Last week I decided to jailbreak my iPhone again. I decided to experiment and see what I could do. I wanted to find out what I liked and what I disliked about jailbreaking. I'm not a noob to this stuff though. I've been hacking and jailbreaking since 1.1.1 (I even went through the 47 step manual jailbreak). Here are some thoughts on what I found:
1. Voids your warranty (if something goes wrong and you can't restore, you're screwed). It's not illegal to jailbreak though.
1a. Apparently it's illegal too: http://i.gizmodo.com/5153101/apple-says-jailbreaking-iphones-is-illegal-dammit
2. Certain things cause the iPhone to lag considerably. (last night I had to help my brother uninstall a TON of crap because it took like 7 seconds to open SMS)
3. I want to be able to upgrade to the newest Firmware when it comes out and not have to wait around for the dev-team to come out with another patch. (although they're usually very quick)
4. iTunes backs up all of your purchased applications and preferences, but if you have to restore again, you have to re-install all of your fancy hacks and mods (which can be a pain sometimes)
5. I like to know that if my iPhone is running slow or buggy, it's Apple's fault. (I don't need to be wondering if it's from a third party hack or patch)
6. Besides the slowdown, most themes can make the SpringBoard look crazy cool, but since the majority of the rest of the OS is stock, it doesn't feel like it belongs.
7. I've found that most of the hacks, mods and jailbroken applications are cool at first but quickly get old fast. (this is my opinion... I'm not trying to be a fanboy here, I've tried a lot of things while I was jailbroken)
8. I don't change my settings enough to justify having SBSettings. (I usually just keep everything on... 3G, Wifi, Bluetooh... etc. I used to worry about battery life and stuff until I realized that I hardly ever even put a dent in my battery since I'm always near a computer or charger in the car.)
9. Jailbreaking was fun back in the 1.1.1-1.1.4 days but, with the addition of the App Store, I can find almost everything that the old jailbreaking gave me and more. Apple is slowly loosening their grip on what the developers can do.
10. If someone found my jailbroken iPhone, they could plug it into the computer and instantly gain access to the entire filesystem (even without SSH). I know apps like DiskAid and PhoneView can view and edit the entire filesystem of a jailbroken iPhone over USB. However, if someone wanted my data bad enough, they could just QuickPwn it themselves and have a field day.... so much for passcode locks.
I have a few things I'd like to add in contrast to this list... some nice things about jailbreaking:
1. Customizing SMS tones was cool
2. If a certain icon or graphic in an application didn't look good to me, I could change it.
3. Somehow you're instantly cooler when you have a jailbroken iPhone and you're showing off the extra things to someone who has a regular stock iPhone.
4. Jailbroken (Cydia and Installer) applications are updated as soon as the developer has the update ready. No waiting for approval and waiting weeks for a small bug fix.
5. It's fun if you like to tinker.
These statements are just my opinions... they're not scientific in anyway. These are all based on things I've noticed from having and using a jailbroken iPhone. I'm not a developer, so I don't know how everything works internally.
There you have it. My reasons why I just restored to a stock Apple Firmware ONCE AGAIN. For some reason I always do this. Since 2.0 came out, I've been jailbreaking every few weeks for a little while and then restoring. For some reason, I always think it's going to be cool or better and I like the freshness to cure bordom, but the freshness doesn't last.
What are some things you DON'T like about jailbreaking? I think I touched on just about everything, but I'm sure people can come up with more reasons. What are your thoughts?
Edit: I fixed number 1 to show that jailbreaking is illegal in Apple's eyes.
1. Voids your warranty (if something goes wrong and you can't restore, you're screwed). It's not illegal to jailbreak though.
1a. Apparently it's illegal too: http://i.gizmodo.com/5153101/apple-says-jailbreaking-iphones-is-illegal-dammit
2. Certain things cause the iPhone to lag considerably. (last night I had to help my brother uninstall a TON of crap because it took like 7 seconds to open SMS)
3. I want to be able to upgrade to the newest Firmware when it comes out and not have to wait around for the dev-team to come out with another patch. (although they're usually very quick)
4. iTunes backs up all of your purchased applications and preferences, but if you have to restore again, you have to re-install all of your fancy hacks and mods (which can be a pain sometimes)
5. I like to know that if my iPhone is running slow or buggy, it's Apple's fault. (I don't need to be wondering if it's from a third party hack or patch)
6. Besides the slowdown, most themes can make the SpringBoard look crazy cool, but since the majority of the rest of the OS is stock, it doesn't feel like it belongs.
7. I've found that most of the hacks, mods and jailbroken applications are cool at first but quickly get old fast. (this is my opinion... I'm not trying to be a fanboy here, I've tried a lot of things while I was jailbroken)
8. I don't change my settings enough to justify having SBSettings. (I usually just keep everything on... 3G, Wifi, Bluetooh... etc. I used to worry about battery life and stuff until I realized that I hardly ever even put a dent in my battery since I'm always near a computer or charger in the car.)
9. Jailbreaking was fun back in the 1.1.1-1.1.4 days but, with the addition of the App Store, I can find almost everything that the old jailbreaking gave me and more. Apple is slowly loosening their grip on what the developers can do.
10. If someone found my jailbroken iPhone, they could plug it into the computer and instantly gain access to the entire filesystem (even without SSH). I know apps like DiskAid and PhoneView can view and edit the entire filesystem of a jailbroken iPhone over USB. However, if someone wanted my data bad enough, they could just QuickPwn it themselves and have a field day.... so much for passcode locks.
I have a few things I'd like to add in contrast to this list... some nice things about jailbreaking:
1. Customizing SMS tones was cool
2. If a certain icon or graphic in an application didn't look good to me, I could change it.
3. Somehow you're instantly cooler when you have a jailbroken iPhone and you're showing off the extra things to someone who has a regular stock iPhone.
4. Jailbroken (Cydia and Installer) applications are updated as soon as the developer has the update ready. No waiting for approval and waiting weeks for a small bug fix.
5. It's fun if you like to tinker.
These statements are just my opinions... they're not scientific in anyway. These are all based on things I've noticed from having and using a jailbroken iPhone. I'm not a developer, so I don't know how everything works internally.
There you have it. My reasons why I just restored to a stock Apple Firmware ONCE AGAIN. For some reason I always do this. Since 2.0 came out, I've been jailbreaking every few weeks for a little while and then restoring. For some reason, I always think it's going to be cool or better and I like the freshness to cure bordom, but the freshness doesn't last.
What are some things you DON'T like about jailbreaking? I think I touched on just about everything, but I'm sure people can come up with more reasons. What are your thoughts?
Edit: I fixed number 1 to show that jailbreaking is illegal in Apple's eyes.
