Still Undecided On Jailbreaking?

[mikespe]

I am still unsure about whether or not I want to jailbreak my iPad 2 iOS5? I've had my iPad for about 2 weeks now & I am still finding new things to do with it...however I am spending a fortune in apps to do it! I come from the Android World & I have rooted every one of my Android devices & have enjoyed it tremendously. However with Android it really opens it up A LOT.

How much does jailbreaking really open up the iPad? Will I really be gaining a lot for the trouble of jailbreaking..then restoring if I need to take it back to Apple for any reason? Is there a list of things that can be done once jailbroken? I know things like icons, themes & wallpaper are one of the big ones...funny but those things are native on all Android devices..LOL!

I've been scanning through this part of the forum in hopes of finding the jewels of jailbreaking...any links that may enlighten me would be greatly appreciated. Also, maybe a list of some things YOU did with your jailbroken iPad.

I am also looking for those who DIDN'T jailbreak and what was your reasoning for not doing it?

Thanks

 

[willerz2]

Pro for Jailbreaking: spoil yourself by getting apps and tweaks for free or low-cost compared to what Apple provides as a base
Cons for Jailbreaking: not spoiling yourself by getting apps and tweaks for free or low-cost compared to what Apple provides as a base

Jailbreaking your iPad gives you more productivity, ease of access and much more features than what legitimate Apple features can provide. Some may include the ability to toggle Wifi, Location, Brightness, Power without having to press any buttons. Just slide your finger across the status bar and voila, you can do it right there, even with Safari or certain apps open.

You can also modify the theme on your iPad with much more choices and possibilities compared to the legitimate theme changer and whatnot from the legitimate AppStore.

You can modify how your iPad rolls. What this includes is how your springboard transitions from 1 page of apps to the next, where you can have effects instead of a simple slide left and right, or how you can have a rolling dock, where you can just scroll through left and right like you would the pages of apps on your springboard.

You can enable gestures outside of the default iOS 5.X gestures, meaning you can have swiping down from the status bar run an app or turn off or whatever, or have a press and hold on the Volume Down button trigger an app, turn off your device, restart, etc, whatever you want.

The possibilities are ENDLESS with Jailbreaking because something new's being thrown out there on a day to day basis.

 

[mikespe]

Thanks for the detailed reply! What I am worried about is first, if I need to restore to unjailbroken will I lose all my data & setup that I made while jailbroken (like apps installed from Cydia) or will things remain there just no longer Jailbroken? secondly, I have read that some apps check to see if you're Jailbroken & those apps stop working? However I have not seen a list of those apps that check? Apps like netflix, Time Warner Cable, etc...plus other apps that require internet to work might check...is there a list of such apps?

Thanks again for the great answer!

 

[thewitt]

We support several thousand iOS devices, and note one significant trend. Jail broken devices tend to be more unstable than the rest, and have many more conflicts between installed applications. Programs often stop working when one tweak or another is installed, and if you happened to install a bunch of stuff before noticing something has failed working, you need to go back and remove each new tweak and test to find the problem.

We will no longer address any issues on jail broken devices in house, and as a result about 30% of those who had formerly jail broken have restored to factory conditions in order to avoid dealing with their own support issues.

Those who jail break will never tell you this side of the story.

Yes, you can install hundreds of applications and tweaks that are not approved by Apple. That in itself can be a dual edged sword.

 

[willerz2]

Jailbroken/cracked apps cannot be restored when you turn your device back to a legitimate device. You can backup your legitimate apps, music, movie, certain settings via iTunes backup. Netflix and TWC are free legitimate apps, so you can just redownload them via AppStore or have them backed up if they are legitimate apps and just continue doing what you're doing.

But at the end of the day, thewitt is correct. Jailbreaking is a dual-edged sword because you have so much freedom and possibilities, but there aren't that many sites/resources that can address any problems you may have.

 

[graywolf]

100% go for it. The ipad jailbreak on 5.0.1 is very stable and any issues usually arise from user error.

And watch out about discussion of illegal apps.

 

[McTablet_T2C]

I would maybe experiment with it on my iPad but not on my iPhone. Need work phone to be 100% solid. I have seen some jailbreaks go bad in terms if wired things happening, the again some ppl r very happy with it
I personally wont take the risk, not to mention I would like as much as I can to pay for for stuff. Someone worked hard for it, most apps are quite cheap.

