do not pass go, do not break $200 phone...

December 31, 2008 10:22 AM

Give me reasons NOT to jailbreak my new iPhone.

I just got the 8mb iphone 3g. I love it so far, but some of the unauthorized apps look very useful. Everyone says jailbreak. Worst case scenario, what could happen if I do?
(fwiw- I have no intention of leaving AT&T so that isn't an issue)

posted by Kellydamnit to computers & internet (10 answers total)

If you're really stupid about it and don't follow directions properly you could brick it-- apart from that I really can't think of anything.

Jailbreak away.
posted by dunkadunc at 10:37 AM on December 31, 2008

My understanding is that it isn't really possible to brick the iphone just by jailbreaking it.

The biggest problem I had is that you have to jailbreak every time you want a new firmware from apple. Also, I'm not sure if there is a way to save between firmwares, but when I upgraded to 2.2 all the jailbroken apps get overwritten and I had to reinstall them.
posted by traco at 10:47 AM on December 31, 2008

I somewhat regret jailbreaking my Touch. You have to keep up to date on the latest patches applicable to your special config. It's just a bother. If you don't jailbreak, you can let Itunes do it all for you.
posted by ick at 11:53 AM on December 31, 2008

Apple makes no guarantees about not bricking your jailbroken phone with a firmware upgrade. Although after today, I don't think they'd risk the publicity hit.
posted by tkolar at 11:54 AM on December 31, 2008

Worse case is probably that you install an app thru Cydia/Installer.app that might compromise the performance/stability of your system (like it running in the background).

It's not permanent though.
posted by wongcorgi at 12:53 PM on December 31, 2008

I jailbroke my iPhone (first-gen) from August to November, dutifully keeping up with each software update as soon it was Pwnage-Tooled. When the last Apple update came I went back to the "normal" software, and think the stability of my phone improved noticeably.

But I plan to go back to jailbreaking, because I do miss the unauthorized apps I had running. Be sure to follow the instructions, but jailbreaking shouldn't be too big a deal, as if something goes wrong, you can restore to factory settings, or to the backup you make on iTunes before you jailbreak.
posted by estherbester at 11:05 PM on December 31, 2008

There's certainly a stability hit if you jailbreak. Not that I approve of Apple's policy re: App Store but I can attest that most of the Cydia/Installer.app apps are not that stable.

Although jailbreaking is relatively safe compared to unlocking it, there's nothing stopping Apple if they want to somehow fuck with jailbreakers.

If your phone is jailbroken, Apple stores will not help you with anything. I'm guessing they might even just void your warranty if you take your jailbroken phone to the store (although I have to say Apple store employees I've dealt with are far from being such people). You could probably back it up and restore it to its non-jailbroken status but that's a bother.
posted by the_dude at 1:33 AM on January 1, 2009

Thanks for the input, everyone. I was primarily going to jailbreak so I could add mms functionality, since I'm already getting shit from my friends that my fancy phone can't do what their "free with a 2 year contract" models can handle. I think I'll hold off for now, though.
posted by Kellydamnit at 6:42 AM on January 2, 2009

I'd recommend just jailbreaking the thing! I held off for a long-time, but I eventually did it and I haven't looked back. There are some really good apps in Cydia that are worth trying out.

If you don't like the jailbreak, you can just restore in iTunes and it is back the way it was. There is really no downside to jailbreaking it that I can think of, except that when a new firmware comes out you have to jailbreak again after installing it.

Really, just GO for it. What have you got to lose?
posted by ranglin at 6:20 AM on January 3, 2009

Jailbreaking is a pain in the ass. I had to jailbreak and unlock my first-gen iPhone because I wanted to use it in Canada. I haven't bothered mucking around with my 3G phone. The jailbreak applications are for the most part all sorts of crap. You also can't simply upgrade when Apple tells you to. You generally need to wait and see what the hacking community has to say about the upgrade. I finally updated my old phone to 2.2, it was running 1.14 for the last long while.
posted by chunking express at 1:35 PM on January 3, 2009