With the new Amazon Kindle book app available through the iTunes store, I'm seeing more posts about jail broken iPhones and iPod Touches being the only way to get the Kindle books on a computer. I own a Kindle so I don't have a need to go through any extra steps to get access to my books.

In general, I'm wondering what the advantages there might be for jail breaking my iPod Touch. Is there a "Jail Break" central which lists advantages and available apps? I've been functioning fine without jail breaking but maybe there's a world of fun I'm missing. :rolleyes: Talk to me. :)

Yah! Talk to me too. What does jail breaking my iTouch offer?

cheers

There are a couple of very good reasons I jailbreak mine (maybe more iphone specific):

1) A custom "hosts" file to stop ads from loading while browsing
2) Openssl (I keep my passwords stored in an encrypted file)
3) Using my iphone as a way to connect my laptop to the net. With an unlimited data plan its pretty useful.
4) Backgrounder. I use it to run last fm or pandora to run in the background, so I can browse and listen to music at the same time.

There are a couple of very good reasons I jailbreak mine (maybe more iphone specific):

1) A custom "hosts" file to stop ads from loading while browsing
2) Openssl (I keep my passwords stored in an encrypted file)
3) Using my iphone as a way to connect my laptop to the net. With an unlimited data plan its pretty useful.
4) Backgrounder. I use it to run last fm or pandora to run in the background, so I can browse and listen to music at the same time.

Thanks mpb. Number 2 would be nice to have. I found a GUI for the actual jailbreaking. Is there a popular app site for the jailbroken?

It provides access to the iPod's file system also. My son #2 swears by jail breaking. He has all kinds of themes that he uses too.

I'm sure he could talk your ear off about it.

BOb

@daffy4u
When you jailbreak the iphone you'll automatically get "cydia" installed its a bit like the official apple iphone application for installing applications. You can pretty much install anything available for jailbroken iphones using that.

@daffy4u
When you jailbreak the iphone you'll automatically get "cydia" installed its a bit like the official apple iphone application for installing applications. You can pretty much install anything available for jailbroken iphones using that.

I think I'll experiment this weekend. I understand one can un-break as needed for software updates.

Thanks again.

I think I'll experiment this weekend. I understand one can un-break as needed for software updates.

Thanks again.
more like any software updates will un jailbreak your phone/ 1g Ipod touch.

there is really no downside, there are a ton of aplications, though the Appstore has a whole lot more, the darker aplications, and themeing options you get are nice.

You need an aplication called Quickpwn, You also need your Ipod/phones IPSW file for the firmware you currently have. if you updated it through itunes, it should be on your computer, or you can download it pretty much anywhere you can download quickpwn.

Timely (http://i.gizmodo.com/5166029/how-to-install-apps-on-your-iphone-3g-or-ipod-touch-easily-and-free). :)

Broken... shhhhh. :)

Congratulation on jailbreaking! First thing to do is download Winterboard and start customizing your home screen. There are literally 1000s of different themes to apply, many with their own sounds, wallpapers, etc. Have fun!

Congratulation on jailbreaking! First thing to do is download Winterboard and start customizing your home screen. There are literally 1000s of different themes to apply, many with their own sounds, wallpapers, etc. Have fun!

Thanks but I'm finding things confusing. I downloaded a pack of 270 abstract wallpapers and can't figure out how to use them. I've seen references to Summerboard, Springboard and Winterboard but I'm not seeing how to download them. Do I need to install a whole theme or can I just rotate wallpapers?

I've installed one app successfully, BossPrefs and used it to hide some icons.

The wallpapers and skins are probably the main reason people ail break. Also I think there are some GPS style apps only available on jail broken phones I recall.

1) Tethering (use phone as 3G modem). Free
2) Non approved apps (MyWeek week view, intelliscreen lock screen diary, etc)
3) SBSsettings (toggle 3G, wifi, brightness, etc). Free
4) xGPS (turn-by-turn voice nav using googlemaps). FREE!!
5) Categories (organise app icons into folders). free
6) and if you're so inclined (can't be bothered myself) there's a world of pirated apps (called IPA's) that xIPA allows you to install like any other app
7) Clippy (system wide clipboard - great). COver off SMS forward and many other complaints
8) 5-row qwerty (awesome keyboard alternative with stunnign layouts)

Many other reasons like customising the look-n-feel (REALLY can't be bothered). Bit of a no-brainer. If it goes wrong you just restore iPhone and go back to being a little crippled.

