Doesnt jailbreaking defeat the object of an iPhone?

[Sir Ruben]

Hi Guys,

This is in no way an inflamatory post, I just want peoples opinions. Basically I have just jailbroken my iPhone with redsn0w and all has been okay so far. There is a lot of new interesting stuff to look at but I keep getting a nagging feeling to restore it back to normal.

Browsing forums all I see is topics on lagging, battery drain, glitchy animations etc caused by changing themes or running dodgy apps, and problems getting things to run properly. It got me thinking that most Apple lovers say they have an iPhone as opposed to an Android because "it just works". However it seems to me that by jailbreaking you are essentially going against this and turning your iPhone into something very similar to an Android in many ways?

As for themes, they look great in screenshots the reality is never quite as slick as the photos would have you believe and must be causing a hit on the battery life (having homescreens with weather etc).

Whilst jailbreaking does indeed free the iPhone, in many ways Im not sure its such a great idea. I am going to keep it like this for a while and see how I get on with it, maybe it will grow on me. I do like little things like the five icon dock which genuinely make the experience better, but everything else just reminds me of a time when people were big into installing themes on Windows and then changing them back to normal when they realised they looked tacky.

Am i missing the point?

 

[TC25]

Am i missing the point?

Yes, you're missing the point.

First, and most obvious, people will post complaints not compliments. For every complaint, there are many more who have had no problems.

Second, also obvious, since jb makes your phone more usable, wait for it, you will use it more.

 

[gngan]

Forums are usually places where people need help. You don't expect people to create a thread stating how awesome and problem-less they have with their JB iphone.

I have no lagging, battery drain, glitchy animations on my 3GS. I do see lags in 3G though but it's because of lesser ram. Did i post a thread stating how awesome JB is? No.

I only use my JB for SBSetting, 5 icon dock and 3G unrestrictor.

Don't just listen to others; try it yourself. If you don't like it then restore. Simple. Why creating a thread and ask people if you should keep your JB or not.

 

[labman]

do some research try it yourself then decide. Keep in mind every new firmware update there are tons of people reporting amazing battery life on the latest firmware. even if Apple is not reporting it's fixing the issue in the IOS update. What I mean is there is allot of crap is in peoples head jailbreak and not. I have been jailbreaking for 2 1/2 years the day I can't is the day I quite using the iphone. However I also realize jb is not for everybody. Heck my daughter hates it even though never let me try to touch her ipod.

 

[dudeabiding]

No lag, some battery impact (of course, playing a game impacts the battery), lots of utilities to make life easier (Activator, DeleteMail, Quick Dismiss, RemindMeLater, StartDial, biteSMS) as well as things to make it look/sound nicer (or at least different). If none of these interest you, then a restore is in your future. I have lots of friends who love the iPhone just as it is. For me, it's just a jumping-off point. Your milage may vary.

 

[Sir Ruben]

No lag, some battery impact (of course, playing a game impacts the battery), lots of utilities to make life easier (Activator, DeleteMail, Quick Dismiss, RemindMeLater, StartDial, biteSMS) as well as things to make it look/sound nicer (or at least different). If none of these interest you, then a restore is in your future. I have lots of friends who love the iPhone just as it is. For me, it's just a jumping-off point. Your milage may vary.

Hi thanks for the advice and honesty regarding the battery life. That seems to be my other bugbear with the jailbreaking scene, there is this adamant stance by many people that battery life is not affected, an example of something ive come across many times on this forum and others:

Potential jailbreaker: Hi there how is lockinfo (or any other plugin/theme) with your batter life?
Jailbreaker: Doesnt affect it at all I got to bed with the battery on 100% and when I get up in the morning its on 99%.

Im sorry but thats just total BS and a clear case of defending jailbreaking to the point of lying to themselves to try and convince others.

I'll keep it this way until IOS5 is released. Cant really see me keeping it beyond that for little more than SBSettings and 5 icons in the dock. 85% of the other stuff you can do with a jailbreak seems like pointless fluff for bored people who like to fiddle and tweak.

 

[TC25]

Potential jailbreaker: Hi there how is lockinfo (or any other plugin/theme) with your batter life?
Jailbreaker: Doesnt affect it at all I got to bed with the battery on 100% and when I get up in the morning its on 99%.

Im sorry but thats just total BS and a clear case of defending jailbreaking to the point of lying to themselves to try and convince others.

85% of the other stuff you can do with a jailbreak seems like pointless fluff for bored people who like to fiddle and tweak.

