Another page on why to jailbreak your iPhone 3G

Posted by admin on October 23rd, 2008 filed in Technology

Ya… there are so many of these post out there.  You’re probably tired of reading them.  I know I am.  Yet  I’ve had the 3G since July (4 months) and decided I would give the jailbreak a shot.  Here are some of the reasons why I would say  ‘do it.’

• Intelliscreen:  Great app.  My phone is asleep.  I press the button and the screen that normally shows the battery power or SMS now shows me my email, SMS, weather, and calendar.  Admittedly, this was a big selling feature for me to jailbreak.  I was irritated hearing the email beep, unlocking the phone, going into the mail and seeing my latest AirMiles e-newsletter.  Now I glance at the screen. Done.

2) Backgrounder.  OK. This is cool.  For an IM program or a program that normally sits in the front and does nothing (I love GPS tracker on long trips).  Have the program run in the background.  Very cool, but not foolproof.

3) Blacklist.  I don’t know about you, but some people I would sooner not hear from (collection agencies, families, work calling asking “Why aren’t you here today”, etc.)  Blacklist stops the phone from ringing if certain numbers call.  Wonderful.

4) VOIP over 3G.  My provider gives me free incoming calls ‘in my local area.’  However, their customer reps can’t tell me where that ‘local area’ is.  Their billing system seems to have no problem. Now I have Skype and my Gizmo account setup using a cracked version of Fring for 3G.  VOIP calls away!

5) Tethering.  Admittedly, with the phone I can check most of the stuff I need to.  But there are times when I would like to see it on the big screen, or open an emailed file in a program other than the supported ones.  The ability to hop online using my iPhone 3G as a modem is handy.  I don’t do it much.

6) Springboard / Winterboard.  This isn’t a dealbreaker, but the ability to change themes is kind of nice.  It’s something I never do on my computer, but I do like doing on the phone.

7) Terminal.  Yes, I am a geek thank you. Copy things to / from the phone

Cycorder.  Turns the camera into a video camera.  Now with audio.  How much was that?  Oh, it is free.

9) Cracked apps.  What’s that? Apps that you have to buy from the app store can be loaded on free? Maybe I should have looked into this before buying all the apps I have!  Now I know this isn’t right. We do need to support these developers.  But there are so many I would have liked to try before I bought.  Some of the apps aren’t even worth the 99¢ they charge!

10) Searcher: Another free app.  Type in a term and it searches your address book, safari, calendar, SMS, notes.

11) Attachments from a URL?   So I’m standing in the elevator with Steven Spielberg.  I pitch my script to him. He likes.  I go to email him my script… oh wait, can’t.  But drop in a free addition and put a link to your script and it pulls it from the link and attaches it to the email.  Steven gets off the elevator and my script is waiting in his inbox.  Even if you aren’t on the elevator with Spielberg, the ability to send PDFs (sales catalog, articles, etc.) can be pretty handy.

Downsides…

•  It’s a little slower.  I can see why Apple doesn’t let applications run in the background.  It simply can’t do it effectively all the time.  Booting up (is it slower too?).

• It can be buggy.  Mind you, I found my regular iPhone buggy too.

• It’s not for everyone.  If you are a geek and you don’t mind doing the SSH stuff from time to time, OK.  Otherwise, it may not be for you.

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Will I keep the jailbreak? Not sure if I will keep it longterm, but so far I have to say I enjoy it.