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Is it worth Jailbreaking my 3GS?
- Thread starter wnxgenral
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It really depends on what you want to do with your iPhone when you have JB it
There are nice things like WinterBoard so you can customize your app icons and have background wallpapers. I use an app called Ilocalis which is like find my iphone if you have a mobile me account.
If you JB your iPhone and dont like it then you can always restore it back to how it was...
You have to ask yourself. What do I want from a JB iPhone...
There are nice things like WinterBoard so you can customize your app icons and have background wallpapers. I use an app called Ilocalis which is like find my iphone if you have a mobile me account.
If you JB your iPhone and dont like it then you can always restore it back to how it was...
You have to ask yourself. What do I want from a JB iPhone...
I found it worth it mainly because I love customizing my phone as much as possible. I just had to restore my phone this morning and am twitchy sitting here waiting to re-JB it as soon as this conference call I have to be on ends in about 45 minutes. 
FWIW, I noticed absolutely no lag or diminished performance after jailbreaking, and I was running Winterboard with several themes.
FWIW, I noticed absolutely no lag or diminished performance after jailbreaking, and I was running Winterboard with several themes.
Pros:
Lockscreen info: Not having to unlock to see if you have new email/check weather
Themes
SBSettings (easy access to all toggles like wifi, 3G, location services, etc.)
Many other free and paid applications that you won't find in the App Store
Cons:
None that I've found so far. If you were using anything other than the 3GS then memory would be an issue. The phone starts to bog down after a while but the 3GS has more than enough RAM to handle anything you throw at it.
I am considering JB my 3G. The MAIN reason is to stream music in the background. I have an app that clears the ram too (I'm sure there's on on Cydia too), so I'm not sure what you mean by "bog down." I mean can I clear the RAM and then it's okay? or is it ALL the time and clearing the RAM won't help. I notice that my 3G isn't the fastest (usually when I open BeejiveIM) but everything else is acceptable.
It is absolutely worth it. One of my main complaints with the iPhone OS was the limited organization options. With a JB iphone, you can use an app called "categories" to make folders, you can use SBSettings to hide unused apps, and there are apps for adding extra columns and rows to your springboard.
i just JB for the first time last week and I'll never go back!
DO IT.
i just JB for the first time last week and I'll never go back!
DO IT.
Things I have because I'm jailbroken:
Backgrounder - Put apps in the background. If I used Pandora, I could listen to pandora and read emails/surf internet at the same time. I use it mainly so that I don't lose my spot when I'm reading something from apps such as iReddit, FML, texts, etc.
mQuickDo - I use with this Backgrounder to easily switch apps or background an app from within it. I also use to to take screenshots, among other things.
biteSMS + Tlert + Popup Blocker - This makes my texting so much easier. With tlert (+ popup blocker [to block native SMS popups from coming up]) I can reply to a text from within any app. A small un-intrusive and moveable bubble comes up and I can tap on it to reply. With biteSMS, I can compose a message from any app simply by hitting the volume button.
Categories - Organize my apps into folders. Games, general apps, tools, etc. Condenses 10 pages of apps to 1.
5 Icon Dock/5 Column Springboard - I have 5 icons in my dock and 5 columns on my screen. Allows me to get everything on one page.
iProtect - Password protect certain apps. Good if you want to let someone see your phone, but not read your texts, etc.
Musicinfo - When listening to music, a small bar appears at the top of the screen for a few seconds listing the current song.
No Page Dots - Removes the page dots/spotlight search icon.
Rotation Inhibitor - A toggle which allows me to turn off rotation, which really got on my nerves in texts and email. (I like to lay on my side in bed.)
SBSettings - Easily turn off wifi/3g to save battery. Easily adjust brightness.
StatusNotifier - I can see in the top menu bar whether or not I have new email, voicemails, etc.
Winterboard - I use it for simple themes.
In conclusion...it's definitely worth it.
Backgrounder - Put apps in the background. If I used Pandora, I could listen to pandora and read emails/surf internet at the same time. I use it mainly so that I don't lose my spot when I'm reading something from apps such as iReddit, FML, texts, etc.
mQuickDo - I use with this Backgrounder to easily switch apps or background an app from within it. I also use to to take screenshots, among other things.
biteSMS + Tlert + Popup Blocker - This makes my texting so much easier. With tlert (+ popup blocker [to block native SMS popups from coming up]) I can reply to a text from within any app. A small un-intrusive and moveable bubble comes up and I can tap on it to reply. With biteSMS, I can compose a message from any app simply by hitting the volume button.
