30 Excellent Reasons to Jailbreak Your iPhone
Written on July 23, 2009 by Sebastien
55 Comments
Why jailbreak your iPhone? To me, every application available in Cydia is a good reason to jailbreak your iPhone. Simply said, jailbreaking your iPhone will allow you to use many applications that are not available (and will probably never be) in the App Store.
Here are 30 excellent reasons to jailbreak your iPhone:
- It’s risk-free. Worst case scenario, you can restore your iPhone to factory settings
- Install third-party applications with Cydia
- Get MMS with SwirlyMMS
- Add custom notification sounds and ringtones for free
- Use a free turn by turn GPS with xGPS
- Get video recording for your iPhone 2G or 3G with Cycorder
- Stream live videos with Qik
- Use Voice Over IP apps over 3G and Edge with VoIPover3G
- Enable Flash with iMobileCinema
- Download and save YouTube videos on your iPhone with MxTube
- Tether your iPhone with PDAnet
- View your iPhone on your TV with TVOut
- Play Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, NES and PlayStation games with emulators
- Watch every single episode of South Park, American Dad, Family Guy, the Simpsons, the Office, and Futurama for free
- Filter incoming calls with iBlackList
- Email your voicemails with Voicemail Forwarder
- Customize the look and feel of your iPhone with WinterBoard
- Quickly manage your settings preferences with BossPrefs
- Sort your apps into folders with Categories
- Run apps in the background with Backgrounder
- Quickly reply to SMS with iRealSMS
- Track your lost/stolen iPhone with iLocalis
- Display information such as emails, SMS, calendar and more directly on your lock screen with IntelliScreen
- Spoof your caller ID with 123Spoof
- Change your iPhone fonts with FontSwap
- Get haptic feedback for your keyboard with HapticPro
- Show a picture of your contacts in your contact list with Cyntact
- Transfer files via Bluetooh with iBluetooth
- Enable battery percentage on the 2G and 3G with Battery Percentage
- Unlock your iPhone
Can you think of more reasons to jailbreak? If so, please add them by leaving a comment below.
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I don’t think the question should be, “why should you jailbreak your phone?”, but “why shouldn’t you jailbreak your phone?”
I can only think of one valid reason not to and that is “I didn’t know you could do that”. And that’s not really even a good reason.
I honestly can’t fathom someone owning and even remotely caring about an iPhone and not jailbreaking it. Really, that amazes me. When I got my 3GS, I was in hell for the 2 weeks it took for a jailbreak to be released. That was the day that I truly felt like I got a new phone.
Of course, I’m the kind of person that spends hours at a time picking out icons for my new themes and tweaking the lock screen to be just the way I want it to look. But even if that’s not your thing, you can just select a simple theme from winterboard and change the look of your phone drastically and easily in about 10 seconds. And changing the UI is just one small thing you can do with it jailbroken. And with literally no downsides (see reason #1 on the list), I just don’t know why 100% of the iPhones aren’t jailbroken.
There´s a BIG miss on that list: a decent notification system – GriP (growl for iphone)
http://code.google.com/p/networkpx/wiki/GriP
It´s one of the top five reasons….simple has that
Believe it or not, I have a 2G and still have not jailbroke it! (jailbreaked?) I think I’m getting ready to, but I am curious if any ’stock’ features do not work after the jailbreak? Like visual voicemail? Can I still purchase things in the app store, or would I be limited to jailbroke stuff? Will I lose any notes or things I have recorded?
The only thing that I am aware of at the moment that doesn’t work if you jailbreak is push notifications.
Everything works fine after jailbreaking. No worries. You can still do everything you’re doing right now (apps from iTunes, etc…). Nothing changes.
Last time I jailbroke using RedSn0w, I didn’t lose anything at all. In the past, I lost notes though.
My push notifications work fine!
Not so much of an addition as a correction, but BossPrefs has been superceded by SBSettings, which can do all that BossPrefs can do and more.
