Why You May Not Want to Jailbreak iPhone or iPad?

After the release of iOS 4 users of the iPhone had been waiting for the iPhone Dev Team to release their jailbreak software.

This morning @comex (who is not on the iPhone Dev Team) released a jailbreak for the iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad right from within MobileSafari without using a computer (Windows or OS X computer). This jailbreak is for all bootrom and iOS versions accept for iOS 4.1 Beta.

Before I get into why you may not want to jailbreak, let me first explains the steps required to jailbreak your iOS devices.

  1. Ensure you have the latest version of iTunes 9.1.2
  2. Upgrade your iOS device to the latest iOS version using iTunes
  3. Go to Safari on your iOS device and go to http://jailbreakme.com
  4. Follow the instructions on the screen

Your jailbreak is complete. This is the second time Jailbreakme.com method has been used to jailbreak iOS device, and it is the simplest method.

Now that it is so easy to jailbreak, let me explain why you may not want to TRY.

Even though jailbreak is now legal in the United States, doing so may cause app instability. Since the ruling in the United States Apple released a press release to say that the action of jailbreaking will void the iPhone warrantee.

Prior to the ruling there was also rumors to say that iOS 4.1 has a “jailbreak watermark” in iOS 4.1. Although this rumor has since been dismissed and members of the iPhone Dev Team claim that if there is one they will be able to remove the “watermark”.

Now the courts rule that jailbreak is legal in the US, Apple may begin to step up their efforts to identify iPhones that has or had been jailbroken.

With the initial release of Jailbreakme 2.0 there is a bug that disabled MMS and FaceTime  (iPhone 4) on the iPhone. Hours later the bug was corrected but for the less technical you will need to restore your iPhone and reapply the Jailbreakme 2.0. This is just one example of the effects jailbreaking may have on the functionalities of the iPhone apps.

The most common reason to jailbreak the iPhone is to be able to install MyWi to configure the iPhone into a WiFi hotspot. There are now reports from several people that mobile carriers are showing signs that they are planning to distinguish these type of traffic and charge the customers at their tethering rates.

Aside from compatibility of Apple authorized apps there are still the compatibilities of the unauthorized apps from stores like Cydia. AppleiPhoneSchool blog has a list of unauthorized apps and their compatibility status.

As you can see the benefits of jailbreak may not be for everyone, so before you decide to jailbreak you should carefully consider your needs for a jailbroken iPhone.

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