Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Well, it is small in the scope of total number of iPhones sold (48M last quarter).

No it's not. It took an entire quarter for Apple to sell 48m iPhones, and less than a day to jailbreak 1.7 million devices.

I think that's pretty significant.

The significant way to look at this though is from the developer perspective. There's going to be a large enough jailbroken user base for simple 99 cent tweaks and apps to generate some serious cash.

Or to look at it versus the competition. There are more jailbroken iOS devices than total Surface tablets.

----------

The only thing stopping me from jailbreaking is the substantial battery life loss :(

Then you should jailbreak. You can get longer battery life with a jailbroken iPhone. The key is not to install anything that runs full time, or install it, but don't run it full time. That's a bit like saying the answer is to not use GPS if you want your battery to last longer, not that the answer is that GPS shouldn't be part of the iPhone.

Additionally, there are many tweaks that enable you to manage things that consumer power better. Install SBSettings (or similar) and turn things off or adjust your brightness easier.

Jailbreaking in of itself doesn't add or reduce battery life.
 
The only thing stopping me from jailbreaking is the substantial battery life loss :(

this only happens because of certain tweaks / packages.

if you jailbreak the device and install no tweaks / packages, battery life is unaffected. You should not blindly install things from the cydia store. Always research first, there are no walls in this garden.
 
You bet it will, and Apple doesn't have to take any responsibility for any of the resulting consequences. Jailbreakers will be totally on their own when things go awry.

A jailbreak restore and Apple wont even know its been jailbroken. It has no permanent effect anymore.
 
Yes. It's good news. But it also fortifies the the idea that although iOS might be slick/great/stable/etc - it's lacking (enough) that significant userbase wants more than Apple has given - even after several versions.

And again - I agree that this is "good" news for Apple overall - you have to also wonder if there are this many jailbreaking - how many are leaving and/or choosing Android over iOS because of shortcomings that can only be realized via jailbreaking.

I pose that as a question - not commentary.

I know alot of people who jailbreak who use "Activator" there is nothing similar on android that offers the same full functionality. It isn't always about customizing. Sometimes there's an extra App which allows you to use the phone in a completely new way. Ways in which you can't use any android device in the first place.
 
You can pirate iOS apps without jailbreaking

Maybe, but will also allow ~1.7 million people to pirate apps.

No, jailbreaking != piracy.

The fact is, from the beginning of 3rd party apps being available on iOS, you've been able to pirate apps without having to jailbreak your device.

There were apps for jailbroken devices that facilitated piracy (Install0us), but they shut down and cited lack of user interest/participation as the reason.

However, piracy still remains as the methods to do so without having to jailbreak still exist.

----------

You bet it will, and Apple doesn't have to take any responsibility for any of the resulting consequences. Jailbreakers will be totally on their own when things go awry.

Except, this never happens.

Nobody to date has ever provided proof that jailbreaking has bricked* any iOS device.

*Bricked as in the real meaning of the word, that is to say that the device can't be restored at all. At worst, the iOS device can always be put into DFU mode and then restored using iTunes.

And even if an iPhone was bricked due to jailbreaking, which it can't, Apple wouldn't be able to tell because the device wouldn't boot up and reveal that it was jailbroken because the very definition of bricked is that it can't be restored, which means it also won't boot up.
 
If Apple would simply allow for quick reply to messages, a functional lockscreen like what lockinfo does, and an expose-style app switcher I would lose my motivation to jailbreak....

Or just allow the top apps in the app store unless they violate major policies like the tether apps.
 
1.7M in one day. You can imagine how many will be jailbroken after a month.

Unfortunately, not that many more. Most of the people who wanted to jailbreak have been waiting on the edge of their seat since iOS6 came out, and thus they installed it the second it became available. As you can see on the graph, the trend is steadily declining now, as the only people that are JBing now are the few here and there who have been too busy to JB, or those that are waiting till the servers cool down. After a week or two the number of people JBing will die down to almost nothing.
 
