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iPhone Pros and Cons of Jaibreaking

Dj64Mk7

Dj64Mk7

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Sep 15, 2013
1,399
819
Pardon my stupidity, but I'm a complete newbie to the world of jailbreaking.

With the recent release of a jailbreak for 7.1.x, I'm beginning to seriously think about jailbreaking my iPhone 4s. What are some of the pros and cons of jailbreaking? Are there any major downsides to it? What are some of the best/most popular tweaks?

Thanks for the help everyone, as I'm a newbie.
 
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Jailbreaking lets you fully customize your phone and tweak it, for a really vague explanation.
I don't believe there's any major cons to jailbreaking, maybe not being able to be on the latest iOS version is one but the latest release (7.1.1) and upcoming release (7.1.2) shouldn't be too different except for one or two updates.

Here's a reddit post about tweaks: http://www.reddit.com/r/jailbreak/wiki/escapeplan
 
Pros: Do what you want with your device

Cons: If you want to update you can't via OTA, tho once your unjailbroken you can.
 
One con that may be important to you…

Apple considers jailbreaking to void your warranty. So, if you are jailbroken and your device breaks under warranty, if you take it in to be serviced Apple can deny you service.

That is not to say that Apple would, there have been instances of users taking jailbroken iPhones in and still getting service, but the possibility is there. Most people restore to stock (if they can) when they need service from Apple. That of course however, has it's own cons. If you're jailbroken and you have tweaks and things you have come to rely on, restoring to stock can possibly mean that you are now unable to rejailbreak. Even if you can rejailbreak, you have to set things up again.

Turning to pros. If I had to cite one tweak that is representative of what you can do with jailbreaking it would be f.lux. That tweak allows your device to adjust it's screen to a softer glow at night. This way you aren't blinded when using your phone at night. But this requires f.lux to access resources that Apple does not allow to be accessed. Hence, it's a jailbreak tweak and not an App store app.
 
Pros: make your device more functional. For example, i have tetherme installed so i have a free hotspot. As well as sprigntomize to speed up animations, so i can get things done faster. I dont care for the ios 7 icons, so i themse those to my liking. Jailbreaks are usually trouble free once you learn the basics.

Cons: jailbreaking can cause issues if you install a bad package, but you can just retore the device to stock if all else fails. If you are jailbroken and have a hardware problem, and say the phone will not connect to a computer to restore, thats a problem since apple can deny service to the device once they see it's jailbroken. If you have a software problem though, you can restore.

Some of these are kinda dumb but thats because i see no reason NOT to jailbreak your device. :D
 
even the cons are pros in my mind. you have nothing to lose and all to gain. iOS updates are typically lame anyways, you'll get them you just have to be patient. Right now, latest version is reaping the benefits too.

true story: I've owned all iPhone (except for 5s) and jailbroken all of them and iPad 1-3 and rMini currently, JB'en all of them and NEVER OTA'd.

With pride :D
 
Pros: As above. Freedom to do anything with your device. Revert iOS annoyances.

Cons: There is only a finite window of time when the latest iOS update is available to jailbreak. That time is now for 7.1.1 with the Pengu jailbreak.
As soon as there is a patched jailbreak iOS release, updating or restoring your device will remove the jailbreak.

Also you don't know if a tweak is going to cause an increase in battery usage, unless you do extensive research on it, http://reddit.com/r/jailbreak/ is a good place.
If you install many 10's of tweaks, you are probably going to notice an increase in battery usage.
 
Can I jailbreak my iPad on 7.1.1 if I have a Mac? I've been reading around and it looks like you can only jailbreak if you have a windows machine. Is that accurate. Is it as easy to run as the 7.0.6 jailbreak or is there more involved?
 
pooleman said:
Can I jailbreak my iPad on 7.1.1 if I have a Mac? I've been reading around and it looks like you can only jailbreak if you have a windows machine. Is that accurate. Is it as easy to run as the 7.0.6 jailbreak or is there more involved?
Click to expand...

Yes, windows only at the moment. It's pretty easy to do, just as easy
 
Just gonna chime in real quick. There aren't any real cons at all. I've had many jailbroken devices serviced, since I restore them first. As long as your phone isn't completely disabled and you can restore, you should be good to go.
 
Guys why are there then mentions that a jailbroken device is completely unprotected ? One of the core cons of jailbreaking is removing any iOS security a.k.a removing the wall that Apple has put up to protect the device.
A tweak installed from Cydia for instance can get all of the information on your device because it's jailbroken and nothing can stop it because you removed the security walls Apple installed.
Not saying it's a big deal but you must be careful with what you download.Only download from trusted sites and only trusted and well researched tweaks.This is the only reason I haven't jailbroken yet .. I can't trust where my information goes and every single app has information to anything it wants once you jailbreak.If you value your security - don't jailbreak OR just be really careful with the tweaks.
 
Why is it that I am not supper trusting of this jailbreak? Maybe because it's from China. My internet connection was supper slow until the jailbreak was complete. Now everything is fine. Coincidence?
 
pooleman said:
Why is it that I am not supper trusting of this jailbreak? Maybe because it's from China. My internet connection was supper slow until the jailbreak was complete. Now everything is fine. Coincidence?
Click to expand...

Jailbreaking can slow down the phone a bit while doing it.It's quite normal for some fuctions to lag or not work properly.That's why it's recommended not to do anything else while installing the jailbreak :) After that it's just nothing more than a normal phone but with its full capabilities because you destroyed Apple's walls.
 
Deranox said:
Jailbreaking can slow down the phone a bit while doing it.It's quite normal for some fuctions to lag or not work properly.That's why it's recommended not to do anything else while installing the jailbreak :) After that it's just nothing more than a normal phone but with its full capabilities because you destroyed Apple's walls.
Click to expand...

It slowed down my home internet and computer, not the iPhone. As soon as the install on the phone was complete my MAC started responding again.
 
^
No, that's true.
It also slowed down his microwave oven to a point it now takes four minutes to heat up a Hot Pockets vs just three before the jailbreak.
 
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