[Windows Phone 7 General] eaglesteve:
Jailbreaking on 3GS using Blackra1n is even easier than installing a cab files via ActiveSync so it is not correct to say that there is no useable JB. The procedure consist of downloading blackra1n.exe to the PC, connect up iPhone to your PC using USB cable, then click blackra1n to start it, and click on the button that appears. Done. It is that easy - until Apple came along and modified the bootrom for the newer 3GS. You still can jailbreak with the same procedure with the 3GS with the newer bootrom. However, when you in rare occasions need to reboot the phone (e.g., when completely running out of battary causing it autoshut), then you need to connect the iPhone to a PC and click on Blackra1n once again to complete the booting. Your data and jailbroken applications are intact and not affected, but it is a little hassle when rebooting. There is a tiny little hardware device that you can plug into the iPhone during the reboot so that you need not use the PC though for the new 3GS.

The baseband is the equivalent of the radio in winmo and is of interest only if you want to unlock your phone to use a different carrier or when travel overseas. The most current baseband unlocking has not been released to the public yet, not because the development could not do it, but because they do not want to let Apple know where the hole is, so that the team can reserve the unlocking method for the iPhone 4G firmware which is due soon. Firmware 3.1.3 does not give any functionality whatsoever other than stopping the jailbreak.

I did upgrade to 3.1.3 while using a flawed jailbreak software a while ago. So for a couple of days I thought my jailbreak is gone until a real jailbreak solution for 3.1.3 is given. Fortunately, I was able to downgrade back to 3.1.2 and rejailbreak. For those who are unfortunately not able to go back to 3.1.2, I understand someone has released a pre-jailbroken 3.1.3 firmware for these users to "flash" via iTune but I have not tried it as 3.1.3 does not have any new functions and features that's not in 3.1.2.

If Apple does not deliver some of the extended functionalities given by the jailbreak community, I would certainly have no interest in iPhone. I don't care much about the abilty to use cracked software because I only use it for trial purposes for extremely expensive software only (like TomTom, which cost AUD100, or as low as AUD60 if you use discounted iTune cards to do the purchasing).

If Apple's concern is to stop people using pirated software, I think they can do that easily without stopping jailbreak. How? Simply by using App Store application on iPhone to scan all application and erase it automatically, or upgrading to the genuine copy and charging for the upgrade are some of the ways. I personally feel that wanting to stop software piracy is not a good enough reason to justify preventing people from improving on their phone's functions and features. Without jailbreaking, iPhone 3G would not be able to record video even today!

I have confidence that the jailbreak community is smart enough to outfox Apple, and would be able to jailbreak iPhone 4G when it is released. Often they can do it within days or at most a couple of weeks. However, should Apple manage to completely beat these guys and prevent future firmware from JB, AND if they do not at the same time deliver those critical functions in the stock firmware, that will be the day I denounce iPhone and defect to Android (I have very little interest in most of the Android devices though - only the HTC Supersonic attracts my attention at the moment but I do have concern over the multitouch screen technology of HTC. I think they are still plenty of flaws in it. I'm also bothered by the way internal/external storage is used and the implication for a user with more than 200 applications on the device). There are just too many things which non-JB iPhone can't do: Multitasking, saving files from web browsers to phone, saving email attachments, jump directly to any part of a long webpage, quick toggle of bluetooth/wifi/data connection/orientation lock, theme, quick active task switching, privacy (preventing any activity information from going to the advertisers), icon hide/unhide, unlimited springboard pages, springboard multiple icon moves, springboard quicklaunch (overboard we call it), full bluetooth file transfer, file explorer and management, making iPhone a wifi hotspot so that my notebooks and iPods can all use it to access internet on the go. More and more of these functions are appearing on the stock firmware. We saw that for copy and paste, video recording, using VOIP over 3G (instead of just wifi), but I need a lot more to be in the stock firmware.

My own experience with iTune has been largely satisfactory. It is really a incredibly useful and fantastic piece of software. It is reliable, always works exactly the way intended, and extremely feature rich. The ONLY issue I have is the length of time it takes to do backup and restore. I usually skip the step and perform the backup only once in a while. Usually just before a firmware upgrade or prior to visiting Apple Store where I usually remove the jailbreak so that the staff do not know that I have jailbroken my phone. ActiveSync, WMDC, and many equivalent Sync software on Android just do not come close at all. Since the only issue is the length of time taken to complete the backup and restore, I usually leave it running and go away to do other things or do it overnight. My 32GB is almost completely filled, with more than 2200 songs and lots of videos so the restore process could take about 5 hours.

In the beginning I too struggled with new procedures, such as how to bring videos into the phone, due to the lack of experience. Now that I've acquired the knowledge, it is really a piece of cake, just as easy as with my winmo phone. Depending on whether I want to use iPod player to play the video or use a third party video playing software to play it, the procedure is different, but both ways are easy.

Transferring documents is also possible. It is as simple as dragging it from the PC and dropping it into iPhone for me. I do that for some of the PDF and excel files from my winmo days. Many ways exist. You can do it through the "cloud" but I personally don't feel comfortable doing that for security and privacy reasons.