About eight months ago, before Apple officially announced iOS 4.0, I wrote an article about the reason I jailbreak my iPhone and the features Apple would need to add to convince me that I no longer needed to do so. If you're unfamiliar with what it means to "jailbreak" your iPhone, it's basically a software update that allows you to run applications that haven't been approved by Apple. Oftentimes, these are some significant improvements to the overall phone that, written by third-party developers, that add functionality that doesn't already exist on the iPhone. For example, when the iPhone was first released it didn't have the ability to copy and paste. For two years, this very basic feature wasn't something that the iPhone could do right out of the box. However, by jailbreaking the iPhone and downloading a small patch, many users were able to add this ability far sooner than the average user.

Well, one big item from my list was added last year, and multitasking has been a great addition to the iPhone. I'm very pleased with the state of the stock, out-of-the-box iPhone today, but as Apple continues to add features, so does the jailbreaking developer community. And again, almost a year later, I find many of these third-party updates mandatory. Some of these must-have updates that Apple will need to add to their OS before I don't feel the need to jailbreak my phone include:

Global SMS Access

It's bad enough that it took Apple and AT&T nearly two years -- two years! -- to add picture and video messaging to the iPhone, but what's super annoying about text messaging on the iPhone is that you have to leave whatever application you're using in order to respond. One of the first things I install on my iPhone after jailbreaking is the Bite SMS app that lets you compose and reply to text messages without forcing you to leave what you were already doing. When a new text message comes in, it pops up on the screen above your current app. A quick hit of the "reply" button and a text box appears where you can tap out a quick response, hit send, and get back to what you were doing within seconds. If you're in the middle of an email and need to text someone a question, you can use Bite SMS' "quick compose" feature to write a text message without leaving the email app. As often as some people -- myself included -- send text messages, something like this should really already be a part of iOS. (BiteSMS is available in the Cydia store for free)

Global Camera Access

This has almost certainly happened to all of us: You're hanging out with some friends and something awesome happens. Maybe Dan Aykroyd walks by and asks for directions, or you see a guy with the world's best mullet. The scenario doesn't matter, but the fact is that you need to capture this moment. That's when you realize exactly how annoyingly difficult it is to get to the camera app on your iPhone. One of my favorite jailbroken apps that I recently discovered is Snappy, which makes this process so much easier. With Snappy installed, from the lock screen, just tap and hold on the menu bar at the top of the screen and literally a second and a half later your phone is ready to take a picture. It's kind of amazing, and with a kid on the way I don't want to fumble through menus looking for the camera app when The Captain decides to go for a ride on Gus for the first time. (Snappy is available in the Cydia store for $1.99)

Lockscreen Customization

Look at your iPhone's lock screen. Maybe you have a picture of your kid or your dog or your significant other. And that's great. But really, it's pretty useless. You can see what time it is, how much battery you have left, and that's about it. Would it be so much better if you could do something with all that space? About six months ago, I discovered the LockInfo app and started doing that very thing. Now my lock screen is nicely laid out with all kinds of information, like the weather, upcoming calendar events, missed SMS messages, and emails. Pictures are nice, but this sort of thing is pretty much a requirement for anyone who uses their iPhone to organize their time and communicate the way I do. (LockInfo is available in the Cydia store for $7.99)

Let me use my stuff over 3G!

There are a lot of really cool apps on the iPhone that require an active internet connection. Netlix and Hulu each have an app that lets you watch movies and TV shows right on your phone. The YouTube app gives you access to hours and hours of cats doing funny things. Even the latest iPhone has a front-facing camera to allow you to video chat with other iPhone users. The problem with these three examples is the fact that in order to use them -- or at least use them to their full fidelity -- you need to be connected to a wireless network. All video applications only offer a degraded quality when used on a 3G network, and video chat doesn't work at all without wifi.

Netflix over WiFi connection

Netflix over 3G -- Yeah, it's that awful.

Fortunately, iPhone users who are jailbroken can install one of several applications (my preference is 3G Unrestrictor) that allow you to get around these restrictions. I'm telling you, nothing makes you feel like you're living in the future more than the first time you take a video call from a moving car. I'm sure that Apple / AT&T will allow these applications to run at full steam -- or run at all -- at some point in the future, but I've really never been one for waiting. (3G Unrestrictor is available in the Cydia store for $1.99)

So while Apple has done a great job adding new features that made jailbreaking essential a year ago, there continue to be areas in which they really need to step it up if they want to keep people confined in their ecosystem. Until they do, I'm glad to know that the jailbreaking community is out there coming up with really incredible updates to the iOS system.