I have been holding out from Jb'ing my touch because of the feb sdk. Now that its comming out in june i cant wait for officail 3rd party apps. Anyone else cosidering this option.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPod touch No choice but to jailbreak
- Thread starter eplchamps0304
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Jailbreaking is kinda useless. Most of the apps available for download when jailbroken are useless and poorly made.
Ironically, the only apps that make it worth Downloading is the apple January software update, but you can get those without JB.
Don't bother JBing, unless you want your iPod to look like a glass of beer pouring(example of a useless apps)
Ironically, the only apps that make it worth Downloading is the apple January software update, but you can get those without JB.
Don't bother JBing, unless you want your iPod to look like a glass of beer pouring(example of a useless apps)
Odd, I have tons of cool apps that work very well. For starters, there's Summerboard, Customize, Make it Mine, etc ... Or do you enjoy having an iPod that looks exactly like everyone else's, with that nifty black wallpaper and those stock icons?
Hmmm. Interesting perspective.
I Jailbroke my IPT, and I have lots of very useful applications. Of those, these are the ones that I regularly use:
- MACalc - Advanced Calculator
- Converter - Comprehensive conversion tool
- ToDoList - basic but very workable ToDo list manager
- Books - eBook Reader
- Wiki2Touch - Offline Wikipedia reader with access to all English text articles as of 1/7/2008
- weDict - Dictionary application with Mirriam Webster's content and English etymologies
- Several time-sucking games
- Several system, utilities to better manage things
Admittedly, many applications are not top-grade applications, and I would love to see more, but considering this is a grass-roots, amateur-developed repository of applications, I think it's very, very useful. Yes, many amount to nothing more than glorifies "Hello World" concepts, but some are certainly professional-grade. If you lived through the Palm PDA world of user-developed PalmOS applications as I have over the past decade, you can't help but appreciate the talents and efforts that have gone into these Jailbreak applications.
As an aside, I have said this elsewhere, so I hate to be redundant, but the Wiki2Touch application has been the one Jailbreak application that absolutely justifies the $300 I paid for my IPT. Having anytime, anywhere access to Wikipedia articles offline has proven to be amazingly useful. Unfortunately, this is something that I seriously doubt will ever be available through Apple.
The SDK will obviously usher in lots and lots of professionally-developed applications, as well as some not-so-professional. Just remember that it will also come at a price. Maybe not a huge price, but NOTHING will be free for IPT users. Currently, Jailbreaking is free as are the available applications. You really can't beat the price. As long as you can restore to "stock" through iTunes, Jailbreaking will remain a viable alternative.
I guess it is a matter of need vs. want.
There are several things I want on my iPhone/touch but few things that I need.
If you need the jailbreak applications, then go do it. Personally because my priorities are a bit lower, I can wait a few months for great commercial applications. I suspect the good jailbreak applications will be some of the first that will show up on the iPhone/touch anyway.
No jailbreak for me. Just isn't worth the hassle. Doing it now is a quick route to a dead end. Nobody will be supporting jailbreak in a few months time.
There are several things I want on my iPhone/touch but few things that I need.
If you need the jailbreak applications, then go do it. Personally because my priorities are a bit lower, I can wait a few months for great commercial applications. I suspect the good jailbreak applications will be some of the first that will show up on the iPhone/touch anyway.
No jailbreak for me. Just isn't worth the hassle. Doing it now is a quick route to a dead end. Nobody will be supporting jailbreak in a few months time.
Mine used to be Jailbroken, then I realized that I never used the hacked apps besides the iPhone apps, but I just unJailbroke it and paid for the apps once they released.
I do miss Labyrinth, however...
I do miss Labyrinth, however...
Thats the same way I see it as well.
Even with the amount of apps for JB, I don't think any of them are very well made, or even needed that much.
Seriously, how many times a day do you find yourself using Wiki2Touch (i hope not that much), but mail on the other hand, well I use that every hour. Now thats a good program.
I use currency converter a fair bit, the pdf viewer (though under developed) has proved essential for my degree studies. I also really like izoo, solitaire and labyrinth.
I hope you're being sarcastic, but somehow I suspect you're not. I mean, I can't speak for everyone, but I enjoy the benefits of jailbreaking every time I turn on my iPod ...
