I’ve been an iPhone owner for about a year now, and I have jailbroken it off and on throughout the time that I’ve owned it. When I first got the device I jailbroke it to play with some of the apps people were developing, but I really didn’t see any that were must-haves, and they especially didn’t touch the quality of what’s available in the official App Store today. So my iPhone never stayed jailbroken for long.
It’s a different story for me now. I jailbroke my iPhone 3G for the first time about a month and a half ago, and couldn’t imagine having it any other way. Why is that? Here are my reasons:
- Run apps in the background – There is a free program available through the repositories that will allow you to run any iPhone app in the background. I like to listen to streaming Internet radio stations while doing other things on my phone, and this is really the only solution for doing that.
- Try out paid App Store apps before you buy them – This is reason enough to jailbreak your iPhone. Basically how this works is you can install any app from the App Store (yes, including paid ones) without dropping a dime. You’ll want to become familiar with sites such as Appulo.us, which are where you can download the “cracked” apps from. You’ll also need to install an app from the repositories that will basically tell iTunes it’s okay to sync the stuff you haven’t actually purchased.
- Easy tethering solution – Another program in the repositories, called PDANet, is the ultimate tethering program. It’s free if all you want it for is HTTP access, but if you cough up the $30 you can also use things like VPN access. There is little to no configuration to get it running… just connect to your device like you would a router, and you’ll be on your merry way.
- Backup app configurations – Chronus can also be found in the repositories, and is an extremely valuable tool when it comes down to backing up the configuration/settings of your apps. You can then email yourself the backups you made so that they are safely tucked away off the device in case anything should happen to your iPhone. If you pay the $7.99 for Chronus you’ll even be able to backup all of your programs in a single click.
Those are the reasons that I have so far for jailbreaking my iPhone. I know what you’re thinking about number 2… how could I “steal” apps from the developers without actually paying for them? I’ve actually bought more apps now than before I jailbroke my phone. Why is that? I’m able to see what programs I find useful and fun instead of relying solely on the reviews in the App Store. I’ve pretty much committed to myself that if I keep an app for more than a week that I’ll go ahead and buy it. It’s inevitable that some people may use this method as a way to get programs illegally, but I use it more as a way to “try before I buy.” Not only that but iTunes won’t automatically update these cracked apps for you, and if you like to stay on top of updates you’ll probably want to purchase them.
What about you? Do you have an iPhone or iPod Touch that you’ve decided for or against jailbreaking?
I have an iPod touch that’s been jailbroken since the 1.1.4 days (still running 1.1.4). I love it.
I also have and iPhone 3G that’s jailbroken, running 2.1. It’s awesome. The ability to have themes and apps that Apple doesn’t allow is great.
“You’ll also need to install an app from the repositories that will basically tell iTunes it’s okay to sync the stuff you haven’t actually purchased.”
Can’t you just run from cracked app from the Stash folder, which is where all your non-App Store apps run from? I don’t see why you would to sync through iTunes. I haven’t tried downloading cracked apps, but I don’t see why they wouldn’t run that way. All you would need to do is download an SFTP client and transfer the cracked apps into the proper folder, respring, and it would be on Springboard.
I haven’t jailbroken my iPhone yet because I don’t want to have to deal with a broken phone. I don’t have time to (potentially) spend fixing my phone. Also, we don’t have a land line at my house so my cell is my only phone. It has to work.
Otherwise, I would love to have background processes and be able to demo an app.
Worst case scenario if something happens to your phone is you restore it in DFU mode to factory settings and you have your old phone back.
No jailbreak for me. I don’t want to steal apps, even for try-before-you-buy purposes. I do agree though that Apple has got to figure out a trial system.
If I were to buy an iPhone or iTouch it certainly would be jail broken. I myself and am old school programmer and hardware hacker. I would do it just to learn and grow. Plus I don’t like device manufactures telling me what I can and can’t do with my device. If I buy it it’s mine to play with as a please. That’s the biggest reason I have not bought one yet, but maybe some day. For now my Palm TX is still going strong.
Wait, can you still run App Store apps? I thought you couldn’t…
Pieter, you dont have to steal apps
you will get so much more out your your iphone, nice silent camera, own themes and stuff..but maybe the most useful is the “toggles”, and with sbsettings, you can turn on/off 3g and wifi etc within one second from inside any app. and new years eve you can lockup the phone (using the operator you want)
dumb question… what does it break? can i still use my regular service, sync email, sync music, etc? does it simply remove restrictions?
Jim nothing changes regarding appstore, mail etc..but you get an extra store with goodies aka cydia
cool… thanks for the info!
Yes, but I find it to be a lot easier to just drag and drop the app into iTunes rather than SSH’ing into the iPhone all the time.
For me I’m buying more apps now than I ever did before. Particularly games that I’m always unsure about purchasing. So it is really benefiting the developers.
You sure can.
Just removes the restrictions. I haven’t found anything that doesn’t work because of jailbreaking.
Hi.
Who knows how to jailbreak an ipod touch 2.2.1?
Because the other day I tried to do it and got some programs but I ended up crashing my boyfriend’s computer.
So if anyone can tell me the correct way to do it… Please.
Don’t worry. I did it.
Now I don’t know how to do the try-before-you-buy thing. Which app do I need? Where do I get it?
Who can tell me? Please.
Oh, I found it. Thank you.
my cousins jailbroke it for me yesterday & today when I was downloading a picture messaging application it asked me to reboot the phone & now it won’t start