 

[Mickey330]

About these two statements:

Pro for Jailbreaking: spoil yourself by getting apps and tweaks for free or low-cost compared to what Apple provides as a base
Cons for Jailbreaking: not spoiling yourself by getting apps and tweaks for free or low-cost compared to what Apple provides as a base

AND

Jailbroken/cracked apps cannot be restored when you turn your device back to a legitimate device. You can backup your legitimate apps, music, movie, certain settings via iTunes backup. Netflix and TWC are free legitimate apps, so you can just redownload them via AppStore or have them backed up if they are legitimate apps and just continue doing what you're doing.

Do not, under any circumstances, think that jail breaking equates to "getting apps and tweaks free or low-cost compared to what Apple provides as a base."

Jailbreaking is a legitimate, legal option you can do to gain full access to your iPad's file system. What is being alluded to here, in these quoted portions, is piracy, which is illegal and against forum policy ( to include any discussion of ways and tools to get "apps for free"). It is stealing!

This forum does not condone piracy, nor do we support or appreciate those that commit piracy (or advocate for it, such as these posts here). Any further discussion of piracy or how jail breaking makes it easy to BE a pirate may lead to those discussing it being denied the ability to post in this forum.

Thank you for your understanding.

Marilyn
Moderator, iPadForums.net

 

[mikespe]

Well I was hoping that the replies I got would lead me in one direction or another (that's how on the fence I am about jailbreaking)...but it seems this is a sensitive subject in regards to Apple products. Over in Android world rooting is just "if you feel comfortable then do it"....there is no talk of making the system unstable (certain roms may make the system unstable or over clocking might if you go too high)...no one ever speaks of piracy or stealing apps. It's all about opening the system to the full power of Android.

I would really like to keep this debate going...It's helping me learn about the ipad & iOS...but also about how the Apple "culture" is different than Android's....

 

[iheart]

Nah I dont think u should jailbreak .

iPad madness!!!

 

[mikespe]

How many of you jailbroke your iPad 2 running iOS 5 & then decided to go back to stock? How many of you that are still jailbroken or were & had issues with the jailbreak (apps force closing, etc)?

 

[f4780y]

Thanks for stopping by the Hacking Section and asking about the pros and cons of the subject. I guess I had hoped that all of these things were mostly covered in our stickies here and in the various sub-forums, which you did say you were researching. There is a wealth of information such as:

http://www.ipadforums.net/ipad-hacking/2838-jailbreaking-explained.html

and as for “jewels of jailbreaking”, well this is a good start (along with the other threads in the apps & tweaks sub-section):

http://www.ipadforums.net/jailbreak-applications-tweaks/25824-ultimate-list-jailbreak-tweaks.html

I guess what I’m struggling with is if you are a seasoned Adnroid rooter, why you are so much on the fence about jailbreaking. After reading the stickies here, there should be nothing which scares you off from trying it, since it can be easily undone. It very much is a case of, if you want to try it out, go for it. If you don’t like it, restore your device in iTunes and it’s back to stock Apple IOS. No harm done.

The problem responses above came about specifically because you asked for non-jailbreakers to tell you why they don’t jailbreak. It should come as no surprise that you get a few bigoted anti-jailbreaking replies.

Also, on the subject of piracy, I’m not sure I recognise that in the Android rooting world that “no one ever speaks of piracy or stealing apps”. Far too many folks think both jailbreaking and rooting is just about being able to get paid apps for free. You will hopefully understand that your opening comment, finishing “however, I’m spending a fortune on apps to do it!”, then leading into an enquiry about jailbreaking could easily be interpreted as meaning you are looking for a way to spend less on apps, possibly by getting them for free? It’s good to hear that’s not the case, but forgive us for our concern as we have a very strong and firm anti-piracy stance here on these forums, as Marilyn’s response to the other posters clearly demonstrates. Jailbreaking is our passion, but it's nothing to do with piracy.

On the subject of stability, I’ve seen plenty of Android roms which have instabilities in them and have required fixes. I’ve had a few myself which broke SMS capabilities. Like all these things, if you are an early adopter then you accept that you are playing on the bleeding edge. Jailbreak apps and tweaks are no different. If you are very risk averse, wait until a tweak / app has been out for a while and had all of its bugs addressed. Don’t accept new updates until folks have tested it out and satisfied you that it’s stable. One of the advantages of joining a community like this one is you can ask those sorts of questions!

Now I’ve got that off my chest , lets look at the concerns you raised to see if we can get you sorted out:

* Think of jailbreaking in the same way as rooting. It provides root access to the file system and lets you install unsigned code, in other words apps / tweaks which Apple do not approved on the app store and which can alter IOS and how it works.

* You can always undo it by restoring your device in iTunes. Similar to flashing a stock rom back onto an Android device. Restoring wipes everything, but you can restore your backup including all apps, media, settings, etc. All you would be missing is anything jailbreak related.

