No sooner had I posted this article and read the initial comments than I suddenly was overwhelmed with an urge to let it ra1n and jailbreak again. I had been concerned over the very minor chance of something going wrong and winding up with a bricked iPhone, but I figured, what ‘s the worst that can happen? I have an iPod Touch here in Iraq (or is it iRaq?) with me, so the most I would lose capability-wise if everything went straight to hell would be the ability to get incoming text messages, and that could be rectified easily, if inconveniently, while the iPhone was sent home for repair. So, I took a deep breath, and
Wow.
Just Wow.
Every time I jailbreak, I can ‘t help but feel like Dorothy in the (colorized) Wizard of Oz when she walks out of her house and everything goes from black and white to color “ suddenly, the world seems brighter, with more possibilities. So, in this article, I will describe a little bit of the benefits of jailbreaking “ in other words, why I am continually compelled to re-jailbreak after each new firmware update. There are several excellent articles that explain the process of jailbreaking and which describe the apps that I will mention in great detail, so I will not go into that detail here.
OKAY, WHY JAILBREAK?
There are several reasons that you might consider jailbreaking. Essentially, they all boil down to this: Apple prevents you from doing many things that the iPhone is well and truly capable of doing. Jailbreaking allows non-sanctioned apps to be run, which enable many of these things “ some of which seem like glaring omissions on Apple ‘s part. For example, those who jailbroke their phones last year enjoyed cut/paste (in limited fashion, but still) and shooting video “ which either was not available until the 3.0 firmware or still is not available to stock phones (stock 2G and 3G iPhones still cannot shoot video).
Here are some of the reasons and available applications that, for me, make having a jailbroken phone so much more pleasing and productive than having one that ‘s stock:
RUN APPS IN THE BACKGROUND: This has all sorts of possibilities; and I primarily use it for a few things:
1. To allow Byline to sync full news articles and pictures for offline reading while I am (or can be) doing other things.
2. To listen to audio applications such as Stitcher, AOL Radio, and Emergency Radio while doing other things.
3. To keep Touch Term or Skype open when I need to look something up, tend to a quick email, etc. Closing them to do so would drop the SSH session or phone call.
I am using Backgrounder to permit the tasks to run in the background, and Kirikae to switch between and manage background tasks. I tried a few other alternatives to Kirikae such as mQuickDo and Multifl0w, but wound up uninstalling them despite their aesthetically pleasing qualities due to bugs or other undesirable elements in how they worked. Factoring in the fact that Kirikae is free sealed that deal.
Here, Kirikae is showing the running applications. Swiping an application gives you the option to close it. (click on an image for a larger view)
PERSONALIZATION: Simply put, you ‘re not limited to Apple ‘s idea of aesthetics. Here is a before and after of one of my home screens “ I ‘m sure you can appreciate the difference:
Winterboard is an application that permits several aesthetic improvements, such as having your wallpaper behind your icons, and themes. The theme I am using here is Glass Orb Color; the background was made in Photoshop. Several of the more popular apps have icons created for the theme; others will appear with their un-themed icons. Many theme authors (and users) take requests for themed app icons. My current home screen (with the majority of the icons ‘themed ‘) shows more of the desired effect:
Five Icon Dock provides exactly what its name implies (and incidentally is required by Glass Orb Color).
SBSettings is providing the changes in the Status Bar: the date, numeric value for the WiFi signal, and the battery percentage. More on SBSettings later.
ENHANCEMENTS/ALTERNATIVES TO NATIVE FUNCTIONS: There ‘s lots of things that Apple could improve in the OS but either hasn ‘t yet or won ‘t. Jailbreak apps and extensions offer several enhancements that leave you wondering, ‘Why can ‘t Apple do this? ‘.
Do you get tired of swiping through a dozen home screens to get to the application you want? Enter Overboard, an ingenious app that either through a pinch on the Springboard or a press of the home button key will show you this scrollable view of your home screens. Tap it, and it ‘s there in a flash. Going from the first home screen to the last and running an app is as simple as ‘pinch-scroll-tap-tap ‘ instead of ‘flick-flick-flick-flick-flick-flick-flick-flick-flick-flick-tap ‘. Brilliant!
