A few reasons to jailbreak your iOS device

[Elliot B.]

Maybe this article will explain why jailbreaking can be useful.

These are some of the reasons I personally jailbreak my iOS device:

3G Unrestrictor

3G Unrestrictor allows you to go around the iPhone's limitations and restrictions of not being able to use some applications like FaceTime, high quality YouTube videos or big app and iTunes store downloads while on a mobile internet connection like 3G or EDGE as well as many other things. It allows those things by tricking applications into believing they are on Wi-Fi, even though they are on 3G or EDGE.

It allows you while on 3G/EDGE/GRPS:

• Make and receive FaceTime calls!
  
• Watch high quality YouTube videos and the ability to choose between low, medium and high quality
  
• Download apps bigger than 20MB from the AppStore
  
• Download music, TV shows and podcasts bigger than 20MB from the iTunes Store
  
• Play online games, which usually only work on WiFi, like Order and Chaos or Modern Combat
  
• And much, much more since 3G Unrestrictor works with almost all apps 3rd party apps that restrict you in any way on 3G like for example Audible!
  

AdBlocker

AdBlocker is an easy to use and powerful tool, similar to extensions for your desktop browser. It blocks ads in Safari and other apps which are using browser-like views (UIWebView). If an app is using UIWebViews to display content (other browsers like Skyfire, browser in a Twitter client etc.) AdBlocker will block ads from being loaded and tries to optimize the space.

AdBlocker:

• will reduce your data usage and often speed up loading of pages; extremely useful if you have a limited cellular data plan ? it will save you money!
  
• is very fast, regex-based tool and can handle lists with thousands of entries without noticable slowing down the apps. Lists for 17 languages are build in, but you can easily add custom lists. Just google ?adblock lists? to find urls.
  
• is designed to block ads in webcontent like websites and not advertisement in ad-supported apps.
  

BlockLists are being downloaded from the net. No need to create huge configurationsfiles yourself. It?s using list like provided by EasyList.

Activator

Activator allows you to assign gestures to launch specific applications installed from Cydia.

First, you choose where you'd like to access whatever it is you want to do:

• Anywhere
  
• At Home Screen
  
• In Application
  
• At Lock Screen
  

Then you choose how to activate whatever it is you want to do. Some examples:

• Double Press/Short Hold/Single Press/Triple Press of Home Button
  
• Shake the device
  
• When the device receives A/C power/stops receiving A/C power
  
• Double Press/Short Hold the Sleep Button
  
• A slide in gesture (e.g. from bottom of screen, from right of screen)
  
• Double Tap/Hold/Single Tap/Swipe Left/Swipe Right the Status Bar
  
• Down Short Hold/Press Both of Volume Buttons
  

Then you choose what you want to do. For example, by combining the above, you can:

• Change iPod controls (e.g. play next track) by shortly pressing and holding the Sleep Button
  
• Lock the device by a Triple Press of the Home Button
  
• Launch the Safari browser by swiping from the bottom of the screen
  

There are also 'extensions' for Activator available in Cydia. Examples are QuickGoogle and SpringFlash (look below for descriptions).

AppStore Update Size

Shows the size of the updates in the App Store next to the update entry.

DisplayOut

DisplayOut:

• Mirrors screen on connected monitor, projector or television
  
• Detects orientation and connectivity
  
• Supports game and video content
  
• Customizable zoom & aspect ratio
  

Compilable cables:

iPhone 4, iPad, iPad 2 and iPod touch fourth generation:

• Official HDMI adapter + iOS4.3 (best)
  
• Official VGA cable (better)
  
• Official component cable (good)
  
• Official composite cable (okay)
  

iPhone 3G S, iPhone 3G, iPhone, iPod touch 2nd/3rd generation:

• Official component cable (better)
  
• Official composite cable (okay)
  

Unofficial cables are not supported but may work if Resupported4 is installed.

FakeClockUp

From repo./source: http://hitoriblog.com/apt/

The tweak will not change any hardware setting, but rather alters the UI animation speeds so that transitions and other animations will occur shorter or longer, whichever you prefer.This can give the feeling of a perkier device or you can also slow the animations down to see the splendor of CoreAnimation.

Five Icon Dock

Five Icon Switcher

Five icon App Switcher.

