Jailbreaking an iphone

[bearsamui]

Does anyone know anything about jailbreaking iphones. Was interested in the pros and cons of doing it. I have a mate that can do it, he only tells me of the pros, Im sure there are some cons. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Wolf Cat]

If it's still under warranty and you jailbreak it the warranty is void.

Edited November 12, 2011 by Wolf Cat

[ProudAussie]

http://www.pcworld.c...easons_not.html

 

http://theleetgeeks.com/the-pros-and-cons-to-jailbreaking-your-iphone/

 

Reasons Not to Jailbreak:

 

 

Bricking

 

As with any tampering of your iPhone, you run the risk of experiencing "bricking." Bricking renders your phone unusable and requires a complete wipe and restore to make it functional again. Not a big deal given the quick fix, but it does serve as a deterrent.

 

Voiding Warranty

 

Though it's now legal to jailbreak your iPhone, doing so still voids your phone's warranty. Without a valid warranty, Apple will not cover any damages or other malfunctions related to your phone. So if you have the tendency to break Apple products or have buggy experiences with your device, you might want to reconsider.

 

Data Suck

 

Frequent or extended use of FaceTime over 3G -- or other data-hogging applications -- will drain the life out of AT&T's new bandwidth caps. Unless you've been grandfathered into an unlimited data plan, you may bump into your data cap sooner rather than later, and the consequences are costly: data usage above predetermined limits will incur overage charges that have the potential to double your monthly data fees.

 

Full of Bugs

 

Sometimes digging into your iPhone just doesn't work and "comex," the person responsible for jailbreakme, doesn't have a solution. One of the biggest complaints was that jailbreakme disabled FaceTime and MMS. But fear not -- loyalists devoted to the cause of jailbreaking sometimes come up with solutions themselves: the failure of FaceTime and MMS were fixed in a recent update to the jailbreak app, according to comex's Twitter feed.

 

Security Concerns

 

MacRumors discovered a flaw in the jailbreaking process that allows hackers to remotely plant malware onto a user's device. The flaw is located in the iOS PDF viewer. "The remote website presents a PDF that has a specifically crafted font embedded, and it is the processing of the embedded font that has the security issue," MacRumors reported. (They also add an interesting twist: Apple had fixed a similar issue in MacOS with a recent security update.) The idea of your iPhone being a hotbed for malicious interference has numerous negative penalties.

Edited November 12, 2011 by ProudAussie

[singalong]

[snip]

Security Concerns

 

MacRumors discovered a flaw in the jailbreaking process that allows hackers to remotely plant malware onto a user's device. The flaw is located in the iOS PDF viewer. "The remote website presents a PDF that has a specifically crafted font embedded, and it is the processing of the embedded font that has the security issue," MacRumors reported. (They also add an interesting twist: Apple had fixed a similar issue in MacOS with a recent security update.) The idea of your iPhone being a hotbed for malicious interference has numerous negative penalties.

 

Complete misinformation from MacRumors - jailbreaking does not create the bug, it's already there in the firmware!

 

Actually this PDF exploit is exactly what comex (jailbreakme.com) used to jailbreak the phone in the first place - works with all iPhones (3GS & 4) up to firmware 4.3.3 - Apple blocked the hole after that. After a successful jailbreak, you can plug the hole straightaway through a small app in the Cydia repo which takes care of the vulnerability...

 

Phones that have later firmware including 4.3.4, 4.3.5, 5.0 and 5.0.1 can only be jailbroken tethered - that is, it needs to be connected to a PC/Laptop and requires you to use a specific software every time you reboot the phone which is a huge pain in the arse.

 

I am currently using a jailbroken iPhone 4 with ios 5 firmware and have to go through with this process everytime I reboot, which, thankfully is not ery often - maybe once in 3 months or so. There is some news that an untethered jailbreak will be available shortly, but I'm not holding my breath. But then I don't really have a choice as I am using an AT&T phone in India

 

Cheers

Edited November 12, 2011 by singalong

[Dr.Winston]

This website will give you all the information you need to jailbreak your Iphone (Just click the jailbreak link). I do jailbreak my phone but I'd only recommend it if you are finding it's present capabilities restrictive and you are the kind of guy who likes to customise. It can be quite a pain when they release a new version of the operating software waiting for the jailbreaks to be developed. Usually it means that you have to stick with an old version of the software while waiting. There are some useful applications for those that do jailbreak that can really help you to get the most from your Iphone.

[paulyd2k]

well i done my i-pad had no problems up to now, i also did an old 8gb i phone ages ago, was easy , it opens up a whole new world of apps and stuff mind,

[bearsamui]

Thanks for the replies, Im a bit of a dumbass when it comes to all of this stuff, I dont understand alot of it. All I was told was that I could get alot more apps for nothing. Sounded good, but not so sure now.

[tunamelt]

I used Installous to get a lot of free apps, but most of them sucked. Like the Tom Tom GPS app for $60. Not even worth it. If you're not a true geek, don't bother.

[sharktooth]

Jail breaking it also means you can download and install lots of apps from utorrent sites for free. However... most apps are basically childish shite, so why not just buy the decent ones you need for a few bucks from the app store instead.

[Dr.Winston]

Yeah, I think it's only for those who really use their Iphones to the limit. If you're not technically minded then it's probably not worth it. I do jail break mine but you can get into situations like I'm in now where I'm on ios 5 waiting for an untethered jailbreak. I could go back to ios 4.xxx and jailbreak but not get back to 5.00 again if I did because 5.01 has been released and 5.00 isn't being signed by Apple anymore lol.