I want to start a topic on Jailbreaking and its pros/cons. What do you all think of it? Should it be done?

SO... I tried jailbreaking my iPhone 3GS for the 3rd time. Here are the things I did:

1) Synced and backed up my phone
2) Downloaded blackra1n
3) Ran blackra1n
4) Blackra1n rebooted my phone
5) Blackra1n installed on phone
6) Ran blackra1n app
7) Downloaded Cydia
8) Upgraded Cydia per the prompt, iPhone resprings
9) Downloaded Winterboard
10) Download prompted me to tap the "Reboot" button. I did so.
11) Silver apple screen appears
12) The screen then displays the connect to itunes image... You know, the one with the usp port, an arrow, and the itunes logo.
13) Itunes says phone is in "Recovery Mode", and must restore to connect to iTunes. If I don't restore it, it wont respring.

This has happened every time I've tried to jailbreak it. What am I doing wrong?

I wouldn't use my iPhone without jailbreaking it, mainly because the standard theme looks terrible.

Jailbreaking pros: everything
Jailbreaking cons: nothing

Jailbreaking opens up more options than you could've ever imagined.

It's not illegal, but it voids your warranty (usually you just gotta do a DFU restore to fix software problems, which is what they do in the Apple Stores).

I'm gonna name a few wonderful jailbreak apps.

Cydia (for installing jailbreak apps and mods)
Backgrounder (running apps in the background, it's fantastic)
Winterboard (for custom themes, GET THE ILLUMINE THEME, IT'S AWESOME)
Installous for reasons I'm not certain if I can mention it
MakeItMine (puts your name or anything text you like in the statusbar instead of iPhone/iPod)
SBSettings (quick settings access by swiping your finger across the statusbar)


And there's a lot more stuff. You should definitely jailbreak it.

Jailbreaking certainly has many advantages. However, I am completely happy with the functionality of my iPod Touch and have no use for it .

Tried Jailbreaking my phone. It jailbroke just fine, but once I tried to install cydia I had to restore my phone. I'm not really sure if I want to try again.

I jailbroke my old iPod and it worked great but after a while I started to have problems so I restored it. I'm perfectly happy without the jailbreak right now. Most things you would get from the jailbreak are available in the app store. If it isn't in the app store, you don't really need it, e.g., putting your name at the top of the screen.

The only con of Jailbreaking, is that your iPhone warranty immediatly expires, and apple will not offer any support for it

But jailbreaking does offer a lot of perks

I don't know why, but I've never really been a fan of the GeoHot jailbreaking methods (purplera1in, blackra1in, blacksn0w), I've always stuck with the Dev Team.

I like being able to have complete control over everything on my phone, and I SSH into it a LOT. Plus my phone needs to be unlocked to use, so I'll always be jailbroken.

Speaking of SSH...

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/11/...lt-password.ars

I've been using terminal for a couple of years and changed my password right from the get go.

I'm pretty sure I'm going about jailbreaking it the wrong way but I'm not sure how... I've edited my first post to show what I've done in my past 3 attempts.