New video offers 100 reasons to jailbreak your iPhone

Jailbreaking: it's just for hackers and folks who want cheap tethering, right?

That was certainly my thinking. After all, the arrival of iOS 5 (a mere seven months ago, believe it or not) brought a lot of the features that drove users to jailbreak in the first place, features like folders and a notification screen and wireless syncing.

So it was with some scepticism that I viewed Jailbreak Matrix's 100 reasons to jailbreak your iPhone, a new video that identifies and/or demonstrates a bevy of tweaks, themes and apps accessible to jailbreakers.

And you know what? It's mighty convincing. Most of the "reasons" fly by too quickly, especially those that appear in 1-2-3 text lists, but there are enough compelling cutscenes that you almost can't help but rethink the idea.

It doesn't hurt that the video looks and sounds quite professional, not unlike an extended Apple commercial. There's even a comely lass who appears in the beginning and again at the end, where she reminds viewers that "jailbreaking is 100 per cent safe, 100 per cent legal and 100 per cent free". (Never mind that some jailbreak apps aren't free, and others might violate your carrier's terms of service.)

I find the production values almost as interesting as the content. This obviously took some work, but to what end? What does Jailbreak Matrix have to gain from encouraging more users to jailbreak their devices? Discuss.

I'll admit I haven't bothered with jailbreaking for about a year, and my chief reason for it then was to use the MyWi tethering app. (Now, of course, you can tether without jailbreaking.) I also found certain aspects of it confusing and off-putting, even for a reasonably tech-savvy user like myself.

But I may just have another go at it (as soon as there's a jailbreak for iOS 5.1, anyway). Until I watched this video, I honestly didn't realise how much you could bewitch and bedazzle an iPhone.

See for yourself, then let me know if you're feeling similarly swayed ? or whether you think your iPhone is just fine the way it is, thank you very much.

Via CNET

Via YouTube

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