The only downside I have seen with jailbreaking is that I seem to have more apps crash due to low memory when jailbroken. Of course, that won’t be as much of a problem once I move up to the 3GS.
Nice one!
I like the MMS and SMS reason, I use them a lot.
~Andy
iPhone Poll: http://aclevertwist.com/p/poll-which-spot-matters-most-to-you
Yup, jailbreaking is the way to go. My 3G had some problems with memory but 3GS actually works better when its jailbroken. When I bought my 3GS first few days the icons kept changing by itself and I had to keep restore the phone until I decided to change it, even then it happened again (later on I found out its a bug in 3.0 firmware) however after jailbreaking my phone surprisingly (knock on wood) everything works perfectly. Thanks to Dev Team
I agree sbsetting, backgrounder, winterboard, is a must. Without those, I can’t imagine how frustrated to justify my iPhone 3gs.
My top five is sbssettings, backgrounder, GriP (now also with sms support), winterboard+lockinfo, stack and weathericon
Simply u have to try
Hi can you help me to jailbreak my phone? I have no idea whare to start on how to do this lol please
An obvious one is that if you’re someone that wants to create iPhone apps, you can’t put the software on the iPhone unless you pay Apple $100. If you jailbreak, than you can create apps for the iPhone without paying Apple.
You mean Thanks to GeoHotz! He did the first official Jailbreak. Credit where its due
You mean Thanks to GeoHotz! He did the first official 3Gs Jailbreak. Credit where its due
Mine don’t after jailbreaking.
But, there are so few apps that actually do it, it doesn’t matter to me one bit.
I’ve had my 3G for almost a year now and I haven’t Jailbroken it. The main reason I haven’t is that I have like eight pages of apps and I don’t want to lose them. Will that happen?
@Dylan you wouldn’t lose your apps. Jailbreaking doesn’t change anything about the way you handle your iPhone. The only thing that changes is that you have more options. Everything else stays the same.
I had my iPhone for about a year and my co-worker had jailbroken his. He kept telling me it’s worth it and finally I did it a few days ago. Simply put, it takes the small little world that Apple has allowed you to occupy and opens up a whole universe of functionality. I can’t believe I waited a year. If I bought 100 more iPhones today, all 100 would be jailbroken today, no question about it. I had 5 pages of applications and all my applications were still there and still functioned properly, so don’t let that keep you from opening that door!
I had to restore my iPhone due to a Cydia issue during the install of MetaSploit. (Very depressing) and used your above list to reinstall my favourite things.
Best appz money can’t buy and a great list showcasing them. Thanks.
As many ppl i bought mine, with a hell of some sacrifices: My doubts about jailbreaking my 3gs are:
What about warranty? we lose it?
Is it reversible? and if yes, do i still keep everything i had before jailbreak? or will it will be like a format?
What are the major arguments non-jailbreakers have? What jailbreakers adepts have to say against those arguments?
What about firmware updating.. when apple launches a new firmware, can jailbroken iphones still update? and then jailbreak again?
Is it easy to do? is it Safe? Will my isp, or mobile operator or apple “know” somehow im using a jailbroken iphone?
=) i know its a lot of questions, and probably some stupid ones.. but.. if there is anyone that could answer me, me and some other willing-to-unlock-it-but-afraid-ppl would apreciate.
NP
I am a new iPhone owner and have the same questions as Nuno
I have recently bought a 3gs in the uk and pretty much have the same questions as “Nuno”….. also if i restore is there a way of saving all the apps i have bought previous the jailbreak or do you loose them once restoring. ive heard its possible to backup all the apps before installing jailbreak somehow???
im 99% percent towards jailbreaking just have some doubts/questions.
thanks everyone for your time and the previous information
Regarding #10, I would replace Mx Tube with YourTube. It’s $2 in the Cydia store, but well worth it in my opinion. Instead of bring a separate app, it integrates the downloading features directly in the YouTube app.
You can download youtube videos without jailbreaking. There’s an app in the App Store called myvideos. There’s a free and paid version, and it works with a couple other sites as well.
