Jailbreak Your iPhone
I was seriously considering getting an Android phone. I figured I would give
the iPhone 4 a shot before giving up on the format and going with Android. I
didn't jump in and pre-order an iPhone 4. I took my time and waited it out.
After about a month from the original release date, I called the local Apple
store and they put me on a waiting list for the phone. I still had not
committed to buying one yet. I had 2 major concerns regarding the phone.
First was the antenna issue but since I rarely use the phone as a phone to
make phone calls and they offered free cases, that concern was mostly
eliminated. The second one is still a problem to this day and that is the
fragility of the phone. With glass on both the front and back it really
concerns me. Yes, the glass is supposed to be scratch resistant and so far
it is but making the glass harder to resist scratches also means that the
glass is more brittle. One drop could be all that it takes to shatter the
glass. Eventually I got an email from the Apple store saying that the iPhone
I was on the waiting list for was ready for me and I had to pick it up
within 24 hours or my reservation would go to someone else. I went and
picked it up the next day.
Before I go into my experience with the new phone, I want to talk a little
bit about my iPhone 3G. The 3G is a great phone. I've had Blackberries and
Windows mobile phones but the iPhone 3G was by far a better phone than both
of those. Over the time that I had the 3G, I felt like it could do so much
more. I tried to jailbreak it a couple of times to release the potential of
it but it failed and I was afraid of bricking it. I didn't want to go back
to the blackberry or my old iPhone 2G. Eventually, I got it to jailbreak and
the already poor battery life got 10 times worse (a bit of an exaggeration
but it was pretty bad). I restored it and didn't bother with it again. I was
quite frustrated. Here I had a phone that was clearly capable of doing some
great things but it's hampered by Apple's restrictions and freeing it up
made it useless in terms of battery life. I decided that if jailbreaking
wasn't going to work well enough on the 3G, I would upgrade to the new iOS4.
That was a bad move. The phone turned into a pile of crap. I would click to
open Google Maps for example and nothing would happen. I would click it 2 or
3 more times only to find that it was already starting from the first click.
It was just so slow to open that I thought my click didn't register. I
finally got fed up with it and searched the internet for some help. There
were plenty of others complaining about the same problem. I found a method
to downgrade the phone back to 3.1.3 and left it at that.
My frustration with Apple and the iPhone was growing and pushing me toward
Android. It's like having a Ferrari and having the car's speed limited to
only 35mph. You know it can do so much more but you just can't unlock that
extra potential. Would the iPhone 4 be just more of the same?
To begin with, the iPhone 4 doesn't really add that much more. The first
thing that you will notice that is different is the screen which I have to
admit is spectacular. If I look back on the screen of the 3G, it's miles
beyond it. It's faster which is very important thing. If it was not leaps
and bounds beyond the 3G, I wouldn't even bother. The battery is much
improved which is also a big selling point. The front facing camera is a
joke. Facetime is a waste of time. It's fun once in a while to show off with
your friends but since so few of my friends have an iPhone 4, it's pretty
much useless. For me, it's a novelty that wears out after one or two uses.
The rear camera is actually usable now. The 3G's camera was for occasional
snaps when quality wasn't very important. The 4's camera is actually a
decent camera. It's still not as good as my Canon point and shoot pocket
camera but since I always have it with me, it gets more use. The video
feature which was absent on the 3G is quite nice. I have already used it to
take videos of my dog being stupid and uploading them to youtube. For those
with the 3GS, this is nothing new but it's something that I think should
have been included in the 3G a long time ago.
Even with all these improvements, I was still apprehensive to go with the
iPhone 4. I picked it up anyway knowing that I could return it in 30 days
for a full refund if I wanted to. I also though that even if I decided to
get rid of it after the 30 days, I could easily sell it on Craigslist and
get an Android phone for less than what I could sell the iPhone 4. I had it
for about 2 weeks when the Jailbreakme.com jailbreak came out. I figured I
would give it a try. It was the simplest jailbreak ever. I had jailbroken my
2G and my 3G and both of those were very involved in comparison and neither
of those went smoothly the first time. On the 4, the jailbreak took about 3
minutes and was totally painless. My concern about the battery life with the
jailbreak was unwarranted. Battery life was unchanged. Maybe the jailbreak
method has something to do with the battery life that caused the problem
with 3G. Either way, this was much better. I then started loading jailbreak
apps. Pretty much everything that I had wished for from the 3G was available
now with the jailbreak.
Once of the biggest reasons why anyone would want to jailbreak their phone
would be to download cracked apps which are basically the same apps that you
would buy from the App Store but without paying for them. I don't condone
downloading cracked apps but I can understand why someone would do it. I
have paid for a few apps only to find that they are total piles of crap and
delete them. Cracked apps provide a try before you buy experience. If you
like the app and find that you get use out of it, I strongly recommend
buying the app to support the developer. In the Cydia store, most of the
paid apps include free trials. This is an option that Apple should start
including in their App Store. Of the jailbroken apps, there are a few must
have apps.
