Is iOS jailbreaking really necessary?

[[123533]]

For an Apple fan, the word "jailbreak" may not be unfamiliar. I am always curious and looking forward to it. Sometimes I am more hesitant to try it. That is - is iOS jailbreaking really necessary?

Apple releases a new version of iOS every year. Although there are occasional updates, which are only minor local improvements, if there is a major system-level functional update, it may take a year. However, the pace of jailbreaking innovation will not stop with the release of new versions. When we open the Cydia store intentionally or unintentionally every day, we are always delighted to find new plug-ins or new jailbroken applications.

From the release of the first jailbreak tool by foreign developers in July 2007 to the release of the iOS 7.0.X jailbreak tool evasion by the evad3rs jailbreak dream team in November 2013, every time a new jailbreak tool appears, it always whets the curiosity of Apple fans.

When Apple released iOS 8 at WWDC2014, the Pangu jailbreak team from China took the lead in releasing the iOS 8 jailbreak tool and "shocked" the world. Recently, another Chinese team, Taiji jailbreak, once again "shocked" the world by giving Apple fans around the world a surprise Christmas gift in advance - releasing the world's first iOS 8.1.1 jailbreak tool. It is reported that the new jailbreak tool is relatively stable at present. The tool supports iOS 8.0-iOS 8.1.1, and supports models including iPhone 4s-6Plus, iPad/ iPad air/2, iPad mini/mini2, iPad touchs.

For old Apple fans who have used the iOS system for many years, the benefits of jailbreaking are self-evident. However, for new Apple fans who have just purchased Apple devices, what "jailbreaking" can bring to them and how much real convenience and risks it brings is indeed a very serious topic.

Before discussing this topic, let’s first give Apple fans a brief training course to introduce what “jailbreaking” is.

Many new users are unfamiliar with the term jailbreak. Some people are eager to jailbreak their devices as soon as possible, but they don't know what the difference is between jailbreaking and not jailbreaking. There is also a saying that "jailbreaking is equivalent to installing pirated software", which is of course a misunderstanding of the essence of jailbreaking. In simple terms, it is to break through and increase the use permissions of the iOS system, similar to the "root" of the Android system. Figuratively speaking, the design concept of IOS is a fully enclosed prison that limits certain user operating permissions. Jailbreaking is to break through the permission restrictions, which can maximize the user's "freedom" to fully exert the user's operation and allow the device in hand to play more functions.

To be precise, jailbreaking is a technical means to obtain the most powerful permissions of Apple's operating system IOS. Users can use jailbreaking technology to obtain the most powerful permissions of IOS, and may even further unlock the service restrictions of operators on mobile networks. The most powerful jailbreak generally refers to the device being able to turn on and off normally after the jailbreak is completed. Non-most powerful jailbreak means that the device needs to be rebooted when it is turned on, but there is no difference in use from the most powerful jailbroken device. Jailbreaking will not cause any hardware impact on the device. If it is not used well, you can flash it to the most powerful system, or use SHSH backup to downgrade to the required system version.

The essence of jailbreaking is that the mechanism of iOS guarantees the security of users to the greatest extent. In theory, any Trojan, worm virus or malicious program cannot obtain the user's personal privacy information. The essence of jailbreaking is to violently destroy all security settings and expose all data in the device to all programs.

So what are the benefits of jailbroken devices? In summary, there are three points:

***You can install functional plug-ins. After jailbreaking, you can install famous plug-ins such as Activator, Ifile, SBSettings, KuaiDail, BiteSMS, Winterboard, etc. Through these plug-ins, you can not only improve the functions, but also create a personalized iOS device, such as gesture operation, interface optimization, caller location display, SMS timely reply, file management, custom themes, etc. Most importantly, some plug-ins can also improve the one-handed operation experience of iPhone and other devices through gestures. Before installing the plug-in, you need to add the source through Cydia to achieve the above operations.

Second, it can obtain system operation permissions. Considering the cumbersomeness of Apple iTunes in operation, various third-party assistants have also strived to replace iTunes to a large extent. Therefore, after jailbreaking, users can fully open system permissions, so as to keep pace with Android in file management.

Third, you can create a personalized mobile phone package. By installing plug-in applications, you can set the mobile phone theme at will, beautify the desktop icons, change the theme and ringtones at regular intervals, install cracked game software, and realize the operation of cracking free applications, etc., to optimize the activation effect, make your device stand out from many friends, and create a unique and unique device.

Everything has two sides. Jailbreaking also has its own risks. That is, based on the security protection mechanism of iOS, the real danger is the large-scale leakage of user privacy data. At the same time, jailbreaking shortens the device standby time, slows down, freezes, becomes unstable, and even fails to boot. These phenomena are caused by some unstable third-party applications or plug-ins, and excessive accumulation of system garbage in the iOS system that loses its self-maintenance function after jailbreaking. Most jailbroken users will have such feelings after using the device for a period of time. However, these problems only affect the user experience at most, and cannot be called serious. Moreover, the reduction of system performance is a gradual process, which will also make people gradually adapt.

When Apple entered the iOS 7 era, users' demand for jailbreaking has begun to decrease. This is because users choose jailbreaking because they need to break through the functional defects of the iOS system. While meeting this need, they sacrifice the security and stability of the system. Therefore, when users choose whether to jailbreak, they will face a trade-off. Is it worth giving up the security and stability of the system in order to obtain new functions? In other words, once the iOS system functions are improved, or the new functions brought by jailbreaking are replaced by third-party software, users will no longer demand jailbreaking, and jailbreaking tools will no longer have a foothold. Today, the iOS 8 system has greatly increased the freedom of user permissions while ensuring security, and has opened and supported new functions such as third-party input methods, caller attribution display, and notification center reply messages to optimize the original system. The opening of iOS system permissions will inevitably greatly reduce the demand for jailbreaking.

It is foreseeable that the number of jailbreakers will gradually decrease, but there are two groups of people who may stay until the end of time. One group is users who want to customize iOS functions, and the other group is users who just want to crack the software. The former will not be too many, and they often want to create a personalized phone, such as personalized themes and personalized switches. As for the latter, if the jailbreaker army is left with only this group of people, perhaps the jailbreak team will consider stopping the search for vulnerabilities and jailbreak development for moral and legal reasons. Jailbreaking does bring us more advanced functions and more personalized features, but as iOS functions become more and more abundant, jailbreaking becomes more and more difficult. It is undeniable that many users have begun to hesitate and then ask themselves: "Is iOS jailbreaking really necessary?

In fact, every Apple fan has different understanding and usage requirements for iPhone. Some Apple fans prefer the convenience of iOS system operation, while some Apple fans prefer the smoothness of iOS application experience. Although Apple's upgrade speed before iOS8 was not fast, it is obvious that when iOS8 was released, Apple paid more and more attention to the voice of users, and some new features were added by "borrowing" some special features of Android or Cydia plug-ins, including the control center and gesture operation. The addition has largely solved the problem of inconvenience in user operation, but this non-customizable function has not yet been solved.

With the continuous evolution of iOS system, although the jailbreak method has changed from entering DFU mode to one-click jailbreak today, it is obvious that people's demand for jailbreak has become more rational from blindly following. More and more users will choose whether it is necessary to jailbreak according to their own needs. Jailbreak users have begun to learn to choose the appropriate plug-ins according to their needs, while non-jailbreak users will enjoy a more stable system and safer information protection. Based on this, many Apple fans are still asking themselves, is iOS jailbreaking really necessary?