Jailbreaking

JAILBREAK: to enable use of consumer electronics in  a manner not intended by the manufacturer through the exploitation of software hacks.

Now, I’ve had an iPhone of some sort for the last few years but never felt comfortable “jail breaking” it. There are tons of passionate arguments FOR and AGAINST doing this.

“Bricking” your device means

rendering it useless. A real possibility

in the world o’ jailbreaking.

Now having said that, Apple themselves has reluctantly accepted the fact that is completely legal for iPhone and iPad owners to jailbreak their devices and most of the folks I know who’ve done it are completely happy with the outcome. So why not take the risk? I mean, even if you don’t choose to jailbreak your phone, things can still go wrong, right? Heck, it can even be as simple as updating your phone with one of Apple’s recommended patches.

So why not do it?

Well… I guess I never had a reason to.

I’m not the type of person who does something with tech because I can do it. I think that’s a formula for tech failure.

I never had a reason, so I never had a need.

Until yesterday.

Found myself at work troubleshooting a remote access issue that some colleagues were experiencing. It’s pretty hard to work remotely when you’re onsite. Found myself wishing for a way to get my laptop “outside” of the network without leaving the building. Then my iPhone chirped a reminder about an upcoming meeting and when looked down at it… a lightbulb went off.

One of the coolest jailbreak apps out there is something called MiWi. It allows you to turn your iPhone into a mobile hotspot, with your laptop or any other device able to connect and gain internet access via your phone’s 3G network. Exactly what I needed. Not only would I be jailbreaking my phone but I’d be making a break from my onsite network imprisonment as well. If I my laptop on the 3G network, I’d be on the “outside” of our school’s network, enabling me to test my remote access settings without, ya know… getting up from my chair.
Now, I won’t go into the details of jailbreaking. There are plenty of sites and videos that will walk you through the process. Some are easier than others. But, in a nutshell, once you’ve freed your phone from Apple’s restraints, you can download apps from jailbreak shops like Cydia (where I downloaded MyWi 4.0). It’s worth noting that if anyone out there is using MyWi, you MUST also download an app called Rockto make things work properly. The whole thing probably took this jailbreak rookie an hour to figure out and setup but, I have to admit, it worked like a charm.

Will I keep my phone in this fugitive state…?

Probably not. I think, for me, jailbreaking is a kind of “in case of emergency break glass” thing. It’s easy enough to roll back the changes and revert my phone to it’s normal, warranty-covered state. And, if the need arises again, I now know how simple it is to “JB” it. Another plus, is that my MyWi purchase won’t be wasted. They have an account system that records my purchase and the device it was bought for, so I can download it in the future at no additional cost.

Jailbreaking suddenly doesn’t sound so daring. It’s almost downright productive.