After owning the iPhone for a while, I was fed up with the closed nature of the device. I wanted to disable A2DP and found out that there was no way to do it. I decided to jailbreak the device to take a look about how to do this and found out that there are numerous other advantages as well:
- The iPhone defaults to output audio on an A2DP device, when it is in the neighborhood. I want to always use the dock connector, but you need to modify your iPhone settings to do this.
- Some Microsoft Exchange configurations are configured so your iPhone requires an access code at least once per hour. I use my iPhone often, so this was quite annoying. I installed Exchange Unlock to disable this functionality.
- Access toggles easily using SBSettings application (available through Cydia) to enable some hidden features of the iPhone (i.e. numerical battery level). You can also access some frequently used toggles (WIFI, BlueTooth, …) much easier or show a list of running applications.
- You can run applications in the background with the Backgrounder application (available through Cydia). This is especially great when using navigation products that are normally disabled when you are receiving or placing a phone call. Make sure you terminate the application when you really don’t need it anymore to prevent the application from draining the battery.
- The default battery indication is quite lousy, but you can enable a numerical display. You can enable the SBShowBatteryLevel key in /var/mobile/Library/Preferences/com.apple.springboard.plist file or use a third party tool like SBSettings (available through Cydia). This application also allows to perform some other neat tricks, so make sure you take a look at it.
- Install IPA files from other sources then the iTunes Store. Install AppSync for OS 3.0 on your iPhone (available through Cydia via Hackulo.us repository). Drag the IPA files into iTunes and you can sync them just like normal applications. The only difference is that you’re not updated about updates of course.
- Access your phone using SSH, so you get access to the entire filesystem and are able to execute any command on your iPhone.
- There are numerous other reasons why you want to jailbreak your iPhone. Some people like Winterboard to change the appearance of the phone. I like the default style, so I decided to stick with the normal springboard.
Are there any disadvantages? Yes, there are (unfortunately):
- Whenever you upgrade your iPhone’s firmware, then you lost your jailbreak and need to start over again. This isn’t a major issue, because iPhone updates aren’t released very often. Always make sure you check if you can jailbreak the new version before you perform the upgrade.
- Some applications can destabilize your iPhone. I only install applications that I really need and test them thorough. The applications listed above have never affected the stability and battery life in any way. You only need to be careful with Backgrounder, because you can easily leave an application in the background without knowing.