Question: Why did you bother starting a thread if you've already made up your mind?

Answer: To insult people and call them liars.

Classy, really classy.

 

[heisenberg123]

while jailbreaking gives your the opptunity to add things to it that can make it all what you described, thats not the case if you know what your doing

oh and i know plenty of people without jailbroken idevices that complain about all those very same things

 

[eastercat]

I've stated before that my battery is affected, but not to the extent that I want to get rid of the JB. However, when I installed SBsettings, it did affect the battery substantially, so I was forced to uninstall it.
The people who claim that their battery life isn't affected are like those people who claim their iphone is in perfect shape; in reality, it probably has some minor scratches. Some people are prone to exaggeration.

Battery life really depends on what you have installed. Some programs interact badly with one another and cause battery drain or other issues. Don't install the major battery drainers and you'll be fine.

 

[Applejuiced]

Op you should go back to stock and never jb again.

 

[heisenberg123]

I've stated before that my battery is affected, but not to the extent that I want to get rid of the JB. However, when I installed SBsettings, it did affect the battery substantially, so I was forced to uninstall it.
The people who claim that their battery life isn't affected are like those people who claim their iphone is in perfect shape; in reality, it probably has some minor scratches. Some people are prone to exaggeration.

Battery life really depends on what you have installed. Some programs interact badly with one another and cause battery drain or other issues. Don't install the major battery drainers and you'll be fine.

just out of curiosty what was your battery life with SBsettings vs without it?

 

[IrishVixen]

I've seen WAY more complaints about glitchy animations from the 4.3.2/4.3.3 upgrades than from theming. Many of those complaints have been from those who running stock firmware, and some end up JB'ing just to "fix" something that Apple apparently broke deliberately.

In my case, yesterday was the first time in 8+ months of owning a jailbroken phone that I saw a more rapid than usual battery drain, enough to become concerned. Then I realized I had left brightness fully cranked after doing some photo editing and had left Bluetooth on when I didn't need it. Duh. As soon as I fixed that, problem solved--and totally unrelated to my jailbreak. Many battery problems are from stuff like that; just look at the number of complaints on that score in the main parts of the forum.. Sure, some poorly written mods will cause battery issues or be glitchy as hell; if you can't handle that, do what I do and don't be the first to buy the latest and greatest on Cydia, no matter how cool it looks. Let those who want to be the guinea pigs and wait for their reviews. My phone has crashed into safe mode at random only once during the time I've had it--Safari, on the other hand, crashes several times a day whether running on JB or stock firmware--we have four iOS devices in the house, so it's easy to compare. I've paid for ONE tweak I regretted; I've easily gotten half a dozen or more paid apps from the iTunes store in the same amount of time that I'd wished I could get my money back on due to buggy code or poorly worded descriptions or simply because they didn't work they way they claimed. Yeah, Apple's out-of-the-box experience is SO much better.

I JB specifically for things like BiteSMS & FolderEnhancer, both of which are massive improvements over stock implementation of those functions. I also do it to remove sounds and alerts that the almighty dictator Jobs thinks are vital to my existence--they're not useful, they're annoying and intrusive and in his wisdom, he has failed to provide me with a stock way of turning them off. I do these things to make my phone and iPad more functional in ways that are tailored to what I actually need, not what Apple thinks I should have. That I can tweak the UI to suit my personality is simply a bonus. But that's all it is. If you like the stock icons, great, loads of people are perfectly happy with them. Just stay out of the theming-centric threads and you'll never have to look at someone else's "tacky"(to you) idea of a better experience.

And as others have said, the nice thing about jailbreaking is that it's very easily reversed. If you aren't happy with the experience--and it sounds like you're not--restore your phone. Your posts make it sound like you didn't have a specific reason to JB it anyway, so it's unlikely you'll miss it.

 

[Sir Ruben]

Op you should go back to stock and never jb again.

Yeah as I said in my last post, IOS5 should be pretty nice in itself and at that point I'll probably upgrade losing the jailbreak.

Is there anything else I would need to consider when IOS5 comes out or is it just a case of connecting the phone and updating the OS as normal which in turn would remove the jailbreak at the same time right?

Its fun having my iPhone jailbroken for a while though just to see what its like, but so far I think its very overrated........unless you are the kind of person who insists on having paid apps for free.

Your posts make it sound like you didn't have a specific reason to JB it anyway, so it's unlikely you'll miss it.