Icon Renamer

Quick and easy icon renaming from the SpringBoard/Home Screen. Simply tap and hold to enter jiggle/edit mode, then tap the icon you want to rename. There are no new icons added to your home screen, and no options to configure.

Ipsum

Remove notifications from the lock screen by sliding them to the left (as if you were to open them) and then sliding them back to the left.

PageNames

PageNames allows you to ?name? your SpringBoard/Home Screeb pages to whatever you want.

PasswordPilot

PasswordPilot automatically inserts your App Store password when downloading or updating apps from the App Store. Set your password from the Settings.app (passwords are not stored in plain text to limit security risks).

Use it at your own risk. If anyone gets access to your device, he could purchase apps without your consent.

QuickGoogle

Want to quick-search something on Google? Just choose an Activator method (e.g. Double Tap on Status Bar or swipe from the bottom of the screen) and one Alert View will pop up with one Text Field where you input your search. Quickly Safari will be opened, with your Google Search results! Also will open any valid URL. No new icons are added to your homescreen. Configure the Activator method for this alert from your Settings app.

SBSettings

Allows you to swipe the status bar and perform actions such as quickly adjusting the brightness, restarting the phone etc.

SBSettings also allows you to add the date to and remove the carrier name from the status bar etc., hide any app icons (e.g. Stocks)

SBRotator

SBRotator:

• Adds native rotation to the iPhone/iPod and give you a rotating SpringBoard/Home Screen.
  
• Can also rotate some non-rotating apps like Settings, YouTube, Phone and more.
  
• Offers different icon layouts for each orientation. e.g. it lets you have 4x4 icons in portrait but 3x6 or 2x8 in landscape.
  
• Also rotates the App Switcher (multitasking bar) to match the SpringBoard's orientation.
  

Several rotation options are included, e.g. animation options, icon layout options, icon sizing options to fit your icons better in landscape etc.

Siri Mic Colors

From repo./source: http://repo.technetec.com

Siri Mic Colors allows you to change the Siri mic icon that appears when you activate Siri. For example, you can change the Siri mic icon to a green icon, a yellow icon, a red icon etc. it can also change the icon color to the tone of your voice; making almost a rainbow effect.

SpringFlash

Assign any Activator event (e.g. Double Tap the Power Button from anywhere) to enable the LED torch for a bright LED flash light.

User Agent Faker

Makes websites think you're using, for example a PC, so websites don't display the mobile versions. Also install UAFaker SB Settings for SBSettings which allows you to turn User Agent Faker on and off on the fly.

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

And the argument against: You can't update your iDevice as soon as a new update comes out. Woop. Big deal ;)

[44MLX]

I thought with jailbreak, it can crash your iPhone/iPod/iPad?

[stevember]

I'm a coder, windows power user and supply customer support on move.

I still after 2 years haven't found any need to jailbreak, nice list but nothing on that makes me want to now.

I did jailbreak my iPad to see what all fuss is about even then I played lots stuff over a couple weeks and nothing beat out the box experience.

For years we demanded cheap apps and games now we have them and still 'some' people jailbreak to save 0.99c.

But that's just me.

PS I'm no Apple fanboy just wish iPad had real rival.

I thought with jailbreak, it can crash your iPhone/iPod/iPad?

They crash all time look at logs even without jailbreak, like when app/game closes on load.

[44MLX]

I'm a coder, windows power user and supply customer support on move.

I still after 2 years haven't found any need to jailbreak, nice list but nothing on that makes me want to now.

I did jailbreak my iPad to see what all fuss is about even then I played lots stuff over a couple weeks and nothing beat out the box experience.

For years we demanded cheap apps and games now we have them and still 'some' people jailbreak to save 0.99c.

But that's just me.

PS I'm no Apple fanboy just wish iPad had real rival.

They crash all time look at logs even without jailbreak, like when app/game closes on load.

What I meant was after you jailbreak the device get bugs.

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

For years we demanded cheap apps and games now we have them and still 'some' people jailbreak to save 0.99c.

Save money? What are you on about? None of the above features are available on a standard iDevice paid or not!? I personally used to swear by Activator, sbSettings and 3G restrictor. I felt they were toold the device needed but were not available, and still aren't. Jailbreaking isn't about piracy.

What I meant was after you jailbreak the device get bugs.

Basically: No!