1. MyWi - This a tethering app. What it does is turn your iPhone into a
mobile wi-fi hotspot. Connect your laptop, iPod, or other wi-fi capable
device to it and you'll be able to have internet access wherever your
iPhone gets signal. This is already built into iOS4 on the iPhone but AT&T
charges an extra $20 per month for it and makes you downgrade to the 2GB
data plan. There is no way in heck I am giving up my unlimited data plan.
Even if they allowed tethering using the unlimited data plan, I still
wouldn't pay $20 extra per month for it. I rarely use it but when I do, it's
a lifesaver. If you are on a 2GB data plan be sure to watch your usage so
you don't go over your limit. If you do, it's not as bad as it used to be
with the new plans. I believe they charge an additional $10 for 1GB. If you
are on the 200mb plan, upgrade to the 2GB plan if you want to use this
feature.
2. My3G - This application fools your phone and any of the apps running on
it to think they are connected to wi-fi when they are actually on 3G. There
are a few apps that require you to be on wi-fi to use them including
Facetime. This removes that restriction.
3. LockInfo - This application adds useful information to your lock screen.
Without unlocking my iPhone, I can see and read any new emails, check the
weather forecast, read any SMS messages, check my calendar and RSS feeds.
There are other plugins that add more functionality if you want them. There
are other variations of this app that do exactly the same thing. It's a
matter of preference. LockInfo works for me so I am sticking with it.
4. SBSettings - I hate having to dig through tons of menus to adjust a
simple setting on my phone. This app corrects that easily. I quick swipe of
the status bar brings it up and I can turn on or off all the various radios
as well as adjust other settings on the phone.
5. SMS - I don't have a recommendation in this area just yet. I am going to
try out a few apps that look good and see if they solve the inherit problems
with Apple's SMS application. Right now I am looking at biteSMS.
6. Google Apps - Apple and Google seem to be in a war now even though when
the first iPhone came out, they seemed to be united together against
Microsoft. Apple refused Google Voice and Google Latitude. If you jailbreak,
you can get unofficial Google apps. These aren't the apps that Google
submitted to Apple that got rejected but they are equivalent. There is GV
Mobile which provides an interface for Google Voice and Longitude which is
an automatic Latitude updater. There is the web based versions that come
directly from Google but I personally prefer an app even though they don't
provide all the functionality.
I am pretty happy with the iPhone 4 to this point thanks mostly to the
jailbreak. I am stuck with it now because I gave my 3G to my wife and she
seems to have a death grip on that thing now. Coming from a dumb phone, she
has seen the light. She used to make fun of me constantly pulling out my
iPhone. Now she is just as bad as me. :)
the iPhone 4 a shot before giving up on the format and going with Android. I
didn't jump in and pre-order an iPhone 4. I took my time and waited it out.
After about a month from the original release date, I called the local Apple
store and they put me on a waiting list for the phone. I still had not
committed to buying one yet. I had 2 major concerns regarding the phone.
First was the antenna issue but since I rarely use the phone as a phone to
make phone calls and they offered free cases, that concern was mostly
eliminated. The second one is still a problem to this day and that is the
fragility of the phone. With glass on both the front and back it really
concerns me. Yes, the glass is supposed to be scratch resistant and so far
it is but making the glass harder to resist scratches also means that the
glass is more brittle. One drop could be all that it takes to shatter the
glass. Eventually I got an email from the Apple store saying that the iPhone
I was on the waiting list for was ready for me and I had to pick it up
within 24 hours or my reservation would go to someone else. I went and
picked it up the next day.
Before I go into my experience with the new phone, I want to talk a little
bit about my iPhone 3G. The 3G is a great phone. I've had Blackberries and
Windows mobile phones but the iPhone 3G was by far a better phone than both
of those. Over the time that I had the 3G, I felt like it could do so much
more. I tried to jailbreak it a couple of times to release the potential of
it but it failed and I was afraid of bricking it. I didn't want to go back
to the blackberry or my old iPhone 2G. Eventually, I got it to jailbreak and
the already poor battery life got 10 times worse (a bit of an exaggeration
but it was pretty bad). I restored it and didn't bother with it again. I was
quite frustrated. Here I had a phone that was clearly capable of doing some
great things but it's hampered by Apple's restrictions and freeing it up
made it useless in terms of battery life. I decided that if jailbreaking
wasn't going to work well enough on the 3G, I would upgrade to the new iOS4.
That was a bad move. The phone turned into a pile of crap. I would click to
open Google Maps for example and nothing would happen. I would click it 2 or
3 more times only to find that it was already starting from the first click.
It was just so slow to open that I thought my click didn't register. I
finally got fed up with it and searched the internet for some help. There
were plenty of others complaining about the same problem. I found a method
to downgrade the phone back to 3.1.3 and left it at that.
My frustration with Apple and the iPhone was growing and pushing me toward
Android. It's like having a Ferrari and having the car's speed limited to
only 35mph. You know it can do so much more but you just can't unlock that
extra potential. Would the iPhone 4 be just more of the same?
