iPhones, including the short-supplied iPhone 4, can now be jailbroken according to a new ruling by the Library of Congress Copyright Office. In other words never mind what Apple says you may and may not install on your phone, you help yourself.
On the surface this makes absolute sense. If I've paid for an iPhone - if indeed you could get them round these parts - it would be my property. It is absurd for Apple or any other manufacturer to tell me what I may and may not do with something which I own.
They can, however, make it a bit of a crazy idea.
There is nothing to stop me installing jailbroken software. Check. There is nothing to stop me putting it in a blender. I've seen people doing that online and probably so have a lot of readers.
There is everything to stop them honouring any warranty if I do any of those things. The blender's an absurd example but why should Apple honour any warranty when the customer has done something they explicitly agreed not to do when they signed the contract for the phone?
So you'll forgive me if I don't break out the champagne and jailbreak my iPhone just yet. I'm much too attached to the little guy working, and if it doesn't I find my right to jump up and down and invoke warranty agreements quite a comfort.
Of course, if you're technically competent and feeling brave there's nothing Apple can do any longer...
