5 Reasons To Jailbreak Your 3G iPhone

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I have always jailbroken my iPhone. With the first generation I had no choice as it was the only way that I was going to get it to work here in Spain, but jailbreaking it was a pretty complicated process that I remember filled me with a certain amount of dread at the time. I remember being particularly nervous upgrading from 1.0.1 to 2.0 and jailbreaking it, and did indeed run into some difficulties.

With the 3G iPhone I jailbroke mine straight away so that I could use Qik as that was a ‘must have’ application for me as it is something I use all the time on the Almerimar Life site, but I didn’t bother with the original that Sands now has as she had no real need for Qik (then) and unlocking wasn’t an option.

Well with the unlock now available both iPhone are unlocked and flying!! It is so easy now to jailbreak the iPhone and as for unlocking it …. amazingly easy, literally a download and that is it, couldn’t have been easier.

Sands is now signed up to Qik for her Almerimar Life Strays site, lthough she has yet to really embrace it it has to be said.

The main beneft for Sands will be when she goes back to the UK to see family and she will now be able to use our UK SIM card in the iPhone, and that combined with her Mac Book will keep her pretty much on top of things. I have no doubt that I will do the same as and when I need to travel again (it was certainly useful to be able to insert the UK the Dubai SIM cards last year), but for now my five reasons to jailbreak the iPhone are:

1. PdaNet
2. Qik
3. Unlocked!
4. WhatIP
5. Because you can

PdaNet

Tethering your iPhone to your Mac may get you into trouble with your service provider for sure, but it will also give you a sense of freedom and flexibility.

I have no desire to use my iPhone’s data service as the primary access to the internet, but at times the Internet does go down in the apartment, and while the iPhone is fine for keeping up with emails, tweets etc. for times when I need to continue ‘business as usual’ then PdaNet is great. Ditto when I am in the marina where normally I can get WiFi access, but at times I need more than the iPhone can offer so a quick hook uo via PdaNet is very useful. I also need to access the Internet via the MacBook Pro when I am with a client up in the mountains, and if one of our projects comes off (meeting next week to decide) then it will be amore than useful option.

PdaNet must be one of the easiest application ever to set up and use and what I like most compared to say iPhone Modem is that it has no limitations related to socks proxy.

Qik
I just love it!! Effective and efficient live video streaming to the blog, and the option to download the video off Qik site to the Mac makes up somewhat for the lack of Video function on the iPhone (which is a BIG omission in my view).

There have been rumours that Apple will add Qik to the iTunes Application Store at some stage, and they should, but in the meantime jailbreak away!

Unlocked
Just such a greaty option for anyone that travels, or plans to travel! Buying a local Pay as you Go SIM card will always save you money over roaming fees, and let’s face it you are going to have switched off your roaming data service when you travel anyway ….. aren’t you!!!!

WhatIP
A quick tool to display the current network (IP) address which is great if you need to SSH into your device. I have also noticed that the iPhone has a tendency to somehow change its IP details, so whenever I find that a download is taking a while I quickly use WHatIP to check I am still on the network I think I should be on. It is surprising how much I use this …….

Because you can
As much as I love Apple I do dislike the ‘We know what’s best for you’ aproach they take. Locking the iPhone to a carrier just isn’t right in my view, I do not want someone else forcing me into a contract with a carrier that I don’t want. It just feels like bullying, or arrogance, and I don’t like it at all.

Small ‘victory’ that it may be, it feels good to have some independence!!!

You can download a copy of the PwnageTool 2.2.1 here that I used if you wish, but I am not liable for anything ever, anywhere, anyhow if you use it, and please respect the great work the iPhone Development Team have done and make a donation.

If you have jaillbroken your iPhone what were your reasons for doing so?

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