iPhone Jailbreaking Still Going Strong 166
snydeq writes "Despite the productivity promises of Apple's forthcoming 3.0 firmware update, jailbreaking should continue to push the iPhone's productivity envelope, as users increasingly demand the Holy Grail of smartphone power use: applications that run in the background, InfoWorld reports. Copy and paste, video recording and streaming, Internet tethering, and content search are just a few of the features over which iPhone users have sought to jailbreak their devices — a practice Apple itself has done little to crack down on. Jailbreak apps circumvent hardware and software restrictions that Apple says ensure a consistent, responsive user interface and optimal battery endurance. In particular, jailbroken phones can run apps in the background, a capability Apple reserves for its own apps but prohibits in third-party programs. Jay Freeman, creator of the Cydia iPhone installer and Cydia Store, however, believes a free-market approach is the best way to satisfy power users' demands for features without compromising the performance of their iPhones. And given Apple's App Store overcrowding, it seems likely that jailbroken phones and app venues like Cydia Store will continue to be popular with iPhone customers and developers, even after the 3.0 firmware ships."
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Jailbreaking will continue (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:3rd party in background means malware... (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, that's right. You are being restricted for your own good!
It must be nice to be so naive...
Re:Not to mention... (Score:4, Insightful)
Why? When you can just jailbreak and have the polished UI?
Re:3rd party in background means malware... (Score:3, Insightful)
Whenever you get into that situation, someone else vetting the apps, you no longer own the device. They own it and you just rent it.
Once they decide not to bother with the app store or with vetting new apps you are stuck with a dead device. If jobs decides tomorrow that the iphone is too big and only the new iphone-nano will be sold and as such the appstore for the now old device is to be closed, you are boned. You will be holding a $200 paperweight.
Do you really want to pay for a device you don't own? Do you really want something you can't use as you see fit?
Re:3rd party in background means malware... (Score:1, Insightful)
if your PC is infected no one cares. if your cell phone gets infected by a virus and you can't call 911 in an emergency than Apple is going to pay out a lot of money in a lawsuit.
Android and WinMo are getting app stores. lets see what happens in 12-24 months with those platforms.
Re:3rd party in background means malware... (Score:5, Insightful)
Windows Mobile devices have had applications running in the background for ages and there have not been outbreaks of infections preventing people from dialing 911. Android phones are also very open and lack such absurd restrictions.
Enough with the strawmen arguements and just come to grips with the fact that sometimes Apple puts their business interests before the consumer.
Re:Not to mention... (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, cut and paste and one or two other things are sorely missed, but honestly all these other features people are asking for just make me worried if the future versions will have the clean and beautiful interface like the last one. "Power users", while the most vocal, tend to be a small part of the market. Hope Apple keep their head and not trip over themselves trying to please that segment of the market and make the product cluttered, ugly and crash prone like all the other "smart" phones out there.
Must not be a programmer (Score:5, Insightful)
You have to first jailbreak the phone if you want to unlock it. But I recently switched to Google Android so I don't have to deal with this. It's a less nice experience, but I imagine a lot of people who are willing to go through the trouble of jailbreaking a phone are also willing to put up with the less polished UI.
Given that Jailbreaking is essentially an O(1) operation over the life of the device, and day to day use is O(n), I'll take the better UI thanks!!
On Android you also still have to deal with hunting down apps not approved for the store, just like looking at Cydia apps on the iPhone...
Fundamental "Grail" faulty (Score:3, Insightful)
The iPhone lacks background Applications - however, a percentage of the cases for making use of background processing are addressed by the notification service (which is finally going in with 3.0).
Once you eliminate the entire class of polling apps, are the remaining set truly the "holy grail" of iPhone use? I don't think so.
That said, Jailbreaking will thrive because there will always be stuff you can do with Jailbreaking you cannot otherwise, if nothing else just the opportunity for raw experimentation.... I seem to recall there has been some proof that Apple looks over these jailbroken apps, I'm sure they draw ideas from them and can even use them as a measure of just what areas people most want to see a deeper API exposed. So I don't think Apple will ever get serious about stopping this, not to mention they have been intelligent enough to know to spend only the most minimal time developing protection mechanisms that will be hacked anyway (which is all of them).
Re:"Experience" (Score:3, Insightful)
Anything that justifies itself on the basis of "the user's experience" should be viewed appropriately - as a load of BS. Apple contends that they want us to have a smooth, consistent user "experience". Isn't that MY DECISION?
Yeah, it is. So... what's the problem? If you want to make the decision to customize your user experience, go ahead and jailbreak. Otherwise, the user experience Apple provides is good enough for most people.
Seriously, Apple's not going to haul you off to jail any more than will KDE for adapting their desktop software to fit your needs. Nobody is saying you have to do it Apple's way, but Apple is under no obligation to provide support to you if you try to make their software work in ways it's not yet designed to work (for reasons that are completely irrelevant).
Re:Not to mention... (Score:4, Insightful)
3 Reasons I still keep my Touch Jailbroken (Score:4, Insightful)
2. Ad Block. Either by the shareware Adblock or a hosts file.
3. Emulators. The GBA emulator has gotten quite good.
What for whom? (Score:4, Insightful)
The trouble is that as soon as you have arbitrary apps deciding to run in the background, you have to look *very* closely what they do. Because if you don't, these apps will suck at your battery until it is empty.
And most normal users most certainly don't want to have to do that. At least with the appstore apps you can rely on them to stop doing anything as soon as you return to the home screen or click the phone "off". And Apple has done a really good job when it comes to power management. You may easily overlook this fact on an iPhone, but if you look at the iPod touch this thing runs (sleeps) for weeks if you press the off button. Having apps running in the background and then return to an empty battery two hours (or one day) later surely is *not* in the interest of the users. Constantly having to check for (and kill) running apps in some task-manager is no solution either.
Say what you will about Apple, but power management is one thing they are very serious about, not only with the iPhone. The new MacBook is able to even put most netbooks to shame when it comes to minimum power draw and this is not due to magic but just to lots of hard work and smart hard- and software. I've seen my MacBook drawing about 6 watts from the battery with WiFi on, display on 50% and writing things. This is outright impressive, they must have some really clever people working on that while most other hardware vendors just don't care and either stuff fat batteries into their machines or give you two hours of battery life. Limitations like "no background apps on the iPhone" are there for a good reason, so be careful what you wish for.
Re:3rd party in background means malware... (Score:3, Insightful)