What are the Benefits of jailbreaking?

[Hudmaster]

I was part of a discussion in another part of this forum where I said that I thought "jailbreaking my iPad was morally wrong." The rest of the people there convinced me that there is absolutely nothing wrong with doing so. So I want to know what the benefits of jailbreaking one's iPad are, and how/where can I get it jailbroken?

 

[Boomslang]

reasons to jailbreak....
be able to load and use 3rd party apps that increase the usefulness and functionality of the ipad itself.
be able to load software not included in apples app store ie:games,utilities,applications that dont meet apples strict criteria for getting into their app store even though the software is perfectly useable
customization- load and even create different themes for your ipad to make it more suitable for your liking. sure apple lets you change the background pictuer buy try to find a way to change to glass or see through icons without jailbreaking.


ok next, where to get it jailbroken.
depends on what version of the ios you have installed
settings/general/about/version
if it says 3.2.1 or lower go to jailbreakme.com and slide to jailbreak
if its 3.2.2 get in line and wait like the rest of us for the greenpois0n exploit to be released .

 

[Hudmaster]

if its 3.2.2 get in line and wait like the rest of us for the greenpois0n exploit to be released .

GAH!! I have 3.2.2. Is there any estimation of when the greenpois0n exploit will be released?

 

[Boomslang]

nope, if you believe half the crap you can dig up on the net or through forums you will find people saying its already out, out tomorrow, out next thurs if the wind is blowing southwest at 2 am..
unless you see a post direct from a dev team the just be patient. i didnt know about the jailbreak on the ipad until after i upgraded to 3.2.2 but thats kinda how my luck goes lol.
now i have an iphone4 and ipad both waiting for this exploit so its a waiting game

 

[Andymyrick]

The dev team today posted on twitter that the jailbreak will be released sooner than we think but they won't announce a date because they are still developing the actual program itself and are afraid they might run into a bug or something which would delay the release and upset users.

 

[ArthurIhde]

the most benefits is load and use 3rd party apps

 

[NakedFaerie]

As it says above if your on 3.2.1 or below then goto JailbreakMe and slide to jailbreak.
If your on 3.2.2 then you'll have to wait till November for iOS4.1 to be released as I'm guessing the jailbreak for that will be in the same week.

If you want to know of reasons to jailbreak then just do it, goto Cydia and you will see all the reasons.
1 reason is in Cydia there is a program "SwirlyMMS for iPad" which lets you send SMS and MMS to and from the iPad.
2, is "Backgrounder" which is the multitasking app Apple don't want non jailbreakers to know about.
3, is "iFile" which lets you have full access to the file system. That way if you also have the USB/SD card dongles you can access files directly on USB sticks and play/view/whatever them.
4, is "SBSettings" which is a whole lot of switches and information very quick and easy to access.

Want more? Go in to Cydia and see for yourself.
All the apps in cydia are either rejected my Apple for being too useful or "not what Apple want you to do with your iDevice but what you actually want it to do"

If anyone can find a way to filter out all the themes etc from cydia then I'd like to know how.

Enjoy YOUR iDevice the way it should be from the start.
Without Jailbreak your limiting what you can do with it. Would you buy a PC without a monitor? Why wouldn't you jailbreak your iDevice to use it at its full potential?

 

[Afide]

**Mods don't get mad**

You can also pirate apps, which is completely separate from cydia etc. Jailbreaking is perfectly legal, pirating apps is obviously not, its stealing lol.

But, it is possible. I can't tell you how, and no one here will - poke around google for a little bit if you're interested.

****I am in no way telling you to pirate apps, just telling you that it is possible****

Important: Remember there is always risk when jailbreaking any iDevice, and it will void your warrantee.

 

[SweetPoison]

You aren't even suppose to discuss stealing apps here.

 

[iPadCharlie]

Enjoy YOUR iDevice the way it should be from the start.
Without Jailbreak your limiting what you can do with it. Would you buy a PC without a monitor? Why wouldn't you jailbreak your iDevice to use it at its full potential?

Well, a better analogy might be thinking of your iPad as a Corvette... something I know a little bit about!

