The jailbreak team called Evad3rs has been hard at work to release iOS 6.1 jailbreak for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. The jailbreak called “evasi0n” is now available for download and supports all current iOS 6.1 devices with third gen Apple TV being the only exception.

Apple released iOS 6.1 software update last week which fixed a few bugs and brought movie ticket booking to Siri. The jailbreak team had been busy testing their exploits with the beta version of iOS 6.1 however, waited until final release. Releasing jailbreak to the masses after the final release of software would force Apple to work on another update to patch security holes, which could take considerable time.

Evasi0n is an “untethered” jailbreak which means that you can safely reboot your device without losing the tweak. It will be compatible with devices running iOS 6.0 through 6.1 and requires Windows (XP minimum) or Mac OS X (10.5 minimum) or Linux (x86 / x86_64).

It’s important to note that this jailbreak release won’t unlock your device. However, once the device is jailbroken it allows you to download and run any software that has not been authorised by Apple.

In the past we’ve covered various reasons why one should jailbreak their iPhone, iPad, iPad mini or iPod touch. It allows you to access the Cydia app store where you can download tweaks and themes which can change the way your device looks and works.

There are plenty of little jailbreak tweaks for iPhone 4S that come along, while they are very nice they don’t change your life. Aloud is not one of those tweaks, ok, it may not change your life but, it can certainly change they way that you use your iPhone.

At first it seems that Aloud is a fairly straight forward tweak, it simply reads aloud your notifications for you using Siri’s distinctive tones, however, you don’t have to stick to the voice set for Siri, you can instead choose from one of over 30 different voices, some of which can be very funny if you don’t think it’s thinly veiled racism! However it’s the depth of Aloud that makes it fully functional and usable in your everyday life.

Enabling Aloud is simple, once downloaded from Cydia a new option is added to your Settings and the full app can be either enabled or disabled. At this point all notifications will be read aloud to you as soon as they appear on your screen. This means that you don’t have to be looking at your iPhone to know whats happening.

This may be a little overkill though, having every notification read out to you may be too much for you, let alone everyone else that will also be able hear your notifications, including the text message from your significant other telling you that they love you, if not worse!

Help is at hand though as there are multiple options to control which alerts are read and when. You can set which apps don’t speak aloud by turning them off via the Application setting for that app completely but then you can also limit them based on whether your device is locked or not, only when you are wearing headphones, while you are on a call, on certain wi-fi networks or when certain apps are running. The options are endless, although there’s no way to only speak the personal text messages from your significant other as mentioned previously.

The latest update to Aloud will even read a full email to you, again, that may be a little to much to handle, although if you’ve enabled the Stop Speaking Activator method you can immediately stop the notification being spoken by completing one of the many Activation methods, in my case a double click of the Home button.

The features keep on coming though and now Aloud can even announce map directions for you from the default maps app. This could be the difference between spending big on a full fledge navigation app or not.

If you only buy one Jailbreak app then this is the one, it’s the reason why people jailbreak. Aloud is available in the Cydia Store now for just $1.99.

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The tweaks for jailbroken devices keep coming thick and fast. Some change the aesthetics of the iPhones while other change existing or and new functionality which the iPhone out of the box does not provide.

This week we deal with some of each and the first is one that we are running a competition to win 1 of five free copies, and that’s WorldClockCenter for Notification Center.

WorldClockCenter for Notification Center

A more detailed review of the tweak can be read here which includes instructions on the competition too.

In short WorldClockCenter for Notification Center simply adds all of the world clocks from the default clock app to the Notification Center and so if you have colleagues, family or friends located in different time-zones then this is a great app which will set you back a cent under $2.

PushTone

With the introduction of iOS5 notifications have come along way, however, one thing that you haven’t been able to do is know which notification you are being alerted too if you can’t see your iPhone.

That changes though with the introduction of PushTone which allows you to assign any of your Alert Tones or Ringtones to each individual application that allows sound notifications.

This is all done via the Notifications settings screen as a new PushTone option is added to each apps notifications page. It’s simple and effective, just make sure that you select short tones as the sound can’t be dismissed prior to it ending.