* I don’t have a definitive list of what providers check for JB devices, but these are the ones I know of (mostly from xCon):

AlwaysOnPC, Bloomberg Anywhere, Bright House, Cablevision, Cisco M-Learning, Cox iPad, DirecTV iPad, Flixster ,Golden Cinema, Good For Enterprise, Grimm’s Fairy Tale apps, Hanabank, KB starPlus, Maxis Movies, Samsungcard, SkyGo, Time Warner Cable, TV d’Orange, Verizon OnDemand/FlexView

To finish off, if you want to look into the process check this tutorial out - http://www.ipadforums.net/jailbreak...-tutorial-jailbreak-ipad2-5-0-1-absinthe.html

And my advice is, if you think you want to give it a go, do it soon. Apple will release IOS 5.1 in early March. There will be no jailbreak for that version for a while (perhaps a very long while). So now is the time to try out the 5.0.1 jailbreak safe in the knowledge you can restore any time and get back to where you started. Just remember to back up using iTunes or iCloud before you jailbreak so you have all your latest settings and data saved to fall back on if needed.

Hope that helps, but please do ask more questions if you have them or I've missed anything which isn't covered elsewhere in the Hacking Section. Good luck!

 

[f4780y]

How many of you jailbroke your iPad 2 running iOS 5 & then decided to go back to stock? How many of you that are still jailbroken or were & had issues with the jailbreak (apps force closing, etc)?

Again, I'm not sure what value you will get from asking those questions like that, but rest assured there is NOTHING unstable related to a jailbreak. It's a process just like rooting. Instability comes about when folks install apps or tweaks which are not compatible with the iPad and the version of IOS they are running. A badly coded or incompatible tweak that hooks into the kernel on any device will make it unstable, I don't care what platform it is. The list of tweaks I pointed you to above are all safe for the iPad based on the version numbers noted on the thread. There are many hundreds more not in the list... You just need to approach is sensibly. Have a look here to read a bit about Safe Mode which is designed to protect you if you install something which does not work as expected - http://www.ipadforums.net/jailbreak...-use-safe-mode-maintain-stable-jailbreak.html

If you decide to jailbreak, why not do it and install absolutely nothing from Cydia (the JB app store) for a few days? Then you can see that it makes zero difference to the OS. It is simply rooting the file system. Once you are satisfied with that, you can start installing apps / tweaks from Cydia.

 

[mikespe]

@f4780y...interesting nick ;-)...Thanks for the GREAT reply! This is the information I was looking for! To answer your question thaty if I am a seasoned Android rooter then why am I reluctant to jailbreaking my iPad...first off...my ipad is MUCH more expensive then the 2 tablets I own...LOL. But honestly, this is what I did before rooting my Android devices. I asked questions, learned about he process, the pluses & minues, what I can do with it, the dangers, etc...I educate myself. Since I am new to iOS I need to learn the little nuances of the OS and what to expect, what to look for if something is wrong, what to ask if I need help, terminology, etc...

Most likely I WILL jailbreak my iPad...and after reading your reply I'm about 99% sure I will do it tonight...you gave me the missing pieces I needed to see what I might lose after JB...in regards to the apps you listed as checking for JB...the Time warner app is the only one I use...I only use it for the channel guide...but I can use Buddy TV instead. I wonder if the TW account app will do the same thing? I use that one to pay my bill & check account information...but I can always do that at their website.

As for pirating, the only time I've installed a pirated app on my Android was when I wanted to check out the full version of an app but the free version didn't show me the other options and how they worked. I ended up buy the app after looking it through.

The other thing I was worried about was with restoring back to the way I had things. with Android I make a backup "rom" with the recovery tool (ClockworkMod) it it saves an "image" of the way I left my tablet before doing anything. In the event of something going wrong I can go back to the way I "left off" ...I wanted to make sure I could do something similar with iOS...I knew iTunes would save my apps...but I didn't know if it would save app data, settings, passwords, accounts, etc...If by chance I want to go back...say when Apple updates to 5.1....I want to be able to get all my NON-Cydia apps back along with any settings & data...

I am feeling more comfortable with the Jailbreaking process & the results after making this thread. I paid no attention to those who replied "don't jailbreak" or "go ahead & JB" but didn't say why either way? I've been reading the actual detailed responses not only to my thread but also to some of the threads you posted in your response (I told you I've been searching! ;-)...

Thanks again for the help!

 

[f4780y]

No problem. Also bear in mind with all those apps I listed above there IS a fix. You install the tweak called xCon and it stops them detecting the jailbreak and they should work as normal. The only exception is SkyGo (which is UK anyway, so you won't care about that). We are still waiting for a fix for that one.