If It Prints, I'll Let You Know

So you are the proud owner of an iPhone, but what you have simply is not enough. There has been a lot of talk about something called “jailbreaking” your iPhone – all the hoopla is doing nothing about discouraging you from doing it, but is actually making you more curious. But before you rebel against Apple and jailbreak your phone, it might be worthwhile to know the advantages and disadvantages of making such a decision; PC World’s Mike Keller has a few points to share.

First off, we might want to say a little something about jailbreaking for the uninitiated. In a previous post we mentioned how Apple sort of censors apps that one can install into their mobile devices. While there are more than a hundred thousand apps offered by Apple, there are simply some applications that one would rather have on their iPhones that have not received the Apple green light. Hence, the concept of “jailbreaking” the iPhone – making changes to the iPhone’s operating system so that a user can load third-party applications that do not have the Apple seal of approval.

First, the Pros. We already mentioned about third party applications; a jailbroken iPhone will give its user more of a free hand regarding the applications that he can put into his (or her) device. One can now, for instance, have Google Voice. Jailbreaking will also allow the user to customize the iPhone’s user interface – not that there’s anything wrong with the way it looks as it is. It’s just that there are people who would like to make their mobile devices “their own” by customizing its look and being able to install system-wide add-ons.

Freedom, however, has its consequences. The decision to jailbreak your iPhone also means that you are willing to say goodbye to your device’s warranty, and you willingly do not expect Apple to come to the rescue if you have hardware problems. There is also the fact that jailbreaking may increase your phone’s instability. While it is entirely possible that the iPhone OS may crash at some point even without jailbreaking, doing so may increase the possibility of crashes occurring. Any add-on or UI mod that one installs can also slow down the iPhone.

The bottom line, though, is that the decision to jailbreak an iPhone depends wholly on the owner. Just make sure that you are perfectly capable of standing by your decision, regardless of what the outcome may be.

Related posts

• Apple Apps That May Never Find Their Way to Your iPhone (0)
• Radio App for iPhone and iPod Touch from Apple Coming Soon (1)
• Kodak Pic Flick App for iPhone and iPod Touch (1)
• Apple App Store Hits 100,000 Mark! (0)