To begin with, the iPhone 4 doesn't really add that much more. The first
thing that you will notice that is different is the screen which I have to
admit is spectacular. If I look back on the screen of the 3G, it's miles
beyond it. It's faster which is very important thing. If it was not leaps
and bounds beyond the 3G, I wouldn't even bother. The battery is much
improved which is also a big selling point. The front facing camera is a
joke. Facetime is a waste of time. It's fun once in a while to show off with
your friends but since so few of my friends have an iPhone 4, it's pretty
much useless. For me, it's a novelty that wears out after one or two uses.
The rear camera is actually usable now. The 3G's camera was for occasional
snaps when quality wasn't very important. The 4's camera is actually a
decent camera. It's still not as good as my Canon point and shoot pocket
camera but since I always have it with me, it gets more use. The video
feature which was absent on the 3G is quite nice. I have already used it to
take videos of my dog being stupid and uploading them to youtube. For those
with the 3GS, this is nothing new but it's something that I think should
have been included in the 3G a long time ago.
Even with all these improvements, I was still apprehensive to go with the
iPhone 4. I picked it up anyway knowing that I could return it in 30 days
for a full refund if I wanted to. I also though that even if I decided to
get rid of it after the 30 days, I could easily sell it on Craigslist and
get an Android phone for less than what I could sell the iPhone 4. I had it
for about 2 weeks when the Jailbreakme.com jailbreak came out. I figured I
would give it a try. It was the simplest jailbreak ever. I had jailbroken my
2G and my 3G and both of those were very involved in comparison and neither
of those went smoothly the first time. On the 4, the jailbreak took about 3
minutes and was totally painless. My concern about the battery life with the
jailbreak was unwarranted. Battery life was unchanged. Maybe the jailbreak
method has something to do with the battery life that caused the problem
with 3G. Either way, this was much better. I then started loading jailbreak
apps. Pretty much everything that I had wished for from the 3G was available
now with the jailbreak.
Once of the biggest reasons why anyone would want to jailbreak their phone
would be to download cracked apps which are basically the same apps that you
would buy from the App Store but without paying for them. I don't condone
downloading cracked apps but I can understand why someone would do it. I
have paid for a few apps only to find that they are total piles of crap and
delete them. Cracked apps provide a try before you buy experience. If you
like the app and find that you get use out of it, I strongly recommend
buying the app to support the developer. In the Cydia store, most of the
paid apps include free trials. This is an option that Apple should start
including in their App Store. Of the jailbroken apps, there are a few must
have apps.
1. MyWi - This a tethering app. What it does is turn your iPhone into a
mobile wi-fi hotspot. Connect your laptop, iPod, or other wi-fi capable
device to it and you'll be able to have internet access wherever your
iPhone gets signal. This is already built into iOS4 on the iPhone but AT&T
charges an extra $20 per month for it and makes you downgrade to the 2GB
data plan. There is no way in heck I am giving up my unlimited data plan.
Even if they allowed tethering using the unlimited data plan, I still
wouldn't pay $20 extra per month for it. I rarely use it but when I do, it's
a lifesaver. If you are on a 2GB data plan be sure to watch your usage so
you don't go over your limit. If you do, it's not as bad as it used to be
with the new plans. I believe they charge an additional $10 for 1GB. If you
are on the 200mb plan, upgrade to the 2GB plan if you want to use this
feature.
2. My3G - This application fools your phone and any of the apps running on
it to think they are connected to wi-fi when they are actually on 3G. There
are a few apps that require you to be on wi-fi to use them including
Facetime. This removes that restriction.
3. LockInfo - This application adds useful information to your lock screen.
Without unlocking my iPhone, I can see and read any new emails, check the
weather forecast, read any SMS messages, check my calendar and RSS feeds.
There are other plugins that add more functionality if you want them. There
are other variations of this app that do exactly the same thing. It's a
matter of preference. LockInfo works for me so I am sticking with it.
4. SBSettings - I hate having to dig through tons of menus to adjust a
simple setting on my phone. This app corrects that easily. I quick swipe of
the status bar brings it up and I can turn on or off all the various radios
as well as adjust other settings on the phone.
5. SMS - I don't have a recommendation in this area just yet. I am going to
try out a few apps that look good and see if they solve the inherit problems
with Apple's SMS application. Right now I am looking at biteSMS.
6. Google Apps - Apple and Google seem to be in a war now even though when
the first iPhone came out, they seemed to be united together against
Microsoft. Apple refused Google Voice and Google Latitude. If you jailbreak,
you can get unofficial Google apps. These aren't the apps that Google
submitted to Apple that got rejected but they are equivalent. There is GV
Mobile which provides an interface for Google Voice and Longitude which is
an automatic Latitude updater. There is the web based versions that come
directly from Google but I personally prefer an app even though they don't
provide all the functionality.
I am pretty happy with the iPhone 4 to this point thanks mostly to the
jailbreak. I am stuck with it now because I gave my 3G to my wife and she
seems to have a death grip on that thing now. Coming from a dumb phone, she
has seen the light. She used to make fun of me constantly pulling out my
iPhone. Now she is just as bad as me. :)
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