With an un-jail broken iPhone, is the only way to load apps on it thru Apple?

A: Yes.

Because you don't need them. The OS does that itself


Unlocking has nothing to do with apps or the software at all.

If you don't jailbreak, you can't install apps from anywhere but the App Store.

You get to keep the application typically. There won't be any updates to the application, thus it may not be able to run on any new iOS updates that are put on the phone.

True ... I assumed he meant "jailbreak".

Uh really? We can give you dozens of arguments as to why this is the better system for everyone involved (the creator, the user, the developers) or you can just take a look at Android and see how the malware, phishing, and scams that spawn from the ability to install any unsigned package from any source is not the right way to go.

Remember "there's an app for that"? There is. No matter what you want to do.

So... buy something else. Buy what works for YOU the way YOU want it to. Why would you care that I like something different?... Why would you think anyone else cares what you use?

I've used iPhones and Android phones... I couldn't fault the Android phone, but the iPhone just worked better for me (mostly in terms of easy integration with my existing Apple hardware.) ... If I were a Windows user at home, I'd probably lean toward an Android phone too!

So you'd rather have the terrible mobile web than the real web? You can tap twice on an article and it brings it into an easily-read format.

You'll get used to it. By Day Five 2007 after launch, I had a pretty good feel for the thing. You just have to trust the auto-correct.


Every electronic device on the planet ships with a partial charge.


The exact same place as every other phone.


But you won't regret it once you do.

Indeed. It's partially iOS 5 and partially the processor/telephony chip combo. I assume that future iOS releases will make this much better.


Use the search button and choose to search within the page instead of Google.


That's a failing of the sites in question, not Safari. Those same sites won't bring up a Reader option on the desktop version of Safari.


Oh, good. And yeah, it's a tad convoluted. I wish Apple would incorporate searching into the URL bar in Safari (both desktop and iOS) and have the search area be only for searching on the page (and remove it entirely from the desktop version, as Command+F is far more convenient).

sc_market. Long-time poster, good to see you buddy.

My guess is you might be happy with an Android, too. They have a lot of slider QWERTY keyboard Droids. I needed a physical keyboard. I have a Droid 2 and an iPad 2 with iOS 5 also. (from work). I'd say just visit a Verizon (or your carrier?) store and try both. Unless you are already set on the iPhone 4?

If you are still not settled, here are my random thoughts on Android...

One huge thing I love is using my voice to have it recognize directions I gave to Google Navigation (turn-by-turn navigation is free from Google, and costs $70 for good software on an iPhone. That alone was huge to me.) There are also apps like Siri, although I assume Siri has the best AI. Perhaps Google will research AI to add to recognition but I have to say, Google's voice recognition is ALWAYS accurate for me. It's amazing. Although I guess iOS 5 on the iPhone 4S has voice recognition now.

And yes, on Android you can load any apps. it's a checkbox to allow 3rd party app installs. For example, Amazon has an App Store. With GOOD Free apps every day (one app per day). And, I have not rooted (the term for jailbreaking on Android) and I downloaded a tethering app that gives me tethering for free. Saves me $30/month. It's actually great, I share it via BlueTooth to my iPad. My Droid and iPad are friends. I've also downloaded emulators for Nintendo and ROMs.

The thing with iPhone is you'd have to jailbreak to do any of the above. And then every few weeks when APple updates you'd have to spend a while re-jailbreaking. I have yet to find something I want to do on Android that requires rooting. Eventually I might root just to overclock my phone or try a custom ROM..but for now it's fast enough at everything I throw at it. Ah yes, multitasking. I use that a lot. And widgets. I made my contacts Widgets so I just press the buttons for my family members on my home screen. One button to dial a phone call. My phone to me is first a phone, and a PDA second.

Now iPads on the other hand...there are some awesome apps for iPad that are not out for Android. I feel like I have the sweet spot. MacBook Pro, iPad, and Android. With Windows in VMWare. It's all in sync, all platforms are working great together. I use Google's Calendar and GMail through iCal and Mail. They just work! So don't worry, it's possible to have your Android be friends with your Mac.

Also there are apps to sync iTunes songs to Androids. In fact they are better players than the iOS "Music" App. The iOS music app is nearly useless to me. I have lots of songs. It doesn't sort by rating or even show rating. It can't sort by all the stuff iTunes can.

Overall I also felt the dialer and interface on Android were easier to use. I don't know if that's Motorola's custom UI or for all Androids. I know that's surprising. It surprised me too!

That's my two cents. I am not trying to attack iPhone. As a Mac fan I was just surprised myself at how much more I liked Android and it seems you might have similar same user requirements and preferences as me. Specifically I'm interested in how you, a fellow keyboard phone user, get used to the touchscreen. I've almost never used the onscreen keyboard. When I do, I trip up and make mistakes. Perhaps I just need to use it more?

I think I saw a while ago there was an app you could download for iOS to do tethering. But I also think it was removed. In fact I think I've seen this several times. You just have to be quick on the draw, I guess, and snag them before they're removed from the Apple Store. Of course you can tether if you jailbreak. I just read in fact yesterday that iPhone 4s and iPad 2 are now jailbroken. (I thought they were already, but I think they were not, in actuality until now). Just fyi.

And yes, I'm looking forward to Apple's mapping / GIS in the future as well. Mapping apps should be easy to use and intuitive, while still powerful. I wish ArcGIS was intuitive.

However, if you like mapping and have not used ArcGIS yet, try it out. It's in the App Store: ArcGIS. It's the mobile version of the powerful ArcGIS Desktop software which is the Windows of mapping software, the AutoCAD of drafting software, etc. I imagine this app will increase in power over time. It's already pretty cool, in that it has additional base maps which no other app has, and it has sophisticated measuring tools. If you have the ability to use an ArcGIS server you can use it for data collection, as well. Unfortunately, data collection requires an ArcGIS Server, so if you don't have this it's not possible. I was quite disappointed with this, believe me. And I verified this personally with an ESRI rep.