Jailbreak iAnything
Every time Apply release a new iDevice (iPod, iPhone, iPad, iThingy) a game of cat-and-mouse ensues. Apple tries to release devices that are closed-source and restricted, all in the name of protecting us, the consumers, and our user-experience. This sounds all very noble and magnanimous until you also remember that Apple makes a good deal of money from their App Store for each application sold through their closed-source shop.
The open-source guru geek-types of the Internet have a different view (which I share). That this is locking-down and hampering the device – preventing us, the owners of said devices, from being able to do the things that we want to do, with hardware that we have spent our (sometimes) well-earned money on.
Jailbreaking is the process of taking a closed-source iGadget, hacking it, and opening it up to allow you to run unauthorised (by Apple), and generally free, 3rd party applications that can bypass the restrictions of the closed system. Most Jailbreaking tools install an application called Cydia which provides a simple way to find and install these 3rd party applications.
So what are the benefits of these applications? Well, for example, some allow you to run applications (even some of the built-in Apps, or those from the Apps store, such as TomTom) to run in the background. In TomTom’s case, this means I can switch to other applications without pausing or interrupting the turn-by-turn navigation. Another example is the Longitude app, which runs in the background and updates your Google Latitude location – something that can’t normally be done on the iPhone, but can be easily done on Windows Mobile, Android, Symbian, Blackberry and most other mobile phone systems.
There have been several programs that have managed to Jailbreak iPod’s and iPhones, but each has had it’s limitations, or has been blocked by upgrades to the devices firmware by Apple.
These include favourites such as sn0wbreeze by dev-team and blackra1n, but even these most popular of jailbreak tools are unable to completely jailbreak the latest devices and firmware versions. Some allow you to Jailbreak, but use a method called a “Tethered Jailbreak”, which means that every time you reboot your iPod/iPhone you need to connect it to your PC. For me, this isn’t an acceptable solution, especially given the less than brilliant battery life of the iPhone under normal usage.
Fortunately, the mouse is out of the house once again, and a new player has entered the market with a new and simple Jailbreak tool that can, at present, Jailbreak the latest firmware on iPod Touch’s, iPhones and even the new iPad. The tool in question is Spirit!
The guys of Redmond Pie have a series of great little articles that clearly explain how to use Spirit to Jailbreak your iDevice of choice:
A word of caution though – if you do Jailbreak your device, it will be more susceptible to hacking, and indeed there is at least one known trojan floating around that targets iPhones. To reduce the risk of this, make sure that you change the built-in default passwords. My favourite article on how to do this can be found here.
Of course, the rumours are rife that the next generation of iPhone will be announced by Apple at the upcoming WDC conference, so let the game of Cat-and-Mouse continue…
Filed under: Mobile Phones
