Is jailbreaking still worth the trouble?

So Apple has stepped up their game with iOS security yet again. It’s a bittersweet thing for me. Because I always root for the underdogs (the hackers) but it also makes me glad I stopped jailbreaking years ago.

From what I’ve read, it has come to a point where jailbreaking your device is just too much of a hassle than compared to just buying the Apps and being done with it.

Cuz that’s really what it all boils down to: the practicality of acquiring software.

Since I started early in tech, I obviously have experienced the era where the “legitimacy of piracy” (as oxymoronic as that sounds) was in full-swing. The fact that an individual had to pay an exorbitant amount for software that normally could only be afforded by corporations, was a valid argument to take – regardless of the ethical/moral implications – and it will be a reality I will continue to recognize for as long as I live.

Now that I can afford software, I still would never disapprove of those who pirate. In fact, just because I can afford software today, it doesn’t mean that I feel that all software is worth paying for. That’s just the truth of the matter, as unfortunate as it seems.

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It’s a bit different though when in the context of the iOS / mobile space – because the price points aren’t necessarily “unreasonable” anymore.

You still won’t be seeing me dropping hundreds of dollars on apps like Photoshop, etc. anytime soon. Precisely because they cost hundreds of dollars.

But how much do applications on the “iOS App store” ¹ I’ll use that term to differentiate from the Mac App store cost? 99 cents? $10 is considered [reasonably] expensive and anything more than $20 is considered a premium price.

Yet in reality, try converting that into pesos even using the highest exchange rate we’ve had (50 to a dollar). That’s roughly Php50, 500, and 1000+ But on the average, an app would cost roughly 3 dollars – which is about Php150

That’s still less what an average middle class person ² And let’s face it, if you claim to be “poor”, then why the fuck did you buy an iPhone in the first place? spends in a single day. The fact is that on the average, you will spend more on a meal (or two) that will be devoured in less than 30 mins ³ And anyone who has ever bought anything from places like Starbucks is automatically out of excuses – than buying a similarly priced App that will last for a long as you have your account and device.

In addition to that, when you jailbreak, you’re faced with the whole practicality aspect of it.

Updates

The problem with jailbreaking is that you will never have the peace of mind of upgrading safely. Every single time an update is released you will have to do your part in due diligence to research as to how that update will impact your jailbreak.

While there are people who have no issues with putting themselves through that inconvenience, for the most part, if one does that often enough, and long enough – it ends up being much more of a hassle than anything else. Because you’re literally allowing yourself to be left behind on the updates simply because you’re waiting for the particular version of OS you want to be jailbreak-able. And that I imagine to be pretty frustrating when the newer version of the OS brings a lot of improvements.

Restoring

Apart from the update issue, the simple act of restoring to a backup is more convoluted than it should be. You have to find an app to backup your jailbroken settings and apps. And I have done that before – it doesn’t work as well as it ought to.

Unlocking

Although this concern is only applicable only to iPhone users who have locked units. But here the hassles of jailbreaking are made painfully obvious.

While finding a way to jailbreak a device is fairly easy, unlocking the thing is a whole different matter. Simply put, the two are not mutually exclusive. In fact, I have a friend who bought her BF a locked iPhone4 (an impulse buy) about a year ago, and to this day, the only thing he’s able to do with it is use it like an iPod touch ⁴ Activate, run & install apps for free thanks to jailbreaking because the BootROM/radio firmware version included in the phone is yet unlockable.

This is not to say that it will never be unlocked, but that’s the hassle I’m talking about – the indefinite uncertainty of things.

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So imagine all that hassle… just to install apps that would cost less than a single meal. Do the math, you know I’m right.

The funny thing about it is that even when I was jailbreaking, what I was after was the system enhancements I could do on the phone – more than the whole “free app” perk. But for all its worth, even that wasn’t enough to make me stick to jailbreaking.

The fact of the matter is, there will comes a point in one’s “usage” of a device where the novelty of being able to “tinker” will have lost its appeal, and that person would simply be looking for something that “just works.” I believe I’ve reached that point with my iOS devices. It’s just much more reliable and simple to do everything legitimately now – which to me, outweighs the benefits of jailbreaking.

Simply put, to me, when people jailbreak; it’s more likely because they’re just cheapskates – rather than having a real legitimate reason for doing so. Which is ok I guess – for as long as they don’t make any bones about it.