06 July 2010

iPhone 3G Jailbreak - Why I did it

11:55 AM | Posted by sortius | Edit Post
I held off jailbreaking my iPhone for a long time as I saw no need to bother. Updates came regularly, there was no difference between the 3G updates and the 3GS updates (apart from apps that required physically different hardware), and the phone did all I wanted.

So why the big change of heart? Well, to be quite frank, iOS4. There were promises of backgrounds, multitasking, and a new gaming service via the iPhone. This all sounded great, until I received the developers release of iOS4. Sure, the game service was there, but no multitasking and no backgrounds. Why? According to Apple, the 3G can't handle such features, so they turned them off.

So I was given four options:
  1. Upgrade to a 3GS and have it outdated in a month
  2. Wait a month and buy an iPhone 4
  3. Move to Android
  4. Jailbreak my iPhone
Option 1 wasn't going to happen, I don't invest in already outdated technology. Option 2 was quite viable until I started seeing stories of antenna problems on the iPhone 4. Option 3, well, I was very tempted (and still am), but feel an Android tablet would be of more use. So that left me with just one option.

While I'm not going to jump on the "iPhone 4 is shit" bandwagon, I'm also not going to jump head-long into the purchase of a device that has known problems. As I'm writing this a new story has come up abo
ut the iPhone 4's proximity sensors not working as intended (link).

So, I set off using redsn0w's jailbreak. It was quite simple to do and seems to have had no lasting ill effects on my iPhone. I now have multitasking (runs fine, so Apple was telling porky pies) and backgrounds (again, porky pies on Apple's part).

My theory on the whole restrictions of the iOS4 update is to ensure the sales of the iPhone 4 are inflated by people rushing out to get the features they can't have on their 2 year old phone. I know that my next phone will not be an Apple phone unless they smarten up their act. Apple has moved from the nice guys to Microsoft's evil twin. Steve Jobs makes Steve Balmer look like a mild mannered marketer by comparison these days.

All in all, if you have an iPhone 3G and were going to upgrade your phone to an iPhone 4 for iOS4 features, consider a Jailbreak. Your phone will be out of warranty, so no harm there, and your iTunes sync/apps/etc all works with the Jailbroken phone. If Apple wants to play this game, we can all chip in and play it better than them.

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