Ever since Apple launched the iPhone in 2007, there have a number of reasons to jailbreak iOS.

Even though Apple has added features to iOS such as copy and paste, Custom Wallpaper, multitasking, Notification Center, FaceTime over cellular etc, that were only possible if you had jailbroken your iOS device, the jailbreak community has continued to release some amazing tweaks and apps that still make it quite compelling to jailbreak your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

Apple released iOS 7 few days back, which includes a number of features such as Control Center, improved app switcher, Dynamic Wallpapers, ability to block calls and messages, live clock etc, that many would say were inspired by jailbreak apps and tweaks.

So while we eagerly wait for the evad3rs team to release a jailbreak for iOS 7, we take a look at the reasons to jailbreak Apple’s new mobile operating system for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch:

Customizations:

While iOS 7 features an all-new user interface, the novelty factor will wear off soon. Jailbreaking will allow you customize your iOS device in every way possible. You can install themes to change the look and feel of your iPhone or you can use Winterboard alternative like DreamBoard that allows you to transform your iPhone into an Android phone or transform your iPad into a Mac. Jailbreak tweaks also let you add a 5-icon dock, additional row of keys to iOS’ virtual keyboard, change the carrier logo and lots more.

If you hate the new icons for the stock apps in iOS 7, then you will be able to finally replace it. We also expect developers to launch tweaks that will allow users to change or disable the zoom animations, which are causing nausea and headaches.

Messages on Steroids:

Apple revamped the Messages app and added some cool features such as the ability to swipe on the message to see the exact time the message was sent. However, I still miss jailbreak tweaks like biteSMS, that offer features like Quick Reply, Quick Compose, scheduled messages, delivery reports, signatures etc. that are not available in the native app.

For The Power User:

Activator transforms iOS into a mobile operating system for the power user. It allows you to invoke actions using shortcuts from anywhere in the iOS. You would be surprised by the number of shortcuts you can use such as double tap on the status bar, triple tap the Home button, double press the sleep button to trigger stock actions or launch an app or go to the Settings toggle. It offers almost limitless shortcuts to make it easier to use your iOS device.

Check out this post to find out how you can supercharge your iPhone with Activator.

Enhanced Lock Screen:

iOS 7 allows users to access the Notification Center and Control Center from the lock screen. However, they still don’t offer features offered by jailbreak tweaks such as IntelliScreenX and LockInfo that give you quick access to Twitter, Facebook updates or RSS feeds from the lock screen.

IntelliScreenX

Extend Control Center

One of the major new features in iOS 7 is Control Center that gives us quick access to system toggles, brightness control, music playback controls, app shortcuts, quick access to AirDrop and AirPlay feature.

However, we can only turn on or turn off 5 system toggles and 4 apps/features. We hope that Cydia developers will be able to extend the functionality of the Control Center by removing these limits and giving us the control to customize them.

We also expect Cydia developers to add more functionality to iOS 7 such as quick reply and quick compose shortcuts, and also the “Tap to tweet” and “Tap to post” shortcuts for Twitter and Facebook that were removed from the Notification Center in iOS 7.

It also makes sense for developers to migrate the custom Notification Center widgets to the Control Center.

Enhanced Notification Center

When Apple introduced the Notification Center in iOS 5, we saw a flood of custom widgets created for it. We hope that these custom widgets are migration to the Control Center as most of them seem appropriate for it than the Notification Center.

We also expect developers to enhance the Notification Center to give us the ability to clear all notifications, ability to use gestures to dismiss notifications etc and add more functionality to the Today tab.

Tethering:

Instead of paying a monthly fee to your carrier, jailbreak apps like PdaNet and MyWi, allow you to tether your laptop to your iPhone’s data connection for a one-time fee.

However, please remember that this can get you into trouble with your carrier so try this with caution.

Find My iPhone+:

Apple has made Find My iPhone more fool proof by adding Activation Lock, however it still does not offer features offered by jailbreak tweaks such as iCaughtU and iGotYa that take a photograph of the person who enters the wrong passcode using the front camera and PowerGuard, which prevents someone from turning off your device, makes it a lot more fool proof. There have been several instances it has helped catch a thief who is oblivious of such hacks.

Set Default apps:

One of the major limitations of iOS is the lack of an option to set your favorite third-party app as the default app. Thankfully jailbreak tweaks like MapsOpener allow you to set Google Maps as the default app instead of Apple’s Maps app and BrowserChooser and BrowserChanger allow you to change the default brower. You can also use jailbreak tweaks like NowNow to replace Google Now with Siri.

Use Wi-Fi Only Apps Over 3G network:

My3G is a jailbreak tweak that will make “Wi-Fi only” apps “believe” that they are running over a Wi-Fi network even though your iOS device is connected to the 3G network thus allowing you to use such “Wi-Fi only” apps such as Bloomberg Anywhere, Cablevision, DirecTV for iPad etc over a 3G network.

xCon is a complimentary jailbreak tweak, which bypasses jailbreak detection in apps, so you can use apps that currently prevent jailbroken iOS device users.

Set any song as Ringtone:

While it is possible to create ringtone and alerts from the songs you’ve purchased from iTunes, jailbreak tweak like AnyRing makes it very easy to set any song from your music library as a ringtone or alert tone.

Password Protect an app or folder:

Call me paranoid, but I like the ability to password protect some apps or folders so that someone cannot access them when they’re using my iOS device. Jailbreak tweaks like Icon Passcode and Folder Passcode allow you to do just that.

Finder/Explorer:

Miss Finder (Mac) app or Explorer (Windows) on your iPhone or iPad? No problem, iFile does the job. It’s a file manager and viewer, which allows you to navigate through iPhone file system and allows you to open any type of file.

The killer features is the ability to edit files directly on your iOS device, which can be quite useful when you want to hack your iOS device to enable or disable a feature.

Unauthorized apps:

Even though there are more than 900,000 apps in the App Store, a small percentage of the apps get rejected for various reasons. Some of them like tawkon that allows you to check the amount of radiation emitted by your iPhone or grooveshark’s iPhone app for its online music streaming service can be installed from Cydia – the unofficial App store for such unauthorized apps.

Call Management Features:

While Apple has added the ability to block voice calls, FaceTime calls and text messages from a number or a Contact, it still lacks the ability to block unknown and unrestricted callers offered by iBlackList.

Wrap up:

So as you can see, despite the 200 new features added in iOS 7, there are still quite a few reasons to jailbreak your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. We also can’t wait to see how Cydia developers will extend and improve upon the new features and APIs added to iOS 7.

At the end of the day, jailbreaking is about freedom, freedom to be able to do whatever you want with your iOS device, just the way you can with your Mac, PC and other things you’ve purchased.

Let me know what will be your top reasons to jailbreak iOS 7 in the comments below.