I’d appreciate it if Sebastien would answer Nuno’s questions as I have the same concerns:
Nuno said:
As many ppl i bought mine, with a hell of some sacrifices: My doubts about jailbreaking my 3gs are:
What about warranty? we lose it?
Is it reversible? and if yes, do i still keep everything i had before jailbreak? or will it will be like a format?
What are the major arguments non-jailbreakers have? What jailbreakers adepts have to say against those arguments?
What about firmware updating.. when apple launches a new firmware, can jailbroken iphones still update? and then jailbreak again?
Is it easy to do? is it Safe? Will my isp, or mobile operator or apple “know” somehow im using a jailbroken iphone?
=) i know its a lot of questions, and probably some stupid ones.. but.. if there is anyone that could answer me, me and some other willing-to-unlock-it-but-afraid-ppl would apreciate.
NP
Hi Mack,
You’ll find many answers to your questions in this article about the difference between jailbreaking and unlocking.
1. What about warranty? we lose it?
Yes and No. You can’t show a jailbroken iPhone to an Apple Store employee or else he will say the warranty is voided. BUT, you can always restore your phone which will bring it back to factory settings, making it like new.
2. Is it reversible? and if yes, do i still keep everything i had before jailbreak? or will it will be like a format?
Yes it is reversible. Simply RESTORE your iPhone using iTunes. You won’t lose anything because after restoring, you will be able to re-set up your iPhone from backup (your apps, your contacts, etc…)
3. What about firmware updating.. when apple launches a new firmware, can jailbroken iphones still update? and then jailbreak again?
Well, you always have to wait for a new jailbreak to be available. For example right now it is NOT possible to jailbreak the iPhone 3GS 3.1 firmware (although you can jailbreak 3.1 for iPhone 2G and 3G). I am still using the 3.0 firmware/jailbroken. When a new 3.1 jailbreak for iPhone 3GS becomes available, I will update my iPhone and jailbreak again.
4. Is it easy to do? is it Safe? Will my isp, or mobile operator or apple “know” somehow im using a jailbroken iphone?
Yes, it is fairly easy as long as you can follow very simple directions. Your mobile operator won’t be able to tell. Neither will be Apple, unless you show your jailbroken iPhone to them….
Hope that helps. Again, read the article I linked to. It will teach you more about jailbreaking.
Enjoy
Sebastien
Hey
Can u eloborate point 14. plz
which application/extension should i use to watch those eps ?
@Abbz – there are many Cydia apps that let you stream episodes of your favorite TV shows. I will write a blog post about it soon so stay tuned
@Sebastien
Cool thnx
@Sebastian.
I have problem with my iphone.
It always stay in recovery mode and it said i need to make an emergency call.
how about this? please..please reply.
I spent 3 weeks trying to unlock my iphone after i bought it off a friend,AT&T wanted me to open an account and get a sim card and i said screw you then I jailbroke it and it unlocked! now I use it everyday
Thanks so much this is very helpful.
I just got an iphone ive had a touch for 2 years. Its not a big deal to jailbreak the touch, but an iphone should not be jailbroken if it is still under warranty unless you have like 500 bucks to replace it. IF something goes wrong you could turn your phone into a brick. if ur gonna do it at least wait until the warrantys over.
Nice article. Was really helpful. Installed quite a few of the apps on my iphone. Also, subscribed to your blog. Keep up the good work!
-From India
Excellent info – wainting on my 64GB Touch – cant wait to open her up!
I just jailbroke my iphone after having it for 5 months and an itouch for about a year. I’ve tried in the past but got frustrated because the jailbreak programs were to much effort for me and I didnt think it was worth it. But wow, its like having a new phone now. Its made everything on the iphone better and added some features and I have had zero problems with it. I used blackra1n which is so incredibly easy and hassel free. A complete novice can jailbreak/un-jailbreak in leass than a minute. You forgot to mention put iBlacklist, which can block calls and texts from individuals, great for bill collectors =)
Has the newest Jailbreak came out yet? where you can jailbreak the iPhone 3GS with the 3.1 Firmware preinstalled?