Graviboard

Graviboard is not a new jailbreak but it’s just been updated to support iOS 5 and it now works even better and smoother especially on the iPhone 4s and iPad 2. Graviboard adds gravity to your homescreens and with it your app icons and folders will float around the screen causing controlled chaos.

You can not only control when Graviboard activates but also whether you can still activate apps, swipe between pages, and how much gravity there is, how bouncy the icons are and how much friction there is.

Graviboard is a fun tweak and one that is surprisingly usable as the icons float around. It will certainly get your iPhone noticed too.

AnimateDock

AnimateDock is another tweak that will affect how your home screen looks, specifically the dock, and does exactly what you would expect it too, it animates the dock each time the homescreen is activated whether it be from unlocking the screen or closing an app.

There are multiple effect options to choose from and they can be enabled simultaneously too, so while you can have them rotating to the left, or zoom in and out you can also turn both on and have them rotate while zooming in and out!

AnimateDock is a little rough around the edges but can still produce some fun results.

What new tweaks have you installed this week? Let us know in the comments below or tweet me directly at @4forkssake.

WorldClockCenter for Notification Center – Jailbreak Tweak for iPhone

The sign of a good jailbreak tweak is one that is easy, effective and adds functionality to your device and with WorldClockCenter you get all those things.

WorldClockCenter for Notification Center adds all the world clocks from the iPhone Clock default app and adds them to the iOS 5 Notification Centre. If you travel with your iPhone or if you are one of the many people that work in an environment where you are working with colleagues and customers all of the world the this simple tweak is most certainly for you.

The tweak installs easily from Cydia and adds a new option to your Settings where you can tweak the app further. There are 5 options to play with so that you can get it looking just how you like. You can control the Time Format, Date Format, Text Size and the order of the Date & Time along with the option of showing the city name or not.

Via the Notification Center settings itself you can control where in it will display and I found the best option to be at the top of the screen. Along with the settings you previously set the national flag of the country in question is also displayed alongside each time. This could be repetitive if you have multiple clocks from the same country such as the multiple time-zones in the USA but it’s not a problem.

The clocks are displayed based on the order that they are in the default Clock app any change can be made without requiring a re-spring to have them take affect.

As previously mentioned if you work across multiple time-zones or have family and friends around the world then WorldClockCenter for Notification Center is for you and is available via Cydia right now for just $1.99.

But thanks to tweak author Edouard Durand (@xiaodoudou) we have 5 copies of this tweak to give away, all you need to do is complete the following two steps:

1. Follow @Touch_Reviews on Twitter
2. Tweet the following “I’m trying to win #WorldClockCenter @Touch_Reviews! Click here for more information. https://touchreviews.net/worldclockcenter-notification-center-jailbreak-tweak-iphone.”

5 randoms winners will win a copy of WorldClockCenter for Notification Center from those who have completed the 2 steps above before Midnight on Friday March 2nd.

Good luck and should you have any thoughts on this or any other Jailbreak tweak ask in the comments below or follow me on Twitter, @4forkssake.

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Why Jailbreak iPhone – Winterboard

As well as adding new features and tweaks to your jailbroken iPhone one of the more popular reasons to jailbreak is to apply themes to your device to change it’s look.

There a a couple of tools to do this but the most popular one is Winterboard and once you have downloaded this from Cydia you will open up a wide variety of themes that can be easily downloaded and enabled from within the Winterboard interface.

In fact the process of downloading, installing and enabling themes via Winterboard you can have a different theme everyday if you so wish. Having said that there will probably come a time when you come across a theme that just looks so good that it will stay on your device for good.

Jaku Review

Jaku is a theme by William Szilveszter a beautifully crafted masterpiece that will make your iPhone stand out from all the stock devices of your friends and family.

The polish and attention given to the redesign of the application icons is incredible, they pop off the screen and both the stock apps and many others have been given the full Jaku treatment. In fact, there are so many Jaku icons that when the designer asked me to use a screenshot that only included Jaku icons I ended up have to move one icon from my home screen. In total there are 180 icons in the Jaku theme and more being added all the time.