Or, if I tire of that theme I can switch to this one in less than 10 seconds:
and then if I want something really different, 10 seconds again:
Or maybe you like having an iPod that looks exactly like everyone else's?
Maybe some people want their iPod to look the way Apple intended it to, rather than some kind of nasty, cheap-looking custom weirdness. *Just my opinion*
Whatever happened to "THINK DIFFERENT" ... ? Or do people just need Apple to spoon-feed them style?
I'm not trying to say people should not jailbreak, I just strongly disagree with those who believe that the standard 'theme' is inferior to custom ones. And changing it just for the sake of change is not a big enough justification in my opinion.
Or do you really think any of those custom themes you just forced us all to look at look any better than the standard one? I truly hope not.
I absolutely do.
Wallpaper: I guess you think that having a black wallpaper is a good idea on a touch screen device? Maybe your iPod came with one of those high-tech screens that automagically cleans itself when you touch it, so that you can't see those nasty smudge marks on that jet-black background? Well sign me up, because I sure as hell didn't get one. And since I don't particularly enjoy having every smudge and dust speck jump out at me on the black background, I really like having the ability to change my wallpaper.
Icons: This argument will fall on deaf ears, I'm sure (I saw your dock screenshot and all it's stock icon glory, lol) but a lot of people like being able to have custom icons on their computers and on the iPhone/iPod. I guess you wouldn't understand, but the ability to customize a UI is desirable to many ... Think different, bub.
I love jailbreaking.
it allow the ipod to really be unlocked without all the DRM buy it only from itunes crap that apple loves to spew, and I think many of the summerboards themes are WAY better than the plain old icons apple provides.
That alone is worth jailbreaking.
it allow the ipod to really be unlocked without all the DRM buy it only from itunes crap that apple loves to spew, and I think many of the summerboards themes are WAY better than the plain old icons apple provides.
That alone is worth jailbreaking.
Thank God I do not have such an inferiority complex that I feel obliged to 'differ' in the way an electronic device I own looks. I mean, this must be the most lame reason one would JB their Itouch. I respect people might want to have more things to play with in their Itouch, but do not give me this 13-year old girl talk of 'customizing' your phone/mp3 player because you want yours to look different...
I think we'll just have to agree to disagree.Wallpaper: I guess you think that having a black wallpaper is a good idea on a touch screen device? Maybe your iPod came with one of those high-tech screens that automagically cleans itself when you touch it, so that you can't see those nasty smudge marks on that jet-black background? Well sign me up, because I sure as hell didn't get one. And since I don't particularly enjoy having every smudge and dust speck jump out at me on the black background, I really like having the ability to change my wallpaper.
Icons: This argument will fall on deaf ears, I'm sure (I saw your dock screenshot and all it's stock icon glory, lol) but a lot of people like being able to have custom icons on their computers and on the iPhone/iPod. I guess you wouldn't understand, but the ability to customize a UI is desirable to many ... Think different, bub.
Changing the wallpaper I can understand, but changing the icons... yuk. But we're all entitled to our opinions, so good for you if thats what you want, but I will always prefer my things to be as the designer intended.
Apparently you missed my earlier post?
Just because you're content with that heinous stock wallpaper and those boring icons doesn't mean the rest of us are. My Touch looks exactly the way I want it to, as does my DS Lite, my PSP, my iMac, and my Thinkpad. In fact, I paid $20 for Candybar on my Mac so that I could easily change my icons, and I would do it again in a heartbeat if I had to.
Oh and BTW, I'm a 31 year old photographer, not a 13 year old junior high school girl.
I have floated around the forums and I have seen you say this and frankly that is the COOLEST ****ing thing I have heard, and I totally agree the offline availability would be amazingly beneficial.
If I might ask, how much memory is that taking up on your iPod? Less that 1 GB?
I really like your screens. Can you explain what all is going on with the light switch and any other cool apps you have on there...
And also, if its a 1.1.3 JB, does it work on a 16 GB iPod touch? And, what is that thing in the corner of your screen that looks like an infinity sign...is that like the maker of it?
