Hack your phone and you could pay the price

Cyberclinic

Once we've bought something from a shop, we can generally do whatwe like with it. If we decide to use white vinegar to descale akettle rather than sprinkle it on chips, Sarson's is unlikely toissue a press release complaining. Nor were there urgent productrecalls when models started using haemorrhoid cream to reduce theappearance of wrinkles around the eyes. But some technologycompanies become desperately unhappy about the wilful repurposing oftheir products, particularly if it's a smartphone. And they'll buildin substantial barriers to stop us doing it.

"We're ensuring a seamless customer experience" is the kind ofexcuse that's given for erecting these walled gardens, as they'reknown, but the real reasons are generally commercial - encouragingus to make further purchases or to protect agreements with othercompanies. To the rescue, however, comes the jailbreak. Millionshave used software freely available online to get under the bonnetof various devices, and coax them to do things that are forbidden bythe manufacturers. One common aim is to enable tethering, where yourphone's 3G internet connection can be used by a computer. And in theUS, huge numbers of iPhones are jailbroken in order to get themoperating on a network other than AT&T (to which all new iPhones areSIM-locked).

This summer saw the US Library of Congress rule that jailbreakingisn't illegal; the status in the EU is unclear, but experts deem itunlikely that it would ever be prosecuted. Shortly after the rulinga website called Jailbreak Me was launched, offering a trouble-freeiPhone jailbreak in a single click - and suddenly you could installnon Apple-approved apps that would let you use your phone as, say, amobile hot spot, or to download YouTube videos. Marvellous, right?

Well, not entirely. The efforts of these hackers are prettyextraordinary, but they're not flawless; jailbroken devices mightlose some important features, and apps that haven't gone through anofficial vetting process might be prone to crashing, or leave thedoor open to viruses. And then there's the more obvious point thatit invalidates your warranty; if jailbreaking has left your devicemalfunctioning, not much sympathy will be coming your way. With thehigh cost of replacing a smartphone, even diehard geeks havequestioned the value of jailbreaking.

But then there's the new Apple TV. A snip at 99, it's a niceenough toy, allowing you to stream music and certain kinds of videofrom a computer running iTunes to your television. But jailbroken,it suddenly becomes an incredibly powerful media hub - which itfalls short of at the moment because of those aforementionedcommercial considerations. Install an app like Plex on a jailbrokenApple TV, and suddenly a library of your ripped DVDs can beavailable to watch in a popup menu; in addition, BBC iPlayer and 4ODstream direct to your television, along with a large selection offree content. Jailbreaking an Apple TV running the latest softwareis a complex procedure, and I wouldn't recommend it - not leastbecause of the warranty issue. But there's no doubt that theunlocked potential of the cheap, cheerful Apple TV will have bothhackers and consumers alike salivating slightly in 2011.

Many London pubs were shut on Sunday evening, and who could blamethem, it was the holidays after all. While looking for alternativeoptions for meeting up with a friend, I scanned user reviews onbeerinthevening.com, ranging from withering to downright rude, andthought "who'd run a pub?" I found myself discounting certainboozers purely because some random person had mouthed off about it18 months ago - and therein lies the power of the online complaint.Through lack of resources, pubs probably won't follow the example ofSystemgraph, a Greek computer maintenance company which, accordingto a post by one Dimitris Papadimitriadis, failed to repair thescreen of his laptop properly, and subsequently refused him arefund. Unhappy with his online appraisal, the company is suing himfor 200,000, and a court hearing is due on 19 January. Horror atthis disproportionate response has seen the so-called "StreisandEffect" swing into action, with far more people aware of thecompany's alleged shortcomings than there were before. Maybe pubshave got it right; if someone badmouths you, cross your fingers andhope no one sees it.