Jailbreaking

Here is some stuff I have learned about jailbreaking my iPad.

First thing you should do is check out these sites:

• Dev Team Blog (these are the guys that crack the device's kernel and publish the how-to's.
• Cydia (the app store for jailbroken iDevices).  Runs along side the regular app store, and also has lots of introductory information.
• Jailbreakme.com - userland automatic jailbreak.  It was down for about a year, now it's back.

Some notes:

• Jailbreaking means you're leaving the fold.  It is legal but voids your warranty.  (You can restore the original kernal and then present your machine to Apple for repairs, should an actual hardware issue arise.)
• Jailbreaking doesn't affect normal sync operations, so I can update apps and sync down data and back up data in the normal way with iTunes.
• Each new revision of the kernel has to be re-jailbroken by the Dev Team and each jailbreak has to be retested on each i-device.
• Once your kernel on your device is jailbroken, do not upgrade the kernel (which iTunes will perpetually offer to do) without paying attention to whether you can upgrade to a newer jailbroken kernel.  Don't just upgrade w/o thinking and researching.  Further, the process for upgrading will most certainly be not what iTunes offers.  Research and stay sharp.   (This is the cost of leaving the fold.)
• Jailbreaks also affect the radio, so you have to pay attention to whether your jailbreak is applicable to your radio and your service provider.
• How do you jailbreak?  Jailbreakme.com does it automatically.  When I did mine, jailbreakme.com was broken (that is, it was only working for versions of the kernel running on certain devices, and I didn't have the right combo.  So I did my jailbreak the harder way.  There are several jailbreaking tools and you use a special maintenance mode of the iDevice together with a special feature of iTunes.  You download the jailbroken kernel and manually install it.  Kinda scary but I made it through.  I searched for a set of instructions that pertained to my specific kernel and device and it worked out.
• What are the benefits of jailbreaking?

1. You have access to mods.  Lots of times little things change between revs of the kernel, and you liked it the old way.  Often there is a mod available that restores the desired behavior.  There are also mods to change the themes in the devices's UI, or the boot logo, or a variety of formerly signature items.
2. You have access to more apps and more kinds of apps.  For example, one app you cannot get from Apple is the hotspot app.  For $20 I have an app that turns my iPad into a hotspot which works with WiFi or Bluetooth, or even tethered to a host.  Apple will never sell this app.
3. You have access to more software repositories.  Cydia is basically a debian package client, and lots of people are writing apps it can access.  As with normal debian packaging, many repositories are available (whereas Apple's App Store is just a single repository).
4. Payment: it's in two pieces: authentication and funds transfer.  Cydia creates an account for you, and associates it with Facebook or Google since they have open authentication schemes.  Then you can give Cydia your credit card number I think or use PayPal which is what I do.  Under this scheme, when you buy an app, it's still yours even when you change devices.
5. My favorite: root on the device itself.  After jailbreaking you can use Cydia to install an ssh client (and you'll probably want various other command line utilities) on your device, and ssh into it as root.  Once there you can wander around in the filesystem, look at how Apps are stored, look at their data directly, copy it out with scp (instead of the whole iTumes hassle).  You'll be able to access the entire device, not just the subtrees that are exported under Apple's standard methodology.
6. Development ... you can install the development environment and go to town.

I thought it was worth it, plus I just like reason #5 a whole bunch.

Gaining Adoption

The primary issue I face is adoption, and the argument usually comes down to some variant of  "I'm not a computer person".  This request for persuasion can be phrased in many ways:

• Too Hard
• I Don't Have Time
• I'm Fine With Paper
• I'm Not A Computer Person

I usually find the same approach works with every variant, and that is to pay more attention to the words the person in front of me is saying and less to the thoughts my brain is thinking.  This is a technique I learned back in Landmark Education in the '90's and it succeeds quite often.  Most people are willing to try something if their concerns are heard.

I listen actively, ask questions, suggest ideas not as a solution to something they've said that I've half heard, but in order to elicit further response from them.

My response when it comes is measured against what I find in their speaking.  Some folks have specific problems they are solving and are glad of an explanation how to do it.  For them I just explain a process that could work and let them refine it.

Some folks identify themselves with goals or ideals, and are glad of a solution that furthers those aims.  This is tricky ground because you have to tread respectfully on such ground.  I usually identify how what I'm proposing furthers their aims, then solicit feedback.  I always leave the choice with them, since that is a very simple and powerful way to show respect.  (And if the choice is not the one I'm advocating, I may come back later for further conversation, or if the person represents a large body of folk I will try to educate myself on the aims of the movement.)  There's a lot of this in Berkeley.

Some folks actually have ways of looking at stuff that are just so outside the main flow that they require one on one training.  Since this is so intensive, I reserve this for folks who have the ability to persuade or influence others; if they are highly leveraged it's worth the time I put in.

The key element is always respect, I find.  Even if no immediate adoption results, the foundation of respect will bear fruit in the future, I find, often in unexpected ways.  The person remembers not what you did or advocated, except vaguely, but remembers that you respected what was important to them.  That is money in the bank, as difficult to obtain as it is easy to lose.

This Blog

I plan on posting some of the stuff I've done with my choruses in order to get them online.  Technologies I'm using are Facebook, Google Docs, Google Calendar, DocuWiki, Yahoo Groups, Mailman, Doodle ... the list no doubt will go on.