Is it legal to use PDANet for making your I-Phone a wifi hotspot? nm

[Occulus]

3. "jailbreaking" refers to opening the device in a software sense

Your iDevice is essentially a "walled garden"; there are some things it is capable of that Apple will not allow 'out-of-the-box'. Some of these things are purely cosmetic- new icon sets, visual themes, etc- and some of them are so necessary it's hard to understand why they're not included (a task manager, for example, or the ability to cut and paste text).

A 'stock' iDevice won't let you do these things, but by taking advantage of what are actually security flaws in that stock device, a jailbreak can be performed which allows unauthorized programs (apps never to be found on the App Store) to be installed by the user. Note that the terms "jailbreak" and "unlock" refer to two very different things: jailbreaking a device allows other programs to be installed; unlocking a device allows it to be used on a different cell carrier.

I have a jailbroken iPod, and I wouldn't use it without the jailbreak (apps like SBSettings, Winterboard, and a couple others make the device more useful to me). One has to be careful, though; depending on the method used, it is possible to 'brick' your iDevice, turning it into a big, expensive paperweight. Careful reading and following of all instructions avoids this, of course, but it you've never done it and want to, read read read first.