Apple cripples iBooks for jailbreakers - Updated
I just recently updated my iPhone to 4.2.1 thanks to the greenpois0n jailbreak. Yes, I jailbreak... and I'm proud of it. There are many benefits to jailbreaking your iPhone like SBSettings, Activator, Infinifolders, etc.
Context & Ripple Effects
Jailbreaking has been a running duel since the iPhone launched: more than 100,000 iPhone owners had broken out of jail within months of launch in October 2007, iPhone OS 3.1 fell almost immediately in September 2009, and iOS 4.2.1 was cracked by Redsn0w in November 2010 before greenpois0n offered its own route to the same firmware. What changes here is Apple's response shape: rather than only patching the exploit chain, Apple has reportedly degraded iBooks specifically on jailbroken handsets, targeting the jailbreaker's apps instead of the jailbreak itself.
First-order effects
- Users who jailbroke iOS 4.2.1 with greenpois0n or Redsn0w face a direct trade-off — keep tweaks like SBSettings, Activator and Infinifolders and lose working iBooks, or return to stock firmware to keep their e-book library functioning.
Second-order effects
- The jailbreak teams are pushed into an arms race at the app layer: each Apple release now requires not just a new unlock of the OS but workarounds that restore first-party apps like iBooks, lengthening the cycle between a firmware shipping and a stable jailbreak.
Third-order effects
- If Apple keeps enforcing policy inside individual apps rather than only at the firmware level, the practical cost of jailbreaking rises for mainstream buyers, shrinking the audience that the 2007-era breakout culture once fed while leaving hobbyist demand intact.
The trend: Every iOS release now triggers a two-front contest — jailbreak tools crack the firmware while Apple counters through first-party apps like iBooks — making jailbreak viability a per-release question rather than a settled state.