Why should I Jailbreak my iPhone? | List of the best Jailbroken Applications

It’s too often that I get asked “why jailbreak your iPhone?” or even worse, “why should I jailbreak?”

Why should you jailbreak?  Well, for two reasons.

First, if you’re like some people (me?) and you just don’t want to be locked out of taking full advantage of your own phone for some obsessive compulsive reason, and you don’t mind taking a little extra time to perform the operations that are accompanied with jailbreaking (updating the firmware of a jailbroken phone becomes slightly more painful) – then jailbreaking is for you.  That’s the first reason, and there are only a select few that feel the same way I do.

The second reason to jailbreak is more understandable: with a jailbroken phone you get access to otherwise unattainable applications.  This always begs the question, “why aren’t they in the app store?”  Well, Apple only officially opens up about 70% of their APIs (Application Programming Interface – basically a library of tools for developers) to the public.  The reasons for this are two-fold: some of the things that the iPhone is capable of just haven’t been stuck into the public API because they might change in the future and Apple doesn’t want to support those features yet.  The second is that giving complete access would make it much more difficult for Apple to ensure the security of the applications running on the iPhone.  What Apple has created with the App Store is a safe, easy to maintain repository of applications.  But we’re tech savvy and we don’t need to worry about all this “safe” nonsense, right?  (I’ve never actually run across any malicious application so I think you’re pretty safe).

Best Jailbroken Applications
Here’s a great list of applications that was released a few months ago that I generally still agree with, with only a few exceptions and additions:

• Quake – I don’t think this is a very usable application – cool to show people what the iPhone can do, but still not very playable.
• MxTube – It’s already listed in the above list, but I want to reinstate the importance of this App… IT IS AWESOME.  One of the issues that i run into when I’m not on Wi-Fi is that the quality of YouTube videos gets reduced, even if you’re using 3G.  This application lets you download, save, and stream the high quality version of YouTube videos – whether you’re on Wi-Fi or not (and 3G is plenty fast enough for most videos).
• PdaNet – This isn’t on the list but it should be.  This application (that I’ve written about before) lets you tether your iPhone to your laptop to get wireless internet connectivity everywhere you go!  3G speed is actually very impressive through your laptop – it’s much faster than your iPhone can process web pages.  PdaNet is a must have and one of my personal favorites.
• Netatalk – This is another application that isn’t on the list but should be.  The list specifies OpenSSH, which allows you to SSH into your iPhone and manage the file system (copy files, download your camera photos, etc…).  OpenSSH is great, but I find that many times it’s hard to find a good application to SSH into your phone with.  If you’re 1337 (‘leet’) enough you can use the command line interface which gives you lots of power, but isn’t very usable for the average person.  My recommended soution for that problem is Netatalk!  If you have a Mac, Netatalk allows you to use the Apple Filing Protocol to connect to your phone, allowing you to access your phone as if it were a shared network drive.