So, yes, I own an iPhone (and even spelled it with the stupid correct capitalization). Even worse, I own the first and second generation iPhone. Do I have a good reason for this? No, no I don't (but I could make one up just to justify it, if I really need to). So, why am I admitting to this? Because if I didn't, then I wouldn't be able to talk about how the best part about the iPhone is the community that is behind it jailbreaking it and actually turning something that's just "cool"ish into something that actually is quite useful. So, another admission ... yes, I voided my warranty; I jailbroke my iPhone and am looking at the tools out there. I will not hide in shame, instead I'll just hope that I don't need my warranty anytime soon.
Now... why, some might ask, would you want to jailbreak the phone? With the latest OS, you now have access to the App Store (which is a needed change from the first iPhone release, since relying on Web 2.0 for all of your answers is a huge mistake in my opinion). While there is a lot to be seen in the App Store, there is still more that the phone can do, if only we had the right people working on it. So, here are a few of my favorite and most used features (all of which can only be used after a jailbreak).
Themes (Winterboard)
OK, this is all just nothing more than frills; but I hate the standard iPhone look. It's nice (everyonce in a while) to just have something look dumb/cool. So, here's a look at my iPhone's home screen ... doesn't that just say "hey, that's my iPhone!"
Shell Applications
This is really where the power is. After installing "MobileTerminal", you can now pull up a console on the phone and run console based apps from the phone. Add in the networking features of your phone, and now you have a very powerful diagnostic tool. Have a server on your network that you want to know what services are running, just run an nmap against it. Have some weird network traffic, tcpdump is right there. The list goes on, especially as more standard tools are ported.Tethering
OK, well this one is not only warranty voiding, but perhaps also bill increasing, but I'm going to mention this anyway. Tethering is very important to anyone that finds themselves out on the road and in desperate need of getting online (desperate might be overblown in this sentence, but let's just pretend). There is an App being offered through the App Store, but from what I can tell it keeps appearing and disappearing, making the conspiracy theorist in me wonder. On the other hand, a Socks proxy is freely available via the jailbreak apps. I won't get into the details (as they're publicly available and easy to find via our friends and Google), but having access to the 3G network to write a few quick emails (using a real keyboard, and cut/paste ability) is extremely handy.Well, that's really all I wanted to say. While I don't advocate breaking laws, or ignoring rules, sometimes it's good to look at a tool and see what it really can do. If it were up to me, Apple would just offer these options without having to get around things (cause isn't it bad enough that we can't even get MMS messages? I mean ... a RAZR can do that!).