Owners of iPhones and other smartphones are one step closer towards taking complete control of their gadgets, thanks to a new government ruling Monday on the practice of "jailbreaking." This weekend has seen a flurry of activity about digital rights, but the biggest news dropped Monday morning, when the FCC announced that it had made the controversial practice of “jailbreaking” your iPhone — or any other cell phone — legal.


Jailbreaking — the practice of unlocking a phone (and particularly an iPhone) so it can be used on another network and/or run other applications than those approved by Apple — has technically been illegal for years. Most jailbroken phones are used on the U.S. T-Mobile network or on overseas carriers, or are used to run applications that Apple refuses to sell, such as Safari ad-blocking apps, alternate keyboard layouts, or programs that change the interface to the iPhone's SMS system and the way its icons are laid out.


While technically illegal, no one has been sued or prosecuted for the practice. (Apple does seriously frown on the practice, and jailbreaking your phone will still void your warranty.) It’s estimated that more than a million iPhone owners have jailbroken their handsets.

Read more here: iPhone jailbreaking (and all cell phone unlocking) made legal - Yahoo! News

wow... I might actually buy an Iphone now.

This changes nothing. People have always jailbroken their Iphones/Ipods. It still voids the warranty.

Originally Posted by Batman

This changes nothing. People have always jailbroken their Iphones/Ipods. It still voids the warranty.

lol

I've never jail broken a phone before but isn't it possible to just reset the device and have it back to the original operating system? From what I understand, people would never know the phone was even jail broken unless of course you broke it while it was.. thus your warranty would do you no good

i don't think you can dual boot an iphone if you wipe the previous operating system off its gone, your stuck with a jailbroken phone

Originally Posted by Destiny

I've never jail broken a phone before but isn't it possible to just reset the device and have it back to the original operating system? From what I understand, people would never know the phone was even jail broken unless of course you broke it while it was.. thus your warranty would do you no good

Yes you can do it within a few minutes.

If your phone does break for what ever reason and you need to get rid of the jailbreak you just simply restore the phone and poof. Its a non-jailbroken.