Is Jailbreaking the Only Way to Enjoy Your iPhone?

[Jeff Campbell]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.businessinsider.com/why-i-jailbroke-my-iphone-2011-4?op=1' target='_blank'>http://www.businessinsider.com/why-...one-2011-4?op=1</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"I've been an iPhone owner since the original was released in 2007. For the the most part, I was happy with what Apple had to offer, despite the lack of several key features like multitasking and copy and paste."</em></p><p><img height="300" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/at/auto/1303512337.usr105634.jpg" style="margin-left: 100px; margin-right: 100px; border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" width="400" /></p><p>But the lure of jailbreaking pulled the author in, and now he is of the opinion it is the only way to enjoy the iPhone experience. While I find many of the apps interesting and would probably get a lot of use out of them, the hassle of jailbreaking and having to wait on fixes after an update just don't appeal to me. Granted, it may not be all that much of a hassle, I just perceive it to be, so I'm curious if you have a jailbroken iPhone? If so, are you of the same opinion as the author and find that it is the only way to go?&nbsp;</p>

[Brad Adrian]

I have one foot in each camp.

I've jailbroken my iPhone for one reason only: tethering. If AT&T did the right thing and let me tether occasionally, I wouldn't mess with it. I believe that there are some things worth jailbreaking for, but it is also a pain to do so and it complicates the way I use my iPhone one hundred-fold.

[Sven Johannsen]

I guess you mean tether for free, because they let you tether...for $20. Not saying I agree with their fee structure. The bits that pass through a phone to a laptop, gameboy, what-have-you, are no different from a network standpoint than those that stop at the phone. In fact, my guess would be that allowing tethering would incentivize folks to opt into higher data plans. After all sharing the connection with family members/extra devices just uses up the alloted data faster. This would be different if they had an unlimited plan...but they don't. I guarantee I would be on the 2G plan instead of the 200M, for another $10/mo, if tethering where included. I am not paying $30/mo more to get tethering even though it does come with even more data. ( If they had a plan to add $20 and 2G to the 200M plan I'd do that too, but you have to do the 2G to add tethering and 2G for $20).

[Dyvim]

The only reason I have jailbroken any of my iPhones is to unlock it- either so I can use an iPhone overseas without paying international roaming or to re-purpose an old iPhone as a PAYGO phone with no data plan. I wish I could get an official hardware unlock from AT&T that didn't involve jailbreak- I'm on contract with them for voice + data for 2 years (and in cases of older phones have already satisfied my commitment to them), so what do they care (except they wish to extort me for ridiculous prices if I take my phone overseas)?

I've been tempted to jailbreak to enable (free) tethering with my unlimited plan, but will probably never be tempted enough to bother. When I really want tethering, I'll drop down to the 2GB plan and then activate the $20 tethering plan. At least AT&T has provided me a path to do that, and I'm ok with it now that the $20 buys you an extra 2 GB (I thought it was pure highway robbery when the $20 didn't buy you anything except the permission to use tethering).

[karthur]

I jailbroke my phone just to get at some of the neat conveniences like displaying mail and calendar items on the lock screen, customizing sounds, custom settings based on my location...These are all things I don't understand why Apple won't take on themselves. Until they do, I will deal with the 'burden' of having to wait for any of their minor updates and fixes. I will never go back to a locked platform.