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| Jay Freeman. The creator of Cydia, an application that is the main distributor of jailbroken software |
device is amongst the most popular pieces of technology the world has ever seen. That statement isn't hard to prove either. Just look around you. What phones are your peers using? Chances are that it is an iPhone. The phone is so advanced with many features already built in that the average user never considers the possibility of customizing Apple's heavily restricted software. That is where jailbreaking comes in, but what is jailbreaking exactly?
What is Jailbreaking?
All of Apple's mobile devices, iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, are run by their own operating system called iOS. Their operating system includes a layer of Digital Rights Management, limiting what you can and cannot run, mainly for protecting the consumer for obvious security reasons. Without getting too technical, jailbreaking is essentially the process of bypassing those restrictions in order to run "unauthorized" software and tweaks.
Why do it?
The main reason is customization. iOS is considered a closed environment due to its App Store application processing. All applications submitted by developers must be checked by Apple in order to ensure it isn't malicious and isn't affecting or accessing any other data besides what is inside the app. An analogy that can be made is this; consider an application as a sandbox. You can do whatever you want inside the sandbox, but if you want to explore what is outside, jailbreaking is your only option. Here is a basic list of what you can do with a jailbroken iPhone:
- Change the look of your iPhone such as the icons, status bar, and user interface. A example of an iPhone can be found here.
- Adding features that aren't supported by Apple.
- Flipping my iPhone face down with turn it off.
- Double tapping the screen on the camera app will change the orientation from front to back or vise versa.
- Touching the home button will trigger a press, no need to actually press the button.
- Modifying applications. Most popular is Snapchat
- Disable certain features such as Discovery
- Screenshot without other person knowing
- View and open snaps for an unlimited amount of time
Why not do it?
Jailbreaking requires root access to your device, opening many pathways that malicious software can easily pass through. Although there haven't been many cases of harmful attacks, it is possible and something to consider. Additionally, jailbroken applications may or may not follow Apple's stability guidelines which can lead to frequent crashes, increase usage in data, or lower battery life. There is also the possibility of bricking your device, which means its either stuck in a boot loop or unable to turn on no matter what you do, rendering it useless. The general rule in the jailbreaking community is that this is something recommended to people that know what they are doing and don't be careless.
Additional Info
Jailbreaking is 100% legal as far as the U.S Government is concerned, however you can do illegal activities such as piracy. I do not condone nor encourage this behavior.
Interested in learning more or even jailbreaking your own device? The subreddit r/jailbreak is the best place to look! Already jailbroken but have no idea what to do next? Check out the subreddit r/iOSThemes!
This is very interesting. I always wondered about the pros and cons of jailbreaking an iPhone. I used to have a friend that would always jailbreak his knew iPhone every time a new one came out. He told me that it was totally worth it but I heard from other people that the consequences, like crashing, exceed the benefits. Either way, I am glad that I know both the ups and downs of jailbreaking now.
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