SBSettings should really be called ‘Swiss Army Knife ‘ for all its capabilities. Simply swipe along the Status Bar and you are presented with a drop down menu from which you can toggle on and off several iPhone-related functions such as 3G, Bluetooth, Airplane Mode, WiFi, Location Services, and more. Your current IP addresses, free storage space, and free memory are displayed as well. You can also hide icons of applications that you do not use (goodbye, Stocks app!) and change many options in the Status Bar as previously discussed. SBSettings is theme-aware, and here I have the Glass Orb Color theme enabled to match the overall theme:
There ‘s an awesome plug-in for SBSettings called Rotation Inhibitor. It allows you to toggle the ability for apps to rotate to/from landscape mode. This is awesome when you ‘re laying in bed reading; no longer do you have to hold the iPhone at a weird angle to prevent it from rotating!
APPS THAT APPLE WON ‘T APPROVE: The bizarre nether-world that we call the App Store approval process has claimed innumerable victims, many of which show up in the Cydia or Rock stores “ some at a price, some free. I haven ‘t added too many apps in this category, but here is one worth mentioning:
Google Voice Mobile is the jailbreak app that provides what Apple famously told Google it could not “ app-based access to Google Voice. In fact, Google Voice Mobile was already available in the App Store before Google submitted their own version, but it was unceremoniously yanked for ‘duplicating features ‘. What did author Sean Kovacs do? He made it into a jailbreak app. This app is very helpful to me for one major reason: Here in Iraq, I can receive text messages for free (well, they are included in the 200 message plan I pay for). However, sending a text costs 30 cents each! Through Google Voice, they are free, and work internationally. I can text people both at home and on the local Iraq cell systems. I could use the Google Voice mobile web site, but the app is a much nicer way to go.
JAILBREAKING IS PAINLESS: It is (on Windows, anyway, and I expect on Mac as well) a 5-minute process “ no muss, no fuss. Download and run the app, follow the instructions, and really before you can take it all in, it ‘s done. (One caveat: Recent iPhone 3Gs units can jailbreak, but are left with what has been termed a ‘tethered jailbreak ‘ “ meaning that if your phone ever reboots, you will need to jailbreak again before you can use it. Mine, purchased in July on i-Day 3.0, has no such issue.)
I ‘ve not had insane battery drain, crashes, or any other negative result from the process thus far “ but then again, I also try not to commit what seem to be the cardinal sins of jailbreaking that lead to instability:
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Having too many apps running in the background at once. Each app consumes memory. If you use too much at one time, you ‘ll more than likely run into problems. The simple fix is to quit any background apps that you don ‘t need running at the time “ just like you would on your desktop PC.
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Leaving apps running in the background when not needed. Besides the memory issue noted above, some apps will drain your battery quickly because they are either heavy network users (like IM apps), or heavy CPU users (like games). In this respect, Apple ‘s notification system has some genius to it “ you can get an alert to a new IM without having the IM app running all the time and eating battery while maintaining connections to the IM server. I leave Agile Messenger running in the background only when I am in the middle of a conversation and need to do something else quick, but don ‘t want to have to reload Agile.
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Installing too many jailbreak apps. Applications that affect system processes can collide with each other if they are improperly coded or if you happen to install apps that conflict with each other. Having jailbroken access to the entire file system means that apps can do a lot more “ but also have the potential to conflict more. Other apps may be triggered with similar or the exact same strokes/buttons/etc “ which can lead to confusion, non-usable apps, or at the worst, crashes. Sticking to the essentials and ‘must-haves ‘ will go a long way towards a happy jailbreak experience.
(It must be said that the above tips are also applicable to most desktop PC operating systems as well “ however, they usually have more resources (mostly in terms of RAM) to be able to handle these issues a lot more gracefully.)
Hopefully this somewhat personalized overview of Jailbreaking will give you a little insight into not only why I am once again jailbroken, but will also help you decide if jailbreaking is right for you. There ‘s really no reason not to try it “ you can always restore your iPhone back to the stock configuration and have it back just the way it was anytime you choose to do so. So, what are you waiting for? Let it ra1n!
HELPFUL LINKS:
Blackra1n: Jailbreak app for Windows and Mac
How to Jailbreak Your iPhone, iPod Using BlackRa1n [Mac] (iClarified)
How to Jailbreak Your iPhone, iPod Using BlackRa1n [Windows] (iClarified)
Why Jailbreak iPhone: Big Boss ‘ take on the subject, with some more apps and lots of theme/background wallpaper examples
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