You are correct, I did it out of complete boredom yesterday after owning my iPhone4 since launch. I had no one reason why I needed it jailbroken, it was purely bored curiosity LOL.

 

[dudeabiding]

My battery life is impacted in a minor manner- again, just like playing a game or watching a movie (maybe less). Using things uses up battery. I just find the utilities make the user experience better for me. I use SBSettings to kill processes I don't want (I hate the Apple backgrounding! I use Backgrounder to turn on what I WANT to be on in the background). I have iScheduler ($) to turn on and off things like BT or WiFi when I'm at home or in the car, not when I'm at work. Having a custom lockscreen is nice, I use an invisible tap to unlock and clockhide so my LS is just a wallpaper. I use Infinidock so my apps don't clutter up my one springboard page wallpaper. But I can live without them. The utilities, no. I like that my phone app keyboard shows up when I open Phone (StartDial); I like killing an alert by pressing the home button (Quickdismiss); I LOVE deleting ALL mail at one time (DismissMail); I can't live without custom alert settings (biteSMS announces WHO is texting me).

If you don't need those kinds of things, run a stock OS. It's a choice.

 

[TC25]

You are correct, I did it out of complete boredom yesterday after owning my iPhone4 since launch. I had no one reason why I needed it jailbroken, it was purely bored curiosity LOL.

Thank you so much for jailbreaking and sharing your extensive jb experience and well researched opinions with this forum. We are richer for your presence in our humble forum that, up until your entrance, was filled with simpletons and app thieves.

 

[Applejuiced]

Yeah as I said in my last post, IOS5 should be pretty nice in itself and at that point I'll probably upgrade losing the jailbreak.

Is there anything else I would need to consider when IOS5 comes out or is it just a case of connecting the phone and updating the OS as normal which in turn would remove the jailbreak at the same time right?

Its fun having my iPhone jailbroken for a while though just to see what its like, but so far I think its very overrated........unless you are the kind of person who insists on having paid apps for free.

Yes, all you do is plug it to itunes and update or restore.
Jailbreaking is not for everyone, just like everything else its a personal choice.

 

[eastercat]

I didn't measure it. When using sbsettings, I noticed that the percentage was dropping further in a shorter period of time than I was used to. When you're used to seeing your battery behave a certain way, you notice when it deviates.
The thing is, it may not have been sbsettings that killed the battery. It could be its interactions with the other JB programs. JB programs aren't subjected to the same standards of app store programs. Either way, I prefer the utility of the other programs more than sbsettings.

just out of curiosty what was your battery life with SBsettings vs without it?

 

[Claude626]

Thank you so much for jailbreaking and sharing your extensive jb experience and well researched opinions with this forum. We are richer for your presence in our humble forum that, up until your entrance, was filled with simpletons and app thieves.

/echo

On a more serious note... I'm a theme maker.(wouldn't call myself an iphone develoepr) I do know a thing or two about battery life in relation with the custom code that runs on jailbroken tweaks/apps. The simple and short explanation to this is: It depends on the developer.

And the long explanation... What make Apple approved apps so awesome and can be labeled "it just works"? Extensive testing? Many engineering hours to explore every aspect of usability? Code optimization to cut down excessive and inefficient logic? Yea. It's probably all of the above.

Now, are you telling me there are no Jailbroken developers who can achieve that?

THAT is "BS". Having written my own theme and examining many themes that come before mine, I can safely say that I value efficiency and put battery performance first and fore most. While my theme may not be the best example of efficiency(it is still more efficient and lighter on battery than a large slew of themes out there offering similar features.), but I KNOW there exist developers who care a great deal about it. There are many shoddy programmers who will simply make things work without care how they achieve it. Then there are those who care about efficiency. Please DO NOT lump all jailbroken applications/tweaks/modifications into the same pile and label it "unreliable".

One of my pet peeves is uneducated individuals spouting rumors as facts. The statement that irks me the MOST is "Jailbroken phones crashes more and is very unreliable."

Out of the box jailbreaking is nearly identical to that of a stock firmware... Only that it doesn't restrict your actions on it. If you jailbreak it and put shoddy apps on it, then expect shoddy performance. It's almost like... buying a factory tested stable computer, then open it up and start adding ****** hardware(that overheats) onto it and then complain the system consistently crashes. It's your fault for installing the unreliable hardware, no? Why blame it on the fact that the computer allows you the ability to install that 3rd party hardware?

I hope that you do not view the slew of unreliable apps as jailbreaking. They are NOT one and the same. Jailbreaking opens the door. What you let in through that door determines your experience.

