There are many advantages that out way the disadvantages of jailbreaking you iPhone. Below is a list of 10 reasons to jailbreak your iPhone.

iRealQuickSMS -The most useful app of all that Apple definitely needs to implement into their next firmware.  Lets you reply to a text within an application.  This is a huge time saver.

Backgrounder -The closest thing we have to multitasking.  Lets you run applications in the background.  Perfect for music apps like Pandora and iHeartRadio.

Notifier -Notifications for Email, SMS, MMS, and Missed Calls on the taskbar. Viewable from the lock screen, so you do not have to slide to unlock to see if you have email, text, or a missed call.

SBSettings -Offers the quickest way to access important settings such as turning on and off 3G, Wifi, Edge, Bluetooth, etc.  it is also a hand memory manager.  You can kill processes and free up memory with a touch of a button.

Custom CSS Mail Signatures -Create a lot nicer mail signatures than the default Set from my iPhone.

ActivateMMS2G -Enables MMS on the first iPhone (iPhone 2G).

Winterboard and Themes -Fully customize the look of your iPhone with custom icons and backgrounds.

3G Unrestrictor -Tricks your iPhone into thinking that it is on a wifi network so you can use 3G or edge without restrictions.  This lets you use Skype over 3G and also download files larger than 10MB on the AppStore.

OpenSSH -Full file system access lets you manage all of the files on your iPhone using a simple application like Transmit (mac) or Winscp (windows).

Unapproved AppStore Apps -Jailbreaking your iPhone gives you access to Cydia, an AppStore alternative.  All the apps that Apple does not allow into the AppStore have the ability to be released in Cydia.  With the recent rejection of Google Voice apps from Apple’s official AppStore, Cydia gives jailbroken iPhone users a chance to use those Apps.  GVMobile was recently released in Cydia because of this very reason.  They did not want all of their hard work go to waste.

All of these applications can be found on Cydia.  Cydia is added by default when you jailbreak your iPhone.  Hopefully we will see some of these features implemented by Apple in an updated firmware.  Some of these we will never see and this is why jailbreaking your iPhone is worth it even though Apple does not allow it.  If you bring your jailbroken iPhone into the Apple Store, Apple will void your warranty.  Since a restore in iTunes completely eliminates the jailbreak, make sure you do a full restore before you bring your iPhone into the Apple Store.

Hey everyone! This is great news. My sources can confirm that iPhone OS 3.0.1 does not update your baseband or even make it necessary for a new version of redsn0w! So, this is actually some refreshing news. This is the first time that Apple has released firmware for the sole purpose of “fixing bugs” and not killing an unlock or a jailbreak for us iPhone 3G users! Great news for all! This gives you a couple of months to react and buy an iPhone 3G S! Unlock it, and forever jailbreak it! I may be doing this as well if I sell my iPhone 3G in the near future. So, all you have to do, is hook your iPhone up to iTunes on your Mac/PC, and hit “check for updates”, then let it download and install! Afterwards, just go into redsn0w, and choose an iPhone OS 3.0 ipsw (not the 3.0.1 ipsw) and run it. Apple has not changed a thing other than their messages application! (I would make sure to have iTunes 8.2 as that’s still tethering/jailbreak friendly.) Then enjoy!

It seems that the iPhone Dev Team has fixed a few more bugs that people found in 0.9, so update ultrasn0w and let it fix some the bugs you have been experiencing after the 0.9 update.

The iPhone Dev Team is also releasing these tips and reminders:

•Unusual battery depletion is almost always caused by people choosing to “Restore from backup” instead of “Setup as new iPhone” when iTunes asks you. This isn’t caused by either the jailbreak or the unlock, but it’s a common 3.0 snafu. The fix is to just re-run the official 3.0 restore and choose “Setup as new” this time. Your music and apps and all that will still be synced, but you’ll get rid of any conflicting wifi, bluetooth, or carrier settings. Then just re-run redsn0w and install ultrasn0w.

•If you don’t need or plan to update to ultrasn0w 0.9 from a previous version, you can avoid having that red badge over Cydia by removing repo666 as a Cydia source. Don’t worry, you can always add it back later If you follow us on twitter you’ll be advised of any new updates anyway.

So there you go everyone. Enjoy! 

UPDATE 1: I am being told by our good friends at SpiritOfLogic that iRealQuickSMS is indeed 2.x compatable, and that previous 2.x licenses work on the 3.x version. I have edited the article accordingly.

