Now that jailbreaking has been legalized, it isn’t surprising that people are more than eager to jailbreak their iPhone 4. If you happen to be one of them, we would recommend you to go through the pros and cons of the same before you opt for it.
Jailbreaking was considered a taboo in the United States until last year, with several users refraining from this practice owing to the legal implications of the same. However, the July 2010 tweaks to Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) has opened the realms of jailbreaking for you, which means you can go ahead and jailbreak (or unlock your cell phone for that matter), without having to worry about the legal implications of the same. Though jailbreaking is not considered illegal anymore, there do exist some flip sides to this practice. That being said, a wise way out is to take into consideration the pros and cons of this practice before opting for it.
Jailbreaking iPhone 4: Pros and Cons
There is no questioning the fact that the official App Store is full of amazing apps, but then you can’t just turn a blind eye to the fact that the list of apps on offer could have been better – if only Apple had offered all those third-party apps which are now available with replacement software like Cydia.
If not all, some of these apps can give the official App Store a run for its money, and that has prompted many people to resort to jailbreaking as a means of getting these apps. Add to it the fact that jailbreaking is no more considered illegal, and the task becomes all the more easy. Discussed below are the benefits and risks of jailbreaking iPhone 4 that you need to take into consideration before you decide to go ahead with it.
Benefits of Jailbreak iPhone 4
The stalwarts at Apple often argue that, it’s Apple’s firm control over the iPhone (or other products with the iOS) that ensures that the end user gets a quality experience, however, this firm control can get on your nerves at times by restricting a great deal of functions – including customization of the iPhone. When you jailbreak the iPhone, you get the reins of the device in your hands.
Simply put, you can do a lot more on your iPhone than what Apple has to offer. Jailbreaking gives you access to some of the most amazing Cydia apps for iPhone 4 – the SBSettings app for instance, which put you in the drivers seat. All these jailbroken apps on Cydia are the ones which are either rejected or the ones which are no more available with the App Store.
On a jailbroken iPhone, you have numerous options of user interface customization – something which Apple doesn’t offer. Jailbreaking and unlocking the device can also make overseas use of this device a friendly experience. And last, but the most important of jailbreaking is that it is pretty easy to carry out, and if at all you don’t like the new experience you can always revert to the original operating system.
Risks of Jailbreaking iPhone 4
Everything is not quite pleasant in case of jailbreaking though, with the biggest hindrance in your path being the fact that jailbreaking your Apple iPhone 4 can void the warranty provided by manufacturer. Yet another problem – though the chances are slim, is that of bricking which can turn your sleek iPhone 4 into a sleek paperweight with not much use whatsoever. At the same time, the credibility of most of the third party apps – that are often used to popularize jailbreaking, is also under the scanner as the chances of them being corrupted or virus infected exist in plenty.
Experts are of the opinion that jailbreaking can also make your iPhone vulnerable to attacks from hackers. More importantly, it can also make your iPhone 4 unstable, i.e. more prone to crashes, or slow down its operating system by a significant extent. At times, jailbreaking of the iPhone tends depreciate the optimal performance of battery life as the amount of power drained by some third party apps varies. The fact that installing an update on the same can negate the jailbreak is yet another problem with jailbreaking of the iPhone that you need to be aware of.
There is absolutely no doubt about the fact that jailbreaking helps you make your iPhone more useful, but whether it is worth going for it with all the risks mentioned above is a question that needs to be given a serious thought. Ideally, you should also go through the positives and negatives of iPhone 4 to determine whether you really need to opt for jailbreaking.
The chances are that you might go ahead and jailbreak iPhone 4 after going through all these pros and cons, but what if you are not really happy about the same later on. Well, the situation is pretty unlikely, but if at all it does happen, you can simply restore the original settings of the device by syncing it with the iTunes.