I personally cannot live without BiteSMS and a few other apps that I KNOW are reliable. Sure, some may have a quirk here and there, but I'm aware of them... and more importantly, their service far outweighs the minor drawback that may come. I have not seen a crashed into safe mode screen by mobile substrate since... 4.1. And I consider myself a power user in terms of jailbroken apps. One simply needs to understand the risk, limitations, and potential danger/pitfall of new apps he/she is installing.

I do appologize if this may seem like a rant/vent/flame post... but it really irks me that some uneducated individual tying the jailbroken label with the shoddy "optional" applications.

my 2 cents...

 

[Cortezbanks]

Subtle "I can't figure out jailbreaking so I'm saying it's pointless" thread

 

[Sir Ruben]

/echo

On a more serious note... I'm a theme maker.(wouldn't call myself an iphone develoepr) I do know a thing or two about battery life in relation with the custom code that runs on jailbroken tweaks/apps. The simple and short explanation to this is: It depends on the developer.

And the long explanation... What make Apple approved apps so awesome and can be labeled "it just works"? Extensive testing? Many engineering hours to explore every aspect of usability? Code optimization to cut down excessive and inefficient logic? Yea. It's probably all of the above.

Now, are you telling me there are no Jailbroken developers who can achieve that?

THAT is "BS". Having written my own theme and examining many themes that come before mine, I can safely say that I value efficiency and put battery performance first and fore most. While my theme may not be the best example of efficiency(it is still more efficient and lighter on battery than a large slew of themes out there offering similar features.), but I KNOW there exist developers who care a great deal about it. There are many shoddy programmers who will simply make things work without care how they achieve it. Then there are those who care about efficiency. Please DO NOT lump all jailbroken applications/tweaks/modifications into the same pile and label it "unreliable".

One of my pet peeves is uneducated individuals spouting rumors as facts. The statement that irks me the MOST is "Jailbroken phones crashes more and is very unreliable."

Out of the box jailbreaking is nearly identical to that of a stock firmware... Only that it doesn't restrict your actions on it. If you jailbreak it and put shoddy apps on it, then expect shoddy performance. It's almost like... buying a factory tested stable computer, then open it up and start adding ****** hardware(that overheats) onto it and then complain the system consistently crashes. It's your fault for installing the unreliable hardware, no? Why blame it on the fact that the computer allows you the ability to install that 3rd party hardware?

I hope that you do not view the slew of unreliable apps as jailbreaking. They are NOT one and the same. Jailbreaking opens the door. What you let in through that door determines your experience.

I personally cannot live without BiteSMS and a few other apps that I KNOW are reliable. Sure, some may have a quirk here and there, but I'm aware of them... and more importantly, their service far outweighs the minor drawback that may come. I have not seen a crashed into safe mode screen by mobile substrate since... 4.1. And I consider myself a power user in terms of jailbroken apps. One simply needs to understand the risk, limitations, and potential danger/pitfall of new apps he/she is installing.

I do appologize if this may seem like a rant/vent/flame post... but it really irks me that some uneducated individual tying the jailbroken label with the shoddy "optional" applications.

my 2 cents...

Hi,

Thanks for taking the time to reply, and I have to say that the way you explain jailbreaking is pretty educational, you have certainly made me look at it in a different way to before.

Like others have said on here, jailbreaking isnt for some, and I think I fall into that catagory. For me the iPhone already does an amazing amount of things and I guess my original negativity stems from the fact that I personally have no need for it. It also IMO takes the phone into Android territory with all the additional tweaks etc which distract from the original classy Apple IOS design.

In fairness though there is a lot the iPhone is capable of doing and it can be annoying that Apple never realise it to its full potential, for me though Id rather Apple implement OS changes, not some teenager in his bedroom. Hopefully IOS5 will really refresh the OS in many ways that have been lacking previously.

 

[Almeuit]

BY the way OP... It's not BS about the battery. I have had the iPhone 4 since day one as well and never JB it until novemberish. My friends kept trying to get me to JB and I wouldn't do it. My battery was amazing when not JB.

Now I've been JB for a few months and have installed a few tweaks (5 icon dock, SBsettings, biteSMS, safari download manager) and I can still say my battery is just as amazing. Between texting all day and streaming pandora at work I can drop my battery by about 45-50% a day so I still usually get 2 full days on one charge. This is what I was getting while streaming all of this and txting befor un-JB. If anything biteSMS saves my battery because I can txt from the lock screen real fast and the screen shuts off after 5 sec of sending the response. No unlocking... Switching from pandora to message.. Reply .. Back to pandora.. Lock phone. (why back to pandora? Switch stations or whatever with ease). Also this is all on 3G.