Most people will admit that a Corvette is a pretty awesome piece of machinery, even ones straight off of the showroom floor. OTOH, there are an endless number of "bolt-ons" for the Corvette that can add a much higher level of performance. Its almost as if GM is providing you with a platform or basic starting point that you can modify to suit your needs/wants/desires.

The problem is that you need to have some degree of mechanical competency (or know someone who does) in order to modify your Corvette, because if you don't know how to install it, your Chevy dealer won't help you. If your "bolt-on" does not perform as advertised, your Chevy dealer won't help you. If your "bolt-on" adversely affects the performance of your Corvette, your Chevy dealer won't help you. If your "bolt-on" damages something on your Corvette, your Chevy dealer won't help you.

IOW, you have to go into this with your eyes wide open and understand that you are doing this at your own risk. Fortunately, jailbreaking an Apple mobile device almost never causes damage to the hardware to the point where you truly have a "brick" or totally useless device that can not be restored but you may lose some (or all!) of your data and apps.

 

[Hudmaster]

Okay... Now I get that there are a lot of advantages of jailbreaking, and that there is some risk, but what are the disadvantages, other than a void warranty?

 

[djricekcn]

you arne't protected by apple, meaning there is no guarantee's that all things yuo download and use will work + there's a possibility bricking it

 

[NakedFaerie]

Enjoy YOUR iDevice the way it should be from the start.
Without Jailbreak your limiting what you can do with it. Would you buy a PC without a monitor? Why wouldn't you jailbreak your iDevice to use it at its full potential?

Well, a better analogy might be thinking of your iPad as a Corvette... something I know a little bit about!

Most people will admit that a Corvette is a pretty awesome piece of machinery, even ones straight off of the showroom floor. OTOH, there are an endless number of "bolt-ons" for the Corvette that can add a much higher level of performance. Its almost as if GM is providing you with a platform or basic starting point that you can modify to suit your needs/wants/desires.

The problem is that you need to have some degree of mechanical competency (or know someone who does) in order to modify your Corvette, because if you don't know how to install it, your Chevy dealer won't help you. If your "bolt-on" does not perform as advertised, your Chevy dealer won't help you. If your "bolt-on" adversely affects the performance of your Corvette, your Chevy dealer won't help you. If your "bolt-on" damages something on your Corvette, your Chevy dealer won't help you.

IOW, you have to go into this with your eyes wide open and understand that you are doing this at your own risk. Fortunately, jailbreaking an Apple mobile device almost never causes damage to the hardware to the point where you truly have a "brick" or totally useless device that can not be restored but you may lose some (or all!) of your data and apps.

The problem with your example is the corvette is already at its peak performance so its good stock but the iPad is not at its peak as stock. It's very limited.
Want to compare the corvette to the ipad is like a vette without a bonnet, doors or wheels. yea it sounds good but it wont go far. It looks ok but it can look a lot better with doors and a bonnet and with wheels its awesome.
The iPad looks ok but when you customize it the way you want, turn on backgrounder for multitasking and a few other little tweaks its getting close to its peak performance but its not just there yet.

iOS4.1 will help but all that is doing is giving everyone features jailbreakers already have. Multitaksing? Already got it. sms/mms, I got it already and I dont think iOS4.1 will have that feature. How about change fonts or icons? No, it looks like you'll have to jailbreak iOS4.1 too so you can have features you want not what Apple tell you to have.

 

[NakedFaerie]

Oh, I forgot. Yea, you might need an engineering degree to modify a corvette but a monkey can visit a website to jailbreak an ipad.

 

[NakedFaerie]

you arne't protected by apple, meaning there is no guarantee's that all things yuo download and use will work + there's a possibility bricking it

There is no such thing as a brick for iDevices.
I so called "bricked" my daughters iPhone the other week and its working fine now.
There is a mode called DFU mode which will restore it. So if you can get in DFU mode there is no chance of bricking it.

I had it not turn on, no apple logo no nothing. It got into DFU mode and I restored it. No problems.

I've been modding/jailbreaking iPhones for 2+ years and I've never bricked an iPhone.