or if it is even available through Jailbreaking. Is it?
Thanx!
zeddock
should i jailbreak my iphone i dont want to break it shell i do it ????????????????
I LOVE my iPhone, my MAC and the seamless integration this combo provides me. Everything is in the AIR with the huge exception of ATT signal where I have recently moved!
A few weeks back I see this rolling text right next to my hefty 5 bar connection. “Off Network” So I call and ask why is this?
The woman says, “It just means your roaming…Oh wait! No your account is on audit status; in 120 days if you aren’t using an ATT tower more your phone will be restricted to allow connections ONLY through ATT Towers.”
But what about my phone? “Well be happy to allow you to break your contract without penalty.” So fine ATT is mightily expensive any way.
Can Jailbreaking my phone allow me to use other (is it GSM?) carriers? T-Mobile works great out here.
getoveryourselvesss PLEASE BYE
JailBreaking your Iphone3g Will Cost you nearly 500+$ the first month. No warning. be careful. I am a victim.
HAHAHAHA
500$
i have a problem like some of you guys said that after jail braking my i phone i might of get the chance of getting the Steve jobs cartoons…it happened to me i really need help because i loved my i phone and i would hate to loose it is there any one which i know there is, that it had happened to and that can help me…if there is some one please help me please!!!!
Can I use Verizon service, replacing my Verizon-phone with my old iphone? with the jailbreak download???
i really miss the video and the texting picture function when i got my iphone, other than that i love it. Of course 2 months later they came out with a new much more expensive phone that does this. How can i make my iphone 3g have these funtions?
I just re-did my two year contract will att and got a refurb 3g iphone for 50 bucks. Damn! Even if the refurb phone breaks down. For 50 bucks. I don’t give a fuuuuuuuuuuuck!
I have a friend with a Jailbroken iPhone 3g on T-Mobile. I was helping her set up some e-mail today and her phone seems to be slow. I found myself waiting for things to open and it generally felt “laggy.”
Is this a feature of jailbreaking, unlocking or something else?
Is this a known factor in jailbreaking?
Thanks!
-TS
I just bought the iPhone 3gs for my birthday & I LOVE it! It is the best gift I’ve ever gotten myself LOL…BUT I think I might jailbreak it bc I really would like to watch my show “True Blood” online while I’m @ work! Will Jailbreaking allow me to do do this?! If so, Count me in!
you fags! i have the iphone 3G S and the new 3.0 update lets me copy paste, record video, turn by turn nav, and now as of september 25 i have MMS!! suck these apples
exactly!
FU
i have a 3G S 3.1.2 version.. i jailbroke it and everytime i turn the phone off then on i got the screen that shows the itunes with the cable and the only way to get that off my phone i had to rejailbreak my phone so i undid everything and stayed with the factory settings….. so y jailbreak ur phone when u dont get all apps for free.. they have free and paid.. so whats the point.. can some1 clear that up for me.. and i wanna know if some1 else had the same problem the way i did and maybe can tell me what i did wrong and some benefits that maybe im not aware of … thax
Always jailbreak with Blackra1n, its simple follow the instructions.
Once all Jailbroken, and you install the apps you want and do all your themes etc.
You must not turn off your phone…. (They are updating Blackra1n) on this
just keep your phone in sleep mode. There is no need to turn it off.
Okay. If I want to jailbreak my new iPhone and I have AT&T as my carrier, will they somehow know that I have an iPhone and charge me 30$ a month just for having it?
I have an iPhone 3g and would like to know the ups n downs of jailbreaking….after reading all this I’m 50/100 percent sure…..can anyone offer any advice here?….I already pay a lot for 3g and Internet per month will I still get a large fee the first
month?
Jailbreaking is not just for the 3rd party apps, but the idea in general is that this enables Apples to let people take these ideas like the Iphone and excel wih creativity. Apple just can not support all the issues that arise from untested apps or whatever. It’s poeple that take the initiative to hack these devices and the peeple to wanting these small enhancements that make it better. got RTFM ?
I spelled people wrong – twice…lol i need to write a hack to be able to edit this forum …lol
A word for the guys not sure of Jailbreaking.. Just do it and if you don’t like it or have no need for it. then JUST restore — no hard done.
I said hard… LOLOLOLOL
Are you 12 years old? Grow up.
I was un sure about jailbreaking but the option of the video camera, that’s what swayed me! Thanks
If I jailbreak my iPhone do I still get my free 3g bolt-on. I’m 15 so I use the 3g all the time on the internet and app store.
Or is the bolt-on part of my PAYG sim?
Thanks
Is it true, when you jailbreak your iphone it becomes laggy? if so then i would rather not JB and keep it the way it is, because the 3gs has video recording and copy/paste.
jailbreak!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
this is giving me headaches -.-, Is jail breaking worth it?
Hi, after uninstalling blackrain , I install it again, but this time ,there is no blackrain icon appear on my ipod. I try intstall it again 10x but fails to show the icon. Any solution.Thanks
I have a 3Gs and think I will wait awhile. I could understand why people with older phones do it (video, etc.). I alos don’t like the fact you have to jailbreak it again once a new firmware comes out. I’m not installing 3.1.3 because they are such minor issues, but if there is something I want to fix, then I have to reapply the jailbreak after one is designed.
Ok I just came across this site and read every comment here. Quite a bit of useful information with one issue it isn’t verified whether certain aspects do or do not work anymore. Apple has released so many” fixes” lately.
I keep hearing rumors with( some with proof and validation) that apple is trying to get congress to pass a law making jailbreaking officially illegal, various firmware updates do brick jailbroken phones, they are taking preventive measures to make jailbreaking next to impossible, the itunes terms and conditions keep changing and supposedly any app on the ap store can be updated at any time to prevent the app from being played on a jailbroken device.
Also when it comes to tethering does that work like those midi devices and wouldn’t ATT just charge me as if I was using a mbile broadband card?
Apple deliberately excludes or disables specific features already included on the device why can they get away with this.
Is jailbreaking still worth it? I had always thought it was before but didn’t have a computer (fried) finally got a new one but hearing all these things I’m very hesitant to try it I don’t think it’s so simple as just trying and restoring if something goes wrong anymore is there any truth to this?
Or is it all just scare tactics?
You didn’t even mention installous. Get free apps that are in the app store. I got $100 worth of apps free.
i jailbroke my iphone it was great at first until my phone slowed down, the delays were every were, apps did not work sometimes, freezing of my screen and even not being able to start my phone. then one day my phone over packed cydia downloaded crap when i did not want it to. i could not access the filles, they were slowly over packing my phone. my phone even sent me warnings that something was wrong. know i un jailbroke it and its better more simple use and much much faster. so im telling u that jailbreak is good but like many people have seen/heard it comes at a risk. but if i were u i would stick to the way u got it because u already have enough features
SPIRIT JB IS WHERE ITS AT!
Program link to jailbreak my phone? Plz and thanks email me or MSG me at trevorweems@yahoo.com thanks
I have used my iPhone 3G tethered to my laptop and it’s works just fine. When I bought my iPad, my plan was to use the data package from my iPhone and tether to my iPad but I see now that I bought the iPad, that can’t be done. If I jailbreak my iPhone, can I tether to my iPad?
Jailbreaking an iphone is morally wrong. It will cause you more problems than it is worth. You should all be deeply ashamed of yourselves and support Apple for future development reasons.
I am very grateful for the fantastic products in my life – that Apple have provided me with to make life that little more pleasurable as well as easier in terms of enjoyment and organising.
If I had my way – all pirates would be flogged and thrown in prison and made to use a microsoft pc.