Well, today I have a very cool (one of my favorites) Cydia package for you all. Today, I will give you my review of iRealQuickSMS by SpiritOfLogic!

Now, basically, this mobilesubstrate application allows you to do some pretty amazing things. It allows you to “quick reply” or “quick send” an SMS text message from any application!

This is great! This is just one of those things you cannot live without! This is also one of those things that Apple should have always had since iPhone OS 1.0.

Okay? So why should I care? Well, how many texts do people get/send every day on their iPhones? 1, 10, 20? No, its sometimes hundreds of texts a day! Now, Apple got the very intelligent idea of making it so that you have to quit what you are doing, let that be watching a video or whatever, to kill your app that you are using and launch their messages app to take its place, then you have to relaunch the app you were in, and you do this over and over and over.

It’s annoying! I tolerated it for a while, then at one point, I’m like “OMG, I am sick and tired of this”. I was looking for something to fix this annoying lack of features, then I found iRealQuickSMS.

iRealQuickSMS is awesome because it uses such little RAM and CPU, so your iPhone is running snappy. It can also go into landscape, as well as into portrait view.

It doesn’t replace your messages application, but rather, it works with it to deliver and send your text messages with a very easy to use interface. It has a seperate application that acts as settings for iRealQuickSMS, you can configure it to your needs and preferences.

Now, you may not only continue a conversation (or conversations) with people using “quick reply”, but you can also start conversations with a great feature called “quick send”.

Now, “quick reply” is automatically triggered when you recieve a text message. To reply, just type in what you want to say, and hit “send”. Its that easy!

QuickSend can be triggered by the home button or by the volume up button, or a combination of hardware and software. I use a configuration where you press the up volume button, and then tap on the screen to bring the quicksend “window” and keyboard.

Now also, you can call people using iRealQuickSMS, just use “quick send” and choose the person from your contacts, and tap “call”. Can’t be any simpler than that.

They fixed a lot of bugs and gave us some new features since our original iRealSMS review that Mike did last year for you guys.

Well, overall, I give this app a 10 out of 10! Its simply something that you cannot live without. It makes texting super easy to do on the iPhone.

Tthis is a must have. It is available via the BigBoss repo in Cydia. Just install it, and respring. Then tap on the green “iRealQuickSMS” icon, and take it for a trial. If you love it as much as I do, you can purchase a license for $10 Euros. In the U.S., that would be about $12.50, it really depends what the Dollar and Euro are at.

So give it a try for yourself, and I really recommend you buy this if you haven’t done so yet! You won’t regret it! 

Well, due to popular demand, I have been asked to provide a tutorial, based on my experiences, on how to get a T-Mobile Sidekick prepaid plan onto the iPhone. I will cover, getting the SIM, payment, porting your old number, and setting it all up on the iPhone in this tutorial. So let’s get started!

The first step is to get a T-Mobile SIM card. Well, if you don’t have a T-Mobile SIM that came from an actual Sidekick phone already, read this carefully. Well, I went to one of my local T-Mobile stores in order to obtain my T-Mobile SIM card.

Well, as you may have know, I had AT&T GoPhone before I had T-Mobile on my iPhone, so obviously I didn’t have a T-Mobile SIM. Well, like I said, go to the T-Mobile store, and ask for a SIM kit for the prepaid sidekick plan. (Its a special SIM, so make sure you tell them what you want, with a straight face.

Now, also make sure to tell them, “I bought a Sidekick on eBay, and I haven’t gotten it yet, but I need the SIM so I can use it when it gets here”. Just make sure you tell them you “have a Sidekick, but its not with you”. If you have a non-caring T-Mobile employee, you’re golden. If they tell you no, say “alright, thank you” and go to another T-Mobile store or go back on a different time and day. It worked on my first attempt, they really shouldn’t care.

So now, that the T-Mobile person has the SIM (Make sure on the package that he/she brings back has a “$30″ in a big pink square”. Also, make sure you have $35 with you to buy the SIM kit and pay the tax (it depends on where you live, there are different taxes everywhere, its 6% here, very cheap).

Cool! You now have everything you need from the T-Mobile store!

Before they do anything, if you want to keep your number (doesn’t matter what carrier you have, they made a pact with all the major companies to port numbers) tell them. They will tell you that they will give you a new number, then they will call T-Mobile customer service for you to get it changed.

