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Not sure about others but it’s been many years since I felt the need to jailbreak my iOS devices. One of the reasons is that there’s just no “killer apps” avail
by daniel_iversen 6y ago
Not sure about others but it’s been many years since I felt the need to jailbreak my iOS devices. One of the reasons is that there’s just no “killer apps” available for me by jailbreaking anymore, iOS generally does 100% of what I want it to do, and the way I like it to do it.
- somehnguy 6y agoSame boat here. From the iPhone 3G to the 6 I was always jailbroken, including even the tethered jailbreaks. Then at some point I just stopped caring. It's so much effort to keep up with this stuff (same reason I don't use Android devices, with all the alternative firmwares and such). My stock iOS device is about as reliable as a device can get and I'm relatively happy making the complete freedom tradeoff. I'm not sure how bad of a thing that is however. Occasionally I'll want to do something like spoof my location and get annoyed that it's not easy. But I just...don't care 99% of the time.
- SulfurHexaFluri 6y agoI'm like you, there are things I would like to do with my phone that I am prevented from doing but the alternative is too much effort and I don't care enough to take it. It does seem that slowly iOS/ipadOS is getting more fully featured as they try to make the ipad a real laptop alternative.
- mattwad 6y agoSame here, but with Android. Since at least a few major versions back!
- vaccinator 6y agoCant you install a browser that is not Safari by jailbreaking? I dont know because I avoid Apple.
- sevencolors 6y agoYeah you can run Firefox (or others) as your default browser now
- bch 6y agoNotably, only w the latest iOS update a few weeks ago
- vaccinator 6y agoThey are no longer required to use Safari's engine in the background?
- jdofaz 6y agoNo, you can install Chrome or Firefox but they are still just wrappers around webkit
- vaccinator 6y agoEven if you jailbreak? Poor apple fans....
- evad3r 6y agoI mean for the most part, I doubt the average Apple fan is going to care.
- kall 6y agoThere‘s probably no one who has gone to the trouble of porting a browser engine for only the sake of running on jailbroken devices.
- SulfurHexaFluri 6y agoYou could if chrome or firefox actually had a specific ios jailbreak app. But why on earth would they dedicate the resources to building a whole app that hardly anyone would be able to use.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- teddyh 6y agoI’ve got a feature you can only get on an iPhone by jailbreaking: Being a general-purpose computer
- crubier 6y agoYes exactly and this is why I have a MacBook, which has a keyboard and a trackpad and a decent screen. I don’t want my phone to be a general purpose computer. Not everything has to be that.
- teddyh 6y agoI’ve got a policy: If something is a general-purpose computer for someone else, but not for me, that is not a device for me. iPhones fall squarely in that category: They’re general-purpose computers for Apple, but not for the ostensible “owners” of these devices. Of course (as I wrote here three years ago¹), a non-programmable dumb/feature phone without updateability would also be adequate for my personal needs for what I need a phone for. 1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15358342#15366260 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15358342#15366260
- tptacek 6y agoI don't understand the logic here. You seem to be saying that it's better to have a featurephone than a modern phone if you can't load arbitrary code on the modern phone, but that logic, applied broadly, would serve almost no consumers well.
- teddyh 6y agoI said nothing of the kind. I expressed a personal policy and preference, and I did not mention “consumers”.
- m4rtink 6y agoActually, I can imagine a modern "dumpphone" being a preaty nice think - make it say in a classic candybar shape and make sure it has good time on battery & can be used as wifi hotspot/mobile modem over USB. Application could be very basic (calendar, address book, calculator, alarm, etc.) - by default. Or users could make their own simple apps - nothing fancy, Arduino like cooperative multitasking, simple screen drawing, maybe a few widget helpers. I can imagine this being a fun thing to use & play with. :)
- callesgg 6y agoThe one thing iOS does not have call recording. I want to be able to record some of my calls, which is something I discovered when I got a call from a man threatening me, would be nice to have in court. It would be a really nice feature.
- codazoda 6y agoI used to record all my android calls, keep them around for 7 days, then delete them (unless I flagged them as important). These were VERY GOOD for things like customer service. Android also dropped the ability to do this for a while (the the apps I was using died) and I haven't tried again in a long time. Maybe I'll look again.
- mvanbaak 6y agoWhile it would be a fun thing to have, in most parts of the world you have to inform the other party BEFORE you are going to record calls. Probably the reason apple left it out.
