Christmas is almost upon us, and you know what that means! A deluge of 'Best of the Year' lists are soon going to be unleashed upon the web. Wired has gotten an early start and compiled a list of the Top 10 Gadgets of 2007, and the iPhone made the cut. Interestingly, though, Wired has listed a 'Jailbroken iPhone,' and not the default iPhone that Apple ships.I have nothing against Jailbreaking iPhones, but I must admit that my iPhone was Jailbroken for less than an hour. I just couldn't find any apps that were compelling enough for me to have to worry about firmware updates and the like.
I am sure this won't be the last year end list that the iPhone will end up on.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
12-24-2007 @ 6:24PM
trebe said...
seriously? iPhysics, terminal, vnsea, sketches and isolitaire definitely make it worth it for me.
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12-25-2007 @ 1:20AM
starkruzr said...
++++
Also bsflite (the lightweight text-mode AIM client), ssh, MobileRSS.app, Sketches, MobileScrobbler.app, Send*.app, the Safari download plugin, and MobileFinder.
The iPhone simply would not be worth it to me without the 3rd-party apps. I use them constantly.
12-25-2007 @ 9:49AM
tedjohns said...
where did you get iphysics - what source? Thanks Ted
12-24-2007 @ 7:05PM
Mo said...
It's Books.app that really puts it on the map for me… now if only there were more e-books available via Installer.app.
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12-24-2007 @ 7:28PM
Semisans said...
@ Mo: I use the Freeware http://lokiware.info/Palm-Doc-Converter to convert any kind of text into a PalmDoc document, Books.app reads them without problems, even compressed. This works also with most PDF files.
12-25-2007 @ 10:56PM
Ryan said...
Two words: Project Gutenberg. Over 17K books out of copyright, all downloadable as .txts.
Download, SSH into your iPhone or Touch, drop the files in the eBooks folder, and enjoy content & functionality that (IMO) is good enough to prevent anyone shelling out $400 for a Kindle.
12-24-2007 @ 7:31PM
Mo said...
@Semisans: Oh great—I'll look into that, thanks!
I used to have loads of PDB e-Books on my old Tungsten, I wonder if I archived them anywhere, actually…
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12-24-2007 @ 7:59PM
Joel S said...
I'm with the writer: I had my iPhone jailbroken for a week or so and the only really compelling program was Navizon, but I didn't even use that very much. Most of the rest was ebooks and changing the background image, it seemed to me, so I just updated with the last update. I'll wait for the official SDK.
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12-24-2007 @ 8:05PM
lawrence said...
For us Canadians, a jailbroken iPhone remains the only game in town. It's not so much for the apps, but just to be one of the few in town with an iPhone makes it worth the 372 CDN$ I spent and the 3 hours to crack my iPhone to use with a Rogers SIM card.
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12-24-2007 @ 10:02PM
gabe said...
Hi Lawrence,
what plan did you get through Rogers - I just got my iphone here in Ontario, Canada. Any suggestions would be great.
12-26-2007 @ 4:14PM
JJ said...
Lawrence,
It's guys like you who make me hate having an iPhone.
TONS of Canadians have them. My girlfriend, 6 of my other friends, including myself.
It's about the phone. Not being "exclusive"
So silly.
12-24-2007 @ 8:15PM
deceasedcomrade said...
I'd have to agree that Jailbreaking isn't everything. I spent a few months with my iPhone jailbroken and it just ended up being more trouble than it was worth. My problem was the instability that I encountered, it would just crap out too much when I really needed it to work and I just had enough of that. Now it works when I need it to, and that's more important than being able to wow people with games and a terminal that I barely used.
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12-24-2007 @ 8:35PM
Michael Black said...
I agree. I had mine jailbroken for a time and then when 1.1.1 came out I lost the jailbroken ability for a while and I missed it. Then when they figured out how to EASILY jailbreak it with 1.1.1 firmware I got it back. But I simply couldn't take the instability. I love all the 3rd party apps out there, but the fact that it would crash on me quite frequently made me go back. Hopefully the SDK will have more or a lot of the same great 3rd party apps PLUS stability.
12-25-2007 @ 1:07AM
starkruzr said...
I think most people have been able to agree that instability experienced was a result of SummerBoard after the 1.1.1 update. I used to have massive stability problems but when I stopped using SummerBoard they all cleared up immediately. Lots of fellow iPhone owners have told me the same thing.
12-25-2007 @ 11:14AM
deceasedcomrade said...
I could only assume that with enough experimentation one could get it stable enough to use, but that would've taken more time than just restoring it and getting the most recent firmware. (And that left me stuck with 1.1.2 which requires even more work to jailbreak)
12-24-2007 @ 8:47PM
Chris Thomson said...
I have my iPod touch jailbroken only because I want Mail, Maps, and Weather. I don't get much use out of third party apps for it.
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12-24-2007 @ 11:12PM
Kai Cherry said...
I haven't heard such utter crap in my life.
The most unstable app on the iPhone ships from Apple: MobileSafari.
::rolls eyes...twice::
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12-25-2007 @ 2:42AM
victorbravo said...
I live in Canada and am very happy with my jailbroken iPhone, my cellular plan was grandfathered before Fido was taken over by Rogers Wireless. Unlimited Data + Unlimited (5,000 minutes) a month local calling, 1,000 minutes long distance = $100.00/month
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12-25-2007 @ 9:18PM
Ian Creelman said...
Just kidding I am just jealous.
Wish I was a gradfather, er I mean.. had a grandfather. Uhm....
Damn Rogers.
12-25-2007 @ 4:00AM
harrywolf said...
Hmmm...I havent had very many problems at all - Summerboard can be troublesome, but not the other apps.
Instability? Sorry no.
I have been using mine for 4 months in Canada on my Rogers plan, with a small amount of data (Google Maps is essential for me). Just perfect.
Its time to stop calling this a phone - its way more than that.
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