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Introduction:
So you have your 3.0 iPhone and you can install thousands of apps from AppStore. What’s all this commotion about jailbreaking? Why would you need to jailbreak? What does it offer? In this post, I will cite some of the most compelling reasons to jailbreak your iPhone. I will continually update this post as changes occur.
Why Not Appstore:
Simply put, Apple’s rules for AppStore are way too limiting. The apps listed in the sections below are not possible to be in AppStore since they break one or more of Apple’s rules. These rules keep control of the iPhone platform in Apple’s control. Some of these rules include: patching system files such as SpringBoard, allowing apps to run in the background, running apps out of the “sandbox,” and simply doing things Apple decided that they don’t want you to do often for reasons to their benefit, not yours (such as tethering).
Risk Free:
Jailbreaking is not unlocking! It is risk free. Everything that works before jailbreaking continues to work after. Jailbreaking only adds features. Jailbreaking is risk free and cannot void your warranty. You can simply restore in iTunes at anytime to get back to a factory state. You are not alone, many people are doing it. There are over 3 million jailbroken devices now! For understanding of jailbreak vs. unlock read my terminology post.
How To:
If you decide after reading this that you wish to jailbreak, head on over to our guides section and find the guide or method that works best for you. I recommend one of the pwnage methods.
Reason #1: Winterboard + Customization
Winterboard allows you to do this:
or this:
or this:
This is just the “tip of the iceberg”. There is so much more you can do. You can have web content as your background. My theme consists of 350 images that rotate every 15 seconds in a slide show. Here is a sample of some of these images:
You can even have video playing as your wallpaper.
Reason #2: SBSettings - Fast Toggles
So you’re in Safari. You turned off your WiFi or your 3G to save battery. Now you loaded Safari and it’s loading slowly with EDGE. Do you close out Safari, open settings, traverse the menus and reenable the 3g? Or do you just live with the EDGE this time?
SBSettings solves this by providing fast toggles by swiping your status bar. With SBSettings, you just swipe your status bar, enable the WiFi or 3G, and resume Safari where you left off. When done, swipe again, and disable the battery draining wifi or 3G options. Notice also the ability to add date and free memory to your status bar? The processes button allows you to free memory and kill background processes. Simple! SBSettings is must have.
Reason #3: SMS Quick Reply
The best feature of all SMS apps is the quickreply. When an incoming SMS arrives, you normally have to decide whether or not you will quit your existing app to respond or if you will respond later. With these apps, you get quick reply. You can just reply, on the spot, without leaving your current app or game. After you type your response and hit send, your app resumes right where it left off:
There are three apps out that offer better SMS: BiteSMS, MySMS and iRealSMS 2. In addition to landscape SMS, you can search contacts, search SMS, forward SMS, send SMS to multiple people at once, and enable/disable keyboard correction. These are all features that are missing from the stock SMS client.
Reason #4: Backgrounder
There are severe limitations imposed on AppStore apps. One of these is “no background processes.” This means that if you have an app, such as an instant messenger app, every time you press home to go to something else, the app is closed out. You are disconnected. You get no messages, no notification, nothing.
Backgrounder is an attempt to fix this. Backgrounder allows you to select an app that you want to allow to run in the background. Then when you press home, that app will keep running. Perfect for an IRC app (try flowchat + backgrounder) or such that you do not want to get disconnected everytime you tap the home key. This adds critical functionality that you cannot get unless you jailbreak! On 3gs, you have plenty of memory to use this fully!
Reason #5: Cycorder and Snapture
Cycorder is a free full featured video recorder for iPhone. Turn your iPhone into a mini camcorder. The quality is ok at 15 fps with sound. The recordings are stored in mjpeg compression codec so they can be played back on a computer. (Not allowed in AppStore).
Snapture is a fantastic camera upgrade that allows you to take multiple pictures rapidly and in general makes your camera much easier to use. (Not allowed in AppStore).
Reason #6: Launchers
There are now some fantastic springboard add-ons for iPhone. These are OS level enhancements and are therefore, not allowed on AppStore. Those that do not have these are really missing out.