Categories - Organize my apps into folders. Games, general apps, tools, etc. Condenses 10 pages of apps to 1.
5 Icon Dock/5 Column Springboard - I have 5 icons in my dock and 5 columns on my screen. Allows me to get everything on one page.
iProtect - Password protect certain apps. Good if you want to let someone see your phone, but not read your texts, etc.
Musicinfo - When listening to music, a small bar appears at the top of the screen for a few seconds listing the current song.
No Page Dots - Removes the page dots/spotlight search icon.
Rotation Inhibitor - A toggle which allows me to turn off rotation, which really got on my nerves in texts and email. (I like to lay on my side in bed.)
SBSettings - Easily turn off wifi/3g to save battery. Easily adjust brightness.
StatusNotifier - I can see in the top menu bar whether or not I have new email, voicemails, etc.
Winterboard - I use it for simple themes.
In conclusion...it's definitely worth it.
In my humble opinion, 100%, absolutely, yes.
In fact, I think the question is more appropriately stated as, can you afford not to jailbreak? I don't think I could ever go back to a non-jb'd iPhone again. I couldn't live without Backgrounder, SBSettings, Notifier, and Kirikae I use some other apps, but the iPhone is crippled without them as far as I am concerned.
In fact, I think the question is more appropriately stated as, can you afford not to jailbreak? I don't think I could ever go back to a non-jb'd iPhone again. I couldn't live without Backgrounder, SBSettings, Notifier, and Kirikae I use some other apps, but the iPhone is crippled without them as far as I am concerned.
Agreed with other posters. I use all the apps like backgrounder, and SBSsettings.
One other app not mentioned is 3Gunrestrictor, which allows you to use skype etc over 3G not just wifi.
One other app not mentioned is 3Gunrestrictor, which allows you to use skype etc over 3G not just wifi.
I have a few questions..
I have a 3GS that came with 3.0 (I got in the summer)
I've upgraded to 3.1.2 (7D11)
1.Will the act of jailbreaking itself decrease my battery performance or would that be because of what apps I run after jailbreaking? (I know running background apps uses more batteries and so on)
2. If I follow the directions here
http://www.ihackintosh.com/2009/10/how-to-jailbreak-iphone-3gs-3-1-2-pwnage-tool-mac/
will it work?
3. what are the chances of a hardware glitch that freezes the device?
4. if I notice any problems, laggyness, horrible battery, and I do a full restore, will all the problems go away?
or is there a chance a that a problem might linger even if I restore and decide not to jailbreak?
thanks..
I have a 3GS that came with 3.0 (I got in the summer)
I've upgraded to 3.1.2 (7D11)
1.Will the act of jailbreaking itself decrease my battery performance or would that be because of what apps I run after jailbreaking? (I know running background apps uses more batteries and so on)
2. If I follow the directions here
http://www.ihackintosh.com/2009/10/how-to-jailbreak-iphone-3gs-3-1-2-pwnage-tool-mac/
will it work?
3. what are the chances of a hardware glitch that freezes the device?
4. if I notice any problems, laggyness, horrible battery, and I do a full restore, will all the problems go away?
or is there a chance a that a problem might linger even if I restore and decide not to jailbreak?
thanks..
One of the cool things....is that if you are a blackberry storm fan....., u can have a blackberry OS theme for your iphone.....it makes ur iphone look like a blackberry storm....haha
I couldn't agree with you more as I had all if not a couple more of these installed on my 3G. Now that I have a 3GS, I have to clear some misconceptions in that jailbreaking is a 100% perfect solution: It's not. There are some quirks but I'm quite bothered in how the masses refuse to acknowledge and admit that they do exist.Things I have because I'm jailbroken:
Backgrounder - Put apps in the background. If I used Pandora, I could listen to pandora and read emails/surf internet at the same time. I use it mainly so that I don't lose my spot when I'm reading something from apps such as iReddit, FML, texts, etc.
mQuickDo - I use with this Backgrounder to easily switch apps or background an app from within it. I also use to to take screenshots, among other things.
biteSMS + Tlert + Popup Blocker - This makes my texting so much easier. With tlert (+ popup blocker [to block native SMS popups from coming up]) I can reply to a text from within any app. A small un-intrusive and moveable bubble comes up and I can tap on it to reply. With biteSMS, I can compose a message from any app simply by hitting the volume button.
