{"id":1072,"date":"2011-06-29T09:04:07","date_gmt":"2011-06-29T01:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nargalzius.com\/blog\/archives\/2011\/06\/29\/is-jailbreaking-still-worth-the-trouble\/"},"modified":"2011-06-29T09:04:07","modified_gmt":"2011-06-29T01:04:07","slug":"is-jailbreaking-still-worth-the-trouble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/archives\/2011\/06\/29\/is-jailbreaking-still-worth-the-trouble","title":{"rendered":"Is jailbreaking still worth the trouble?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>So Apple has <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.iphone-dev.org\/post\/6952986620\/blob-monster\">stepped up their game with iOS security yet again.<\/a> It&#8217;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.<\/p>\n<p>From what I&#8217;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.<\/p>\n<p>Cuz that&#8217;s really what it all boils down to: the <strong>practicality<\/strong> of acquiring software.<!--more--><!-- \/\/ --><\/p>\n<p>Since I started early in tech, I obviously have experienced the era where the &#8220;legitimacy of piracy&#8221; (as oxymoronic as that sounds) was in full-swing. The fact that an <em>individual<\/em> had to pay an exorbitant amount for software that normally could only be afforded by corporations, was a valid argument to take &#8211; <em>regardless<\/em> of the ethical\/moral implications &#8211; and it will be a reality I will continue to recognize for as long as I live. <\/p>\n<p>Now that I <em>can<\/em> afford software, I still would never disapprove of those who pirate. In fact, just because I <em>can afford<\/em> software today, it doesn&#8217;t mean that I feel that all software is worth paying for. That&#8217;s just the truth of the matter, as unfortunate as it seems. <\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>It&#8217;s a bit different though when in the context of the iOS \/ mobile space &#8211; because the price points aren&#8217;t necessarily &#8220;unreasonable&#8221; anymore.<\/p>\n<p>You <em>still<\/em> won&#8217;t be seeing me dropping hundreds of dollars on apps like Photoshop, etc. anytime soon. Precisely because they cost <strong>hundreds of dollars.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>But how much do applications on the &#8220;iOS App store&#8221; <span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_1072_1('footnote_plugin_reference_1072_1_1');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_1072_1('footnote_plugin_reference_1072_1_1');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_1072_1_1\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">1 <\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1072_1_1\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">I&#8217;ll use that term to differentiate from the Mac App store<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_1072_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1072_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top right', relative: true, offset: [10, 10], });<\/script> cost? 99 cents? $10 is considered [reasonably] expensive and anything more than $20 is considered a premium price.<\/p>\n<p>Yet in reality, try converting that into pesos even using the highest exchange rate we&#8217;ve had (50 to a dollar). That&#8217;s roughly Php50, 500, and 1000+ But on the average, an app would cost roughly 3 dollars &#8211; which is about Php150<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s <em>still<\/em> less what an average middle class person <span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_1072_1('footnote_plugin_reference_1072_1_2');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_1072_1('footnote_plugin_reference_1072_1_2');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_1072_1_2\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">2 <\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1072_1_2\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">And let&#8217;s face it, if you claim to be &#8220;poor&#8221;, then why the fuck did you buy an iPhone in the first place?<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_1072_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1072_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top right', relative: true, offset: [10, 10], });<\/script> spends in a <strong>single day.<\/strong> 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 <span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_1072_1('footnote_plugin_reference_1072_1_3');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_1072_1('footnote_plugin_reference_1072_1_3');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_1072_1_3\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">3 <\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1072_1_3\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">And anyone who has ever bought anything from places like Starbucks is automatically out of excuses<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_1072_1_3').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1072_1_3', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top right', relative: true, offset: [10, 10], });<\/script> &#8211; than buying a similarly priced App that will last for a long as you have your account and device.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to that, when you jailbreak, you&#8217;re faced with the whole practicality aspect of it.<\/p>\n<h2>Updates<\/h2>\n<p>The problem with jailbreaking is that you will <em>never<\/em> have the peace of mind of upgrading safely. <strong>Every single time<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n<p>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 &#8211; it ends up being much more of a hassle than anything else. Because you&#8217;re literally allowing yourself to be left behind on the updates simply because you&#8217;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.<\/p>\n<h2>Restoring<\/h2>\n<p>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 &#8211; it doesn&#8217;t work as well as it ought to.<\/p>\n<h2>Unlocking<\/h2>\n<p>Although this concern is only applicable only to iPhone users who have locked units. But here the hassles of jailbreaking are made painfully obvious.