Cracking the Iphone

Now I am not suggesting you run out and do this yourself unless you actually have a reason too. What I’m going to describe here is the simplicity of the JailBreakMe.com site and the reasons I chose to do it. You never know you might feel its worth it after this.

I’ve always been a fan of treating adults like adults. I mean this latest fad of bleeping swear words on late night shows (Yes I’m looking at you Craig Ferguson and the late late show) is treating people as kids and its the same with the Iphone. The concept of restricting the choice a user has in what they can and cannot run on their hardware device is a lot like the ‘nanny state’.

I’ll admit it took me a year or so after I got my Iphone to get around to doing this – why? Simply time I had expected it to be a somewhat drawn out process.

I was wrong. When I went to look at the latest information on how to, I came across the updated JailBreakMe.com. It was relatively simple, quick and the only trouble I had was after it was done the Mobile Terminal failed to work.

After a quick google that was promptly fixed. A quick download of a more updated package and away it went.

Now your probably wondering whats the point or even thinking the only reason I did this was to access apps for free.

Well while you can go and add the repository for the cracked stuff I didn’t.

The stuff I’ve installed so far?  Nearly all wifi related. Wififofum, pirni, wifi-where (see a theme there?). I actually purchased the full version of pirni after trialing the lite version, a $1.99 brilliant price for both me and the developer.

Yes I do a fair bit of wireless auditing and setups and being able to do a chunk of it on a handy, always on me device is extremely handy. In fact walking in to a business the other day to check their setup the wow factor alone from the manager when I pulled out my phone and did a quick preliminary check was definitely worth it.

The cydia shop is professional looking and easy to navigate. Updates for your installed apps are pushed too you. If your moving to this setup with a history of windows rather then mac or linux then it may feel a little awkward for a bit. Not saying you need to be a wiz to get Apps installed, it is as simple as the Apple Itunes Store in most cases, but the feel is linux, you even get a nice little black install screen to watch as the package is download and unpacked.

One thing and yes I probably should have put this at the begining of the aricle but it is kinda obvious but just so I can say I said it.

BACKUP!

Before you try this make a backup in Itunes of everything. It is simple after you’ve used JailBreakMe.com to go back to Itunes and re-install and restore your phone but you do need backups.

So far I’ve enjoyed having that extra bit of freedom with my phone. I haven’t found any downside as of yet and its been a couple of weeks. Everything else I had setup on my phone pre-cydia is still running, I’m making a fair bit more use of, lets face it, a fairly pricey piece of hardware and frankly the ease of doing it makes me wish I had done it way earlier.