keep jailbreaking it steve!!!
hm. Should I proceed with my plan purchasing iPod Touch?
Don’t know. Do you plan to install and then install every hack you can download from the net for it? Then hack it again, uninstall the hacks, upgrade with official apple stuff, then hack that, then unhack to install more official firmware upgrades, then wonder why its not reliable?
If so, don’t buy it. Just flush the money down the toilet or better yet, give it to me.
If you plan to buy a touch and just use it, running the approved and tested apps, I doubt you’ll have any issue. 
Installing software from a third party repository at worst messes up the firmware by bloating it and just requires a restore. Nothing big.
If you are using that theory then you technically should not install any third party applications on your computer that are not from Microsoft or else you will corrupt your install.
The difference being no 3rd party apps you install on your computer do anything to the firmware/bios. And yes, eventually when you keep installing crappy software on your computer it gets unreliable. The advantage being you can simply format it and reinstall from scratch, something that isn’t really an option with the iphone.
^ ya beat me to it (boxxa). Granted, that some software hacks can, in theory, destroy hardware but I can almost guarantee this isn’t the case. Just a strange bug. (actually, an app from itunes called vSnax was running when it crashed, ironically enough)
Ya the only damage you can do to your iphone and actually brick it is when people unlock it and mess with the baseband. you screw that up and you are dead in the water. You can completley wipe out your firmware on the iPhone and still be able to connect it to your computer and restore it.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7583609
heh, no shit… do a google search for “vsnax crashing iphone”
BTW, I’m not some anti-modder. I modded my xbox, have a 95% functional OSX running on my Dell laptop, I used to have a DSS emulation system running for DirecTV and I probably know my way around the service menu on HDTV than most Sony repair techs.
With a phone I just don’t see the reward being worth the risk in unreliability. It’s pretty clear from the various iphone threads that the guys having the most problems are the ones who are constantly hacking their phones.
The software mod tho will not brick a phone. Its allowing more software ot be installed that Apple’s SDK does not allow. It really is not a risk to the phone since its simply installing software.
Like I said, I see your point and this is why I will never mess with the baseband of the phone but I have no problem pushing the software to its limits and getting the most out of it. The issues I have and complain about I have with a non jailbroken software load too. Some of the third party apps fix a few of my issues with the phone and I like it better.
emulation hahaa, old times right there.