I considered Jailbreaking, but the only thing I want to do right now (tethering) can be done in a really simple, elegant way without actually carrying out the Jailbreak. As SageBrush points out, I actually rarely use the tethering feature because it's slow, but there have been a couple of times where there's been no WiFi and the tethering has come in really handy. I think I probably *will* Jailbreak when I travel to India in a couple months (so that I can use non-AT&T SIMs), but I think I'll probably restore it to "unbroken" when I return to the US. That's the nice thing about the Jailbreaking methods out there; it's pretty easy to go back once you've Jailbroken.
ah, to broaden one's horizons ... illustratively, I was simply saying that MY phone's battery is killed by tom tom. iphone is not the only phone that can be jacked up beyond it's intended use. sorry for the confusion.
As an example, my AT&T Tilt (HTC Kaiser) is cut loose from AT&T. I dumped their crappy firmware and reflashed with some good open source firmware. Now the Kaiser works better and can run any application, not just the ones AT&T likes. Tom
JailBreak is the process or hacking an iPhone to allow the install of non-approved apps, utilities and other mods. Unlock is the process to allow use on other network SIM cards. To unlock you need to JailBreak first.
Ah I see. Not sure why you suggest Turn-by-turn navigation is "beyond it's intended use"? My 3GS isn't too bad on GPS and I can use Geocache apps and similar for a few hours on battery but for in-car use over prolonged period it is of course advisable to have external power. No different to most PND's.
I jailbroke my phone today. Went VERY smoothly with the blackra1n, literally under 2 minutes with 2 installs (required to accomplish the tethering). I've installed a number of aps from cydia an rock. Categories is great which allows you to organize your apps into files. the tethering was very smooth. setting a background was a nice touch. it gives you the ability to spoof the phone into thinking it's on a wifi even when on EDGE or 3G so you can use VoiP apps like Skype. SBSettings is a cool way to quickly access stuff in the General Settings area. And backgrounder is a must. Hopefully it will work well, but from all I've read, it is easy enough to restore to the original firmware if there are problems.
I've since installed a new iphone clip(proclip) which is rock solid. there are new tv out progams and gps programs out now.
I jail break and use mine also unlocked love being able to get paid programs for free have naviagon, tom tom, and others all on my phone and love to themethem it
Not sure I feel so good about using pirated programs/apps...and when I checked yesterday the site was down, or at least not working well...maybe just a server change, but a post on Wiki suggested they were taken down. But, what theme is that on your phone? I like it. I'm using iComplete which is pretty slick too.