Robb Montgomery

Jailbreaking the iPad in the name of journalism

Deja vu.
Just did a jailbreak on my iPad.
Three years ago I did a jailbreak on my iPhone before conducting a live lecture/demo for Medill freshman using independent apps to do live field reporting.

I’ve already logged thousands of air miles and a couple of stamps in the passport with my iPad in tow and am gathering a lot of good field experience using it in ways to report I never thought I would. I have passed it around to journalists in newsrooms in Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver and Richmond and gleaned some good feedback. Can’t wait to see the editors in Toronto react when they see that she is properly housebroken, er, jailbroken that is. I’ll be there next week delivering two sessions to editors-in-chief at the Canadian Newspaper Association.

Caveat, disclaimer and warning: Please don’t do as I do unless you are prepared for the risks.

Just to be clear, it is not illegal to peek inside of your own property and I can do a factory restore at any point I choose now that I have saved my SSH blobs. (Yes, it is geeky and that’s OK. I have been hacking electronics since the early 1970s.)

I am off to explore the back channels of indie apps and system tweaks that just might help a field reporter/producer out in a pinch.

Remember, three years ago the only app store was the one built by indie developers. So, I guess I am going back to the future to see what’s new.