VERY IMPORTANT: I had huge issues here. If you have AT&T call their asses at customer service and get your account number!!! Prepaid customers have an account number as well, I didn’t know prepaid customers had account numbers so I had to spend 3 days (I did it on Friday, and. i had to wait to call them on Monday morning, because I had a b-day party on Sunday and they said wait 24 hours so Saturday wasn’t a good day to do it.) waiting to get ported until i called and the issue was AT&T didn’t want me to port my number because I didn’t give them my account number, because I didn’t know.

SO GET THAT NUMBER! Then tell them your name, bring some ID, bring the money, write down the number you want to get ported, get your account number, and most of all, stay cool.

So let them set your new T-Mobile prepaid (sidekick) service up. Make sure its not regular T-Mobile prepaid or else you will not be able to get the full internet, as some of you have found out by me emailing you.

Now, after you’ve paid and gotten your SIM, take out your iPhone, and go into Cydia, and add the repo http://repo666.ultrasn0w.com/ and refresh. this is your unlock solution. This is where you unlock with ultrasn0w. Install ultrasn0w and reboot.

Now, before poping in the SIM, go back into Cydia, and go into the Modmyi repo, or search for “T-Mobile”, now look for the “T-Mobile -US Prepaid Sidekick Support” package, install it.

(This will enable you to use the full unrestricted internet (not just the 5 wap sites you get with the regular T-Mobile prepaid (non-sidekick), teathering, and MMS (well, I have not gotten MMS to work, I called the creator of the package, and he said he called T-Mobile and none of the MMS APNs they gave him worked, so don’t be surprised that MMS doesn’t work.)

Now, MMS does work with the T-Mobile Flexpay Sidekick plan with this same package.

Alright, turn your iPhone off (slide the red slider by holding the power button), now take out the old AT&T SIM you had in it, and pop in your new T-Mobile SIM. Now, turn the iPhone back on.

You should see a delay, or it saying “…” in the status bar, let ultrasn0w kick in and recognize you now unlocking, and you should see an “E” symbol for EDGE after a few seconds, and then T-Mobile, then more bars pop up.

I had huge issues when I did this. I was scared out of my mind, thinking I had canceled my AT&T service for a non-working T-Mobile sidekick service, I rebooted and still “Searching…” and it would hang….

Turns out, I had “3G” on. Lol. Make sure you turn 3G off. If you forgot to turn 3G off before turning your phone off to take the SIM out, turn 3G off in the Settings app, and reboot again, this time, you should finally see a T-Mobile carrier with bars! So don’t be stupid like me and leave 3G on. 

So, now go into Settings->Phone->My Number, now it will say “unknown” like mine did, change it to (country code first, then area code, then number)

Example:
1 (800) 444-4444

Cool, so there you go! You should now have T-Mobile Prepaid on the $1 a day Sidekick plan on your iPhone 3G or iPhone 3G S running (and only running) iPhone OS 3.0 (7A341).

Now, if you didn’t receive an SMS text message saying that your number had been ported in the 24 hours they told you it would (and I mean 24 hours), call 1(877)789-3106 to see what’s going on. This is T-Mobile’s number porting hotline. Call that number to begin porting your number or to see what’s taking so long.

Once you get everything done and straightened out here and you have your number, go to Settings->Phone->My Number and delete the old number, and type in your new number. Now, go ahead and reboot one last time.

Now, on to payment, you will get a month of “free” (you pay $30 bucks at the T-Mobile store to get the SIM kit so its not exactly free) T-Mobile service.

So what happens when you run out of money the next month? Well, just pick up a T-Mobile refil card at your local Walmart, Target, Best Buy, convenience store, or T-Mobile store. They come in denominations from $10-$100.

To add funds to your account, dial *223 on your iPhone.

Or go to Settings->Phone->T-Mobile Services and tap on the service that you need.

The T-Mobile Prepaid Sidekick plan includes: Unlimited SMS text messaging, unlimited internet (EDGE & GRPS, 3G doesn’t work due to hardware differences), unlimited teathering, possible MMS for 25 cents sent 10 cents received (if someone can get this going), and 10 cents a minute!

Now compare that to AT&T’s Prepaid GoPhone plan: $20 for 100MB of data, $20 for unlimited texting, teathering block, MMS block, and 25 cents a minute.

Now you see why I switched! 