Some of this will be covered in v3.0 being press-released (but not actually released) in 4 days.

1) Tethering (use phone as 3G modem). Free
2) Non approved apps (MyWeek week view, intelliscreen lock screen diary, etc)
3) SBSsettings (toggle 3G, wifi, brightness, etc). Free
4) xGPS (turn-by-turn voice nav using googlemaps). FREE!!
5) Categories (organise app icons into folders). free
6) and if you're so inclined (can't be bothered myself) there's a world of pirated apps (called IPA's) that xIPA allows you to install like any other app
7) Clippy (system wide clipboard - great). COver off SMS forward and many other complaints
8) 5-row qwerty (awesome keyboard alternative with stunnign layouts)

Many other reasons like customising the look-n-feel (REALLY can't be bothered). Bit of a no-brainer. If it goes wrong you just restore iPhone and go back to being a little crippled.

Some of this will be covered in v3.0 being press-released (but not actually released) in 4 days.

Great list! Thanks. Very interested in the Calendar, Category, Keyboard and Clippy apps.

Is that "Clippy" anything like the old Microsoft Clippy? Did he get a new job with Apple?

:)
My iPhone would be broken already if THAT clipy'd come back...

:)
My iPhone would be broken already if THAT clipy'd come back...

Poor little Clippy, no one loves him. :( :rofl:

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1306/3353469524_d518e53fb9_m.jpg
My top 5 reasons to jailbreak:
1. themes (larger lockscreen pic at flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jsuplido/3353469524/))
2. magazines on my Kindle for iPhone
3. hClipboard
4. Cycorder
5. Emojis

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1306/3353469524_d518e53fb9_m.jpg
My top 5 reasons to jailbreak:
1. themes (larger lockscreen pic at flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jsuplido/3353469524/))
2. magazines on my Kindle for iPhone
3. hClipboard
4. Cycorder
5. Emojis

Magazines? Interesting. :chinscratch:

Thanks for the list. I'll check them all out. More fun stuff to play with! :2thumbsup

I finally broke down last night and jailbroke my iPhone 3G. Other then the issue with USB on the new MacBooks/10.5.6 it was surprisingly easy. Few things I'm loving so far:

Backgrounder - I can listen to Pandora while reading Kindle for iPhone
PDANet - I can tether my iPhone and MacBook, and everything works (Mail, Safari, iChat, etc.)
Categories - my home screen is so much more organized now!
Netatalk - easy way to get files off the iPhone as if it was just another Mac on the network
Cydia - super easy to find and install all the software I mentioned above

I've been generally pretty happy with my iPhone in its stock configuration, but these are some nice additions. Now, if I lost them tomorrow it wouldn't be the end of the world, but I'll enjoy them while they work. I expect iPhone 3.0 (check Engadget/your favorite Apple blog on Tuesday) will break all of this at least for a little while.

I only have Asimov's SFM. Which I get from Fictionwise in mobi format. I was surprised it has colored covers!

Enjoy!

Joel

Magazines? Interesting. :chinscratch:

Thanks for the list. I'll check them all out. More fun stuff to play with! :2thumbsup

Great to hear!

And yes, any firmware update will always wipe out jailbreak mode. I wouldn't mind though if 3.0 would have all the features I like :)

... I expect iPhone 3.0 (check Engadget/your favorite Apple blog on Tuesday) will break all of this at least for a little while.

Great to hear!

And yes, any firmware update will always wipe out jailbreak mode. I wouldn't mind though if 3.0 would have all the features I like :)

If iPhone 3.0 lives up to even half the expectations for it, I expect I won't be missing the stuff I've gotten by jailbreaking too much. :D

If iPhone 3.0 lives up to even half the expectations for it, I expect I won't be missing the stuff I've gotten by jailbreaking too much. :D

Why has Apple ever released all the fantasy stuff that people predict/expect them to release?

