"… it is nowhere close to what the support document makes it out to be". That was kind of my main feeling – they've blown it up a fair bit, and without ever mentioning that nearly all issues named can quite easily affect a stock iPhone as well.

And yeah, the iPad mention in products affected made me chuckle.

While jailbreaking does introduce some instability but it is nowhere close to what the support document makes it out to be. Apple have their reasons (support cost is a big one) to play it out and is even expected of them.

Even thought iPhone OS 4.0 adds a few features I'd still jailbreak it to get additional functionality on my iPhone. Backgrounding was the main reason I'd recommend jailbreaking for my friends but with the multitasking I 'd think harder about their tech-savviness and their needs before recommending it. To counter myself, tools like Blackra1n have actually made jailbreaking so easy for even a technologically challenged person.

Patrick, I didn't notice that they had conceded iPad to the jailbroken devices already. :-p Nice find mate.

Thanks for the comment John. Nice, balanced overview from someone who has ample experience 'on both sides' so to speak.

Don't get me wrong, I have been hacking phones for a while, including ROM upgrades and custom brews on my Sprint Touch, International official (but non-AT&T official) BlackBerry OS updates, and a Quickpwn at one point and a Blackra1n at another point on my Iphone (the reason for 2 points was because a Cydia App totally took down the 3gs).

I have to say, what I really miss is backgrounding my navigation apps (I miss this weekly), my BiteSMS (I miss this daily), and MyWIFI (I miss this weekly, and it personally just doesn't sit well that I have been tethering internet through my mobile for around a decade, and can no longer do that on the best phone I've ever had).

Supposedly two of the three of these issues will be "fixed" via the 4.0 upgrade that is probably less than 60 days away. I went from being terrified of jailbreaking, to thinking it was the best thing I ever did with a phone, to thinking it was the worst thing I ever did with a phone. I've now come full circle and am hopeful for being stock on 4.0, but being open to the idea that I will someday jailbreak again, if need be.

I'm sure there have been plenty of non-geeks taking there iPhone to the Genius Bar because they couldn't get it to work correctly after a jailbreak problem (I would know I jailbroke many of my friends phones and basically they just knew how to dial a phone, half of them didn't even know how to sync their phones with the computer let alone fix one). That does cost Apple it's time, sometimes they would just hand you a refurb phone instead of trying to figure out the problem, so there is more cost. With my 2G before they put the rule on the counter about jailbroke iPhone's, they replaced mine without a AT&T contract and jailbroke. They know I was unlocked because the first thing they ask for is your phone number. So I don't blame Apple, I'm sure they have plenty of other reasons too but people always want more and can't except any rules. I say if you can't play by the rules then don't get mad if they told you not to jailbreak it and you do, I accepted the responsibility that if it broke after that rule was put on the counter I would probable be buying another iPhone if problems occurred.

It's worth pointing out because jailbreaking does not come anywhere near 'massively increasing' the odds of having nearly any of the issues the support doc lists. The drunk driving comparison is spurious, not at all accurate. Ask several of the authors on this site who have run their iPhones jailbroken as much or more than stock. Ask users on iPhone forums who have jailbroken. There have been various occasions where Apple themselves have put out a software update that caused severe issues in nearly every category listed. So were they drunk in charge of the whole iPhone train?