« Home | Discovering the iPad » | App Store unable to download application » | Programming Projects:Virtual Mac OS X SimulationTi... »

Jailbraking the iPad

Don't get me wrong, the iPad is a wonderful device from day one that you take it out of the box. But I am a tinkerer at heart, and I love to be able to modify and customize my gadgets, and the iPad is no exception. Unfortunately, the iPad's customization choices are very limited from factory settings. Only things Apple let you customize are the background pictures, and most of the sounds. If you want to be able to customize further, then that's where jailbraking comes into place, along with many other added benefits.

Many people think that jailbraking is taboo. They think that by doing that their apple devices will be good for nothing, stop working, or even get banned. They also think the process is extremely complicated and only be able to be done by computer nerds. This is not the case. The jailbraking process thru the years has become very easy to do, most of the time only requiring you to download and run a software that does everything for you and guides you in what to do. The process is fairly quick and very safe, and can be easily un-done and not leaving any trace that it was ever there.

What jailbrake really does it free the Apple device from the tight grid Apple wants to have over it. Apple does not want anyone to modify what they do. They put a lot of hard work and testing into making sure their devices are top of the line and run as top of the line too. That is why they not only design and create their own hardware, but also design and approve their own software that they know will work 99.9 percent perfectly with their devices and won't compromise it's performance and reputation. They do not allow external third party programmer to design, install and run software that they don't authorize to be run in their devices.

This is where the jailbraking technology comes into place. Using very specific security flaws/bugs/vulnerabilities that slipped away from Apple's watchful eye, very talented programmers are able to re-write the codes to allow your device to become free, so that you are able to install software that otherwise Apple wouldn't allow you to, or do things Apple do not want to allow you to do like be able to customize your device and use very useful apps that improve the functions of your device or add brand new capabilities. Most of these apps are wonderful and extremely useful and won't compromise the functionality of your device. But there is always going to be the risk of very few of those apps causing trouble and ending up having to make you restore your device to factory setting due to them not been compatible or properly optimized, or having a bug that causes the specific issue. Putting apart this very little risk, jailbreaking is very safe and it is something that you will enjoy doing once you know it's big benefits.

Below is a summary of the pros and cons of jailbraking:

Pros:
-Ability to install software not available on the AppStore
-Ability to add new capabilities and tweaks to your devices (example Siri) or useful modifications that allow for a more enjoyable and easy experience using your iDevice
-Ability to try paid software for free before you buy that otherwise you would have to first pay and keep if you don't like
-Ability to be able to further customize iDevice with themes, fonts, colors, animations, transitions, ect
-Ability to freely access all content and folders in your device the same way you may be adapted to do with folder tree structure currently present in computer

Cons:
-The small risk of installing a tweak that could make your device unstable or slow or cause trouble ending up having to do a full restore
-Not be able to freely and right away be capable of updating to newer iOS updates, which depending on how easy or hard it will be for the programmer to find a new way to re-write codes, you could be stuck on an old iOS version if you want to stay jailbroken

What do you need for jailbraking your device? First of all you need to know what device you have. Some devices are not capable of been jailbroken at the moment and usually they are fairly new released devices. The next thing you need to know is what version of the iOS operative system is currently supported and which one you currently have installed. If you have a newer version of the iOS than the one that is currently able to be jailbroken, this could become an issue and in some cases won't allow you to be able to jailbrake until a future solution comes up. If you have both the correct device and iOS version, then the only thing you will need to do is find the proper tool that is been utilized to process the jailbrake. At this moment the current iOS version is 6.1.2 and the tool used for it is call Evasion version 1.5.

You can get all files needed to jailbrake from the following link, including the firmwares, and jailbreaking tools:
http://www.idownloadblog.com/iphone-downloads/

For a more detailed explanation regarding jailbraking also check out this website
http://www.idownloadblog.com/jailbreak/


Below I will be adding the sources I am using in Cydia to get apps:


Below are my favorite tweaks:
SBSettings (toggles that give you quick access to system functions without having to dig thru several layers of options and menus in your System Preferences menu)
KillBackground (allows you to close all running apps at once instead of one by one)
Sleep Depriver (allows you to keep your device from going to sleep, useful when downloading or streaming video, or when running and installing apps from Cydia)
Password Pilot (remembers your AppStore password, so that you don't have to be typing it everytime you want to download something)
FMF Unlocker
Springtomize 2 (allows you to customize almost every aspect of your iDevice, including fonts, sizes, how many icons to display in a row, unlocking messages, ect)

Below are my favorite Cydia apps