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.
“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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14 responses to “Updated Flipboard App Adds Jailbreak Warning”
I’m on a non jailbreked ipad, still got the warning.
Warning users running non-standard configurations is not necessarily a bad thing or a sign of bad things to come. Bare Bones Software used, a while ago (and maybe still) to warn users running unsupported Mac OS X extensions because they felt it did not provide a standard enough environment for them to offer support or reliably collect useful crash reports.
Maybe Flipboard is operating along the same lines and merely feels it cannot hurt to disclaim responsibility if the application crashes while operating in an unpredictable environment.
Of course, warning the user for no apparent reason with so terse a message is rather poor form, and one shivers at what would happen if every single application started wasting resources on running system integrity checks at launch.
But in this particular case, I believe the appropriate reaction is: « Oh, well… »
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Skype has the same warning
I restored my iPad to stock when 4.2.1 came out and just updated to 4.3 this week. I still got the warning even though my iPad isn’t jailbroken.
I ve got this message too while upadating Filpbord and my iPad running IOS 4.3 update ( not jailbrooken ) it used to be jailbrook on 4.2.1. But not anymore with the last up date. Weird
“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.”
Wow, someone get this guy a tiara. What a drama queen blowing everything out of proportion. It doesn’t get much more clear than what the pop up says. “this app may not work as well on a jailbroken device”. Nothing to throw a tantrum over.
You can get all of the apps for iPads and any other device at GiveMeApps.com