Taking the bait on jailbreaking


by Jason Fox — 3:12 PM on March 15, 2011

So, I finally decided that leaving well enough alone was not enough of a barrier to possibly bricking my iPhone, so I jailbroke that mother—just as I obliquely threatened to at the end of this post. And while Frank may have regrets, yes, had a few, I only regret that I didn't do this long, long ago while the Samsung Galaxy was still far, far away. (No, the Galaxy had no real bearing on my decision to jailbreak my 3GS. Just trying to stick the Ewok yub nub dance in your heads all day. I like Apple, therefore I am evil.)

The process was amazingly easy. After backing up my iPhone in iTunes, I tried out the Pwnage Tool from dev-team. It failed. I think perhaps my 3GS is a rather early version with an incompatible baseband. Or it was just an anomaly. As I didn't have the time right then to try again, I restored my phone and waited until the following weekend. This time, I tried the GreenPois0n untethered break. One and done, baby. Wish I'd known how long it would take my phone to boot up the first time, but otherwise, no surprises.

Just sweet, sweet Cydia-based glory.

Naturally, I went nuts downloading heretofore unattainable apps that would make my iExperience everything Steve Jobs never wanted it to be. My orgy of clandestine app installations include:

  • Activator - Gesture and button navigation manager
  • AptBackup - Backup installed Cydia apps for easy re-installation
  • biteSMS - Sweet SMS replacement client
  • EZDecline - Answer/reject call even when locked
  • FaceIt - FaceTime enabler
  • Five Icon Dock - Duh
  • Five Icon Switcher - Duh redux
  • GPower Pro - Add reboot and relaunch springboard to the shutdown screen
  • GridTab - Turn Safari tab layout into grid
  • Infinifolders - Remove 12-item limit from folders
  • IntelliScreen - Puts info (calendar, mail, weather, etc.) on lock screen
  • Mark Read - Mark all messages as read in Mail
  • SBSettings - Access common system prefs by swiping menu bar
  • Shrink - Change the size of app icons
  • TV Tube Sleep - Replicates look of an old tube TV turning off when you put phone to sleep.

I've got a few others, including more than one theme installer. But one of my favorite little add-ons isn't even a proper app. It's a bit of code called Twizzler whose sole purpose is to remove the egregiously annoying failure of an "enhancement" to the official Twitter iOS client called the Quick Bar. It is awesome. Frankly, I would've jailbroken my phone just for this—that's how much I hate the Quick Bar, and how little I liked any Twitter client alternatives. Well played, BigBoss. Well played.

If only my Hackintosh build had gone so painlessly. Perhaps building a Sandy Bridge Hack will prove a delightful experience. Perhaps I left the lid off the paint thinner again.

Later,

Fox

   
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