Benefits of jailbreaking

[androidluvr2]

Piracy is hurting developers. The Android platform is not financially viable for most developers any longer because of the extremely high rate of piracy. We dropped it from our paid app strategy, and others are doing so every day.

well for every one that is dropping android there must be 2 that are starting to develop for it because the apps available for android are growing every day.

 

[androidluvr2]

As frustrated as he is, users like him are the reason Apple won't endorse it.

but he seems angry that he is stuck on 6.1.3, not that he jailbroke the device.

 

[kataran]

Jail breaking a device exposes exploits which Apple will plug both proactively and reactively.

The walled garden that is iOS delivers a secure, stable, consistent environment and user experience. This is paramount to Apple's success philosophically.

Eventually the jb community will run out of exploits and this topic will be a thing of the past.

Piracy is hurting developers. The Android platform is not financially viable for most developers any longer because of the extremely high rate of piracy. We dropped it from our paid app strategy, and others are doing so every day.

I choose iOS because of the JB emulating webOS features and got burned out running patches and scripts to keep my daily driver frankinpre2 running on sprint...

an overclock heating made my keyboard unreliable so I pulled the trigger and upgraded to a 5

now I'm stuck on 6.1.3 with no jailbreak getting by with my TP....don't get me wrong iOS6 is very stable dependable but I guess I miss the custom touch

as far as devs are concerned most of my friends are fanboys that never paid for an app in there life even thou I spent at lest 30 bucks in a months time....if we don't support them there won't be many left

 

[Sharma15]

Hi I'm considering jailbreaking my iPhone 3GS I want to know a few things:
1. What are the benefits of jailbreaking?
2. What am I able to do that I couldn't do with an unjailbroken device?
3. What is Cydia and what does that offer?
4. What jailbreaks are available?
5. Can I reverse the process easily without ending up with a bricked phone?
6. How legal is it?

1) possibilities are limitless. Themeing, tweaking, remove ads from apps, customization of the UI.

2) Technically, offers more controlled security. A couple of weeks ago, I was at a party where my phone was stolen from my hotel room. Luckily I had iCaughtUPro installed and was able to track down the thief, show the police the evidence I had and retrieve my phone. $2.49 tweak saved me nearly 900 bucks. Mind you, this was with the phone not having a sin card. I received a picture, location, and time stamp of the event whenever someone tries to shut down my phone. You cannot do this in stock and I know without my jailbreak is never see my phone again. Well worth it.

3) Cydia is the web store for all things jail breaking. It offers a bunch of tweaks like BiteSMS, Callbar, IntelliscreenX, Twitkafly, Auxo, Remote Messages 2, and the list goes on. I have all of these tweaks (paid for, don't support piracy, support our DEVs) and they each make the iOS experience much more fluid than stock.

4) YouTube top Cydia Tweaks and you will see a bunch of videos that show tweaks, what they do, how go use them, where you can find them and for how much. My favourite 5 are BiteSMS, IntelliscreenX, Auxo, iCaughtU Pro, and Applocker.

5) If you want to remove jailbreak completely, simply plug in the phone to iTunes and restore. It's that simple. If you want to return to the state right after jail broken, but clean from tweaks, go into Cydia and remove tweak "mobile substrate." This is probably the most important thing on your phone and controls everything. Removing this doesn't remove jailbreak, just lets you start over from scratch if you have issues. Also, if you end up in a bricked state, then the phone off, hold the volume up button and turn on. Hold this until it powers up in safe-mode. This mode allowed you to use the phone like stock and remove any recently installed tweaks that may be causing the phone to crash.

6) Jailbreaking is legal, locking the carrier of the phone is illegal I believe in the states. Over here in Canada it is not illegal to modify your phone.

If anything else you want to know, message me

 

[natasftw]

How do they generally find the exploits? Do they have to decompile code or does apple release information to developers that can be used to find exploits?

I've never done it myself, so I can't say entirely. There is something Apple gives developers that facilitates a quick jailbreak. However, using it would violate the NDA and I believe Copyright Laws as well. Typically, they use that to get access to their device and then start poking around. I'm not sure what exactly they do at this point as I haven't delved too deeply into the details. I do know a lot of what they've used in the past is no longer applicable.