Unfortunately, not that many more. Most of the people who wanted to jailbreak have been waiting on the edge of their seat since iOS6 came out, and thus they installed it the second it became available. As you can see on the graph, the trend is steadily declining now, as the only people that are JBing now are the few here and there who have been too busy to JB, or those that are waiting till the servers cool down. After a week or two the number of people JBing will die down to almost nothing.

That graph is Cydia hits, not jailbreaks.
 
simple:
1. the ability to "hide" the native apps that i dont use, like stocks, weather, NEWSSTAND,...
2. with one swipe up, i can close all my background apps (in the application switcher);
3. with a swipe down, i can close any specific app (in the application switcher);
4. the ability to ignore/hide app updates (when they no longer support your device or iOS);
5. customize gestures for a given task. like replacing the home-button's function with a gesture;
6. camera: add the ability to do time lapse or a timer. You can even set a custom frame rate, aspect ratio and resolution while shooting video.
7. add the ability to make googlemaps the default maps app on the device;
8. i can backup and/or reuse all my saved games across all my devices;
9. move multiple items at a time, in the home screen;
10. transform my device into a hotspot with no extra charges, videochating and download heavy files (>20mb) through 3g...
11. attach more than 5 photos to an email;
...


im not talking about customizing fonts or stuff. i am talking about productivity and ease of use. simple things that speed up my flow and minimize my frustration. cheers.


12. Have the keyboard show UPPER case letters when in uppercase mode, and show lower case letters (!!!!) when in lowercase mode (using ShowCase). Now why couldn't Apple provide that? It seems like a pretty stinking basic usability thing. Never JB'ed before now...my life has changed.
 
Thanks for the link. I read the article and found it interesting.

JB is not for me, I'm perfectly happy with the ringtones, wallpaper, apps, etc. within the Apple ecosystem. But then, when it comes to my Apple devices...I'm easy to please.

I can understand the desire to JB...just not for me.:D

When it comes to my iphone, I also have some reservations, specially to avoid the hassle. The only thing that has made me consider jailbreaking it is the increased planned obsolecense Apple is forcing into each new iOS iteration, both though changes in basic iOS features and app developer guidelines and limitations (case in point, whatsapp). The moment I'm forced to buy a new iPhone only because the basic functions and apps I have purchased should not be serviced any more on it, only because there's a new iphone available, I'm going with another brand and say F U to Apple.

As for my AppleTV3, I'll be jailbreaking it for sure asap, as in its current form, it's an incredibly sub-utilized device. Apple has denied it some basic, common sense features only bc they wouldn't advance their iTunes bottom line and dictate which media and apps can we consume through Apple hardware, and how should we consume it, forcing their criteria to the last minimum detail.

Ridiculous... specially for a company that made such a big point about being the antidote for any orwellian 1984 big brother practices...!
 
I was jailbroken for a while and went back to using the stock OS. I may JB again. There are definitely pros and cons. I liked the extra functionality that came with it. I didn't like the bugginess of some of the apps. And the biggest issue for me was I had to wait for the next JB whenever an update came from Apple. And sometimes it took a long time for them to come.

I think jail braking is a good thing in general. Many of iOS's functions were added after the JB community showed how popular a function was. So, I'm all for people jail breaking, but still on the fence about doing it again as there are definitely drawbacks that come with it as well.
 
simple:
1. the ability to "hide" the native apps that i dont use, like stocks, weather, NEWSSTAND,...
The other apps I can understand, but you don't use Weather?
6. camera: add the ability to do time lapse or a timer. You can even set a custom frame rate, aspect ratio and resolution while shooting video.
I don't use the camera a lot so I wouldn't know, but aren't those functions provided through 3rd party apps?
8. i can backup and/or reuse all my saved games across all my devices;
Does jailbreak make this possible? An iCloud replacement that would work across games?
10. transform my device into a hotspot with no extra charges, videochating and download heavy files (>20mb) through 3g...
11. attach more than 5 photos to an email;
It was my understanding that these limitations are dictated by carriers, not Apple. To illustrate with an example, in Japan, you can't use Personal Hotspot at all because Japanese carriers won't allow it.
And by the way, video-chatting on 3G has been available for more than a couple of years (Skype for iPhone) and the download cap over 3G was raised to 50MB about a year ago.
 