Categories - Organize my apps into folders. Games, general apps, tools, etc. Condenses 10 pages of apps to 1.
5 Icon Dock/5 Column Springboard - I have 5 icons in my dock and 5 columns on my screen. Allows me to get everything on one page.
iProtect - Password protect certain apps. Good if you want to let someone see your phone, but not read your texts, etc.
Musicinfo - When listening to music, a small bar appears at the top of the screen for a few seconds listing the current song.
No Page Dots - Removes the page dots/spotlight search icon.
Rotation Inhibitor - A toggle which allows me to turn off rotation, which really got on my nerves in texts and email. (I like to lay on my side in bed.)
SBSettings - Easily turn off wifi/3g to save battery. Easily adjust brightness.
StatusNotifier - I can see in the top menu bar whether or not I have new email, voicemails, etc.
Winterboard - I use it for simple themes.
In conclusion...it's definitely worth it.
Now, before I move on, I will say that I look forward to jailbreaking my new 3GS so this is in no way an anti-JB bashing post. One of the biggest drawbacks is that once you JB your phone, you're stuck with a JB backup. Let me elaborate. If for example you decide you want to restore back to stock firmware, there will be some jailbroken residual tweaks that will carry over. Most of them will be cosmetic but it won't be stock unless you restore as new. Here's an example. If you can live with that, then go ahead and jailbreak. Another aspect that might throw off a newbie is the fact that the Cydia store is a complete disaster and I'm not talking about the ads. This is where the community or programmers who run Cydia can really use a hand or funding or whatever it takes to be more specific in what you're installing on your phone. Don't get me wrong, it's completely safe but they need to clean it up a bit.
Jailbreaking isn't for everybody and its sure as hell isn't for your average Joe or Sally the soccer mom. Jailbreaking gets a bad name because at any given time you'll see a dozen ads on craigslist offering JB services and when something goes wrong, they go to the Apple store expecting a quick fix and they're turned away because they walked in with a hacked iPhone. And of course Apple employees tell the customers that "jailbreaking is not safe" or "it can brick your phone", etc., etc.
Now, many features that are now stock on the iPhone did break ground first in the jailbreaking scence like Cycorder, universal search, cut copy & paste, numerical battery indicator just to name a few. So we all know that Apple does indeed follow the scene to see what users are doing. The only problem is that Apple loves to hold out on many of these features and a few others that they know the iPhone is capable of handling with no problems. Why? Only Apple knows. That's why we jailbreak.
I jailbreak for one main reason and a bunch of sub reasons.
1) SBSETTINGS. Easily able to toggle 3G on and off to save battery.
Everything else: Backgrounding, customizing springboard, JB apps that are better than the app store. Orbit. Ringtone shuffle. The list goes on...
1) SBSETTINGS. Easily able to toggle 3G on and off to save battery.
Everything else: Backgrounding, customizing springboard, JB apps that are better than the app store. Orbit. Ringtone shuffle. The list goes on...
As soon as you get the phone JB and can run Cydia, get your SHSH on file, so you can restore if needed.
Be sure and use the latest Pwnage Tool 3.1.4
Your tutorial is for the older version.
You want this one
Thanks a lot
so does the fact that I don't know what a SHSH is mean I don't know enough to jailbreak?
has no one mentioned SSH?
with a JB you can enter the iphones directory and manually add other files over wifi or usb like ebooks, comics, Themes, game roms (nes, snes, gba, ps) and music(without using itunes)
If JB means Final Fantasy III for the iphone who could refuse!
with a JB you can enter the iphones directory and manually add other files over wifi or usb like ebooks, comics, Themes, game roms (nes, snes, gba, ps) and music(without using itunes)
If JB means Final Fantasy III for the iphone who could refuse!
I thing you might have misread
I suggested she capture her SHSH files in Cydia as soon as she gets JB
And SSH is, of course, something different.
Jailbreaking takes some basic knowledge of how Pwnage Tool, iTunes and the iPhone work.
