Following yesterday’s great news surrounding the EFF-proposed “new rules” that have changed the jailbreaking landscape, Apple has commented on the situation in a phone call with fellow tech site, Cult of Mac. Here’s what the company’s spokersperson had to say:
“Apple’s goal has always been to insure that our customers have a great experience with their iPhone and we know that jailbreaking can severely degrade the experience. As we’ve said before, the vast majority of customers do not jailbreak their iPhones as this can violate the warranty and can cause the iPhone to become unstable and not work reliably.”
So what does this mean for potential jailbreakers? Well, as Apple has said all along, jailbreaking your iPhone allows a whole load of non-authorized material to find its way onto your beloved iDevice. This unauthorized material could include viruses, spyware, or at the very least could affect your iPhone for the worse.
As we all know, Apple likes to keep the jailbreaking door firmly shut, only allowing Apple-approved third party apps to find their way into the Apple-controlled App Store. This way, users can be certain that everything their non-jailbroken phones encounter is safe. However, wise-jailbreakers won’t go on a download spree in Cydia. Often, most of the apps users download in Jay Freeman’s unofficial app store will have been recommended by a site, or at the very least, a friend. So debatably, Cydia is safe for those who know how to use it.
However, users need to be aware that jailbreaking their iPhone may still void its warranty. So if you do manage to pwn your phone, and it promptly dies, don’t expect much help from Apple or AT&T. You’ll probably get the “we told you so” face. We need to remember that, despite this new change, jailbreaking is still a risk. Essentially, if you don’t know what you’re doing, don’t do it.
Cult of Mac also asked their source whether Apple might sue companies who publish or retail jailbreaking software. She reminded us that Apple hasn’t done such a thing in the past. So as far as this goes, nobody knows. For the meantime, potential jailbreakers can check out the easy-to-use Spirit jailbreak, which couldn’t be simpler.
With 10 million jailbroken iPhones already out there, one can only speculate how this recent change will affect that number. Personally, I’d expect potential jailbreakers to have already jailbroken their iPhone by now, regardless of the stigma attached to it. Though I guess this new change might push those sitting on the fence into the pineapple orchard. If you’ve recently decided to take a crack at jailbreaking your iPhone, let us know in the comments box below!
There is no conceivable way for the average iPhone user to brick their phone software-wise. You’d have to try. And be amazingly smart.
“Apple’s goal has always been to insure…”
The last I checked, Apple was not an insurance company. It’s amazing to me that a company known for so tightly controlling it’s media message can’t understand the difference between “insure” and “ensure”. But then again, this is the same company who hosted an ad campaign with the tagline “Think Different”.
Sorry. Personal pet peeve.
Insure? How about ensure? Come on Apple, that’s just sloppy.
Anyone know a easy jb for iPod touch 3G iOS 4?
“Apple has commented on the situation in a phone call…” For you nitpickers, don’t you think it far more likely that CultofMac made the insure/ensure mistake? Rather than Apple’s ridiculously high-paid spokesperson?
“we know that jailbreaking can severely degrade the experience”. Wtf??? Oooh I hope Steve Jobs says that in his RDF. :p
I have a jailbroken iPad and was using a jailbroken iPhone 3G before I got my iPhone 4. Jailbroken devices CAN give you awesome features that Apple and AT&T have decided to not include. But, since there is little quality control on Cydia apps, the wrong app, or combination of apps CAN make the machine work poorly. I have had situations where weird things were happening, and I spent hours trying to figure out which app was causing it. I was experienced enough to know that the problem was from my unapproved apps, but many people might have assumed there was a problem with the device. Anyway, the point is that while I still plan on jailbreaking, Apple is completely correct in saying that you CAN make your device perform strangely.
Seriously, Suddensam and Scott, if you had read the article you would’ve realized that the quote was from a PHONE CALL with Apple that was transcribed by Cult of Mac. Now who’s being sloppy??
I am planning on jailbreaking my iPod touch 3rd gen, but I’m waiting for a good untethered jb to be released (Limera1n or Spirit)
ive jb for a longtime.. there is a lot to learn if u just cant leave well enuff alone.. doing crazy stuff like removing french, spanish etc, rewriting flash drives just to speed up 2,3g.. is fun but restore is not haha.. but those r spare fons.. can probly name 10 root directories off the top of my head.. if u dnt enjoy tinkering id pass…
with all the problems our nation has had with cell phone consumer complaints not to mention local social net limitations the implications are frightening we are not ready to allow third party software on all imported u.s. technology
plus we haven’t even considered business ramifications, they may be more hesitant to bring sales to u.s. in future this is in fact asian technology they dont want people asking about the OS, applications, and pirate spyware