Undecided About Jailbreaking Your iPhone? This May Help You Decide... [Opinion]

With every jailbreak for iOS that gets released, there's the same million dollar question - should you jailbreak your iPhone? There are many ways to argue for and against jailbreaking. For some, jailbreaking their device has been the only way to go, while there are many others who may be scared to do so.

Whatever your reason for jailbreaking or not, here's a look at some of the good and bad things about 'breaking the shackles' off of your iPhone.

The Pangu jailbreak for iOS 9 was released a couple of days ago, and to be honest, although I am excited about it I still haven't jailbroken my device yet. The reason? Check out this easy-to-read list/FAQs I've come up with about jailbreaking. My reason for not jailbreaking my phone yet is the first one...

1. It's good to wait at first: Since the Pangu tool has been out for only two days, it is advisable to wait it out. Most of the jailbreak tweaks have not been updated yet to work with iOS 9. As tweaks get updated and made compatible to work in iOS 9, jailbreaking will be more useful then.

2. Buggy tool: I have read a few forum threads where users are complaining about the Pangu tool not working reliably. Some have said the jailbreaking process takes longer than usual and even freezes on occasion, requiring you to restore your device and start over.

Pangu has already updated its tool (version 1.0.1) to crush a few of those bugs.

3. It's a step-by-step process: Jailbreaking requires you to follow a step-by-step procedure. In recent times, you need to turn off Find My iPhone, switch to Airplane Mode, do a fresh install of iOS 9 etc. for the tool to work reliably. Although it's not that difficult a process to follow, it might deter a few.

4. Does it void my warranty? No, jailbreaking doesn't void your device's warranty. You can always unjailbreak your device and everything returns to the way it was, leaving no trace of a jailbreak.

5. Vulnerability: Jailbreaking, technically, could put you at the risk of your device getting hacked. But if you refrain from installing tweaks from unreliable sources, and do some research before installing anything in general, you should be ok.

6. Can it brick my iPhone? The likelihood of bricking your iPhone during the jailbreaking process is very remote.

7. Pangu is currently Windows only: The only use I have for my old, clunky Windows laptop these days is for jailbreaking. Jailbreaking tools usually get released for Windows first. Mac users have to wait a while. You can, however, run the tool inside a virtual Windows machine on your Mac.

8. Awesome Tweaks! There are some great jailbreak tweaks out there which add new functionality to your iDevice. For example, there are currently tools available that bring 3D Touch functionality to older iPhones. 3D Touch is only available for the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus but with jailbreaking, devices as old as the iPhone 4s can get similar functionality. Granted, you won't need to force press your screen, but long pressing simulates 3D Touch.

The other good tweak, which I have talked about in the past, is Ignition. Although Ignition may not have been updated for iOS 9 yet, it is a must have if you don't own a CarPlay-capable car or head unit. Ignition brings the CarPlay interface directly on your iDevice. So something like a jailbroken iPad Mini would be a perfect addition to a car dashboard to use CarPlay.

In the past, Pioneer AppRadio users could download AppEx which brought added functionality to AppRadio Mode. That tweak is no longer available though.

9. There's always an unjailbreak: Since you can always unjailbreak your device at any time, jailbreaking it may be something you'd want to try. And as I said, once you fully reset and restore your device, it leaves no trace of the jailbreak.

The bottom line: The bottom line to all this is, it is ultimately your decision to jailbreak or not. If you're undecided, keep weighing the pros and cons to see where you stand. I will probably jailbreak my iPhone the moment a Mac tool becomes available because, at the moment, it is still early days to take the leap.

Let me tell you a secret before I end this post. My iPad Air 2 is jailbroken, running iOS 8.2. I haven't updated it to iOS 9 (yet). I use Ignition on it when I want to test out something in CarPlay and don't have access to my CarPlay head units. Take a look at this Ignition screenshot from my iPad...