5 reasons not to hack your iPhone/iPod Touch
I recently bought an iPod Touch and decided to Jailbreak it using iJailbreak. This included Installer.app, a great app that has hundreds of applications from community sources that can be downloaded onto your iPhone/iPod Touch. I was amazed at what the community of developers had created, but there were some consequences in doing this.
1. Apple is releasing an official SDK in February
So, unless you really can’t wait, don’t hack it yet. Steve Jobs wrote an open letter explaining that an SDK for applications on the iPhone and iPod Touch is on its way and will be here by February 2008. This means that 3rd party applications will be available after this date without “hacking” your iPhone/iPod Touch.
2. Risk of getting it “bricked”
It basically is what it says, your iPhone becomes a brick. You can’t do anything about it, and Apple won’t support you (as seen in this video).
3. It’s slow
When I jailbroke my iPod Touch, there was one major disadvantage from the start: It was slow. Even before I had played around with Installer.app and all the great community apps there, the performance was much more sluggish than you would expect from an iPod Touch or iPhone.
4. Storage
You will lose storage on your iPhone/iPod Touch. But this will be the same when Apple releases their SDK for official 3rd party applications. So, if you’re limited on storage (which I was), then either don’t do the hacks or just don’t install too many things.
5. Security
Security is often a minor issue with Apple & the Mac. There are very rarely any viruses for the Mac and most have little effect on your data. But there is a security risk of installing all of these apps onto your iPhone/iPod Touch. Because they are coming from developers all over the world, your device doesn’t know whether to trust that developer or whether they are known as one that produces viruses. This is the main reason Steve Jobs didn’t include 3rd party apps into the iPhone or iPod Touch. Steve said that their official SDK will be more secure. It is unknown what form of security they are going to use - most likely it will be digital certificates.
Overall, the jailbreaking of iPhone’s and iPod Touch’s is a good thing. But these 5 things are just some of the disadvantages you get. So unless you really can’t wait until February, don’t hack it. Or if you’re feeling adventurous, do the Jailbreak and then if you like it, keep it. You can always restore your iPhone or iPod Touch through iTunes to factory settings.
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########! No slowing down and ffs, jailbreaking will patch a hole in the os.. so actually you get better security
on December 28, 2007 at 12:54 AM - LINKThis is the dumbest blog. The jailbreak works great and makes the ipod touch worth the money. Yes it will be great when the SDK comes out in Feb, but no reason to wait.
on January 14, 2008 at 05:34 PM - LINKHah, I have read resports and blogs about how great jailbreak is. I suppose anything can go wrong, like flash updated your mother board or modem, they can be instantaneous bricks too. So I think it is a little unfair to point the finger at jailbreak.
on February 23, 2008 at 06:07 PM - LINK