I'd have it on mine but I don't want to mess anything up. I'm prepared to put up with a mediocre set of customisation ability for now.
If the next iOS doesn't improve on things I might have to jailbreak.
 
Yes, one can use it to "steal" pirated apps. But a majority of us do it for the personal customization that Apple believes shouldn't be made available to their customers. If you could see first-hand what can be done when the Apple Wall is torn down, you'd be impressed.

That's a claim that can't be substantiated. And frankly I think it's just a pipe dream.

And that can't be substantiated either. Bottom line is we don't have any statistics about what percentage of jailbreakers pirate apps, so we just end up relying on our own experience and reasoning to make guesses.

I would guess that most adults with decent enough incomes to afford to buy their own iPhone or iPad would have very little incentive to jailbreak just to avoid paying for apps, especially given that most App Store apps cost under $5. On the other hand, kids who were given an iDevice by their parents and don't have much of an allowance would have more motivation to pirate apps.

I would further guess that which of the above categories you or your friends are in partly determines what your opinion is about why people jailbreak.
 
And that can't be substantiated either. Bottom line is we don't have any statistics about what percentage of jailbreakers pirate apps, so we just end up relying on our own experience and reasoning to make guesses.

I would guess that most adults with decent enough incomes to afford to buy their own iPhone or iPad would have very little incentive to jailbreak just to avoid paying for apps, especially given that most App Store apps cost under $5. On the other hand, kids who were given an iDevice by their parents and don't have much of an allowance would have more motivation to pirate apps.

I would further guess that which of the above categories you or your friends are in partly determines what your opinion is about why people jailbreak.

There's a few rich actors in Hollywood that have a penchant for shoplifting yet they have money to pay for it.

Human nature and all.

just sayin'

:)
 
So. 1/200th of IOS devices have downloaded the jailbreak.

I wonder how many of those were the same person downloading it twice or three times.

With hackers in general, I don't know if statistics can be useful. If everyone was like me, Google and AOL would have 5X the number of users.

----------

I still don't know the answer... IS it safe to jailbreak an iPhone 4 running iOS 6 with this if it is already jailbroken with a tethered redsn0w jailbreak? I want it to be untethered.
 
With hackers in general, I don't know if statistics can be useful. If everyone was like me, Google and AOL would have 5X the number of users.

----------

I still don't know the answer... IS it safe to jailbreak an iPhone 4 running iOS 6 with this if it is already jailbroken with a tethered redsn0w jailbreak? I want it to be untethered.

You consider a person jailbreaking their phone a hacker ?
 
And that can't be substantiated either. Bottom line is we don't have any statistics about what percentage of jailbreakers pirate apps, so we just end up relying on our own experience and reasoning to make guesses.

I would guess that most adults with decent enough incomes to afford to buy their own iPhone or iPad would have very little incentive to jailbreak just to avoid paying for apps, especially given that most App Store apps cost under $5. On the other hand, kids who were given an iDevice by their parents and don't have much of an allowance would have more motivation to pirate apps.

I would further guess that which of the above categories you or your friends are in partly determines what your opinion is about why people jailbreak.

Actually if I remember right there was at least one developer who shut down his app because the number of illegitimate users was many times the number of purchased users, and his app required a server on his end to run. He couldn't support the volume on the server with the small number of paid users. I know that there are other examples of developers who complained that the number of paid users was a tiny percentage of the installed base. I'm sorry I don't have any specific citations, but I'm pretty sure that pirating has been an issue in the past. Maybe no one here is doing it, but lots of JBers are.

Found it. Battle Dungeon shut down after a week. http://www.cultofmac.com/204064/battle-dungeon-ios-game-pulled-from-app-store-after-less-than-a-week-due-to-piracy/
 
Last edited:
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.