Is It Safe To Unlock Or Jailbreak Iphone 5s?

By Author: Brooke Perry
Total Articles: 84
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If you have bought the latest iPhone 5S and willing to have the best of apps on it, then some of your friends might have suggested you about jailbreaking. This practice can give you access to much cooler and innovative apps that are generally not available on the official app store of Apple. But legal and moral implications along with safety concerns always surround the concept of jailbreaking because Apple never entertain or encourage this practice.

Apple has always guarded its app store with iron fist and has continued restricting the approval of those apps that don’t comply with the rules of Apple. However, those app developers who couldn’t make to Apple store have now found a new market for selling their apps to the iPhone users. This is where the concept of jailbreaking comes in.

Understanding Jailbreaking

Jailbreaking is the practice through which you can download apps from alternative app stores like Cydia and Rock. The developers, who couldn’t get their apps selected in Apple app store, now sell their stuffs in Cydia and Rock. These apps can be run on your iPhone pretty well.

As a matter ...
... of fact, the apps available in Cydia or Rock are getting very popular among iPhone users because these are far more interesting, innovative and cooler stuff than the Apple app store counterparts. While developing apps for Apple store, developers need to follow strict regulations, whereas in the absence of the shackles of Apple the developer is free to get as innovative as he can. That is why with Cydia, you can get more appealing and high utility apps. Although, Apple has never supported jailbreaking of Apple devices yet the practice has received some legal support from the United States Copyright Office. However, the legality of jailbreaking depends on countries and conditions.

Now, if in temptation of better apps you are thinking of jailbreaking your iPhone 5, then instead of getting concerned about the legality, you must learn whether it is a safe endeavor or not.

Taking this into concern listed below are the major aspects that you must analyze while deciding whether to go for jailbreaking your iPhone 5 or not:

Slower Performance: Apple has certain memory and CPU usage guidelines. Only those apps that comply to these get selected to be on the Apple app store. Hence, the apps that you will be downloading after jailbreaking your phone are most likely to have been developed in violation of the Apple standardized memory and CPU usage guidelines. As a result of using those apps, your phone may have reduced battery life or deliver slower performance as compared to a non jailbroken phone. However, there are various performance management apps available for jailbroken iPhones. So, this issue is actually not a major issue.

Loss of Warranty: Once your phone is jailbroken, it gets devoid of all the warranty that Apple offers on its devices. So, this will be entirely your responsibility if your phone gets some hardware problems, because when Apple will find out that you have jailbroken your phone it will not attend your phone for servicing. However, there are ways of bringing your device back to the original pre-jailbroken state. But again, you never know, Apple may have better technology to detect that as well.

Apple Adopts Once Jailbroken Apps: Some of the officially legal apps that you find in your iPhone 5 were once the jailbroken apps for the earlier versions of iPhone. So, if you wait for a while then most probably the apps which are restricted today, may get accepted tomorrow by Apple.

Your phone may get "locked out": As of now, Apple has not turned completely cold against the jailbreakers and millions of people have continued the practice of downloading better apps from Cydia. But in future Apple may actively condemn the jailbreakers and even can locked out their devices from having access to Apple app store or other content services. If you remember, then Sony did the same by locking jailbroken PS3 users out of the PlayStation Network.

Risk from Malware: One major risk of jailbreaking your device is that of malware. Once you jailbreak your device, Apple's security folks won’t take up the responsibility of your device’s safety. This will make your device vulnerable to iPhone-specific viruses, spyware, and other malware disguised as legitimate apps. So, if you jailbreak your iPhone 5 or 5S, always remember to change the root password after completing the process.

So, now you know about the possible risks involved in practicing jailbreaking. Otherwise, it’s an awesome practice as you can have very cool apps on your device. Moreover, the practice has also received some legal support in the US. Also, the developers of Cydia and Rock app store do police their own code for potential security vulnerabilities. At the end it can be said that as of now, jailbreaking is a safe endeavor that is why so many users are doing it. But at last the decision has to be yours!

About the Author: Brooke M. Perry is an ardent technician associated with Qresolve computer security, with wide experience of fixing issues with PCs, laptops, tablets and smartphones. With a strong track record of devising effective ways of android tablet support and system security, she has so far helped thousands of users across the globe. Her writings on tech issues are the reflection of her in-depth interest and command she carries as a online pc repair technician. Her blogs and articles have been rated high for their lucid style and easy to understand language.