Why jailbreak?
Posted on: February 9, 2013
The day the iOS 6 jailbreak was available from evad3rs, I successfully jailbroke an iPhone 4, iPad 2 (3G), and an iPad mini.
The iPad mini, which was already on version 6 of the OS, provided the best jailbreak experience. The process took just a few minutes.
The iPhone and iPad were still in version 5 and had to be wiped, updated, reinstated, and then jailbroken. But all is good now.
The only bug I have noticed is that text shortcuts (e.g., for “omw” to become “on my way”) do not work on the iPhone even though they work on the iPads.
Why do I opt to jailbreak? I explained briefly here https://ashleytan.wordpress.com/jailbreak-apps/ but I thought I should elaborate.
I take ownership of my devices and what I do with them. That means customizing them to make them do what I want them to do.
- I want my default browser to be Chrome and my go-to map to be Google Maps.
- I want to be able to tether my phone any way I want in any country I travel to because I have bought the bandwidth and the data plan.
- I want to be able to toggle between multiple Apple store accounts. (I have more than one account because a few apps are not available in Singapore!)
- If there is something irritating or lacking in iOS, I want to remove that irritation or add some functionality.
I do not jailbreak to get paid apps for free. I want my device to work conveniently, efficiently, and effectively, so I jailbreak it.
The practice of jailbreaking got me thinking about how there is similar trend in education.
I think more people will want to “jailbreak” education because schools and universities are not responding fast enough. They want to customize their experiences and they want what works for them.
Learners might accept an initially one-size solution, but they will want to tweak it or transform it to their needs. If schools and universities are not prepared to help learners do this, there are stakeholders will find jailbreak solutions.
Another dot in the blogosphere? 
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