Hey all so I heard some people on the radio this morning chatting about jailbreaking their iPhones, they seemed to say it helped out a lot but what exactly is it? What are the advantages/disadvantages? If you jailbreak it can you set it back to the regular phone again if you don't like it being jailbroken? I have heard of jailbreaking in the past, but I never paid much attention, but it seems like maybe a good idea.
Sorry if this is a bit of a newbie question, but I was just wondering about jailbreaking.
It is installing a custom firmware onto the iPhone rather than Apple's standard iPhone OS. This allows you to install apps that at this point aren't to be found on Apple's official App Store and customize the way your iPhone operates and looks (themes).
Once Jailbroken, you can restore if you want to, but some things may stay the same. For instance, I added numerical battery to my 3G, which is only a 3GS feature, and unless I uninstall that feature before restoring, it will keep showing the numerical battery. Not a problem unless its taken ti a Genius Bar and they pick up on it.
There are many advantages including multi-tasking, theming, access to video recorders where there was none before (3G), ability to set up your iPhone as a wifi hot spot and so on. But with this also comes the possibility that you'll leave your iPhone in a state of uselessness if something goes wrong.
For me, the benefits have far outweighed the risks involved. I wouldn't suggest doing it until you're comfortable you've read up on it enough. Hell you're probably running 3.1.3 and are unable to anyway.