This theme doesn’t just end there though. The package includes a custom wallpaper and themes for the phone dial, notification center, music player, lock screen and more.

If you haven’t themed your iPhone before now’s a great time to start as your retina display can look even more stunning than it already does especially if you choose the Jaku theme by William Szilveszter. Jaku is available for for just $2.99 in the Cydia store while Winterboard is available for free.

Which is your favorite iPhone theme? Let us know in the comments below or tweet me @4forkssake about jailbreak tweaks and themes.

The first of these new tweaks is RingerX VIP by @_Yllier_ which enables you to manage your call and message alerts on a contact by contact basis. If you want your iPhone to ring or vibrate for certain contacts even when the phone is set to silence or vice-versa then this is the tweak for you.

You can also mute you whole iPhone for a given time and it will automatically come out of silence mode when the timer runs out. The sign of a good tweak is one that works with minimal setup and maintenance and RingerX VIP certainly does that.

MusicBanners by serial Jailbreak tweaker @rpetrich is an even simpler tweak that does exactly what it says. While music from your iPod is playing every time the song changes the notification banner at the to of your screen will appear and show the artist, track name and the album artwork.

Ryan Petrich also quickly rolled out a response to the issue where the social networking app Path was found to be uploading your iPhone’s contacts to their servers. While Path also responded to the issue you can now be notified when any app attempts to use your contacts by installing ContactPrivacy.

Jepit is a tweak that changes the animation method when switching between apps via the multitask bar, it’s pretty subtle but nice none the less and there are a range of options to change the animation style and speed. The latest update also includes the ability to control the number of apps in your app switcher and whether or not they show badges.

Finally it’s recommended that if you want to be able to preserve your Jailbreak that you back up your SHSH ‘blob’. Your SHSH file will allow you to keep your device jailbroken even after apple disable your ability to use a firmware that is jailbreakable. iFaith and TinyUmbrella are two pieces of software that will help you do this.

These are just a few of the great reasons to jailbreak. If you have questions or comments about anything jailbreak related post in the comments below or tweet me @4forkssake.

Why Jailbreak? Tweaks and Apps that make jailbreaking your iPhone / iPad worth it.

The jailbreak community has grown extensively over the past couple of weeks thanks to the release of Absinthe which provided an untethered jailbreak for the iPhone 4S and iPad 2. It has been a long wait, especially for those of us that have had a jailbreak before on their previous iPhone’s and have been without one ever since.

So for those people who are new to the jailbreaking scene I’ll be covering the what’s new in jailbreaking each week including new apps, tweaks and jailbreaking news.

As this is the first in the series I’m going to cover some of the reasons why I jailbreak, some of these will be tweaks that have been around for a long time while others are new since Absinthe was released.

On Janaury 20th the Chronic Dev Team released GreenPois0n Absinthe and those iPhone 4S and iPad 2 owners could jailbreak their devices and the process, for most people, was relatively painless.

The jailbreak was as simple as connecting your device to your Windows PC or Mac and running the GreenPois0n Absinthe tool. From than on the tool did all the work and unlike previous jailbreaks there isn’t even a need to put your device into DFU mode, a kind of special sleep mode that allows the device OS to be updated.

After just 15 minutes the Jailbreak was complete and I was ready to add the tweaks and apps that turn my iPhone into the device I know and love.

First up was SBSettings and Activator, two tools that allow you to access iPhone settings and actions via gestures on the home screen or by using the physical buttons on the device. If you frequently have to turn on/off wifi or Bluetooth these two tools are awesome and now SBSettings can now be added to your iOS5 Notification Center for even easier access.

Next up is iFile which gives you access to browse the iPhone file directory and IncarcerApp which for those of you with young children is great as it prevents the home button from being used when your children are in certain applications, this means that they can play their favorite games with the risk of them making phone calls, sending text messages or anything else on your iPhone.

The final of the apps that are jailbreak staples for me is BiteSMS which replaces the standard message apps and adds feature upon feature to the default text messaging application. The two that ensures that BiteSMS is one of the first apps installed is the ability to quickly start an SMS via the volume buttons and the ability to reply to an incoming text or iMessage without having to go to the messaging app.