BOb

3) Using my iphone as a way to connect my laptop to the net. With an unlimited data plan its pretty useful.


Make sure that you check your phone contract to ensure that this is permitted. Certainly in the UK, "unlimited" data plans for mobiles very often prohibit using the phone as a "modem" for a laptop.

Make sure that you check your phone contract to ensure that this is permitted. Certainly in the UK, "unlimited" data plans for mobiles very often prohibit using the phone as a "modem" for a laptop.

As does AT&T at present with the iPhone. Best sense from experience with AT&T is that if you use it sparingly, you will be OK. Use it as your primary Internet connection, you will probably have issues. That said, AT&T is within their rights to come down on you, so use it at your own risk.

With the new Amazon Kindle book app available through the iTunes store, I'm seeing more posts about jail broken iPhones and iPod Touches being the only way to get the Kindle books on a computer.

Is it true that the only way to get Kindle books off your iPod Touch is by jailbreaking it? What do I do then?

Thanks.

Is it true that the only way to get Kindle books off your iPod Touch is by jailbreaking it? What do I do then?

Thanks.

No, you can also use a backup extractor (http://www.reincubate.com/labs/iphone-backup-extractor-how-extract-files-iphone-backup-windows/). If you still want to jailbreak your iPod Touch, google "RedSn0w". Once it is jailbroken you install a program called OpenSSH on the iPod Touch and browse your iPod files using a program like WinSCP (http://winscp.net/eng/docs/faq_iphone).

Make sure that you check your phone contract to ensure that this is permitted. Certainly in the UK, "unlimited" data plans for mobiles very often prohibit using the phone as a "modem" for a laptop.

O2 have recently released an update which disables the Tethering - personally I never used this anyway so really don't care...

I used to have my iPhone Jailbroken and absolutely loved it.

Using a variety of different 'apps' and Gadgets, I had a lovely clean desktop (Springboard) with a live clock, calendar and weather icon on it. Unfortunately, when 3.0 was released, this seemed to really make things quite tough for me to run. The phone would regularly crash, some apps wouldn't load or would quickly crash out and in general the phone ran a lot slower. I have since begrudgingly restored my phone to its limited condition.

On a seperate note, I had to send it back to be repaired because the WiFi stopped working. At first I thought it was because of he jailbreak but have since learned that it is a widespread problem!

My hope is that when I get my phone back they have taken pity on me and upgraded me to a 3Gs...

i've heard lots of good things about jailbroken iPhones. i haven't did a jailbreak on mine but i am planning on doing it. what really are the disadvantages? can i still go back to 3.0.1 if i wanted to?

http://storeyourpicture.com/images/signature_Kindle_Reader.jpg

Yes you can always revert - you do however need to do a restore on your iPhone (as long as your data is backed up it doesn't matter).

For me the disadvantage was that my phone ran slower and crashed a lot. This however, was likely because I had bloated it with so many resource hogs (wallpaper, widgets etc).

I'm a real n00b to this stuff. What does jailbreaking an iphone mean?!

Basically it unlocks your phone and allows you to run unsigned code.

When you jailbreak, you will get a new application called Cydia - this is almost the hub of everything. This allows you to download various applications (mostly free although some are paid). These apps allow a variety of things - for example there is a YouTube app (can't remember the name) which allows you to download videos for offline viewing. There is Winterboard which allows you to add themes to your Sprinboard (desktop) changing the wallpaper and icons etc. You can change the number of icons on the dock (I used to have 5).

When you jailbreak, you can almost do anything with your iPod.

There is also an application which will allow you to unlock your phone to any network (although each new firmware version attempts to stop this!)

If you are interested, google redsn0w...

I see! Thanks very much.

Just to give you an example, this is how my iPhone used to look (I had made a couple of improvements since this screenshot, but it gives you an idea of what can be done with Jailbreak.

With this setup, I had my dock icons transparent so you could see the clock, calendar and weather. There were also 2 'blank icons' for the spacing. I then recreated the dock above the calendar widget. Before 3.0 this worked perfectly since I did everything from the first screen (the top bar would load into categories - similar to folders).

With 3.0 and the search function, it slightly ruined things - plus everything ran slower for me!

http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/1431/img00041.png

Eh, I jailbroke my iTouch simply so I could get different themes and be able to have a different background than black.

Although if you really don't care about different graphics and you're not that much of a technie, it's not worth losing your warranty.

Although if you really don't care about different graphics and you're not that much of a technie, it's not worth losing your warranty.

Although if you do a restore then you can't tell it has been jailbroken thus restoring your Warranty...

While I was pretty happy with the stock apps, I ended up jailbreaking to unlock the phone.

I travel a lot internationaly and was not willing to pay the ripoff riMing charges.

Once unlocked I've been able to pop in local sims wherever I go to get cheap local calls and data.

Still I've got a few apps installed from cydia
- backgrounder
- cycorder
- ad block
- bossprefs

these apps I've found really useful, to make my usage experience a little better.

Although if you do a restore then you can't tell it has been jailbroken thus restoring your Warranty...If you apply the r3dsn0w patch, they can still tell if you they do a diagnostics check.

Some valid points. Some invalid ones. It's a choice.

Just to give you an example, this is how my iPhone used to look (I had made a couple of improvements since this screenshot, but it gives you an idea of what can be done with Jailbreak.

With this setup, I had my dock icons transparent so you could see the clock, calendar and weather. There were also 2 'blank icons' for the spacing. I then recreated the dock above the calendar widget. Before 3.0 this worked perfectly since I did everything from the first screen (the top bar would load into categories - similar to folders).

With 3.0 and the search function, it slightly ruined things - plus everything ran slower for me!

http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/1431/img00041.png


Holy cow - this is an awesome home screen. Can you provide a little more detail on how you set it up please:
- Weather/cal at bottom where dock should be
- Dock moved up (transparency I understand)
- Categories across the top

BTW, I also found JB to be 'buggy' (numerous Safari crashes) until I disabled winterboard. I think it was just too much of a hog. Now I'm JB with perfect stability and all the benefits.

The theme itself was a varient of 'Delnochs Theme' plenty of info if you google it.

The categories at the top are merely regular icons edited so everything but the top line part is transparent. This gives it that bar look. There is an app in Cydia called Categories which allows you to put your apps into 'folders' which each of these icons then points to.

The dock hasn't moved anywhere... In fact it is in full use in it's regular position.

I have used another app (forget its name - iBlank I think) from Cydia which allows you to create blank icons (these are transparent shortcuts to safari). This allows me to put the 'dock' icons where they are.

The real dock icons are again transparent and sit under the calendar and weather icon. The clock is the clock but changed with yet another Cydia App - Live Clock (or something similar).

The bottom half of the screen is all controlled using widgets.

Other apps include 5icondock and 5column (names might be slightly different - I forget now)

The biggest problem with this theme is that I needed so many add on apps that it drained the memory of the iPhone itself causing it to become unstable.

Prior to 3.0, this theme was great. Since 3.0, it caused me so many problems that I am no longer jailbroken :(

EDIT: Just realised that this version doesn't include the live clock...

I think the main reason people do it is for turn by turn GPS and unlimited speed on their 3g. Apparently vanilla speeds are slower?

thanks for that. delnoch is impressive theming.

There are some other themes which are in my opinion a lot more impressive looking however, the time and effort required to create them is huge - plus if not exactly correct, messes things up!

You can certainly see how people think outside the box with this!

I never got the point about jailbreak either. I mean, if apple 's locking annoys you, why did you buy an apple product anyway ?

I never got the point about jailbreak either. I mean, if apple 's locking annoys you, why did you buy an apple product anyway ?

It's about the freedom to do what you want with a device you own.

I see it a little like removing the DRM from an E-book...

I love the product but hate the restrictions!

To be honest though, due to problems I had with my phone, I am currently no longer jailbroken!