Jailbreak-----what is it?

I've always had my iPhone's jailbroken because I can't stand AT&T. My 3GS works with my T-Mobile SIM card, and as a decade long customer of T-Mobile, I may be the only person in America who loves his cell phone provider. On the rare occasions I've subjected myself to abuse by AT&T, it is always a relief to know they'll never intentionally get a penny from me. I got my wife to dump ATT for our home and her Cell provider, and it was like taking hostages to get those cash hungry, arrogant drones to follow instructions.

Regarding my iPad Tablets, I have not yet Jailbroken any of them. No need to, but at some point, I'll become tired of having to use iTunes to control the Tablet. Everything on it is controlled by Apple, which is probably why these devices don't crash and explode as do Windows products.

I do need flash to make my life complete, and will jump on any Jailbroken App that let's my iPad support it. I love my new iPad2, but to be honest, it is a seriously crippled device without being Flash capable. On a frequent and regular basis, I find myself putting the iPad down, and grabbing my laptop because I need a Flash reading device to complete my work, entertainment, communication, etc.

In closing, Apple is, in my opinion, the finest company I've ever dealt with. I own at least one device from each of their product lines.

Some people jailbreak their iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch so they can add "unofficial" software. This is risky since the security mechanisms built in to the operating system may have been compromised during the jailbreak process. This can easily allow malicious programmers on sites that distribute/sell "unofficial" software to gain access to files that otherwise have protection from the pure operating system. In the first year of the iPhone people that jail-broke their iPhone ended up installing a virus. Only jail-broken phones were vulnerable. It's probably not a big deal for an iPod Touch, but people may keep sensitive personal information/addresses/phone numbers/passwords, etc. that could be downloaded to a server without the owner even knowing it. iPhones have near-permanent connectivity to the internet.

Personally I would never jailbreak my equipment, not just for the warrantee problems, but I try to keep my computers as safe as I can. That doesn't mean I won't ever have a problem with data security, but I don't want to invite trouble either.

Hope this helps.