In addition to these established tweaks there have been a number of new tweaks on the block that have added great new functionality to the already great iPhone.

Call Bar – The default action of an incoming call on an iPhone is to take over the whole screen until you’ve decided how you want to handle the call. With Call Bar installed the incoming call now appears at the top of the screen just like notifications do.

From there you can answer or reject the call either via buttons or by swiping it. This give you full access to use the phone as you please while the call sits at the top of the screen. This is one of those tweaks which makes you wonder how it wasn’t included in the iPhone by default.

Zephyr – This is another tweak that makes you wonder why it’s not part of the standard OS as it’s such a simple, yet great tweak. Zephyr adds multitasking gestures to the iPhone 4S which enables you to do 3 things.

• Swipe left and right to switch between apps.
• Swipe up to close open applications
• Smoothly swipe up to access the multitask icons

Not only are these features great if your iPhone is fully functional but if you happen to be one of the unlucky ones who has a broken home buttons then they become life savers!

SiriToggles – 3 out of 3 for tweaks that have no reason not to be in the iOS by default as SiriToggles adds the ability to open apps and activate/deactivate iOS settings via Siri. “Set brightness to 50%”, “Turn off Bluetooth”, “Open Safari” will all now work and makes Siri a little less Beta than it previously was!

These are just a few of the great reasons to jailbreak. If you have questions or comments about anything jailbreak related post in the comments below or tweet me @4forkssake.

Hot on the heels of the great Gesturizer tweak I’ve got hold of KBShortcuts, a tweak that adds a plethora of shortcuts to your iOS devices’ virtual keyboard.

After installing the tweak via Cydia a new option will be available in your settings menu to turn on the tweak as well as change some settings, more of those later.

As soon as the tweak is enabled the majority of the shortcuts are active including those that you will know from you computers keyboard, namely Cut, Copy and Paste via the X, C and V buttons.

Activating any of the actions is a simple task of dragging your finger from the space bar to the key of the shortcut that you wish to activate.

You also don’t need to select the word the you need to cut or copy as it will automatically select either the word the cursor is in the middle of or in front of, it really couldn’t be any easier.

Cut, copy and paste are just the beginning of the shortcuts that are available, Z & R will undo and redo respectively while @ will insert the email address that you have set in the KBShortcut settings page.

The full list of shortcuts is as follows:

@ – Insert email
a – Select all
b – Set bookmark
c – Copy
d – Define word
e – End of document
f – Search
g – Go to
h – Beginning of document (home)
i – Line up
j – Previous character
k – Line down
l – Next character
m – Next word
n – Previous word
o – Toggle overwrite
p – End of line
q – Start of line
r – Replace
s – Select current/Pervious word
t – Translate
u – Toggle case
v – Paste
w – Word count
x – Cut
y – Redo
z – Undo
0 – Insert favorite
1 – Insert favorite
2 – Insert favorite
3 – Insert favorite
4 – Insert favorite
5 – Insert favorite
6 – Insert favorite
7 – Insert favorite
8 – Insert favorite
9 – Insert favorite

Looking at this list you may be thinking that you are never going to remember all these shortcuts so it defeats the object, however after just a few hours of using KBShortcuts my most frequently used shortcuts have become second nature.

This is now one of my most frequently used Jailbreak tweaks and the beauty of it is that you don’t feel like you are using a tweak as it just feels so right and natural.

KBShortcuts is available in Cydia now for $2.50.

In my opinion the answer is yes especially when fantastic tweaks like Gesturizer appear in Cydia.

Gesturizer allows you to create custom gestures on your iOS device, both iPhone and iPad are supported, which go beyond the current jailbreak functionality enabled by Activator by allow you to assign touch screen drawings to launch apps, settings and webpages.

Installing Gesturizer is just a couple of clicks from the Cydia Store and a re-spring away and before you know it you are ready to assign an unlimited number of gestures.

Gesturizer doesn’t add any new icons to your screen but instead can be accessed via the settings page.

