I can't think of a compelling reason to jailbreak my iPhone in 2013, and I suspect that's true for a lot more people than it was in the past.
Freedom to copy your data out of an app into your computer even if the app doesn't "allow" it. E.g., get into Notes.app's sqlite database after they decide to delete all the data when you unlink your account even if it hasn't successfully synced for a year so that you can recover half of it.
Develop apps on your own device without paying $100 and supporting the war on general purpose computing. Also compile and run GPL apps.
A caller and texter black/whitelist.
I think the "war on general purpose computing" was a term coined by Doctorow (or Stallman?) and I have to agree with it in principle. I just can't go all the way and use a Longsoon-based MIPS device because of performance concerns.
It's not quite black and white. I can quite happily buy a PS4 (did you see the list of open-source software they used?) and still support the FSF and EFF as necessary.
Stuff like that, it doesn't change my life but it makes me mildly happier, all because I can get at the filesystem and have root on my own devices.
iOS has this functionality. For blacklisting, you can block a caller or texter. For whitelisting, you can enable Do Not Disturb, and then whitelist people by adding them to your Favorites.
I'm an avid user of Garage Band for iOS and the method Apple gives you to transfer songs from the phone are surprisingly inadequate.
Linux also assisted with copying all the songs from my girlfriends iPod, which was denied by iTunes due to some DRM silliness.
So, with Linux coming to the rescue I have found less of a desire to jailbreak these devices.
For me, I'd use it for recording calls. I'm also interested in what the mod community comes up with - there's usually a lot of innovation in the JB space that Apple cribs into big iOS updates.
I can have F.lux
I can speed up UI animations
I can unlock the faster Nitrous Javascript renderer for 3rd party apps (Apple gimps 3rd party browsers by restricting this but w/ jailbreak, I can bypass Apple).
I can install different UI interactions that I prefer like swipe up from the bottom edge to close an app (probably won't work well in iOS7 but in iOS6 it was fantastic).
I can install a tweak that saves all Snapchats for unlimited time and adds a lot of stuff on top of Snapchat discreetly.
And just a lot of little tweaks that I really enjoy having.
* It's an easy way to flip values for tweaks for apps and Springboard. Saves a lot of time vs one by one installing these in Cydia. Eg: Staff Mode for Instagram, 5 icon dock, remove ads... Plus many users have saved tweaks to Flex's cloud.
It used to take me 30-60 minutes to fall asleep. I jail broke my phone to install f.lux and now I fall asleep in ten minutes or less.
If I eventually can't jailbreak an iPhone, I'll switch to android.
Now, I could do one of the following:
1. Reorder my life so that I never look at my phone after sundown.
2. Jailbreak
F.lux also shouldn't be relied upon by itself. How well it works is dependent on the particular frequencies emitted by the RGB components of your screen. I have a 470nm band pass filter that I look at light emitters through, and f.lux reduces such emitters, but doesn't stop them completely. I have constructed a removable orange filter as a supplement.
I know flux isn't perfect. But as I don't really use my phone much before bed, it seems to work well enough. The glasses could be useful for late night computer work though.
I find it hilarious that someone who knows that staring at a bright blue-white screen is going to impact their sleep, continues to do so. It is even more amusing to think that they'd rather drop $400+ on a new Android phone that can run lux/redshift instead of modifying their own behavoir in a trivial way.
The rest of the thread is an argument over whether people should want to do X with [gadget]. Maybe a post explaining how to more or less do X with some hacks thrown in the middle.
There wasn't even a problem. "I like f.lux." "Or you could not stare at your phone." What were that poster or third party readers supposed to have gleaned from your comment, pray tell?
There's this big problem with technology - particularly common with people that is not familiar with it (looking at you @aroch) - where people think that you should adapt yourself to the technology around you where it should always be technology the one that should adapt to your lifestyle.
If you cook something and it tastes like shit, do you eventually become used to the taste of shit? or do you find out what happened and cook in a way that relates more to the kind of flavors that you want?
Technology unfortunately cannot keep up with our desire to use it to the detriment of our own health.
Perhaps you could try changing the lamp bulbs in you bedroom to daylight-spectrum so there isn't such a sharp distinction between a screen and the ambient light colour?
So that's an interesting result.
I read online about daylight-spectrum bulbs assisting fine-work ( crafters use them extensively ) and on a hunch I bought a few bulbs. What a transformation! I found myself much more alert and better able to read.
I also like how they seamlessly transition from dusk to pure artificial light, particularly in the rooms we have painted white.
Fun fact: When I turn on this lamp it makes me want to tidy up the room, after about 2 minutes. I suspect that's an effect also observed in anti-depressants.
Apple should just implement f.lux-like behaviour in OS X and iOS, maybe with an API to allow it to be disabled temporarily (for Photoshop, etc.)
No. Apple should let people run the programs they want on the devices they purchased. There should be a seriously insane number of hoops to jump through to get to the switch, but the switch should be there.
EDIT: edited for clarity
But F.lux is so truly fantastic that the day there's a proper, 100% supported jailbreak (i.e. one that actually works well with official versions of MobileSubstrate/Cydia), I'll be jailbreaking just for F.lux.
The one that pisses me off the most is not having "Lockinfo".
Another one is to be able to share your internet with a PC without begging to your provider.
And the list goes on. (facetime on 3G...)
I'd be surprised if there were more than a handful of people actually doing this, which would explain why your use case doesn't get substantial engineering/UX resources.
Is this because of travel and being in a different country?
EDIT: I meant to state if you were to override the desktop's user-agent to mimic a mobile device while tethered.
iPhone on GiffGaff (who use O2 networks) in UK cannot share connection with PC.
So, those things are already possible without jailbreaking if you're prepared to change carrier.
However there is one reason I would want to jailbreak - f.lux.
Interestingly, this seems to be a common thread among jailbreakers. One of these two reasons almost always applies:
- libertarian hackers who want to do stuff most people don't care about
OR
- installing f.lux
Seems Apple should notice this and integrate f.lux-like behavior or APIs allowing such behavior. Unfortunately, given that the display looks less attractive when f.lux is enabled, they probably never will. That's a shame.
The first two are less longer important for me now because there is now an official OpenVPN client in the App Store, and the native Chinese pinyin keyboard is much improved (although the predictive text is still far behind those produced for other platforms by large Chinese internet companies).
The last one (using a memory card or USB as extra storage) would still be nice as it would reduce the frequency with which I need to refresh content (mostly online lectures).
I can live without a jailbreak now. 2 years ago I would have downloaded it even after reading saurik's twitter comments (kindly posted to HN by DLay). Now I'm more inclined to wait.
Seriously, that outweighs everything for me.
Specify my own dns server when using the cellular net.
Random ssh stuff when i don't want to use one of my vps's due to latency.
Full access to MY Files.
Open VPN(which i guess is possible without jailbreaking now days)
However, what keeps me from jailbreaking is 'using my banking app' on my iPhone :'( Unfortunately the jailbreak also opens the phone operating system to spyware/viruses etc.
tweaks for 3g were also great.