I’m not jailbreaking my iPhone
Am I the only person with an iPhone that hasn’t at least tried to Jailbreak (read: hack) it? Nearly everyone one I know that has an iPhone, and is at least somewhat geeky, has tried to hack their iPhone to get third-party applications up and running on it.
My iPhone, is one of these
Photo credit: Erik Kastner
Sure, it seems like a fun little project (especially now with only needing to visit jailbreakme.com on an iPhone) to crack your phone and install all sorts of neat tweaks and full applications that let you do interesting things - but so far it has seemed unappealing to me.
Most of the applications that I’ve seen has been from me messing around with someone else’s iPhone. However, with that little bit of experience I’ve seen that most of the applications currently available were not applications that I felt warranted me hacking my iPhone. Don’t get me wrong - I think it is really cool that you can use Terminal, Remote Desktop, Apache, and a whole slew of other applications in the palm of your hand - but I don’t need those applications in my palm of my hand.
So, perhaps for most of the people that have installed some of these applications, games, and fun user-interface tweaks it has been a matter of entertainment. They figured they could, so why not? But I think that starting in February/March of 2008 we’re going to see much more refined applications that have value to nearly all iPhone users rather than just a small portion of those that like to edit configuration files on remote servers while eating dinner at a restaurant.
iPhone application wish list
What do I see coming? I’m sure my imagination isn’t powerful nor creative enough to speculate but I can say what I’d like to see. Here is a short list of the things I’d like to do with my iPhone:
- Contact sharing via Bluetooth to iPhone and non-iPhone alike.
- The ability to delete all photos!
- File system access via Safari for file upload processes.
- Quick, easy, screenshots. Skitch mobile?
- Hack Safari and add a better cache!
- When on wifi; be able to stream music from other iPhones/iTunes.
- Oh, I almost forgot. Flash that doesn’t rob battery. (I know, a pipe dream).
Useful applications for the masses will be available on the iPhone in short order and I’m looking forward to it. Any experience the developers of the applications that are already in existence can gather before an official SDK is released in February will only make them better - so I am ok with letting everyone else work the bugs out for me. Strange, I’m normally an early adopter, but this time I’ve decided to sit it out and watch the others play.
Have you hacked your iPhone? Have you found any compelling applications? What would you like to see next year?
November 1st, 2007 at 9:10 am
There definitely are screenshot utilities. I think they showed up pretty early. I’m always so tempted to buy one, especially because my iPod’s headphone jack is jacked and won’t play stereo anymore (good thing I have the radio remote and plug my headphones into that), and because my SLVR has been pissing me off too. But 8 GB just isn’t enough for me. Sixteen and we can talk, but no way with 8. When you have 23,000 songs in your library, the simple act of adding new stuff to an iPod because a tedious hour-long task just to find stuff to listen to.
November 2nd, 2007 at 7:19 am
I jailbroke my iPhone for the second time using jailbreakme.com. The first time I used App Tapp and thought it was great. Having those few extra apps was just awesome. Especially the 3rd party GPS application that would geolocate you using surrounding cell towers or your IP (provided if you were on WiFi) and toss your location to Maps.app. Having the ability to ssh from time to time also came in handy. While both jailbreakings went just fine, I always ended up restoring to the factory firmware. Because the apps are developed as they are, I was often experiencing crashes that I just didn’t want to deal with. Hearing that an official SDK was coming, I restored my iPhone for the last time, and I’ll wait for ‘official’ apps to come out. I can’t wait! One app I’d love to see is an iPhone version of iBank, which I use to track all my finances. Being able to add things on the go would help me to not have to carry around receipts to enter at the end of the day.
November 2nd, 2007 at 3:21 pm
I was skeptical too — and actually just jailbroke my phone a couple of days ago. I can say I definitely love it.
Why?
* My phone feels like a whole new device now
* Re-ordering of icons on the main screen. Huge.
* Games! It makes meetings bearable again.
* iFlickr: 90% of the photos I take on the iPhone I just want to go to flickr anyway
* Terminal (I have actually had the need to restart a webservice before, since I manage ~2 VPS servers)
* Eye-candy! So much fun. Seriously — Ants? Hell yeah.
November 2nd, 2007 at 7:18 pm
Aside from the Devicescape app I ported to the iPhone, and which I rely on all the time to keep me online in Wi-Fi hotspots without the fuss of logging in through Mobile Safari, I only have a few extra apps:
1. A real text editor. Notes is cute, but sometimes I want something a little better.
2. Pushr to get those photos up to Flickr
3. The terminal (so I can debug Devicescape connections if necessary)
4. The Finder, mostly since it pairs with the editor
5. Lockbox to keep my username/password info in. This is something I had on my Clie and was really missing, so it’s great to have it back.
6. Summerboard, because the apps didn’t fit, and some themes because you may as well once you’ve added the app.
November 5th, 2007 at 9:09 am
Kyle: I’m with you on reordering (or even getting rid of) icons on the iPhone. That’d be soo nice to be able to do.
John: Your product looks pretty compelling. I’ll have to look into it. Thanks for leaving your thoughts as well.
November 6th, 2007 at 8:08 pm
I LOVE the jailbreak option, and have re-jailbroken my new iPhone (warranty replacement from bad ear piece) with the jailbreakme.com option.
1. Sketches - holy mother f’in awesome doodle fun that you can save and email to people (you can also sketch on your own photos and save them, etc.) then you SHAKE IT like an Etch-a-Sketch and it clears!
2. Colloquy - awesome. nuff said.
3. Summerboard - rearrangement and addition of new icons. Very cool.
I second Kyle on really wanting money management… that was a huge factor in my getting my first pda phone and to do lists also.
Just my two cents.
November 7th, 2007 at 3:39 am
I fall in the “I did it because I could” category. I wasn’t planning on jailbreaking my iPhone after the 1.1.1 firmware update but after seeing the Twitter post about jailbreakme.com, I had to try it out for myself to see how easy it was to do.
Currently, the only significant third party app I use is Summerboard. I’ll have to check out Sketches.
I would also like to see a money management app be developed as well.
November 11th, 2007 at 7:42 am
It looks like there is a market for a money management application for the iPhone! Calling all developers, calling all developers!
I’m really beginning to get tempted, especially after hanging out with all of my friends with jailbroken iPhones at the FOWD conference in New York this past week. I don’t think I saw a single person that hadn’t hacked theirs (except for me).
November 30th, 2007 at 12:55 pm
I am content to wait for official apps for my iPhone. I would hate to injure my sweet little thing with unsupported software.
Find your site most engrossing…
ZuD
December 2nd, 2007 at 1:51 pm
Late to the party on posting a response…
At FOWD, you must have not seen my phone then.
I’ve not hacked my iPhone, never have hacked my iPhone, and never will hack my iPhone. 
It’s a virgin and I like it that way.
I am patient to wait until installing 3rd party apps are done *right*, and to be honest, nothing out there has interested me enough to even want to. Most of the things I could do with a hacked iPhone are not really things I *want* to do, that deserve the risk of ruining it.
I like my iPhone as it is.
December 3rd, 2007 at 9:22 am
Jina: I don’t have much to add besides: I agree.
December 10th, 2007 at 7:04 am
Delete all photos? Ok, yeah that would be umm… really cool… Snapshots? Already done. WiFi streaming? Already done. I even heard about some guys developing a flash support app, but it sounded sketchy. Anyways, you are crazy not to jailbreak. 3rd party apps is the best thing that has ever happened to iPhone.