Unlock or ??

[criscris]

Title should read: Jailbreak or ??

Theres alot of info posted on sites, blogs etc. that discuss the benefits of jailbreaking the iPhone. For newbies like me I was hoping someone could clarify the pros & cons in doing it. For example are you able to now download any type of video, not just watching qt vids? I'm not too concern with using the iPhone with a different carrier. I would mainly be using new applications and such, maybe accessing some good video sites and things like that.

I've also read jailbreaking on 3g's might cause issues down the road if the Dev team comes up with an unlocker. Also is it true visual voicemail won't work?

If anyone can post some info regarding the benefits or negatives it would be much appreciated. I'm not sure what you can or can't do with a phone that's jailbroken. Thanks guys!!

 

[taibien86]

jailbreaking your phone will not take away any functionality of your iphone. if you are receiving problems however, all you do is restore your iphone and its back to the way it was before you hacked it. as for apps worth hacking for, i just recently posted this thread:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/542721/

just make sure you backup and sync your phone before you try and jailbreaking it. i think iClarified has the best tutorial here:

http://iclarified.com/entry/index.php?enid=1558

 

[evangw]

Title should read: Jailbreak or ??

For newbies like me I was hoping someone could clarify the pros & cons in doing it. For example are you able to now download any type of video, not just watching qt vids? I'm not too concern with using the iPhone with a different carrier. I would mainly be using new applications and such, maybe accessing some good video sites and things like that. I've also read jailbreaking on 3g's might cause issues down the road if the Dev team comes up with an unlocker. Also is it true visual voicemail won't work? If anyone can post some info regarding the benefits or negatives it would be much appreciated. I'm not sure what you can or can't do with a phone that's jailbroken. Thanks guys!!

You can watch non-QT vids if you download VLC4iPhone ( http://www.zodttd.com but it's currently in beta for 2.0; I expect it'll be released to the public in a week or so though).

Visual voicemail works fine if you're still on the official carrier (e.g. jailbroken but not unlocked).


Pros: Customizable interface features, applications you can't get on the App store (e.g. NES and Gameboy emulators, a better flashlight), the ability to tether your phone's connection to your laptop, and (if you're into this kind of thing) you can steal App store apps (via torrents) without having to pay for them.

Cons: If you're a computer newbie, and not just an iPhone/Touch newbie, you might have some issues installing it, and if your phone breaks and you have custom firmware, the Apple store people may not replace it for you. (Note that you cannot break your phone with the jailbreaking tools, but your phone might break for unrelated reasons -- i.e. you drop it). Also if you go crazy and install every little thing you see, you might have stability issues on your phone, although this can be easily reversed by uninstalling what you added.

 

[taibien86]

that was a better answer.

 

[criscris]

Thanks for the replies.

Will jailbreaking your phone allow you to download or watch let's say an avi file or mpeg. Or allow you to download a zip file? Or is that only done by unlocking your phone?

Out of the box iPhone gives you the error "safari is not able to play this file/download this file". Will a jailbreak allow you to?

 

[evangw]

Thanks for the replies.

Will jailbreaking your phone allow you to download or watch let's say an avi file or mpeg. Or allow you to download a zip file? Or is that only done by unlocking your phone?

Out of the box iPhone gives you the error "safari is not able to play this file/download this file". Will a jailbreak allow you to?

Unlocking your phone is -only- for using it on different carriers, and has -no- other impact. Jailbreaking is for all the other things you want (since you're on the native carrier, you'll have no reason to unlock unless you go abroad).

You could do that on the 1.1.4 firmware, I'm not sure if it's been updated to 2.0 firmware yet (that is, downloading and watching on the phone)... I can't check until VLC gets publicly released, anyway. Someone else might know more.

 

[criscris]

Unlocking your phone is -only- for using it on different carriers, and has -no- other impact. Jailbreaking is for all the other things you want (since you're on the native carrier, you'll have no reason to unlock unless you go abroad).

You could do that on the 1.1.4 firmware, I'm not sure if it's been updated to 2.0 firmware yet (that is, downloading and watching on the phone)... I can't check until VLC gets publicly released, anyway. Someone else might know more.

Sorry for the confusion.
Mainly id like to be able to:
-watch video clips that aren't Quicktime
-download these clips
-mainly download a zip file or similar

Will a jailbreak allow me to do those? And thanks again for the help.