With the world in anticipation of the eventual global release of the iPhone, some antsy users in parts of the world where the Mac phone has yet to be released have no option but to hack away at the Mac wonder.
This leaves those users with a warranted reason to hack the iPhone at all but what about the rest of us? Does hacking the iPhone make for a ‘better’ phone?
At the moment, Apple Inc has locked down the iPhone’s ability to install and run third party applications; making the iPhone effectively a “what you see, is what you get” device.
According to the public relation reports that Apple has released over the past months, Apple is preparing to make its telco wonder a little more ‘Open Source’ but that is scheduled only in late February 2008. Even now, an unofficial release of an ancillary application (OktoPrep) to support future third party applications has already been cut loose and is rife in the iPhone hacking community.
In the mean time, iPhone owners who are keen on having more applications than the standard have to hack away.
The act of hacking an iPhone to enable third party application installation is termed as “jailbreaking” the iPhone. And Jailbreaking is not restricted to iPhones alone, but its done even on iPod Touchs’ – to add more variety of third party applications.
The above images gives a taste of what’s possible; note that the hacked iPhone displayed above has two small white dots at the bottom of its SpringBoard interface. Indicating that there are 2 pages of applications! So far, we haven’t tried to push it and already we have managed to install up to 3 pages worth of additional applications.
Its astounding. The applications that can be installed range from eBook readers, (of course) games, Gameboy Advanced emulators, Nintendo emulators, GPS emulators, VNC clients, dictionaries, internet radio streaming clients, IM clients to even an application that helps you keep track of a woman’s monthly cycle and even a mobile interactive Holy Quran that comes fully equipped with audio recordings!
If you’re thinking of doing this to your iPhone, we urge you to proceed with caution. Firstly, hacking your pristine iPhone voids the warranty, especially if you don’t know how to return it to its original state. Secondly, the likelihood that you iPhone’s stability may be compromised is directly proportionate with the number of third party applications that are installed.
Its probably best to experiment with some third party applications and see what happens in contrast to going absolutely bonkers and install everything that is available.
And oh,… one more thing. Its not that we’re trying to take the mickey out of anyone, but its probably best if you have a fair bit of IT knowledge before you commence hacking on your iPhone. It can be a bit harrowing even for the IT initiated because the process itself involves a variety of IT technologies and if you happen to delete the wrong files in your iPhone, you may just brick it.
Nevertheless, hacking the iPhone seems to reveal its ultimate potential and as we have often described it, its not a computer-in-a-phone, its more a phone-in-a-computer. So far, its by far, probably the closest any company has got to producing a PC replacement in your pocket. Armed with the right third party applications, the iPhone’s a spanking good device to wander off from home for a few weeks without your beloved PC.
Just when you thought it was a great idea to have an iPod and a phone in a single device, jailbreaking it opens a whole new dimension.