So all in all you can't call BS on something that you have no idea about... Hence why you made a post to ask us??? I have tried being JB and without being JB and everything is fine. Now some people might have worse battery due to themes and a ton of stuff running... Only makes sense... More power for more stuff running. But I can say for running some tweaks on my JB iPhone 4... Battery and everything is just fine.

/my 2cents

 

[dudeabiding]

You know, what's funny about the whole "the iPhone already does an amazing amount of things" is that Apple has implemented a whole slew of tweaks first brought to us via JB. Cut and paste was a biggie, MMS on AT&T, custom pictures on the LS and HS, and a whole bunch more that Apple left out when the iPhone was in its early iterations. Devs worked hard and long to improve the iPhone, and then Apple took those tweaks and put them in the official package.

So, while you extoll the iPhone, keep in mind that much of what you like came from the JB community.

 

[jpetticrew]

You know, what's funny about the whole "the iPhone already does an amazing amount of things" is that Apple has implemented a whole slew of tweaks first brought to us via JB. Cut and paste was a biggie, MMS on AT&T, custom pictures on the LS and HS, and a whole bunch more that Apple left out when the iPhone was in its early iterations. Devs worked hard and long to improve the iPhone, and then Apple took those tweaks and put them in the official package.

So, while you extoll the iPhone, keep in mind that much of what you like came from the JB community.

Not to mention that the App Store is an exact copy of installer.app.

 

[Sparky9292]

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Hi Guys,

This is in no way an inflamatory post, I just want peoples opinions. Basically I have just jailbroken my iPhone with redsn0w and all has been okay so far. There is a lot of new interesting stuff to look at but I keep getting a nagging feeling to restore it back to normal.

Browsing forums all I see is topics on lagging, battery drain, glitchy animations etc caused by changing themes or running dodgy apps, and problems getting things to run properly. It got me thinking that most Apple lovers say they have an iPhone as opposed to an Android because "it just works". However it seems to me that by jailbreaking you are essentially going against this and turning your iPhone into something very similar to an Android in many ways?

As for themes, they look great in screenshots the reality is never quite as slick as the photos would have you believe and must be causing a hit on the battery life (having homescreens with weather etc).

Whilst jailbreaking does indeed free the iPhone, in many ways Im not sure its such a great idea. I am going to keep it like this for a while and see how I get on with it, maybe it will grow on me. I do like little things like the five icon dock which genuinely make the experience better, but everything else just reminds me of a time when people were big into installing themes on Windows and then changing them back to normal when they realised they looked tacky.

Am i missing the point?

Resist the urge to install tons of Cydia apps. The people who bitch about crappy battery life are the ones who do.

I install SBSettings, BiteSMS and LockInfo. That's it. All other apps are fluff.

 

[entatlrg]

Hi Guys,

This is in no way an inflamatory post, I just want peoples opinions. Basically I have just jailbroken my iPhone with redsn0w and all has been okay so far. There is a lot of new interesting stuff to look at but I keep getting a nagging feeling to restore it back to normal.

Browsing forums all I see is topics on lagging, battery drain, glitchy animations etc caused by changing themes or running dodgy apps, and problems getting things to run properly. It got me thinking that most Apple lovers say they have an iPhone as opposed to an Android because "it just works". However it seems to me that by jailbreaking you are essentially going against this and turning your iPhone into something very similar to an Android in many ways?

As for themes, they look great in screenshots the reality is never quite as slick as the photos would have you believe and must be causing a hit on the battery life (having homescreens with weather etc).

Whilst jailbreaking does indeed free the iPhone, in many ways Im not sure its such a great idea. I am going to keep it like this for a while and see how I get on with it, maybe it will grow on me. I do like little things like the five icon dock which genuinely make the experience better, but everything else just reminds me of a time when people were big into installing themes on Windows and then changing them back to normal when they realised they looked tacky.

Am i missing the point?

I think you're exactly right and that's the reason I'm not into jailbraking ... Been there done that, the "magic" with Apple products is that they just work, and work well.

Some like to tinker that's fine, just as some like to tinker with cars while others just want to start it and go with no problems or hassles. That later is who Apple products are for. That s great.

By all means those who like to tinker jailbreak or buy Android whatever, that's not what Apple is about, I'm glad it "just works"