It is a lot of work to make sure that everything keeps working when you use a product in a way that it was not intended to be used. I have unlocked my iPhone a couple of times, but it is now completely locked and jailed. Before you chastise me for selling out, here me out:
The first reason I restored my iPhone is simple; it was glitchy when it had third party software on it. I never had my iPhone crash or glitch at all until I unlocked and put third party software on it. I thought some of the things that I could put on it were cool, but it would often make the iPhone lock up and I would have to restart it. This never happened before I unlocked it and has never happened since I restored the iPhone and left it standard.
The second reason is that there are really no third party programs that compare to the user friendliness of the standard Apple software. I love the way that the operating system works on the iPhone and the interaction is amazing even still. However, I have to hand it to those out there that are working on their own and are able to make programs that can even work on the iPhone; it is very impressive to me.
The third reason is that you have to work hard to keep up with all of the changing software and updates. This may be more of a time issue for me, but it seems like a very difficult task just to keep it working with all of the iPhone firmware updates. This also cripples the third party software though; because it is constantly changing the third party software is constantly trying to keep up with the changes rather than actually being free to truly grow in its robustness. This leads to software that has a lot of potential, but is constantly being struck down by Apple.
The third reason is that you have to work hard to keep up with all of the changing software and updates. This may be more of a time issue for me, but it seems like a very difficult task just to keep it working with all of the iPhone firmware updates. This also cripples the third party software though; because it is constantly changing the third party software is constantly trying to keep up with the changes rather than actually being free to truly grow in its robustness. This leads to software that has a lot of potential, but is constantly being struck down by Apple.
Overall, unlocking or jailbreaking your iPhone can have a lot of great advantages, but I have found that it is too time consuming for me. I liked some of the options that the third party software added, but I truly enjoy my iPhone much more overall without the hacks. Once the actual third party software that natively works on the iPhone comes out it will be a lot better because all of those that are creating programs right now will have more freedom to make truly great programs that work flawlessly on the iPhone.