From here you can manage you existing gestures and add new ones. Add a new gesture is a simple 3 step process:

1. Name you gesture.
2. Assign the action.
3. Record the gesture.

With those 3 steps completed you can now start using them.

To use any gesture you need to put it in the call listening mode so that Gesturizer recognizes your gesture. To do this all you need to do is simple double tap the home button and bring up the multi-tasking bar.

With the multi-tasking bar visible you can now write your gesture on the screen to activate the action.

To keep things simple I’ve set my most frequently used features to use the first letter of their name. For example to launch WunderRadio my favorite radio app I simply write a W on the screen and to launch the BBC website it’s a B.

Gestures aren’t limited to letters though, for example to access my wifi settings I draw a pylon and to my Fantasy Football website it’s a football including the laces.

All of these gestures have worked 100% of the time for me although if you do use symbols that are similar for different actions then you may not be so successful.

I love Gesturizer it’s exactly the sort of Jailbreak tweak that will keep me Jailbreaking for the foreseeable future.

Gesturizer is available in the Cydia App Store now for $2.99.

The install via Cydia is as easy as any jailbreak tweak and once installed all that’s required is for you to enter your Google Voice user name and password via the Settings page. The only other option is to set what you would like he default action to be when dialing a contact. You have the choice of either Carrier, Google or Always Ask which will give you the option to choose between the two options each time you dial a customer.

The default setting can be overwritten for any single contact so while you may have Always Ask set as your default setting if you want to use your Google Voice number everytime you want to call your Dr you can set that against their contact record and you won’t be asked.

The integration is so simple and slick GVIntegrated is a natural choice for anyone that uses Google Voice and with more features set to be included in future updates here’s no reason not to get it.

GVIntegrated is available in Cydia now for just $1.99.

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Now though there is a new kid on the block and it’s looking pretty impressive. Dreamboad is a new themeing solution that enables even more customizations and some stunning designs that can be changed on the fly. Dreamboard can be downloaded from Cydia as can the various Dreamboard theme’s and once you’ve done that a new icon for Dreamboard will appear on your Springboard. Launching Dreamboard will allow you to scroll through your downloaded themes although one them is provided so you don’t have to download any additional themes if you don’t want to.

Within Dreamboard you can easily scroll though all the themes that you have and apply them by simply selecting the one you want and hitting Apply.

This will apply the theme immediately without the need to re-spring the device as Winterboard requires which is a nice touch and so it’s ready to use immediately.

All the themes while looking beautiful offer different features out of the box, these include Facebook and Twitter widgets and weather widgets.

Editing the themes is relatively easy too, you can add apps to the various screens and pages depending on the them and set the weather location. Although it has to be said that up to this point while I can replace apps I’ve not been able to find how to delete them.

The Dreamboard is easy to use and edit it’s not going to replace my Winterboard theme at the moment as I’ve found that it too frequently crashes the springboard, something that Winterboard never does for me.

Dreamboard is $2.99 in Cydia and while it’s not going to replace my Winterboard theme quite yet it’s great fun to play with and has a lot of potential which I hope will be fulfilled.

1. Mail Enhancer ($1.99)

The first app I’d recommend you download from Cydia is Mail Enhancer which packages a bunch of email tweaks into one elegant application.

One of the main features is the ability to add custom HTML signatures to each of your email accounts. Admittedly you will need to know your HTML tags to take advantage of using the full functionality but even without that you can still add individual signatures to each of your email accounts which is a great feature.

The other major feature of Mail Enhancer are the notifications which will not only enable a popup to include the sender and subject of the email but also announce them via speech so that you can know who is emailing you without even looking at you phone. This speech feature does get a little annoying after a while so it’s good that it can be switched on and off as required.

At $1.99 Mail Enhancer is a must have for anyone that frequently emails from their jailbroken device.

2. Color Mail Labels ($0.99)

If you have a lot of different email accounts it can often be difficult to know which account they came from while viewing the consolidated ‘All Inboxes’ view.

This is where Color Mail Labels comes in as it will add color coded icons to the left hand side of each mail in the list view of all your emails.

The app adds a new icon to your springboard and from here you choose from a variety of color options from small squares and circles to coloring the date that appears on the right hand side of each email.

