Jailbreak?

Okay, so I love my iPhone, and I'm fairly tech-savvy, but I've never tried jail breaking.... is it a good idea, what exactly does it involve doing, and what will it do to my 3GS?

The answer to your question is, as usual, "it depends."

My personal opinion as the owner of a jailbroken 2G -- jailbreaking is WAY WAY overrated. I'm not a child, I don't care about 50 zillion wallpapers or ringtones -- but when you strip away that stuff, you find maybe a dozen really good "unofficial" apps out there (and you have to look through HUNDREDS to find them, I might add).

I needed to jailbreak mine for unlocking purposes (I live in Canada and this is a US 2G iPhone), so I'm *very* glad it was available to do, and the two or three unofficial apps I've found that were important to me are VERY useful to me, but on the whole ... the App Store is the way to go unless you have some specific reason to jailbreak.

Agreed with the above. Only Jailbreak if you nave a need to do so. Jailbreaking just because you can is not really worth the effort and risk of bricking.

I have to disagree with both of the above posts.
I have a jailbroken iPhone 4 here's what I have that you don't get at all glorious app store

facetime over 3G
Mywi
5 icon dock
iBlacklist
iGoogler
Intelliscreen


I will say on one part I agree with Chas the redundant wallpapers..etc are annoying. But it's the same in the app store, Honestly how many fart & flash light apps are in the app store or other redundant apps just like with the jailbreak Cydia?

It just depends what you want to do with your phone, If you want to make it yours and use things like facetime over 3G your going to have to jailbeak.

yes, there are plenty reasons to do a JB... at the same token, if you're happy with your iDevice as-is don't do it.

i always JB my 3G... then i got to testing beta's of iOS4, which were no JB for (except beta 4 which i did JB) then i switched to a 3G, didn't have it long enough to JB (5 wks)... now i have the iPhone 4 and i'm debating w/ myself to do it or not. i blog about Apple product incl. the iPhone and just to have done it so i can discuss it might be a reason for me to do it....

the things i used to JB for; multitasking (now in the OS) wallpaper on Springboard (now in OS) theme Springboard - only think i don't like currently on the SB is the labels, they limit the wallpapers that can be used in my opinion. biteSMS, much better imo as the default Messages.app. Lockinfo, i don't like having to unlock my phone and go in the Mail.app to see who emailed me (using Prowl/Growl now, does the trick but only if MacBook is on) so yea, i have some reasons to JB; but i don't want to make a very stable snappy fast iPhone into a buggier, not quite as snappy iPhone... we'll see which side wins :}

bargsbeer said:

facetime over 3G
Mywi
5 icon dock
iBlacklist
iGoogler
Intelliscreen

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That sounds a lot like what was already said. All those thousands of apps and you found a total of 6 that you really like. Not saying it's a bad thing, but I think you actually proved the point that chas_m was making.

When I had my 3G JB'd, I did use iBlacklist and 5 icon dock (as well as wallpaper) but none was sufficient to convince me to keep the phone JB in light of the instability I encountered (yes, I restored and JB'd it again just to make sure I didn't do something wrong, stability still blew). In the end I went back to the original configuration.

All that being said though, as bargsbeer said, it all depends on what you want to do with the phone.

Agreed. I was interested in the JB for the Facetime/3G and possibly MyWi/mobile hotspot purposes as well. Not even that concerned about the dock, Categories, themes, etc. But the JB bricked my phone (as I reported in another thread) and I don't really want to take the risk on that for a couple incremental improvements on the IP4 that I have.

That said, if the risk of bricking and the restoration pain is worth it to you for the things you can get for it, that's a personal decision. Just go in with your eyes open. I have no issue around JB'ing your phone - it's just not a high priority for me and wasn't worth the hassle I ran into.

Cheers

baggss said:

That sounds a lot like what was already said. All those thousands of apps and you found a total of 6 that you really like. Not saying it's a bad thing, but I think you actually proved the point that chas_m was making.

All that being said though, as bargsbeer said, it all depends on what you want to do with the phone.

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Good point, But it's the same for the App Store I only use 6 apps from the app store so I'm 50/50. I also consider myself a power user, I try to get the full potential and then some out of my iPhone.

