| I'm often asked "Why should I jailbreak my iPhone?" | | | | 2) Background and Multitask |
| or even "Tell me why I need to jailbreak my iPhone". | | | | Let's say you have a music app installed – |
| Frankly – I am not going to tell anyone why they | | | | something that streams music over the Internet. |
| should or need to do such a thing. At the end of the | | | | Great. But what if you want to listen to music while |
| day, it is your phone, so the decision should be made | | | | you surf the web? Once jailbroken, you can |
| by you. I will, however, tell you about some of the | | | | background apps (similar to minimizing a window) and |
| many benefits of proceeding with the iPhone | | | | they continue to run with a program called |
| jailbreak. | | | | Backgrounder. So now your music app is still |
| A brief backgrounder: if you don't already know, | | | | streaming music in the background, but now you can |
| "jailbreaking" is the process of removing most | | | | fire up a web browser or compose an email. |
| restrictions on your iPhone placed by Apple. If you | | | | There are great add on programs that let you |
| have an iPhone, you know you can't change the | | | | manage multiple apps that may be running. This |
| layout of your icons, choose unique tones when you | | | | makes it easy to switch between different items |
| get a text message, etc. When you jailbreak, all of | | | | you have running. |
| this (and much more) becomes possible. | | | | 3) Streamlined Access to Apps and Controls |
| I am not going to cover how to jailbreak. There are | | | | A favorite add on for jailbroken phones is SBSettings. |
| plenty of sites out there that detail the process. I will | | | | This adds quick access to many of your features and |
| say that it is extremely easy, and you can always | | | | controls (and is customizable as well.) It takes less |
| "go back" to an un-jailbroken state by doing a | | | | than 2 seconds to turn on or off 3G or wireless. No |
| restore in iTunes. I would recommend you take the | | | | matter where you are in your iPhone, you can |
| clean route, which involves wiping your phone clean | | | | (almost) instantly turn on or off certain features. It is |
| when jailbreaking. This is a personal preference. | | | | very convenient in that you don't have to go back to |
| Now … on to the good stuff. Here is a brief list of | | | | your home screen, settings, etc. |
| some of the abilities you gain when you jailbreak: | | | | 4) Run Apps Apple Doesn't Allow |
| 1) Customize Anything | | | | One of the things I really dislike about Apple is the |
| You can change your icons, you can rename them, | | | | whole dictatorship they employ. Apple has and will |
| you can change the carrier name, replace the carrier | | | | probably continue to pull apps from their store for no |
| logo, choose your own background picture, change | | | | reason. Some of these apps will move to the |
| the colors of your dial buttons, change the sounds | | | | jailbroken equivalent app store. You can buy these |
| you get when a text or email comes in, etc. You can | | | | apps for as little as a dollar, and many of them are |
| download free themes that instantly change the | | | | free. |
| entire look of the phone. | | | | |