Why Hack the iPhone?

I resisted the urge to hack the iPhone for a few months, but after hearing about all the bricked phones after update 1.1.1, I became very interested in what it was that so many people wanted that they would be willing to brick their phone. My worry was that I did not want to dip into the innards of Mac OS X (even though I am quite at home with UNIX and Linux) and I sure didn't want to brick my phone.

Then I read about the site www.jailbreakme.com. The people at jailbreakme are to be congratulated on their ability to jailbreak the phone. But more importantly, they are to be congratulated on designing a jailbreak approach that is truly user-friendly. First, you don't need to know anything under the hood of Mac OS X. Second, you don't need to remember or follow any complicated directions. Third, you don't need anything but your iPhone and access to the Internet. The result is a jailbreak process that is as simple to perform as the iPhone is simple to use. But it doesn't stop there. The access to applications, the process of installing selected applications, the process of upgrading those applications, and the process of deleting applications are all ... simple. The result is an outstanding process for adding and managing applications on the iPhone that I highly recommend. With such a simple process, why not hack just to see what's available?

I have included a picture of page 1 of my "Springboard" (iPhone home screen). There are two more pages of applications that are not shown. No more complaints about lack of a "Todo" list. There's an application for that. No more complaints about lack of a search facility--there's an application for that. The screenshot is from an installed application. I have games galore. You get the idea, these applications truly extend the capability of the iPhone.

What's missing? I would still like to see a hack that will allow me to copy-and-paste. I figure it is only a matter of time before someone ports a word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation package to the device: OpenOffice would do just fine. Finally, file uploading and saving capabilities would bring the device to a true portable computer level.

With that said, I am waiting for a "simple" upgrade that will enable the hack to work on 1.1.2. To date they have provided a package that can be installed on a 1.1.1 phone that will then allow upgrading to 1.1.2, but since it does not have the simplicity of the original 1.1.1 hack, I have not upgraded. I would dare say that until Apple provides something truly valuable, there is no reason to upgrade.

Try out www.jailbreakme.com and let me know what you think.