Ie, they used to get bootrom hacks. These worked on the iPhone4 and older and remained with the device, regardless of iOS version. These exploits made getting into the iOS a much easier task. As a result, once they had that exploit, they had the ability to facilitate downgrades and jailbreaks quickly. From the 4s and beyond, they haven't been able to get into the bootrom. This is in part due to Apple hiding and encrypting the bootrom starting with the 4. I believe it was geohot that managed to hack the 4's bootrom even with the encryption. The lack of a bootrom means they need to find exploits that allow them to get out of the "sandbox" Apple uses to keep apps away from root access.

In the past, they've used things like safari or pdf exploits to gain root access. That's how you had pages such as jailbreakme.com able to jailbreak your phone directly from the web. This is also part of why Apple built the sandbox. By placing safari into the sandbox, they kept it away from root.

All I know about the most recent jailbreak is they took advantage of the space on your phone used to transfer new music via iTunes and managed to sneak their code from there onto the device itself.

I'd love to tell you exactly, but I'd prefer be honest and say I don't know than lie to you.

but he seems angry that he is stuck on 6.1.3, not that he jailbroke the device.

He posted elsewhere that he ran into a problem with his jailbreak and restored. That's why he's "stuck" with the most recent iOS. He continued to rant about the phone being "useless" and other such things. My post really wasn't meant as an insult. It's just passing on something one of Apple's wireless managers shared with me. It's honestly the only explanation I've ever given any weight to.

 

[natasftw]

6) Jailbreaking is legal, locking the carrier of the phone is illegal I believe in the states. Over here in Canada it is not illegal to modify your phone.

Unlocking is illegal if the phone was bought after a certain date. I can't remember the date off the top of my head, but it's something you can google easily.
Phones purchased before that date are grandfathered.

 

[redbeard]

He posted elsewhere that he ran into a problem with his jailbreak and restored.

No I did not, again you're not reading what people are posting here and making assumptions. I ran into a problem with iOS[/i], do you understand that? I've had the exact same problem on a completely stock iPhone that had never been jailbroken before, iOS is not perfect, no matter what some people think.

That's why he's "stuck" with the most recent iOS.

Wrong, I'm stuck there because there is no longer any way to downgrade, due to Apple's stubbornness.

He continued to rant about the phone being "useless" and other such things.

I did not "rant", I stated my opinion, iOS is so limited and locked down from Apple it hurts productivity, the vaunted "user experience", and slows you down.

And it wouldn't be so bad if Apple had strived to keep improving iOS from the beginning, look how long it took them to add things like MMS, a notification center, multi-tasking, etc.. What good is a buttery smooth OS if it won't let me do much with it, and falls further and further behind the competition every year? A jailbroken iPhone 5 takes the OS to the level the competition is on and beyond, I don't need to detail how many incredible tweaks there are in Cydia that improves everything about the phone.

Yet now, because of one little accidental press of a button I'm stuck on 6.1.3 with another jailbreak not coming until likely next Winter sometime, I have no choice but to to have my user experience hampered by Apple for no good reason at all. So the HTC One is looking better and better everyday, I don't want to leave the Apple/iTunes ecosystem, but I feel like Apple is forcing my hand.

 

[androidluvr2]

Unlocking is illegal if the phone was bought after a certain date. I can't remember the date off the top of my head, but it's something you can google easily.
Phones purchased before that date are grandfathered.

https://www.eff.org/is-it-illegal-to-unlock-a-phone

 

[androidluvr2]

So the HTC One is looking better and better everyday, I don't want to leave the Apple/iTunes ecosystem, but I feel like Apple is forcing my hand.

The HTC One is a great phone. I wish it were coming to Verizon.

 

[androidluvr2]

iOS is so limited and locked down from Apple it hurts productivity, the vaunted "user experience", and slows you down.

I think Apple's position is that every user have a consistent user experience - the one that Apple designed their hardware/software to deliver.

