General Do you believe jailbreaking has sort of a "learning" curve?

[tymaster50]

Most of us can do it with ease, that leads me to say that it's idiot proof, but after I had the pleasure of talking with a young lady that didn't even have iTunes installed on her PC it made me realize it's not all that easy. Some people don't even know how to unzip the folder, and some don't even read directions. Even if you get past all of that you still have to add repo's and tweaks etc... and sometimes it can give you weird errors that for common users are almost unsolvable.

So I do believe it has a mid-high learning curve.

 

[eawmp1]

Learning curves are in the eye of each individual learner.

And yes, for the AVERAGE iPhone user, jailbreaking is a bit beyond their comfort level.

 

[ECUpirate44]

Sure, it has a learning curve as with everything else. It takes a certain amount of experience/trial and error to know how to do things.

 

[clockworkorange]

Quite.

My sister just started getting into the jailbreak scene this year, at first she couldn't get anything done without my help, now she's completely themed her phone, SSHd into it to modify certain aspects, and has actually showed me a tweak or two I had never heard of.

The curve tends to straighten out the more you are interested and focused on learning about the various tweaks, apps, and mods.

 

[tymaster50]

Quite.

My sister just started getting into the jailbreak scene this year, at first she couldn't get anything done without my help, now she's completely themed her phone, SSHd into it to modify certain aspects, and has actually showed me a tweak or two I had never heard of.

The curve tends to straighten out the more you are interested and focused on learning about the various tweaks, apps, and mods.

I've been jailbreaking since the iPod Touch 2g or 1g and I still need to use guides sometimes for SHSH or whatever it's called.

 

[clockworkorange]

I've been jailbreaking since the iPod Touch 2g or 1g and I still need to use guides sometimes for SHSH or whatever it's called.

Definitely man, I still have problems every now and then. :\

 

[eyoungren]

The curve tends to straighten out the more you are interested and focused on learning about the various tweaks, apps, and mods.

You have the right of it there. Too many people think that when they jailbreak they are simply gaining access to an app store that Apple doesn't approve of. As soon as they figure out that there is a bit of learning involved, the interest wanes.

You have to have an interest in the technology or at least in improving your device. I would argue that a learning curve exists because the average user has never bothered to be interested in HOW their device works in the first place. The average user is far more interested in WHAT their device can do and how LITTLE investment they have to put into it.

 

[TheRainKing]

I think it all depends on your level of computer experience. I didn't know much about iPhones when I did my first jailbreak but I was already very knowledgeable when it came to computers so it all came naturally to me. Other people don't have any idea what they're doing though, the only thing they know is YouTube, Facebook and installing software from a disc. Those people are the hardest to teach.

 

[eyoungren]

Those people are the hardest to teach.

They are the hardest to teach because they are the most resistant to learning. They want it easy and don't want to understand. They just want it to work. It doesn't matter what. Could be learning to cook, learning to operate a backhoe, whatever. If it involves having to actually devote time or attention to a subject they want no part of it - unless of course they can see an immediate benefit to either their ego, their social status or their bank account.

 

[fizz7283]

My first few times trying to jailbreak were on my 3GS and I couldn't even get my phone into DFU mode lol somehow it screwed my phone up and I tried it about four times and ended up having to restore my phone four times. I gave up on jailbreaking that phone and forgot about it. Figured it wasn't for me.

Then along came the 4 and the amazing jailbreakme.com. After I used that and experienced the jailbreak I decided I needed to learn more about it and that my phone from there on out would be jailbroken, no matter what it took.

I can now get my phone into DFU mode too lol

But I've actually jailbroken my mom and dads phones and my nephews iPod touch. They've seen my phone and thought some things were cool so I jailbreak and install some packages and then hide the Cydia icon and tell them if they have any issues with their devices let me know. None of them are really technologically advanced enough or have any time to do any research or for me to teach them anything about Cydia and jailbreak in general. They just know they like activator, they like ncsettings, etc. with them I feel comfortable enough jailbreaking their devices and helping them if they have issues.

I've made the mistake in the past of spending hours jailbreaking, explaining Cydia, how tweaks can conflict, be for older devices and firmware, what respringing is, customizing a widget, all kinds of stuff for one of my friends once. Then he called me up one day and said he wanted to download a ringtone and he plugged his phone into his friends computer to download the ringtone and it restored the phone, but at least he got the ringtone. He was worried more about the dang ringtone! So I've learned my lesson with trying to actually help teach others outside of my family.

It does take some time and effort and I think most people don't feel like learning about the jailbreak process, they just want it to happen and be easy and allow them access to everything they want without any problems arising. In the beginning, I was one of them, I gave up way too early and figured it just wasn't for me. Glad I got a second chance with the easiest jailbreak ever! We need another jailbreakme.com lol