Tech Blog

[#1]

One of the most popular (geek) things to do when getting an iPhone is to "jailbreak" it. Jailbreaking let's you use non-Apple approved apps and customize the device beyond what Apple "allows". Well, the iPad is really no different in those respects and and it can be jailbroken. I did today.

The first question is you might ask is: why bother? I wasn't going to bother until I read iPadinCanada's post on jailbreaking your iPad , they recommend the Spirt jailbreaking tool , which is exactly what I used too. After I synced and backed up my iPad, the jailbreak took just a minute. Then I downloaded Backgrounder, SBSettings, and Winterboard…and I think that's all I'm going to do for the time being.

Jailbreaking might be a great sign of geekiness, and it does let you load apps that Apple didn't allow in the app store, but you have to do this knowing full well that if something starts to go sideways on your iPad, you're going to have to refresh it from backup back to "factory". Yes, your apps and such will be restored, but it might be a little in convenient.

Maybe if Apple didn't have the iPad and iPhone locked down so much we wouldn't have to jailbreak it.

Maybe if Apple did that, we wouldn't have devices that work so well.

[#2]

Thanks for this Tris. I JB'd my Touch a few months ago. Worked great, but when multitasking I did notice a slowdown in app response and esp when swapping between apps. I Reverted back to Factory state on it because, in my case, I didn't really geta any advantage from having a JB unit. Can't wait until iPhone OS4 hits and Multitasking shows up in it...we'll see if I have the same issue or not.

And yeah, if/when I get an iPad, I'll JB it too, just to see what's available...

[#3]

Thanks for this Tris. I am always curious about the real advantages of jailbreaking apple's products but I love how you close the post with both sides.

"Maybe if Apple didn't have the iPad and iPhone locked down so much we wouldn't have to jailbreak it.

Maybe if Apple did that, we wouldn't have devices that work so well."

[#4]

Don't forget to revert your products back to factory settings before taking them in for any servicing.  I'm pretty sure jailbreaking voids warranties.

JB