SpotBright - Enhance your spotlight with this add-on from the developer of QuickGold. It adds some key features to spotlight: hidden app search, custom web searches (coming soon), last run app icons as hot buttons.
This is a must have addition to iPhone OS. Note that this is implemented as a mobile substrate plugin which means it becomes part of springboard. There is no extra daemon running that drains your battery or uses your CPU. Outstanding!
Dock 3.0 - This is an app switcher that is always available. It is hard to describe, so check out the video link for a demo. This is also a mobile substrate plugin so there is no extra daemon running on your device.
Stacks - If you’re an OSX user, you probably already know what this is. But it’s a neat way to put items onto your dock that you want to get to quickly and have them pop up in a cool menu. Check it out.
Categories - So I can't write this whole article without at least showcasing one of my own contributions. So here is Categories. This allows you to make folders on your springboard and move those pages of icons into folders. Think Games, Apps, Networking, etc. Reduce 9 pages of apps down to just 1!
Reason #7: Cydia
There are many other apps available only for jailbreakers. These are apps that Apple has either declined from Appstore for one reason (usually they break one of their ridiculous rules) or the developer doesn’t own a MAC or doesn’t feel like paying $100 to distribute their app. For a list of what’s available in Cydia, load Cydia. You can check out what is in my repository here. Many of these apps offer functionality that is just not available in Appstore. For example:
Flashlight - Better than Appstore’s many flashlights because it makes the screen brighter. What good is a dim light? Sheesh.
BossPrefs - Hide unwanted icons on your springboard. Don't use stocks or iTunes? Hide it so you do not need to see it. Access quick toggles to handy features such as bluetooth, wifi, EDGE.
Macman - A pacman-like game only available on Cydia.
BiteSMS - A cheaper alternative to SMS for many countries.
iBlacklist - Filter incoming calls and SMS!
Reason #8: Take Control of Your System
Would you want to own a PC where only Dell decided what you could do with it? Jailbreaking opens your device up to you deciding what to do with it. You can install a BSD unix subsystem and SSH. You can use a mobile terminal. It’s just like a real mini computer! I even used iPhone SSH shell and iPhone GCC to compile most the applications I released on this site!
Reason #9: Unlocking
Finally, and I almost decided to leave this out, but the only way to unlock your iPhone and put it onto another carrier is by jailbreaking it. The unlocking apps will require system level patching and activation all of which can only be done via jailbreaking. At the time of this writing, you cannot unlock an iPhone 3G. Note also that you need not unlock to jailbreak. They are two separate things.
Reason #10: Phone Loss Tracking
iLocalis is an app that you can install onto your jailbroken iPhone and using its GPS / location services, it will tell you where the device is. If you have a 3g device with GPS, it will be pinpoint accurate. If you ever lose the device you can log into iLocalis web site and track the location of the device.
Reason #11: Turn-By-Turn GPS
Apple, in its infinite wisdom, has decided that turn-by-turn GPS is not allowed in AppStore. Now you can get a decent turn-by-turn GPS in your iPhone using xGPS. xGPS features full turn-by-turn guidance through the clever use of Google Maps. It also features full voice directions (TTS - text-to-speech) that try to pronounce the upcoming turn in full detail (direction, street name, etc), a feature a lot of standalone GPS’s do not have. This offers you one of the most updated GPS available because you can easily download maps. You can download maps on your iPhone xGPS software or with software on your computer (Website). If you download the maps on your computer, you can setup a quick wireless transfer and transfer the downloaded Google maps straight to your iPhone.
Reason #12: Music Controls
There are many music apps out in appstore such as pandora, orbmusic, slacker etc. These apps all can stream music or play music from different sources. Very nice right? The problem is that these apps don’t integrate into your iPhone. If you get an email when listening to music, you have to close the app, which stops the playback of music, to check it. If you get an sms, you have to quit playing music to view and respond to it. How dumb is that?
Music controls solves this by patching the controls directly into the springboard. You can see what’s playing, stop, next track, just like you do with the built in app. A must have for anyone that uses these music services.
BigBoss
2008, 2009
