To JailBreak or Not To JailBreak? That's the question, basically.

[HallowqueenMask]

Hey everyone,

I recently purchased a new iPhone 4 because my contract was up and I decided I wanted a "smartphone" this time. I love my iPhone but am disappointed with the customization that you are limited too. I can't believe you can't even change the message tones. Anyways, I've been reading a lot about jailbreaking and I think it could be for me, but I have a few concerns.

First of all, I learned that "jailbreaking" itself is not illegal, it's just illegal to download free applications. Now, what I'm wondering about is: will you be able to distinguish paid from actual free applications once this is installed. I'm not trying to sound dumb here, I'm just very new to smartphones in general. Also, if I jailbreak the phone is there anything that's going to be running constantly in the background that I have to worry about my data plan? I chose to get the 200 mb plan because I'm always somewhere where there's wifi. Another concern I had was about "bricking" the phone. Is there certain steps you take to prevent this?

Again, sorry to sound like an uber nooblet but I guess I am when it comes to the iPhone. Any suggestions or help would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Haley

[Cer0]

The free apps you are thinking of are cracked apps. The only way to see them is if you add a repo that hosts the cracked apps. (BTW nobody mention the repo or you will get a nice little PM from us )

The repos that are standard are BigBoss and ModMyi. Both of those host legit apps and do not host cracked apps. In Cydia if an item is a paid app it will say it at the top. If it is free it will say it too.

[i.Annie]

A lot of people jailbreak. As long as you do the proper research for your device and firmware version, you won't brick the phone. If you have any questions, MMi is the best place to ask

Just make sure you do the research before asking, there are a couple snippy people around here :P lol.

[bellyfrog]

Isn't it pretty hard to brick an iPhone anyway? Especially if she's on the official carrier and can just do a standard iTunes restore if everything goes pear shaped. I wouldn't say there is much to worry about.

Just make sure to follow any instructions carefully I'm pretty sure you would have to do something crazy to brick an iPhone that didn't have any hardware problems in the first place.

[i.Annie]

It does take quite a mistake to brick a phone, but one mistake could do the trick. Even a restore won't fix.

Such as people installing spirt2pwn on a new boot phone locks them into a permanent brick state of the recovery loop

But as long as you don't go doing something the devs tell you NOT to do, you'll be fine.

[juiceguy]

Jailbreak it

[HallowqueenMask]

Wow, what an awesome turn out on responses, I usually have to wait days and days for an answer on other forums. Thanks much. =D

Now, I've been researching a lot and watched a few youtube videos of others jailbreaking their phones. It looks pretty simple and straight forward. I'm no stranger computers in general so this should work out okay. I think I'll be here a lot now.

Thanks again for all the help.