You will probably be required to put the phone in DFU mode, possibly recovery mode, to reboot the phone.
If this seems overwhelming, I would suggest you reconsider.
Actually, if you can follow a specific and detailed tutorial and pay attention to the details, it is not all that difficult.
I give you credit, based on your post(s) and the questions you asked, at least you have done some reading and research. Many don't even bother, just want to be spoon fed !
Read thru the tutorial or print it out. If you can understand what needs to be done in each step, you are probably OK.
You need a Mac for Pwnage Tool.
i am totally aware of what i wrote.
I was giving some reasons for making it worth Jail braking your iphone, as that was the topic of this thread. Using open SSH you would be able to access the phones directory, for reasons i have described.
i have no interest in your other conversation started here and i certainly wasn't commenting on it.
Another view, FWIW
You're asking this question not only in an iphone forum, but an iphone hacks forum. What do you think the answer is going to be?
Personally, I have tried jailbreaking twice - once with my 2G iphone before OS 2.0 and once with my 3GS on 3.0. I won't get in to the details of the first JB because it's old news and really doesn't apply any more, but it wasn't good and scared me off until the 3GS / 3.0.
When I jailbroke my 3GS, I had two problems. First, my phone would no longer stay connected to wifi. Second, the battery drained much faster. I don't know why this happened, and I'm sure people will tell me I screwed something up, but honestly I just used redsn0w and that's what happened. I didn't mess with anything else or go off on my own experiments.
So now I'm unjailbroken and happy with it. The only thing I really wanted was backgrounder. I really don't like almost all of the themes I've seen, so that's not a big draw for me.
My point is that you should ask yourself three questions:
1) do I want my iphone to be able to do something that it can't currently do? If no, then don't JB. If yes, then go to question 2:
2) will jailbreaking allow me to do what I want? If no, then don't JB. If yes, then go to question 3:
3) Am I prepared to deal with the following potential problems in exchange for the new functionality (note: I said potential. So if you don't have these problems don't yell at me; they are problems some people have):
- instability
- lag
- unexpected bugs
- decreased battery life
- inability to update to new firmware for some time after it's released
If no, then don't jailbreak. If yes, then jailbreak.
I'm not against jailbreaking at all - it's just not for me. My answers to the first two questions were yes, so I tried jailbreaking. But I found out the answer to the third question was no. YMMV.
You're asking this question not only in an iphone forum, but an iphone hacks forum. What do you think the answer is going to be?
Personally, I have tried jailbreaking twice - once with my 2G iphone before OS 2.0 and once with my 3GS on 3.0. I won't get in to the details of the first JB because it's old news and really doesn't apply any more, but it wasn't good and scared me off until the 3GS / 3.0.
When I jailbroke my 3GS, I had two problems. First, my phone would no longer stay connected to wifi. Second, the battery drained much faster. I don't know why this happened, and I'm sure people will tell me I screwed something up, but honestly I just used redsn0w and that's what happened. I didn't mess with anything else or go off on my own experiments.
So now I'm unjailbroken and happy with it. The only thing I really wanted was backgrounder. I really don't like almost all of the themes I've seen, so that's not a big draw for me.
My point is that you should ask yourself three questions:
1) do I want my iphone to be able to do something that it can't currently do? If no, then don't JB. If yes, then go to question 2:
2) will jailbreaking allow me to do what I want? If no, then don't JB. If yes, then go to question 3:
3) Am I prepared to deal with the following potential problems in exchange for the new functionality (note: I said potential. So if you don't have these problems don't yell at me; they are problems some people have):
- instability
- lag
- unexpected bugs
- decreased battery life
- inability to update to new firmware for some time after it's released
If no, then don't jailbreak. If yes, then jailbreak.
I'm not against jailbreaking at all - it's just not for me. My answers to the first two questions were yes, so I tried jailbreaking. But I found out the answer to the third question was no. YMMV.
First, let me say, I agree with almost all your posted. But, that being said, many of us have experienced bugs, lag and decreased battery life. But there are simple ways to restore to official Apple IPSW's then re-JB to overcome these.
I am lucky, I got rid of all the bugs by restoring and then re-JB. I have a flawless JB (except my phone does not accept the tethering hack, but I would really never use it)
Your points are well taken.