 

[Nyan_Cat100]

Apple clearly ain't bothered about jailbreaking as they took a month to close the exploits. They also use many tweaks created by the community in iOS updates. They have a care of duty to close vulnerabilities for the majority of iOS muggles who are quite happy with stock and have no idea about the jailbreak scene.

Having a section/port for people to run jailbreak tweaks is a great idea but will never fly with Apples mantra.

Then why not allow people to install Cydia without jailbreaking or put in customisation tools eg change theme that's one way the old blackberry OS is better than iOS well, that, BBM, USB mode, the Bluetooth sharing and the ability to choose a ringtone from music playlist

 

[sherlock]

I think Apple's position is that every user have a consistent user experience - the one that Apple designed their hardware/software to deliver.

I would say boring user experience not a consistent user experience...

 

[redbeard]

Annnnnnnnd I'm jailbroken again on 6.1.2..

 

[Nyan_Cat100]

So basically I'm buggered as I can't jailbreak 6.1.3 and can't downgrade?

 

[androidluvr2]

Annnnnnnnd I'm jailbroken again on 6.1.2..

how?

 

[redbeard]

how?

I was able to downgrade..

By getting my phone exchanged for bad battery life, to my amazement, the replacement was on 6.1.2!!!

 

[alicepattinson]

I've been using iPhone for years already but I don't know why I have the guts to jailbreak it. Still scared. hihihihi

 

[anon(4698833)]

To answer the OP's question in a general sense...Jailbreaking exists for 2 reasons, customization and piracy. That's it. After JB'ing the phone, you can essentially turn it into whatever kind of phone you want or just adjust iOS to your liking. The piracy side is obvious, and doesn't need discussion.

@redbeard, i know you could probably care less what i have to say about this, but honestly, your requirements of the iPhone meet such a low % of the requirements of most iPhone owners that I find it strange you take their approaches on iOS so personally, it would be like someone buying a Honda Accord and getting mad because it wasn't created as a race car. You need openness with the iPhone beyond the native function, but you (and I for that matter) are such a small niche of their consumer base, it should just be a simple understanding that they offer the iPhone in a state that more than satisfies a vast majority of the market. And as with any kind of consumer electronic, we'll always have ways to delve further into the device than the manufacturer intended...there will never be an end to that because there will never be an end to people who want to do it. Attacking Apple as a company though because of it seems silly...they arnt trying to make a product like you want, because people like you and I make up such a small piece of their consumer base.

 

[Ashley Karels]

I had been a full fledged android user since early 2009 (when the G1 came out)
That was until i found myself in the situation of not having a working device and since I wasnt on a contracted plan with any which provider, I had no replacement option available with any discounts or device coverage, etc. I either needed to pay full price for a new phone, or I needed to attempt to use my broken device i already owned. I was not in the position to pay that kind of money at the time - ended up getting an iphone4 for free from my grandmother who upgraded to the iphone5.

Going to have to agree that there is no comparison when it comes to apple vs android in the user customizable department.

I miss being able to have the option to completely personalize and customize my device in whichever way i like. Not being ale to have access to these features on apple is definitely causing them to lose business. It's not an opinion. It's a fact.
Cant wait to get out of the iOS and back to android.
#MeetMotoX

 

[rdiddy_25]

I had been a full fledged android user since early 2009 (when the G1 came out)
That was until i found myself in the situation of not having a working device and since I wasnt on a contracted plan with any which provider, I had no replacement option available with any discounts or device coverage, etc. I either needed to pay full price for a new phone, or I needed to attempt to use my broken device i already owned. I was not in the position to pay that kind of money at the time - ended up getting an iphone4 for free from my grandmother who upgraded to the iphone5.

Going to have to agree that there is no comparison when it comes to apple vs android in the user customizable department.

I miss being able to have the option to completely personalize and customize my device in whichever way i like. Not being ale to have access to these features on apple is definitely causing them to lose business. It's not an opinion. It's a fact.
Cant wait to get out of the iOS and back to android.
#MeetMotoX

1st off, welcome to iMore. And 2nd, jailbreak your iPhone and your problem is solved.