The app is simple to use and if you do have a lot of email accounts can make maintaining them even easier.

3. PhotoMail ($1.00)

Who doesn’t want to share their great photographic endeavors with their family and friends. With the default functionality you would have to start with your photos, select them and then write your email.

This isn’t always how users work however, sometimes you’ll be writing an email and decide that you want to add a picture. Well with PhotoMail you can do just that.

The ability to add a picture or pictures is via the copy/paste menu which will now include a +icon which opens up your Picture Roll for you to select the picture you wish to attach to your email. Just repeat this process for as many pictures as you wish to include.

For those of you that take advantage of the Action Menu tweak will be pleased to know that it’s 100% compatible too.

Other Email Tweaks

Those were a few of the major tweaks that you can benefit from by jailbreaking your iPhone, some of the other smaller tweaks include :-

4. Pull To Refresh for Mail – Adds the ability to pull down on your email list to refresh your email and pull any new emails from your email server.

5. AskToSend – Prompts for a confirmation before sending an email to help avoid sending emails before they are ready by accident.

6. DeleteMail – Should probably be renamed DeleteAllMail as that’s exactly what it will do at the simple push of a button.

These are just some of the main tweaks you can apply to the email functionality of your Jailbroken iPhone. Do you use any of these or are there some that we have missed? Add your thoughts in the comments section below.

When iOS 4 was introduced a little under a year ago it brought with it a feature that many users of iOS devices was looking for, namely multitasking, and more importantly fast app switching.

While the theory of fast app switching was good Apple’s first attempt didn’t quite meet all the requirements. Activating the native task switcher is a double click of the Home button and a stream of all the active applications is presented along the bottom of the screen. From here you can swipe to the left to view the icons and then select the one you want to activate.

This is all well and good but what about if you want a little more from your task switching, what if you want to be able to see the whole app that you want to switch between? Well, for those of you who jailbreak their iPhone / iPad have some options, most notably with PhySwitch ($1.99) and Multifl0w ($4.99) which over two alternatives to switch between your active tasks.

Both are simple installs via cydia and while neither will appear as new apps on your home screen Multifl0w will appear in your settings while PhySwitch will simply need to be given an activation method via Activator.

The recommended activation method for PhhySwitch is holding down both volume buttons. This has two benefits, one is that it’s difficult to activate on accident and the second being is that because you can scroll through the active apps using the volume buttons your fingers will already be in the right place.

That being said though it does take some practice to get them both pressed at the same time so you may want to persevere or set a different activation method. Once activated your active applications show up as a card taking up 80% of the screen and you can scroll through them using the + and – volume buttons, alternatively you can just swipe the screen.

Tapping the screen will activate the selected application and you can get straight back to working in that application. There is also a close icon on each of the applications so that you can easily close any applications you don’t need taking up valuable memory anymore.

At $4.99, over twice the price of PhySwitch, you would expect Multifl0w to have  more bells and whistles and you’d be right. The major difference with Multifl0w is the two different styles of app switching, one is Expose while the other is Cards.

Cards mimic the card view that PhySwitch uses although rather than scrolling vertically the cards can be scrolled horizontally. Apps can also be closed using the close button at the top left of each card.

Expose mode places all open apps on the same page up to a maximum of 9. This can provide you with a quick overview of all your open apps on a single screen, although it goes without saying that the more you have open smaller each card is in Expose view.

Expose also offers a few other features such as being able to rearrange the tabs in expose mode and change the wallpaper when Multif0w is active which helps justify the additional cost.

Out of the two PhySwitch will satisfy the needs of most users looking for a more robust app switching tool, where-as my preference is for Multifl0w and it’s additional feature set.

This is not the case anymore with the new Cydia app (jailbreak required) named CleverPin which will prevent your phone from locking under when certain circumstances are met such as listening to music, being charged, airplane mode or my favorite, when connected to a given network.

Once CleverPin has been installed via Cydia it’s accessible via the settings page and this is where you can enable the circumstances in which you don’t want to be prompted for the unlock code.

