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Weekend Open Forum: Do you jailbreak/root your smartphone?
Today a hacker team known as "greenpois0n" released the first working untethered Jailbreak for Apple devices powered by the A5 processor, namely the iPhone 4S and iPad 2. While the practice is officially discouraged by Apple and may cause some unintended consequences if you don't know what you are doing, jailbreaking is entirely legal and essentially enables smartphone and tablet owners to customize their devices and run unsanctioned software from third-party app stores such as Cydia.
The practice is not uncommon among Android users either, who often turn to rooting their devices in order to load the latest version or a customized build of the OS rather than wait for an official update -- which sometimes never comes, unfortunately.
But then there's the other side of the coin: despite the benefits of jailbreaking, some people just can't be bothered with the whole backup-upgrade-jailbreak-restore cycle every time something better comes out. I used to jailbreak my iPhone but don't anymore after realizing I rarely even used unofficial apps.
So our question for those of you with smartphones is, do you jailbreak or root your device? If so, tell us about the custom ROMs and 'unofficial' apps you run, as well as the tweaks you can't live without. Also, has this caused any security or instability issues for you?
User Comments: 63
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Until my phone grows a vagina, there wont be any root.
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St1ckM4n said:
Custom ROM on my Xperia x10. Makes the phone MUCH faster.
Custom ICS ROM on my Xoom. Faster than the official ICS, ability to overclock, and official isn't available in Australia yet.
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I started messing around with it one evening, but after downloading a bunch of programs and looking at surprisingly poor instructions, I left it alone. Cell phones are pretty expensive, and unsubsidized here, don't want to screw this one up and have to replace it.
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Haha @Guest above, you must be an Aussie! ;D
Don't think these Yanks get the term 'root'...
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i do root my android to get some apps to work
also im using some unofficial ROM wish needs root to be installed
although root is not the same as jailbreak .. as far as i know
jailbreak will allow you to install hacked (paid) apps for free
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Here are some Cydia apps I can't live without:
Activator, bitesms, callme, folderenhancer, infinidock, ischeduler, sbsettings, springtomize, winterboard.
I only update the iOS version for every major upgrade (about once a year) so it's not really much effort at all to get the phone working as it should be.
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First thing I do to a phone is root it. Why? To lock out/delete the junk that is usually on the phone, even with a non carrier phone. Then to install a root call blocker to block the telemarketers from calling LOL.
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fimbles said:
Going to attempt to jailbreak my friends iphone 3gs today.
No idea where to start but what the hell, is it possible to kill your iphone doing this?
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Considering to rot my Galaxy Nexus to get OpenVPN working. When it comes to updates I don't think it ill make a difference.
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I rooted a previous Droid in order to run it with Gingerbread, but I've not bothered with my last two phones, a Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro, and its replacement, the 1GHz Xperia Mini.
I've just ordered (yesterday) a Galaxy S2, and I doubt I'll be rooting that either. The only need I have for it is to run more up to date Android releases, and since the S2 will get ICS in due course it doesn't make much sense for me.
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gcarter said:
I buy and sell smartphones frequently secondhand on ebay. Rooting allows you peace of mind, when phones are sold as "locked to a network" because...
a) It means you can snag a bargain by not having to find a phone which matches your current provider
b) As has been mentioned before, some phones comes with excessive carrier software which cannot be removed by the end user, and in some cases, such as the budget Orange Sanfrancisco, slows down the phone!
Rooting also allows you to run the beloved adblocker app (android) meaning your not plaugued with ads on the screen :-)
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I don't have a smartphone, but I did jailbreak my iPod touch.
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I buy and sell smartphones frequently secondhand on ebay. Rooting allows you peace of mind, when phones are sold as "locked to a network" because...
a) It means you can snag a bargain by not having to find a phone which matches your current provider
I thought rooting, and phone unlocking were two different things?
I didn't realise that a rooted smartphone was also then unlocked to all networks.
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Captain828 said:
Yes. I have my SGSII rooted and loaded with the Cognition custom ROM.
Did it to remove some bloatware and get superuser permissions for Chainfire3D.
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My wife and I were out shopping and we stopped by a Verizon kiosk and I purchased a Thunderbolt along with the HTC extended battery. We walked 6ft and took a seat at a table. My wife went to get lunch while I installed my micro SD card (with custom rom .zip already located on it) into the Thunderbolt, took out my laptop and within 3 Min I had it rooted and another 5-10min I had the Cubed rom installed. All this before my wife got back with the the food.
My wife and I have had several Android based phones and everyone has been rooted and all of mine have had custom roms installed.
Our big reasons for rooting it are Titanium backup, apps with the ability to wifi tether or hotspot (without paying a second fee), Adfree. Being able to get rid of the bloat ware.
And for me it's just fun to play around.
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And a side note: The Verizon employee who helped us stopped by after we were finshed eating and was curious if I was able to root it. (by the way while purchasing the phone we were talking about phones, rooting, the dangers of doing it, custom roms, cool apps avalable to rooted phones) I helped him root his Thunderbolt before we left the mall.
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RH00D said:
technochicken said:I don't have a smartphone, but I did jailbreak my iPod touch.
Same. I also jailbroke my (at the time) girlfriend's iPod Touch. I restored my iPod Touch and returned it within the 30 days though because I wanted the money instead.
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I hate to break this too ppl who root/jailbreak their phones. DOING IT VOIDS THE WARRENTY!!
If you do this you void any manufacter or extended warrenty. I had to find this out the hard way. If you do root/jailbreak your phone and you break it, prepare to pay full price to replace it. Cellphone companies take a VERY firm stance on rooting and jailbreaking. And god help you if your still under contract when you break it. They wont replace it. And you either continue to pay for a service you cant use or eat a hefty 300$+ Early Termination Fee. IF you want to root or jailbreak your phone PLS PLS PLS wait till you are available to get an upgrade on your phone. Then do it.
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Some are easier to root than others.
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lg optimus 2x . This phone can be bought cheaply sim free, so now its rooted with cm7 , runs sweet as a nut
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BMfan said:
I've rooted my SGS2 just to see what I can do with the phone fortunately it has everything I need so i went to what they call a frankenstien OS on xda and I just update it when there is a new version.
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Guest said:
I don't have a smartphone.
Same here.
My friends do this though.
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Guest said:
I hate to break this too ppl who root/jailbreak their phones. DOING IT VOIDS THE WARRENTY!!
If you do this you void any manufacter or extended warrenty. I had to find this out the hard way. If you do root/jailbreak your phone and you break it, prepare to pay full price to replace it. Cellphone companies take a VERY firm stance on rooting and jailbreaking. And god help you if your still under contract when you break it. They wont replace it. And you either continue to pay for a service you cant use or eat a hefty 300$+ Early Termination Fee. IF you want to root or jailbreak your phone PLS PLS PLS wait till you are available to get an upgrade on your phone. Then do it.
It does void the Warranty but if you pay the replacment insurance then you are set as long as you can live without a phone for a couple of days. If you end up having a problem just (break the phone) to a point where it is not able to boot to any kind of a screen. No questions asked.
I had to do that once early one. I took the phone to a verizon store in the morning and I had a replacement the next day Fed-Ex.
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Yes, I do indeed.
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I used to jailbreak my ipod touch but it broke down after a year and when i upgraded to an iphone 3gs it never worked so i stopped jailbreaking and that was the best 2 years of my life
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