Updated Flipboard App Adds Jailbreak Warning

The popular Flipboard app was updated on Wednesday, adding Instagram support and search across social networks. But it also included a surprise for users with jailbroken iPads.

For users running the latest version of Flipboard on a jailbroken iPad, the following warning pops up:

“Warning. Your iPad appears to be jailbroken. This may cause bugs, crashes or other unpredictable behavior.”

The warning has caused some alarm among users, especially as Apple is disabling the iBookstore on jailbroken iOS devices. But the warning has nothing to do with Apple or the iOS; it is initiated by the Flipboard app.

“I was less than thrill (sic) when a pop up came up with a notification about my iPad being jailbroken,” wrote Flipboard user Dennis on the company blog. “I have serious issue with Borg mentality, my view is I paid for it I’ll do what I want with it. Looks like now I will be looking for another app.”

The Flipboard team responded by saying the warning is for users only, and is merely a heads up about possible conflicts.

In the comments, a company spokesman wrote:

“Dennis, we mention it only because Jailbroken iPads can cause conflicts with Flipboard and we can’t offer support for all those variations. We’re not trying to be the Borg.”

CoM reader Kevin Reeder, who alerted us to the warning, said jailbreaking hasn’t so far affected the app. “Still works as advertised, and no bugs or crashes,” he said in email.

This is the first time I’ve seen this. Will this become a trend among app developers? And what conflicts exactly does jailbreaking cause?

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