We May Say Goodbye To The iPhone Jailbreak

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Ever since the first iPhone’s release, the community around the iPhone jailbreak has been thriving. The phones, while incredibly popular, limited users in way that Android alternatives didn’t. As such, a large amount of users were looking for a way to crack the software and make their iPhone a little more customizable with new features and utilities. For better or for worse, however, we may be saying goodby to the iPhone jailbreak.

In the past, there was debate over whether the process of jailbreaking a phone was ethical — or even legal. Because jailbreaking circumvents the manufacturer’s operating system and allows users to do what they want with the product, there were mixed messages on whether or not the process was acceptable. The U.S. Copyright Office has since put those concerns to rest, with a ruling that now allows users to jailbreak their phones without any fear of retribution, but it’s looking like iOS jailbreaking may be a thing of the past due to this recent, sad news.

A major player in the iPhone jailbreak scene is Cydia, the custom launcher that makes the operating system less restrictive and allows users to download apps from a wide variety of sources rather than being restricted to the App Store. Most of these apps come from three main repositories, and today news broke that the ModMyi Cydia repository is shutting down.

Editor-In-Chief Dennis Bednarz explained the decision making process, stating that “there was a clear but sad result to the issue of Cydia and repositories. ModMyi was not plausible to keep going as server costs were insane and the money the repository generated was way below the required amount to keep the repository, not with an economic gain, but to even keep it non-profit.”

This news comes just a few days after ZodTTD/MacCiti announced that it would be shutting down as well. These two major app repositories going offline means that the future of the iPhone jailbreak is looking increasingly bleak.

As time has gone on and Apple has made more and more improvements to their operating system, the demand for jailbreaking has gone down. The iOS operating system is still far more restrictive than Android, but the company has made great strides into adding convenience and features that the jailbreaking community felt were missing in the past. Add to that the increased security of each subsequent release, and you run into a situation where iOS 11 still hasn’t been cracked over two months since the new operating system launched. There’s a real chance that we may never see a crack go public, and that the iPhone jailbreak is dead.

Jailbreaking has long been a part of the iPhone community as users desired more control over their phones, but the demand has decreased by a huge amount. Whether this is due to Apple’s increased security and features or if it’s just a sign of changing times remains unknown, but one thing remains certain: the future of the iPhone jailbreak is not a bright one.

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