- heavyset_go 6y agoThere are plenty of places where it is legal to record calls, and in the others you simply need to inform the other party of the recording.
- m463 6y ago"calls are recorded for quality purposes". I think some folks are starting to match up names and voices, audible fingerprints anyone?
- c22 6y agoIf you get a Google Voice account you can record ongoing calls by pressing "4".
- o-__-o 6y agoOnly on inbound calls
- Wowfunhappy 6y agoThere are so many little things that just piss me off to no end when I'm on a non-Jailbroken iPhone. • Google search results lead to AMP pages. When Jailbroken, I can load a userscript that turns this off. • Random apps have stupid names on my homescreen. Either the name is in all caps, or it's too long and Apple puts a big ellipses in the middle. I can't rename them unless I'm Jailbroken. • Stock iOS has two separate low-battery alerts, the first of which occurs when there's still a fifth of my battery left! I'm well aware of the red icon at the top of my screen. • The stock iOS keyboard has a dictation key I always hit accidentally. I can disable it when I'm Jailbroken. There are many, many, many more examples, these are just off the top of my head. It's been long enough since I set up my Jailbreak that I don't actually remember most of them, but I use a ton of let's-call-them annoyance fixers, and I don't think I could live without them.
- gcblkjaidfj 6y ago> 1. Google search results lead to AMP pages. When Jailbroken, I can load a userscript that turns this off. change your search engine? (my setup on all devices: ddg, and when results suck, i try google by adding "!g" to the search. It open my eyes when i see both suck for a few terms, but when using google i don't question the engine)
- Wowfunhappy 6y agoGoogle still has the best search results by far IMO. I've tried DDG. On desktop I use Startpage but, hey, that's another thing I can't set on stock iOS!
- colejohnson66 6y agoIf you want Google’s results, but on DDG, the GP mentioned that you should prepend your query with “!g”
- Wowfunhappy 6y agoThanks, but then I'd have to prepend all my queries with that. And sure, maybe not all queries need it, but I don't want to have to search two times either. I just want good results on the first try. I appreciate everyone who uses DDG, and perhaps that's the route I would go if I couldn't use my userscript. But I greatly prefer my setup.
- nubbins 6y agoThe best feature for me was being able to use carplay with youtube to watch videos, instead of the limited handful of apps that iOS paternalistically limits you too. Ultimately it wasn't worth the hassle to keep up (and now as a bonus I'm stuck and can't update or un jailbreak).
- colejohnson66 6y agoI mean, there’s a very good reason that YouTube doesn’t support CarPlay (or the other way around): distracted driving.
- withinboredom 6y agoI used to put my iPad on the passenger dash at night and watch a movie on the windshield while I drove. I was driving across the country, for many hours a day. The trick is not to focus on the movie unless something is happening that requires being looked at (hinted by the music). This kept me awake, and I’d hardly have called it a distraction unless you would rather me pass out at the wheel.
- colejohnson66 6y agoThe “correct” course of action if you’re dozing off while driving is to pull off the road and go to sleep. If you’re in the middle of nowhere, there’s bound to be a truck stop on the side somewhere. Studies have shown that driving drowsy is the same as or even worse than driving drunk.
- withinboredom 6y agoI wasn’t drowsy, just bored. You can only listen to so much music.
- anoncake 6y agoThat is a very good reason to think twice before using Carplay, it is not a valid reason to restrict what the user can do.
- trianglem 6y agoI have a grandfathered unlimited internet plan that they won’t allow me to run a hotspot against so I haven’t had a choice.
- underseacables 6y agoI would jail break just to have 5 icons in the dock again.
- piracy1 6y agoThe biggest thing IMO is for security research, given the intense walled garden, it's increasingly required to do any sort of poking around.
- snazz 6y agoIf you're a notable security researcher, Apple has the program for you: https://developer.apple.com/programs/security-research-device/ https://developer.apple.com/programs/security-research-devic... That's their "official solution" to the problem, even if it's somewhat exclusionary. For the rest of us, a checkm8'ed iPhone X works great.
- saagarjha 6y agoIf you're a notable security researcher, there's a good chance that the rules of that program will drive you away from applying.
- snazz 6y agoTrue! If I remember correctly, Project Zero had this exact issue.