Longform: Cydia has less tight controls on the apps offered, and often the apps can access your phone at a slightly lower level. So there is the chance that if you are stupid and download an obviously exploitative app it could (at worst) crash. But iPhone apps crash all the time, they are just handled well. Like the guy above said, sometimes you click an app and it doesn't load - that is a handled crash.

[srbeen]

The end all app against jailbreaking for the iPad at least, and that iPads and all Apple devices alike are in 'jail' has to be RetinaPad. This will scale your 'iphone' apps to look like they were meant to run on the iPad - no terrible pixelation. I have NO clue why apple chose to pixelate all their iPhone apps at 2x resolution - but RetinaPad will make it supersmooth again.

Also, XBMC can be installed on all devices by adding their repo to cydia. This has to be the absolute most feature-packed media player for any portable device. Throw your Camera Kit and iFile on your device and bam, Play your MKVs, Avis, Movs, or any other format from an SD card or powered USB drive. I mean anything. my M2TS files played flawlessly.

If those two arn't enough to sway your thinking theres also a TON of customization.. Multifl0w, BytaFont, RunningList, OpenSSH, PullToRefresh, TVOut2, iFile, Overboard, GPowerPro... many many more. Even simple things like MultiIconMover and ManualCorrect is handy to have so my device isn't changing what I write automatically unless I ask it to.

What I meant was after you jailbreak the device get bugs.

the opposite. the PDF exploit in 4.3.3 could be done by ANY hacker PDF to install whatever they wanted to on your device. After you exploited this to install a jailbreak - ie cydia, you could then use cydia to patch this hole even before apple officially fixed it.

you could corrupt your file system if you install and remove apps that are not written for your iOS version or are malicious in their activity. You are outside your walled garden... again, with tinyunbrella you just restore your pwn'd ISPW and give it another go.

Then again Apple themselves approved some apps with these same capabilities on their app store some time ago.

[Draconian Guppy]

King mustard, i'd like to add Multitasking gestures Zephyr for the iphone 3Gs and 4 !!! they're unbelieveable!!! No need to press home button!

Also, if you live in a hell whole like me, with an unlockable baseband, ultrasn0w FTW-

[Denis W. Veteran]

Here's another reason to jailbreak, of which I'm currently doing right now:

Like with rooting on Android, jailbreaking gives you unrestricted access to the device's file system. Thus I can make backups of app data, SMS database and images, call logs, etc. Use a tool like this one to play around with your device.

Some people - including Genius Bar techs - say not to restore a backup from iTunes (after a clean install) if you're experiencing battery problems or such. This is one way to achieve a clean backup-and-restore without losing important stuff.

[n_K]

Free up memory direct from sbsettings - very useful and a complete joke that there's no automatic garbage collection for iOS and if you don't jailbreak, you have to PAY for something that should be built in.

Flashlight - brightest screen light and its darn useful!

[dragon2611]

I use My WiFI to allow me to tether my phone mostly to get around an issue where the iphone fails to regonignise teathering is allowed on my plan when it roams to Orange (I'm on T-mobile UK)

Also wi-fi analyzer is pretty useful

Kill background is a nice app to, lets you quickly close everything rather than having to do it one app at a time.

[(Spork)]

great info here got some new useful tools to improve my phone .. most of them should have been included !

[fusi0n]

I really liked SBS Settings when I had an iPhone

[Shadrack]

Thank you for the wonderful list! I've had my iPhone and iPad jailbroken off-and-on, and since iOS 5 haven't found a really great reason to Jailbreak. However, I have jailbroken an older iPhone in order to set it up as an AirPlay server ;).

FakeClockUp looks like something I would definitly download if ever i JB'd my iPad again. I find the app switching animations to just be annoying now. They were kinda cool at first, but now I think they take too long and would prefer it if the animations took a quarter of the time they currently take.

Cool list though! (Y)

[mjedi7]

adBlocker is the killer for me, also small tweak that make your life easy like sbsettings

[Owen W Veteran]

I jailbroke to see what it was about and I'm slightly disappointed. I only have three hacks installed.

Copic- To add pictures to contacts in the list, add pictures in SMS threads and the SMS app

BlurriedNCBackground- Does what it says. Makes notification center sexy.

