So First what is jailbreaking? The simple answer is that it’s enabling your phone to download and run apps that are not from Apple’s app store.

With Jailbreaking now being legal and very easily accomplished thank’s to JailbreakMe.com which instantly jailbreaks even the latest iPhone 4 and it’s latest iOS 4.0.1 with one click of the mobile browser everyone is asking should I Jailbreak my iPhone? The answer is maybe, Jailbreaking won’t pose any major benefits to some users but other users will find that once they Jailbreak their iPhone they can’t live without it’s new unlocked potential.

Who should Jailbreak their iPhone? Power users who love to control every aspect of their devices and people who can find a specific advantage to doing so such as in my case I have the unlimited data plan but I also want tethering which isn’t offered with the unlimited data plan so by Jailbreaking my iPhone I can install MyWi from the Cydia app store and I can instantly share my unlimited data plan’s 3G connection over my phone as if it were a WiFi hotspot for free.

Who shouldn’t Jailbreak their iPhone? Anyone who doesn’t find a specific use for it and doesn’t care to customize their iPhone’s look and functionality has no need to Jailbreak their iPhone also knowing that installing and running some apps from Cydia (especially theming your phone) can cause it to run slower I’d suggest that if you don’t think you need to Jailbreak then don’t.

Pro’s:
- Jailbreaking makes it so that you can customize the look and feel of the OS with custom graphics and functionality.
- You can install apps that Apple’s app store won’t allow such as adult content and custom theme’s and functions as well as apps that allow you to function outside of apple’s control such as MyWi which for example makes your iPhone a WiFi hotspot.
- In some cases the app’s you pay so much money for in Apple’s app store can be found free in the Jailbreak Cydia app store.
- A lot of power user apps can be found free in the Cydia app store.

Con’s:
- Customizing the look of your iPhone with custom themes can in some cases slow down your phones performance a little.
- Takes up storage space that some users who find no use for the Cydia store could otherwise use for music and other media.

Today July 26′th 2010 great news is passed down from the courts thanks to the EFF Electronic Frontier Foundation @ eff.org who won three critical exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act today which basically state that its not against copyright laws to use clips from copyrighted material in amateur non profit videos and it is also not against copyright law to jailbreak and unlock iPhones to use them on other carriers and install third party applications on them.

Sources: eff.org

Matt Brandenburg from MattBrandenburg.com shows you how to jailbreak your iPhone 3G and 3GS with the iPhones latest OS 4 on Mac and Windows.

Download PwnageTool (Mac):

http://www.mattbrandenburg.com/programs/PwnageTool.app

Download Sn0wBreeze (Windows):

http://www.mattbrandenburg.com/programs/sn0wbreeze-V1.6.2.exe

Download iPhone OS4 Firmware:

http://www.felixbruns.de/iPod/firmware/