The first iPhone was launched way back in 2007. At that time the term of a marketplace for apps wasn’t that well established into the consumer’s mind. Apple was one of the first companies to introduce app market by the name of App store. This meant a restriction that came along with such an exclusive app market. The restriction meant that only apps downloaded from this market could be installed on the device. The iPhone’s operating system is designed to only run software that has an Apple-approved cryptographic signature. All earlier phones that ran on Java ME could install apps downloaded from any location. This gave a need to develop some method to bypass this restriction enforced by Apple. This is what gave rise to Jailbreak of iOS device. At first Apple didn’t waste any time to file a lawsuit of Copyright Infringement. However, in 2010 Jailbreaking was declared as LEGAL is USA by DMCA
What is Jailbreak?
Jailbreaking is method used for Devices running Apples iOS Operating System to enable users to install third party apps. What Jailbreaking actually does is, it replaces the stock iOS firmware installed in your device with a slightly modified version of the firmware that disables the signature verification enforced by Apple. Jailbreaking can be termed as a method of privilege escalation. Many a times Jailbreaking is compared to Android’s Rooting. Though both these OS are based on Linux, Jailbreaking and Rooting have very little in common. See this article for a detailed explanation of Rooting of Android.
Jailbreaking, though involves modifying the firmware, is not risky. There is almost no chance of your device getting damaged.Jailbreaking is of two types: Tethered and Untethered.
Tethered Jailbreaking in lay man’s terms means that the jailbreak will be lost after every reboot. In other words, you’ll have to jailbreak the device after every reboot. Technically in a tethered jailbreaking method if the device starts back up on its own, it will no longer have a patched kernel, and it may get stuck in a partially started state; in order for it to start completely and with a patched kernel, it essentially must be “re-jailbroken” with a computer (using the “boot tethered” feature of a jailbreaking tool) each time it is turned on.
Untethered Jailbreaking in simple words is that once you jailbreak your device you don’t have to jailbreak it again unless you upgrade your software. Rebooting your device doesn’t affect the jailbreak. Technically, an untethered jailbreak has the property that the kernel will be patched without the help of a computer – in other words, it will be jailbroken after each reboot.
What are the advantages of jailbreaking?
Once you jailbreak your device an app called Cydia gets installed in your device. Cydia is the main hub of all MODs that can be applied to exploit the jailbreak of the iDevice. the possibilities of MODs that can be installed on you iDevice are limitless.
Install Third Party apps
The biggest advantage of jailbreaking your device the ability to install apps that are not approved by Apple’s stringent App Store regulations. That means now you can install apps that aren’t available on the App Store.
Install paid apps for free
Jailbreaking your iPhone allows you to install paid apps that are available on App Store. However the user be warned that doing so is illegal and it is considered as piracy.
Possibility of unlocking your phone
iPhones are carrier locked on in most of the parts of the world. This is somewhat a real disadvantage. To overcome this, there are methods to unlock your device to make it carrier independent by jailbreaking your device. Please note that jailbreaking your device doesn’t unlock you phone. But it makes it possible to unlock it.