I will say I did enjoy going on a walk today and using Facetime over 3G.

bargsbeer said:

I will say I did enjoy going on a walk today and using Facetime over 3G.

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I'm sure all the folks who live near you and got crappy data speeds becasue of that would love to thank you for that...

baggss said:

I'm sure all the folks who live near you and got crappy data speeds becasue of that would love to thank you for that...

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At&t actually has great coverage where I live. If someone has a problem they should dial 611 and take it up with At&t.

I don't jailbreak because I don't see a need to for what I do or desire my phone to do. Rather than ask "should I jailbreak" first figure out what exact feature you think you need.

My personal opinion on this is that I think it's risky to rely on jailbreaking unless you really need it. Even though the LoC declared it legal doesn't mean Apple needs to let you do it or make it easy. I guarantee you Apple will make it more difficult and more risky to do it each new iOS release.

So ultimately, you just need to weigh the pros and cons and make a decision.

schweb said:

Even though the LoC declared it legal doesn't mean Apple needs to let you do it or make it easy. I guarantee you Apple will make it more difficult and more risky to do it each new iOS release.

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Schweb I don't know, This current jailbreak was done through a browser security flaw that Apple left open, Accidentally of course. This was a major flaw by Apple. The only reason Apple is so against Jailbreaking is money.

bargsbeer said:

Schweb I don't know, This current jailbreak was done through a browser security flaw that Apple left open, Accidentally of course. This was a major flaw by Apple. The only reason Apple is so against Jailbreaking is money.

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But how does any of that negate what I said about how Apple may react to jailbreaking? It supports what I'm saying.

schweb said:

But how does any of that negate what I said about how Apple may react to jailbreaking? It supports what I'm saying.

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were currently on the 4th generation of the iPhone and probably well over a hundred different jailbreaks since it's release in 2007. Is Apple all of the sudden step up there game to combat these hackers? Don't get me wrong I'm sure they try very hard,But have not had much success in stopping it.

Their level of effort is directly proportional to how bad Jobs wants them to stop it. I think this ruling probably makes him pretty mad given how he likes to control things. I'm just guessing that he might ask them to try a little harder.

That's actually a very good way of looking at it.

Okay! I got impatient and just did it................... it's hardly different enough to be worth it! Just whatever.

schweb said:

I'm just guessing that he might ask them to try a little harder.

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I suspect that's a bit of an understatement.

bargsbeer said:

I have to disagree with both of the above posts.
I have a jailbroken iPhone 4 here's what I have that you don't get at all glorious app store

facetime over 3G
Mywi
5 icon dock
iBlacklist
iGoogler
Intelliscreen

Click to expand...

Actually, barqsbeer, you've made my point. As I said, there are maybe a dozen really great (ie App Store worthy) apps in "unofficial-land" that I've run across. You've listed three of the ones I've found in your list, and even most of those are firmly in the "fun but hardly necessary" category.

It just depends what you want to do with your phone, If you want to make it yours and use things like facetime over 3G your going to have to jailbeak.

Click to expand...

I have to add that "Facetime Over 3G" is pretty cool, BUT it blows through a TON of 3G data (which you are being charged for) and only works now because such a tiny number of people are doing it. If that app ever became popular, the quality would drop like a rock -- precisely the reason Apple didn't include it in the first place.

chas_m said:

Actually, barqsbeer, you've made my point. As I said, there are maybe a dozen really great (ie App Store worthy) apps in "unofficial-land" that I've run across. You've listed three of the ones I've found in your list, and even most of those are firmly in the "fun but hardly necessary" category.



I have to add that "Facetime Over 3G" is pretty cool, BUT it blows through a TON of 3G data (which you are being charged for) and only works now because such a tiny number of people are doing it. If that app ever became popular, the quality would drop like a rock -- precisely the reason Apple didn't include it in the first place.

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Chas I only use about the same amount of apps from the App store , Like I said I'm 50/50 between the official apps and unofficial apps. As for the facetime over 3G it should right out of the box, that's At&ts problem for not fixing their network. (Although there service is stellar where I live) All I ever hear and read about are complaints about their service, So far I have had no bubbles no troubles even using programs like Mywi for tethering, I never loose 3G signal or have slow download speeds maybe I'm lucky where I live but there signal is pretty strong here.