- piracy1 6y agoOh wow I didn't know about that. That's neat. I wonder if it's like a NYC CCW in that in theory you can get one but you cant really. I should try to get one. In theory I tick all the boxes (a bit of a stretch). To be eligible for the Security Research Device Program, you must: Be a membership Account Holder in the Apple Developer Program. I used to be, I could be again. Have a proven track record of success in finding security issues on Apple platforms, or other modern operating systems and platforms. I have a CVE in Signal for IOS, and some embedded device shit. Be based in an eligible country or region.* I am that. Participation is not available if you are: In any U.S. embargoed countries, on the U.S. Treasury Department’s list of Specially Designated Nationals, on the U.S. Department of Commerce Denied Persons List or Entity List, or on any other restricted party lists. I am not that. Under the legal age of majority in the jurisdiction in which you reside (18 years of age in many countries). I am not that. Employed by Apple currently or in the last 12 months.} I am not that.
- endgame 6y agoAnd how did we get to that state? By having jailbreaks show everyone what the phone was actually capable of, and Apple had to be dragged along to what the customers actually wanted.
- jbamuro 6y agoThe biggest reason for me is to block ads on social media apps. Many of them have no way of blocking the ads (either through pi-hole or a subscription for example). The other reason is to hide obnoxious features I'd never use that serve as screen clutter (such as stories in messenger)
- proverbialbunny 6y agoDo you have a preferred ad blocker?
- jbamuro 6y agoyou need to have to use app specific tweaks, the best author i've found is haoict
- proverbialbunny 6y agoI'll check it out, thanks. So you know, I have used system wide ad blocking to great success before, but years later and I had forgotten what I had installed. So, I know they exist.
- Hamuko 6y agoCan I disable the random volume drops that Apple forced on me in iOS 14? Because that would get me interested.
- MattRix 6y agoI just switched back to iOS (iPhone 12 Pro) after using Android for 3 years, and there are a lot of things iOS does poorly, notifications being the most glaring one IMO.
- o-__-o 6y agoiPhone user for only the last 2 years here. Yes it does ಠ_ಠ
- alickz 6y agoYeah I'm surprised by how poor iOS notifications are. A feature I really like on Android is being able to block specific notification channels for any given app. Want to receive notifications when your Uber is near, but don't want to receive marketing notifications? Just disable the Marketing channel in the Uber notification settings. Of course it relies on devs to correctly mark their notification channels, but I haven't found many apps that don't.
- HIP_HOP 6y agoTrue. I also don't have a need to jailbreak anymore.
- Valkhyr 6y agoI used to jailbreak. I now use Android. When I did jailbreak, it was never about apps and rarely about high-level features (I did use NC settings before that was an official thing, and I installed a torrent client and some emulators, I think). I jailbroke because I wanted to have access to a local terminal and write and execute arbitrary code on the phone - nothing major, mostly small bash and Python scripts and some C code when I was learning how to program. It was also a philosophical thing: I want to have full ownership over my phone, whether I need that on a day-to-day basis or not. I moved to Android when iOS jailbreaks started to become rarer and slower to appear, and more and more jailbreaks started to be tethered-only. There are only so many hoops I am willing to jump through when I can instead buy an Android phone that officially supports unlocking the bootloader and rooting it.
- jiofih 6y agoMoving to Android so you can jailbreak your phone to run a terminal sounds like a much, much larger hoop than just using a VM.
- opan 6y agoAndroid just has a working terminal without bypassing anything. You can enable one in developer options or just install a third porty terminal like termux. Android and iOS are really not equivalent here. Similarly you can install apps from outside the play store normally. No root, no unlocked bootloader, no funny business. Just a big difference in how each OS treats its users.
- pjmlp 6y agoYou can also install a third party terminal in iOS, in fact the development options for coding on the go on iOS are much more mature than then hacky versions available on Android. Also termux is going to be a thing of the past, because its developers refuse to use the newer Java based APIs in recent Android versions, as Google is closing down the API space available to the NDK, as means to close down on security exploits.
- 6y ago
- josteink 6y ago> Not sure about others but it’s been many years since I felt the need to jailbreak my iOS devices. Until iOS14 you actually had no way to set another default browser and email-client. With that fixed, I find iOS actually half way usable.
- angry_octet 6y agoBut it isn't really a different browser, it's all Safari underneath. And Safari is deliberately crippled.
- josteink 6y agoBut it has different user-experience, different sync-backends, and in general enough things to be of high importance.
- meerita 6y agoI jailbreaked to use the iPhone in europe, with any carrier and to use apps that weren't accepted in iOS back then. Now I don't have this need anymore, in fact my phone has the bare minimum set of apps to run.