Jailbreak is the term given to the act of "hacking" your iPhone or iPod Touch. By using the word "hacking" I have given it a negative connotation, when in reality Jailbreaking your iPhone or iPod Touch is simply giving you control over the device you have already paid for. Apple may have a problem with it, but contrary to what you may have heard - it is not illegal.
So...what is this Jailbreak you speak of?
The technical answer is the act of Jailbreaking your device gives you access to the actual system and the file system of the device. The iPhone and iPod Touch run a type of Mac OSX/Unix Operating system and Jailbreaking your device gives you access to this.
The easy to understand answer is that: Jailbreaking your device allows you to install 3rd party applications that are not available on the Apple App Store; the ability to change the appearance of your icons, wallpaper, dock etc (themes); and the ability to have more control over settings and functionality that already exist on the device.
So, now that you technically know what Jailbreaking is, the question I get all the time is why? Why should I do it? Why risk voiding my warranty?
A Google search will return more than a million hits for the simple question of "Why jailbreak?" Here is a link to the best list of reasons I have found from Big Boss.
What about "bricking" my iPhone/iPod Touch?
It is nearly impossible to damage your device by Jailbreaking it. The worst you should ever see is the Jailbreak is lost (either from a failed attempt, or a firmware upgrade) or you may be forced to restore your device to factory default. Neither scenario is destructive to the device itself. Apple included a nice recovery mode in the event anything ever goes wrong with the device. This allows you to "recover" your device. If you feel you have completely "bricked" your device and it will simply not function anymore, Apple has included one more mode which will recover your device for you - DFU (Device Firmware Upgrade) mode. As you can see, Apple has made it very safe for us to Jailbreak. :)Will I lose the existing functionality if I Jailbreak?
No. You will still be able to purchase apps from the Apple App Store, you will still be able to purchase music from iTunes and you will still be able to do everything that you did before. iTunes will still work the same as it did before you did the Jailbreak. The only thing that will change is the ability to enhance the device - make it better. The iPhone and iPod Touch are such powerful devices - wouldn't it be nice to use them to their fullest potential?
I am not going to go into a great amount of detail since I would basically be repeating what has already been written so many times before. Suffice it to say that not jailbreaking your device is like not being able to paint or renovate your house. Everything is functional, but it doesn't look as nice as it could, and it would sure be nice to put a jacuzzi tub in the master bath!
One of the nicer things I have seen recently is the ability to "skin" your iPhone and iPod Touch to look like the recently announced iPad. I have personally gone through and implemented some of the changes and I am quite happy with the results.
Once you have gone through all the information that is available, you can then decide if it makes sense for you to Jailbreak your device or not. The actual process is not that difficult and I will make a new post in a few days to describe that process. If after jailbreaking you are not convinced that it's for you, you can always return your device to factory default. There is literally no risk to you.
NOTE:
If you ARE planning to Jailbreak your device, do not upgrade your firmware to the newly released 3.1.3. Doing so will prevent you from being able to jailbreak at this time. If you have already Jailbroken your device, upgrading to the newest firmware will also undo the jailbreak. If this has happened to your device, you will need to wait for a new Jailbreak to become available.
No comments:
Post a Comment