Category: Cell Phone Talk
Hi guys,
I've got an iPhone 4S, running iOS 6.1.2. I was wondering what the benefits of jailbreaking it would be and also which jailbreak would be the best solution for a blind user. I checked AppleVis, but there seems to be so much there that it's a bit confusing to sort it all out.
Tyler
A great article on LifeHacker, especially for someone of your calliber. Not necessarily for basic users but someone such as yourself should understand.
One thing you should be aware of is security. You'll need to change the root and mobile passwords for the SSH connection to your device, something someone like you would know about. I'm glad if this talk is scaring a few people away from jailbreaking: you need to be technically knowledgeable to do this properly, protect yourself, and recover in the event of a crash.
Now here's my practical considerations: I personally would never jailbreak a production device that I was using for day to day work. Sure, you hear about people doing it all the time, and when it works, it works great. When you download the wrong app from Cydia and it dies on you, or exposes your data, then you're in trouble.
Remember that most phone models give you access to the user store, not the entire file system. You as a techie guy may want the file system, but you then assume the full responsibility for what the apps do with access to all that data, up to and including copying all your contacts.
Were it me, I would jailbreak an iPod instead, or some other device that I was not going to be using all the time.
I don't see that level of security compromise as worth the tradeoff for the benefit of being able to make some tweaks and pllay around. I know, to some people my attitude on this seems pretty heavy-handed, but that is because I've helped people deal with the aftereffects of it going wrong.
Don't do it if you're confused. And if someone studying to get a computer science degree is confused, that ought to tell the rest of you something.
The thing that was confusing was all the conflicting stuff I was reading. There seem to be several different jailbreaks, and it's a matter of trying to figure out A) which ones are accessible and B) if they'll work with my particular model (iPhone 4S, 32 GB, iOS 6.1.2).
Evasi0n is the one for your operating system, and has a 4S ROM.
Remember the jailbreak is not a ROM replacement as used to be back in the days of the Crackberry firmwares or the cracked Palm Pilot firmware changes. These are middleware and some low level changes but we're not talking a total image burn.
So your VoiceOver and other settings remain intact.
Some versions of the SBSettings app will change how triple click home works, so watch that, I'd contact the developers of Evasi0n to find out.
Accessibility of the installer, it's one button which I used with my reader's mouse cursor to click on. It will install directly to your device from your computer not through iTunes. And once up and running Cydia will install the packages.
I jailbroke an iPod last summer for just a bit to see what was up, never really got SSH to work, but most people do it for the apps. Cydia is the jailbreak app store and will download packages to your device. You'll still have access to all your iOS App Store apps.
Thanks for the info, Leo. I'll try and figure out how to get SSH to work because I'll probably have a bit more time on my hands to mess with it.
So, I'm not a tech person. But just out of curiosity, what's the streightforward point of jailbreaking a device? Sorry if this sounds stupid, but I honestly would like to know. I dont' want to do it, but I wonder why people would go through the trouble of doing so in the first place. What's the benefit to it.
Leo is correct on the one to use. It is the easy one and most fail safe. If you mess up and have your phone backed up you can just reset it and load your stuff back.
The reason people do this is because they want to use apps that are not available through the Apple store. Apple doesn't make them available for reasons, but people wish to do what they want to do with the device they have paid money for.
I agree with that thought process, but when you do this you also have to assume the responsibility and say you know better then the company that developed your device.
One example you can do with a broken phone is not run iTunes, but other media players. You can put more apps in to one folder. And as I have said buy or install apps you want to use that are not available for the phone.
Personalizing and freedom seem to be the main reasons for doing it I'd say.
I have no desire to do so.
There are thousands upon thousands of aps to choose from that are available for an Apple IDevice which you can acquire legally. What can you possibly want that you can't get via the ap store. Thatamazes me. There are so many options to choose from; You can even buy an android device if you want different kinds fo aps instead of an IOS device. Why mess with it, just because you can.
I would understand if you couldn't have access to certain things, like voiceOver wasn't avialable or something. When the old IPods were inaccessible, rockbox was a great alternative. I still have an IPod video that I got as a gift; It runs rockbox and works great. But now that pretty much everything is accessible and there is so much to choose from application-wise, Why mess with a perfectly good device?
You can redesign your springboard, meaning the home screen and the status bar, among other things. There are a ton of tweaks and things yu can put on the device, plus some people will jailbreak for one specific app they wish to use that isn't in the app store.
Also when you first run Cydia, you can tell it whether you are running as user, developer or hacker. That only limits the exposure of how many apps you can see: it doesn't change how the system has exposed all your data.
I'm with Wayne, so long as people take the responsibility that comes with the freedom, have at it. But remember, you're responsible for everyone's contact information that you have in your phone. Is exposing that worth the advantage to you? This is why I say jailbreak away, but jailbreak a non production device, or a device you don't have sensitive data on.
Well Writer it comes down to control issues. People simply don't want to be told what they can or can not do with things they pay money for.
Google understands this, so opens it up. With that freedom comes problems, but people would prefer to deal with that instead of control.
That is about it in a nutshell.
I forgot to add that when iPhone was released it didn't have that wide of choices like now, to Jailbreaking has just become a habit.
Well folks. Apple is ahead at leat 5 hours ago.
If you upgrade your device to 6.1.3 you can't use the 0N jail break.
Apple has credit the team with helping them to patch holes. If you upgrade you can't go back it is said. Lol
The war continues.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57575302-37/evasi0n-jailbreak-thwarted-by-ios-6.1.3/
I jailbroke my phone about a month ago following a podcast on appleviz. I have since discovered that I can't do with it what I'd heard about previously without extra processes, so I am thinking I want to go back especially after reading this thread. I know a lot but not that much. I heard to do this, all one needs to do is restore their phone after they've of course made sure they're backed everything up on iTunes; would it be as simple as that?