By the way I think this looks really cool and it's amazing that it looks this nice. I assume that it is very consistent throughout the touch and looks clean?
Thanks.
To answer your questions, that light switch icon is for a really cool little app called 'WifiToggle' which does exactly that - a single tap on that icon toggles wifi on/off. No more wasting time going through the settings menu, just a single tap and it's done.
Above that is weDict, which is a dictionary app that can read StarDict files, I've got it loaded with Webster's as well as Jap-Eng and Eng-Jap dictionaries. Very useful!!!Finally, that icon in the taskbar (?) is an "AS" which stands for Audioscrobbler. It's the icon for MobileScrobbler, a native last.fm scrobbler. Very cool.
Thanks.
To answer your questions, that light switch icon is for a really cool little app called 'WifiToggle' which does exactly that - a single tap on that icon toggles wifi on/off. No more wasting time going through the settings menu, just a single tap and it's done.
That is an excellent handy thing.
I would like to know what all you went through to get it to way yours is because I love it and am willing to try it now that I have some free time! Could you PM me with info?
If you have never jailbroken your Touch, and by your comments you probably have not, your opinion is just that. An opinion.
Lets see, aside from some very polished games, iZoo, Chuzzle, and iSolitaire, I use MXTube, IMGrab, and PocketTouch all the time.
MXTube: searches YouTube and downloads videos to your Touch.
IMGrab: you find a photo or pict on Safari and want to capture it, no problem
PocketTouch: the most useful third party app to date -
* While the iPod is playing a song, a simple tap on the screen will pause
the song.
* Tap the screen again to unpause.
* Slide your finger to the right to skip to the next song.
* Slide your finger to the left to play the previous song.
* Slide your finger up to increase volume, down to decrease.
All without looking at the screen.
EDIT: Isn't WiFi Toggle great?
I absolutely do.
Wallpaper: I guess you think that having a black wallpaper is a good idea on a touch screen device? Maybe your iPod came with one of those high-tech screens that automagically cleans itself when you touch it, so that you can't see those nasty smudge marks on that jet-black background? Well sign me up, because I sure as hell didn't get one. And since I don't particularly enjoy having every smudge and dust speck jump out at me on the black background, I really like having the ability to change my wallpaper.
Icons: This argument will fall on deaf ears, I'm sure (I saw your dock screenshot and all it's stock icon glory, lol) but a lot of people like being able to have custom icons on their computers and on the iPhone/iPod. I guess you wouldn't understand, but the ability to customize a UI is desirable to many ... Think different, bub.
I can change/design my own icons on my un-jailbroken Touch with Clipilizer.
I love the simple black background to display MY icons. But really, who cares about how the desktop looks. If you have a jailbroken iPod, all you have are a bunch of almost useless apps. The apps in the Jan. update are used everyday and work without hassle.
Wow, you can change your icons for MobileMusicPlayer.app, Mail.app, Maps.app, etc? I didn't know that. Oh wait - you can't.
Your icons? You mean, your webclip icons? Yay! Maybe some day you'll be able to change ALL of your system icons. Oh wait, I've been able to do that for five months now ...
I agree that the January update apps are very useful. But you see, I didn't have to wait until January to get them.
And they didn't cost me $20 to get, despite the fact that I've had them all installed and running perfectly since November (1.1.1 firmware, then 1.1.2, and finally 1.1.3). And as far as most apps being 'useless,' I guess we'll just have to disagree on that one. In fact, I would argue that you really have no idea what you're talking about here. I can think of several apps that are polished, useful and well-designed. For starters there's Summerboard, Customize, WifiToggle, weDict, Installer, iZoo, iBlackjack, iSolitaire, Converter, Finder, BossTool, BossPrefs, MobileScrobbler (love this one!!!), Labyrinth (I actually paid for this, it's a great game), Chuzzle, Puzzle Maniak, and iPac3D. Those were all free (except Labyrinth, which I gladly paid to unlock) and they're all very cool apps. You might wanna do some research next time you try to jump into the fray ...
You do know that the glass of bear thing is NOT an App and you don't need to be jailbroken to use it. It's just a video that you sync through iTunes, press play and then pretend to tap it from the home screen. You know nothing about jailbreaking do you?