<\/p>\n<p>While finding a way to jailbreak a device is fairly easy, <strong>unlocking<\/strong> 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 <strong>to this day,<\/strong> the only thing he&#8217;s able to do with it is use it like an iPod touch <span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_1072_1('footnote_plugin_reference_1072_1_4');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_1072_1('footnote_plugin_reference_1072_1_4');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_1072_1_4\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">4 <\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1072_1_4\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Activate, run &#38; install apps for free thanks to jailbreaking<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_1072_1_4').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1072_1_4', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top right', relative: true, offset: [10, 10], });<\/script> because the BootROM\/radio firmware version included in the phone is yet unlockable.<\/p>\n<p>This is not to say that it will never be unlocked, but <em>that&#8217;s<\/em> the hassle I&#8217;m talking about &#8211; the indefinite uncertainty of things.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>So imagine all that hassle&#8230; just to install apps that would cost less than a <strong>single<\/strong> meal. Do the math, you know I&#8217;m right.<\/p>\n<p>The funny thing about it is that even when I <em>was<\/em> jailbreaking, what I was after was the <strong>system enhancements<\/strong> I could do on the phone &#8211; more than the whole &#8220;free app&#8221; perk. But for all its worth, even that wasn&#8217;t enough to make me stick to jailbreaking.<\/p>\n<p>The fact of the matter is, there will comes a point in one&#8217;s &#8220;usage&#8221; of a device where the novelty of being able to &#8220;tinker&#8221; will have lost its appeal, and that person would simply be looking for something that &#8220;just works.&#8221; I believe I&#8217;ve reached that point with my iOS devices. It&#8217;s just much more reliable and simple to do everything legitimately now &#8211; which to me, outweighs the benefits of jailbreaking.<\/p>\n<p>Simply put, to me, when people jailbreak; it&#8217;s more likely because they&#8217;re just cheapskates &#8211; rather than having a real legitimate reason for doing so. Which is ok I guess &#8211; for as long as they don&#8217;t make any bones about it.<\/p><div class=\"speaker-mute footnotes_reference_container\"> <div class=\"footnote_container_prepare\"><p><span role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" class=\"footnote_reference_container_label pointer\" onclick=\"footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_1072_1();\">Notes<\/span><span role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" class=\"footnote_reference_container_collapse_button\" style=\"display: none;\" onclick=\"footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_1072_1();\">[<a id=\"footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_1072_1\">+<\/a>]<\/span><\/p><\/div> <div id=\"footnote_references_container_1072_1\" style=\"\"><table class=\"footnotes_table footnote-reference-container\"><caption class=\"accessibility\">Notes<\/caption> <tbody> \r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_1072_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_1072_1_1');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_1072_1_1\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8673;<\/span>1<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">I&#8217;ll use that term to differentiate from the Mac App store<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_1072_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_1072_1_2');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_1072_1_2\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8673;<\/span>2<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">And let&#8217;s face it, if you claim to be &#8220;poor&#8221;, then why the fuck did you buy an iPhone in the first place?<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_1072_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_1072_1_3');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_1072_1_3\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8673;<\/span>3<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">And anyone who has ever bought anything from places like Starbucks is automatically out of excuses<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_1072_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_1072_1_4');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_1072_1_4\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8673;<\/span>4<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Activate, run &#38; install apps for free thanks to jailbreaking<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n <\/tbody> <\/table> <\/div><\/div><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> function footnote_expand_reference_container_1072_1() { jQuery('#footnote_references_container_1072_1').show(); jQuery('#footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_1072_1').text('\u2212'); } function footnote_collapse_reference_container_1072_1() { jQuery('#footnote_references_container_1072_1').hide(); jQuery('#footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_1072_1').text('+'); } function footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_1072_1() { if (jQuery('#footnote_references_container_1072_1').is(':hidden')) { footnote_expand_reference_container_1072_1(); } else { footnote_collapse_reference_container_1072_1(); } } function footnote_moveToReference_1072_1(p_str_TargetID) { footnote_expand_reference_container_1072_1(); var l_obj_Target = jQuery('#' + p_str_TargetID); if (l_obj_Target.length) { jQuery( 'html, body' ).delay( 0 ); jQuery('html, body').animate({ scrollTop: l_obj_Target.offset().top - window.innerHeight * 0.2 }, 380); } } function footnote_moveToAnchor_1072_1(p_str_TargetID) { footnote_expand_reference_container_1072_1(); var l_obj_Target = jQuery('#' + p_str_TargetID); if (l_obj_Target.length) { jQuery( 'html, body' ).delay( 0 ); jQuery('html, body').animate({ scrollTop: l_obj_Target.offset().top - window.innerHeight * 0.2 }, 380); } }<\/script>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So Apple has stepped up their game with iOS security yet again. It&#8217;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&#8217;ve read, it has come to a point where jailbreaking your device is just too &hellip; <p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/archives\/2011\/06\/29\/is-jailbreaking-still-worth-the-trouble\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Is jailbreaking still worth the trouble?&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1072\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}