Benefits of jailbreaking

[Nyan_Cat100]

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?

 

[natasftw]

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 and 2 are essentially the same question. If you could do it with the unjailbroken device, it's not really a benefit of jailbreaking after all.

With that in mind, jailbreaking allows you to install apps and tweaks that Apple hasn't signed. These range from enhancements to the text messaging system to call screening to adding swiping functionality to allowing for themed appearances etc.

Cydia is the "iTunes Store" for jailbreakers. You'll essentially carry two stores: one for jailbreak applications and the one you've always carried. Like Apple's store, Cydia contains a combination of free and paid applications.

Jailbreaks available depend on your current iOS. If you're on 6.1.3, there isn't one. If you're on 6.0-6.1.2, evasi0n is your best bet. Prior to those builds, you'll have the least amount of trouble using redsn0w. That can be found here: Dev-Team Blog evasi0n is at evasi0n iOS 6.x Jailbreak - official website of the evad3rs

To reverse the process, simply plug your phone into iTunes and tell it to restore your phone.

It's as legal as breathing. Apple frowns upon it and voids your warranty if they find out. However, a quick restore hides it from them. I'm also not sure how much Apple is still servicing the 3GS to begin with so I'm not sure this is a factor in your decision or not.

 

[folgrz]

This is a really good article that explains a lot of pro's and con's (mostly pro's)

Why I continue to jailbreak | Macworld

 

[rdiddy_25]

Here's a stickie that will answer all ur questions

http://forums.imore.com/showthread.php?t=200738

 

[BLiNK]

none, that i can see

 

[Jetserf]

none, that i can see

ಠ_ಠ

 

[BLiNK]

ಠ_ಠ

what. it seems the minute i am jailbroken it turns into a waiting game.. waiting for some little quirk/glitch to happen. some people are fine with it and some are not. after a few years of this i finally had enough

i'm not saying jailbreaking is "The Devil" just saying that after a while of doing it i realized it was only a hobby, not a necessity. others should look at it that way too especially since you cannot restore back to the desired jailbreakable firmware (A5+ devices) you're one terrible thing going wrong away from restoring to stock anyways

 

[BreakingKayfabe]

what. it seems the minute i am jailbroken it turns into a waiting game.. waiting for some little quirk/glitch to happen. some people are fine with it and some are not. after a few years of this i finally had enough

i'm not saying jailbreaking is "The Devil" just saying that after a while of doing it i realized it was only a hobby, not a necessity. others should look at it that way too especially since you cannot restore back to the desired jailbreakable firmware (A5+ devices) you're one terrible thing going wrong away from restoring to stock anyways

You just put what I think I've always thought into words.

 

[natasftw]

what. it seems the minute i am jailbroken it turns into a waiting game.. waiting for some little quirk/glitch to happen. some people are fine with it and some are not. after a few years of this i finally had enough

i'm not saying jailbreaking is "The Devil" just saying that after a while of doing it i realized it was only a hobby, not a necessity. others should look at it that way too especially since you cannot restore back to the desired jailbreakable firmware (A5+ devices) you're one terrible thing going wrong away from restoring to stock anyways

You're confusing "benefits" with "necessity."

 

[redbeard]

what. it seems the minute i am jailbroken it turns into a waiting game.. waiting for some little quirk/glitch to happen. some people are fine with it and some are not. after a few years of this i finally had enough

i'm not saying jailbreaking is "The Devil" just saying that after a while of doing it i realized it was only a hobby, not a necessity. others should look at it that way too especially since you cannot restore back to the desired jailbreakable firmware (A5+ devices) you're one terrible thing going wrong away from restoring to stock anyways

And none of this BS would be an issue if Apple had kept up with the times and actually updated their os, or allow people to do as they please with their phones, they could even bury an option in settings to open them up to customization with several warnings that it is for advanced users only. Yet here we are on iOS 6.1.3, and it's the same as it was in 2007 minus a few tacked on tweaks they copied from Cydia devs or Android. I am stuck on 6.1.3 now and I am probably getting a HTC one when they come out. No more waiting and hoping, Apple is the new Blackberry of old, let's see if it takes them as long to realize it. Any company that rests on past success is doomed to fail.

 

[Nyan_Cat100]

What I can't understand is why apple don't embrace the fact that people want to jailbreak their iDevices and if I was a dev I would put a port on the OS which jailbreakers could use instead of exploiting vulnerabilities plus apple could monitor usage like prevent piracy

 

[Nyan_Cat100]

At least on the old blackberry OS there was built in customisation

 

[ups925]

my lock button started acting up. I installed a tweak so I can tap and hold the battery icon to lock the device. You can also apply themes, install file managers, custom logos and fonts, ad blockers, have the alarm be on a set volume regardless of what the phones volume is set to, add an icon to auto close all apps instead of doing it one by one, safari downloader. One of my favorite and most useful tweaks is math alarm which doesnt let you silence the alarm until you solve a math problem. I hated how easily the alarm can be silenced and overslept often. With my old blackberry I had an app as my alarm so I had to unlock the phone to silence it. Iphones allow you to silence while locked which is pointless when the goal is to get you to choose to silence the alarm.

 

[natasftw]

What I can't understand is why apple don't embrace the fact that people want to jailbreak their iDevices and if I was a dev I would put a port on the OS which jailbreakers could use instead of exploiting vulnerabilities plus apple could monitor usage like prevent piracy

Read redbeard's rant.

He's associated any frustration he's had with Apple and looks to go to other companies. As frustrated as he is, users like him are the reason Apple won't endorse it.

 

[redbeard]

Read redbeard's rant.

He's associated any frustration he's had with Apple and looks to go to other companies. As frustrated as he is, users like him are the reason Apple won't endorse it.

I don't know if you're just trolling, but users like me are exactly why they should open up the iPhone to customization. They can either stop being control freaks or continue to lose customers.. I know exactly what I'm doing, iOS isn't as stable and user friendly as people make it out to be..

 

[natasftw]

I don't know if you're just trolling, but users like me are exactly why they should open up the iPhone to customization. They can either stop being control freaks or continue to lose customers.. I know exactly what I'm doing, iOS isn't as stable and user friendly as people make it out to be..

Nope. It wasn't a troll.

You managed to break this phone. You've managed to break others.

You've stated this on these forums.

You're equating the frustration you've had with Apple as a whole. By doing so, you're validating their argument.

They're gaining market share. That's the opposite of your rant's claim of lost customers.

Each OS has pros and cons. You're focusing on cons arising from your actions. You are exactly the type of user they speak of when they state reasons they don't want to allow a jailbreak.

 

[ridiculocity]

What I can't understand is why apple don't embrace the fact that people want to jailbreak their iDevices and if I was a dev I would put a port on the OS which jailbreakers could use instead of exploiting vulnerabilities plus apple could monitor usage like prevent piracy

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.

 

[Timhewitt]

What I can't understand is why apple don't embrace the fact that people want to jailbreak their iDevices and if I was a dev I would put a port on the OS which jailbreakers could use instead of exploiting vulnerabilities plus apple could monitor usage like prevent piracy

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.

 

[natasftw]

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

You do understand that exploits used in recent versions of iOS didn't necessarily exist in older versions? The community will run out of exploits when Apple stops updating iOS, not until.

 

[androidluvr2]

You do understand that exploits used in recent versions of iOS didn't necessarily exist in older versions? The community will run out of exploits when Apple stops updating iOS, not until.

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?