SBSettings - Just a whole bunch of shortcuts

I'd like to add that I actually wish I hadn't jailbroke but I'm too lazy to undo it. It's great to be able to tinker and add stuff for a bit, but it can get really messy and none of these are really worth it. I did learn that installing Winterboard is a mistake as it made my iPhone unstable as hell, even with no themes on. Just a warning :)

[Rudy]

I jailbroke to see what it was about and I'm slightly disappointed. I only have three hacks installed.

Copic- To add pictures to contacts in the list, add pictures in SMS threads and the SMS app

BlurriedNCBackground- Does what it says. Makes notification center sexy.

SBSettings - Just a whole bunch of shortcuts

I'd like to add that I actually wish I hadn't jailbroke but I'm too lazy to undo it. It's great to be able to tinker and add stuff for a bit, but it can get really messy and none of these are really worth it. I did learn that installing Winterboard is a mistake as it made my iPhone unstable as hell, even with no themes on. Just a warning :)

I used to have mine jailbroken and I was feeling the same way :/

It was also getting in the way of my development (issues with testing IAPs on jailbroken devices :/) so it was a no brainer to remove the jailbreak

[(Spork)]

I jailbroke to see what it was about and I'm slightly disappointed. I only have three hacks installed.

Copic- To add pictures to contacts in the list, add pictures in SMS threads and the SMS app

BlurriedNCBackground- Does what it says. Makes notification center sexy.

SBSettings - Just a whole bunch of shortcuts

I'd like to add that I actually wish I hadn't jailbroke but I'm too lazy to undo it. It's great to be able to tinker and add stuff for a bit, but it can get really messy and none of these are really worth it. I did learn that installing Winterboard is a mistake as it made my iPhone unstable as hell, even with no themes on. Just a warning :)

winterboard installed here and my phones just fine just sure what troubles you was having but i have not had 1 crash

[Denis W. Veteran]

I jailbroke to see what it was about and I'm slightly disappointed. I only have three hacks installed.

Copic- To add pictures to contacts in the list, add pictures in SMS threads and the SMS app

BlurriedNCBackground- Does what it says. Makes notification center sexy.

SBSettings - Just a whole bunch of shortcuts

I'd like to add that I actually wish I hadn't jailbroke but I'm too lazy to undo it. It's great to be able to tinker and add stuff for a bit, but it can get really messy and none of these are really worth it. I did learn that installing Winterboard is a mistake as it made my iPhone unstable as hell, even with no themes on. Just a warning :)

Installing SBSettings will in turn install Activator (mentioned in the OP already). Give that a try! For example, you can swipe the status bar to the left to popup the Tweet composer. Or you can assign another gesture or keypress. Or my favourite is mapping the volume keys so holding Vol Up or Down will change songs.

Copic is great; something so trivial that should be included in a future iOS release.

Definitely agreed on Winterboard; unless you absolutely want a crazy theme I'm perfectly content with the stock SpringBoard.

[Jose_49]

"AppStore Update Size"

Oooh :o

Didn't know about this! Thanks man!

I did learn that installing Winterboard is a mistake as it made my iPhone unstable as hell, even with no themes on. Just a warning :)

That only applies to iPhone 3G and iPod 2G. The jailbreak enables wrongly the multitasking and it usually kills the phone when you try to multitask.

Other than that, it is very stable. Even when you think it will crash it will go along nicely and recover perfectly.

[Owen W Veteran]

"AppStore Update Size"

Oooh :o

Didn't know about this! Thanks man!

That only applies to iPhone 3G and iPod 2G. The jailbreak enables wrongly the multitasking and it usually kills the phone when you try to multitask.

Other than that, it is very stable. Even when you think it will crash it will go along nicely and recover perfectly.

Not true, I have an iPhone 4S. Removing Winterboard made my iPhone speed up considerably and stop dropping frames/stuttering on audio.

[Jose_49]

Not true, I have an iPhone 4S. Removing Winterboard made my iPhone speed up considerably and stop dropping frames/stuttering on audio.

Strange :/. Are you sure you have optimized the theme?

[mujjuman]

I love my jailbroken iPhone 3GS. I cant believe more people dont jailbreak it.

[JJ_]

Another great reason to jailbreak your iPod/iPhone is to run VLC player on it natively. It was removed from the app store a while ago but you can still install it on jailbroken devices. The great thing is you can save your favourite stuff directly onto your device and run it within VLC Player and even better you can SSH into your device on a PC and transfer over videos to it.

[Order_66]

Jailbreaking is great but watch those sources you add to cydia :unsure: