what does it mean to 'brick' a phone?

[oneSLOWex]

I'm not trying to be an asshat here, I promise, but what software could possibly be worth messing up your new iPhone? I hear about this stuff happening alot, do people really need/want that much more than the iPhone has to offer?

its small things that you cant do unless you change the OS....which to me is FAR from worth it...but whatever.

i dont know about with the iphone, but i know for us android users, alot of people who dont know what there doing, brick there phones tryin to get Hero or other roms installed.

I mean really....what else can you do by messing with the phones OS that you couldn't do w/o it? WiFi tethering? Extra screens? Its not worth the risk or the trouble for me. I have one of those mini laptops that I can carry around with me if I need something that bad.