While most of the settings are simple on/off toggles the connected to network functionality requires the extra step of adding the name of the network you wish to take advantage of. You can either add the network name manually or automatically add the name of the network you are connected to.

Once this is done you are good to go and so now whenever I am connected to my home network whenever my iPhone goes to sleep I don’t need to enter the pin code when I wake it up. As soon as I leave my home though the secure pin code is automatically enabled just due to the the fact I’m not connected to my network any more.

This is one of those tweaks that should have been part of the iOS but thanks to iPhone jailbreak and for just just a few dollars you can buy CleverPin for iPhone. It has a pass-code that gives me both security and flexibility. If you are jailbroken then head on over to the Cydia Store now and search for CleverPin by Filippo_Biga aka @FilippoBiga on Twitter.

When I invested in my iPhone 4 it was my first foray into into Apple’s cell phones. I had used both an Apple iPad and iPod Touch before so I pretty much knew what I was letting myself in for. I also knew what a big investment it was going to be but after years of frustration with my various Windows Mobile cell phones I was ready to give up on the flexibility and customization that I had on my WinMo cell phone and move onto one that had the functionality I was looking for.

I’d heard about jailbreaking before but never understood the need for it or what was involved to get it done but after playing with my iPhone 4 for just a few days I began reading more and more about what it was and how it was done.

It’s not difficult to find out everything you need to know about jail breaking, and a lot that you don’t, via the Internet and after a few hours and multiple hours I was sold on the idea of jailbreaking my iPhone 4.

There were multiple reasons that sold me on jail breaking, all things that were impossible to do without jailbreaking thanks to Apple’s locked down system that restricts the iPhone to all but the smallest of changes.

Here are the apps, yes jailbroken iPhones have their very own App Store too, that convinced me to jailbreak my iPhone and the risks involved in the process.

AndroidLock XT – A lock screen that allows you to trace a set pattern on your iPhones touch screen to unlock it.

biteSMS – An alternative to the stock iPhone txt messaging application that adds such features as quick reply, (without exiting out of your active application), scheduled sending and templates to name but a few of the features.

Display Recorder – Record the iPhones screen including the springboard, games and apps, save them locally and even upload them to YouTube.

Infinifolders – This one is my favourite, remove the 12 app limit on folders so that you can store an unlimited number of app in folders.

User Agent Faker – A tool which enables you to control how your iPhone presents itself to websites so that you can prevent the automatic redirection to the mobile version of a website.

SBSettings – A quick access tool which enables you to toggle things settings on and off such as data, Bluetooth, wifi and the aforementioned user agent faker.

These are just a few if the major apps that I have applied to my iPhone since jailbreaking it and they are as easy to install as an app from Apple’s very own App Store.

Some of these apps are free while some of them have to be paid for which you can do via such payment methods as Amazon and Paypal. It’s all very easy, almost as easy as the App Store itself and it’s this simplicity in both purchasing apps and the initial jailbreak itself that keeps me jailbroken.

Prior to the latest jailbreak users could only jailbreak their iPhones by downloading a piece of software to their computers, hook up their iPhone to the computer and then run the software. While this wasn’t difficult it did add another level to the process.

However, the latest jailbreak can be done directly on and iPhone simply by navigating to a specific website and follow the instructions. When this process was announced I didn’t jailbreak right away but instead monitored others who were using this method to jailbreak their iPhones via a range of online forums.

When adding any non-proprietary software to any device there are risks involved and I was always warned that the jailbreak would void my warranty with Apple and more worryingly “brick” my phone.

As I watched the progress of the jailbreakers on the forums it was clear that the vast majority of users weren’t encountering any issues and so I went ahead and applied the jailbreak to my iPhone and have not looked back since.

It appears that the ongoing battle between Apple and the developers that enable users to jailbreak their devices is here to stay and the next salvo in the battle takes place next week when Apple release iOS 4.1.

For those people who jailbreak the decision again will be based on the fact that if the latest version of Apple’s firmware have enough new features that they are willing to give up their jailbreak for and how long will it be before the developers behind the jailbreak succeed in jail breaking that OS too?

Only time will tell…