@JohnDoe please read http://www.iphonedownloadblog.com/jailbreak/
Thanks for the comments, very useful. Just one thing, I have bought my 3G phone, do I still have a warranty?
@Ally You lose your warranty as soon as you jailbreak. If you need to use your warranty, simply restore your iPhone in itunes and it will be like new. No one will ever be able to tell you jailbroke.
Question for you guys…Ive heard that you can get any app you want for free if you jailbreak your iphone, is this true?
Sebastien,
I just recently added the jailbreak to my 3GS and I do have the problem that it shuts down way more frequently as well as freezes up at times. I was kinda worried about this, but I figured it may be a memory saver of sorts…I have also always really been a bb girl, yet this time I decided to “stray from the norm” and go with iPhone. I wanted to know a few other things as well like:
1, Like “Ben” asked…Ive heard that you can get any app you want for free if you jailbreak your iphone, is this true?
2. How can I get visual voicemail?
3. Does tethering HAVE to be a pain in the rear?
4, is there an app to sort and discard dupe contacts and music?
5, BIG ONE! Is there a way to bluetooth other phones (other than iPhones) things (ie. pics, music, programs…) I think this was a very big thing NOT to add to a phone that’s suppose to be the next lvl in technology, yet you can’t access someone else phone?
6. I’m sure you’ve heard of BT Info, Super BT Hack, etc. are there any of those types of apps (BT Hacks for other cell phones) that I could use on my 3GS?
Thank you so much for your time and please let me know if u need anything more or if there are more interesting apps and things.
Vixen
Thanks again!
How can i install the applications that stored in my pc to iphone after jailbreak? Thanks for sharing.
Just use itunes to sync as normal… (at least thats what i did)
@Ben,
Yes! You can get PAID apps from the appstore for FREE. Once you’ve jailbroken your phone, simply go to cydia, under the manage tab, select sources, click edit on top right corner, then click add in top left corner. add this source ‘http://cydia.hackulo.us’ Then click the newly added hackulo.us source, and install ‘AppSync for OS 3.x’(depending on what firmware you have). This will allow you to run cracked apps. To find cracked apps go to ‘http://apptrackr.org’. Everything that is the appstore is there….
Note: ***This is considered illegal copyright infringement. Do this at your own risk***
With that being said, I’ve been doing this for years, i have over 500 apps, i haven’t seen any major risk or consequences in doing this. The apps sync to my itunes normally, as if i paid for them, and i can add/remove them through itunes as i see fit with no problems.
Have fun!
So maybe u guys can help me out. Ijailbroke my phone 4 days ago and I hate it. I can’t turn offmy phone or let it die because the USB cable an iTunes logo will show up. Apps from the app store won’t download. How can I fix this?
i had seen on my iphone as soon as it has jailbroken. i can touch any thing or power off. Its show itune and usb sign only. so i decided to back up and not continue jailbreak. Reconnect to iphone to computer , then i tune will open up . After this click to restore to factory setting.
ButCnut to restore it u have to update it to 3.1.3 and I wad told not to do that.
The battery percentage can be put on all iDevices, not just 2G and 3G iPhones. Just install SBSettings. and toggle it on!
For those of you worried about having a tethered jailbreak (i.e. blackra1n) which just meeds you need to hook up to a computer to re-boot. I can tell you after 4 months of use – I feel it is a NON FACTOR. I have never been caught in a situation yet where I got burned.
This may be a bit different for iphone owners – given the phone usage and sync to the cell network will drain your batter quicker than on the ipod.
If you install SBsettings via cydia you wont have to ever worry about having to reboot your device. it frees up memory and can re-spring (reset) your springboard without a reboot. Very handy when your device is running slow due to low memory (which is usually the culprit causing folks to reboot).
william – just restore via itunes
Oops, forgot about 3.1.3 – yea don’t use itunes restore. Download 3.1.2 and restore it that way – I have never tired to do it but it can be done. Google It!