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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?
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User Comments (63)
Post a comment|
Guest
on January 20, 2012 7:31 PM |
I don't have a smartphone. |
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Guest
on January 20, 2012 7:44 PM |
yes. just applied the jailbreak to iphone 4s and ipad 2. reason - i use SBSettings so I get easy access to switches that are normally buried under multiple screens in ios. things like turning off wifi, blue-tooth, etc. on the iphone 4s specially, i can now turn off 3g and still have data enabled so I don't have to recharge the phone's battery too often. this particular feature was removed in the iphone 4s under ios5+. |
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Guest
on January 20, 2012 7:45 PM |
Yes, I do. |
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Afroaggie
on January 20, 2012 7:53 PM |
I have done my iPhone 3G and my touchpad because it just gives a more personal experience. But I haven't done my iPhone 4 because they are still pushing updates to it. But when the updates no longer include this model I will do it as well :p The jailbreaking community is full of very talented individuals that are happy to share, and that is a very rare thing nowadays. |
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dustin_ds3000
on January 20, 2012 8:02 PM |
I cant because i have an HTC EVO 4G+, its only available in Korea. i haven't found a way to Root it yet. |
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Guest
on January 20, 2012 8:03 PM |
I have rooted and modded my Android phone, because Gingerbread is not officially available for my handset. And, I'm happy with the result even though it took a lot of work to get it done. However, I decided to use my iPad as is since iOS looks and feels well-finished and polished. I haven't got reasons to jailbreak it yet. |
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jmet
on January 20, 2012 8:09 PM |
Android - Rooted I root all my Android phones to get rid of the bloatware and add wireless tethering capabilities....however, I will more than likely get the iPhone 5 when it is released and jailbreak it... |
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Panda218
on January 20, 2012 8:09 PM |
I have both my Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Sprint E4GT rooted and I wouldnt have it any other way. I wish I could jailbreak my ipad and iphone, but they are for work so I cannot do that |
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Matthew
on January 20, 2012 8:22 PM |
I've done it to my 3GS in the past but it doesn't really benefit me enough for the additional effort required so I don't bother anymore. |
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Guest
on January 20, 2012 8:23 PM |
i currently have a rooted DROID 3, but when i did have my droid 2 it was rooted for 3 reasons. 1. a rooted app allowed me to take screen shots 2. making WiFi hotspots without being charged (no longer possible with gingerbread update) 3. underclock/overclock the CPU in an effort to save a VERY quickly draining battery, and also give me a little boost when gaming in my opinon, these 3 are very good reasons to root my device, which is currently, but only used for screen shots. Sadly motorola did a good job of leaving out a basic feature they could probably have easier added. free WiFi hotspots, i can understand why they woulnd't want this. but my goodness! as if the bill isn't expensive enough. though rooting voids the warranty, A simple unroot make it like it never happened =] |
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motrin
on January 20, 2012 8:23 PM |
rooted my droid x2 to remove bloaware and use superuser apps. once I did I finally felt like I owned a smart phone. |
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Justgivemeaname
on January 20, 2012 8:41 PM |
I've been considering rooting my android but I don't know as much about phones as I do about computers so I would have to research how to do it before I even tried it. Currently running froyo and sometimes its slower than you would think is possible. |
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Kibaruk
on January 20, 2012 9:43 PM |
Justgivemeaname it's a very very very simple process, you first backup your user data and apps, then download an application to server your model and... that's pretty much it. Yup, mine is rooted. Not because I wanted to put a mod, mainly for superuser aplications. |
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Tekkaraiden
on January 20, 2012 9:50 PM |
Nope, can't be bothered though I have had to wipe and reload my phone. |
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Guest
on January 20, 2012 10:54 PM |
HTC Incredible with Cyanogenmod 7.1. It's great! |
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Guest
on January 20, 2012 11:06 PM |
I would try XDA if I were you. Ask a question or they already might have something developed for your phone. Cheers |
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trparky
on January 20, 2012 11:47 PM |
Yep... rooted my Android. When I buy my next Android phone the question definitely will be "Can I root it? If not, I don't want it!" |
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Guest
on January 21, 2012 12:05 AM |
No i don't root. Not found any reason to There is no app that i need to root for So nop.. there is nothing that ( atm ) i need my cell or Tab to do that i need too root 4 My droid is open enough for me too..... live whit as is Now, my friends iPh......... thats another story |
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Justgivemeaname
on January 21, 2012 12:13 AM |
trparky said: Yep... rooted my Android. When I buy my next Android phone the question definitely will be "Can I root it? If not, I don't want it!" I may be wrong, and if i am please feel free to correct me, but I was looking up how to root my android and from what i read, any android phone can be rooted. |
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Guest
on January 21, 2012 12:29 AM |
I bought a Galaxy S that had been rooted and reset to factory default for the sale. It now has issues, such as a black screen (need to remove battery to reset), the internet not working (need to reboot) and the phone just behaving weird in general. I would recommend NOT rooting your phone. |
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marinkvasina
on January 21, 2012 1:04 AM |
Yeah but something is wrong with app sync these days, it checks web for data or something |
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Guest
on January 21, 2012 1:14 AM |
Nope, My TracFone works just fine...thanks. |
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OUTLAWXXX
on January 21, 2012 1:28 AM |
LG Optimus S, my first android phone. |
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Archean
on January 21, 2012 1:33 AM |
I haven't, but I thought about doing it on my SGS (which I discarded recently) but figured out that it was not worth the effort. |
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Guest
on January 21, 2012 2:28 AM |
nah, i have never owned any smartphone. i'm still using my nokia 7210 and nokia 5320 xm though i'm looking to purchase one of the cheapest smartphones out there, samsung galaxy y, currently sold at about 120$ in a local retailer. |
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