Tag: "jailbreaking"

Thinking About Jailbreaking Your iOS Device? Think Twice, According to the EFF

By Juli | January 26, 2012 | No comment yet

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Jailbreaking isn’t just for hackers anymore; it’s become a mainstream practice. When the Chronic Dev Team released the Absinthe A5 jailbreak for the iPhone 4S and the iPad 2, there were more than a million downloads of the software within three days.

It’s not just about downloading free apps, though that is a perk of a jailbroken iDevice. Jailbreaking is also about being able to tweak your iPhone or iPad in ways that are impossible with Apple’s software, creating a truly customized digital experience.

Absinthe A5 Jailbreak Released for iPad 2 and iPhone 4S

By Juli | January 20, 2012 | No comment yet

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The first untethered jailbreak for iOS 5.0.1 was released in late December, but it didn’t include support for Apple’s newest devices – the iPad 2 and the iPhone 4S.

As of today, however, an addition to the Greenpois0n jailbreaking tool, “Absinthe A5,” will allow iPhone 4S and iPad 2 owners to perform an untethered jailbreak on their devices for the first time.

iOS 5.0.1 Untethered Jailbreak Out

By Juli | December 28, 2011 | No comment yet

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There’s a brand new untethered jailbreak for iOS version 5.0.1 available, thanks to @pod2g. The current release only works with A4 processors – meaning no iPhone 4S or iPad 2, but a release for those devices is in the works.

Thanks to the C hronic devteam and the iPhone devteam, the new jailbreak is available in redsn0w 0.9.10, PwnageTool, and a Cydia package. Those of you with an original iPad, an iPhone 3GS/4 , or a 3rd and 4th generation iPod Touch can now use this to jailbreak a device running iOS 5.0.1.

If you’re familiar with jailbreaking, this is an easy install. Those of you that are already tethered will need to download and install Corona 5.0.1 Untether from the Cydia store, and new users can use a redsn0w bundle.

iPad Jailbreaking – The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

By dag | August 6, 2010 | 6 comments

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After running a couple articles about iPad jailbreaks, many of our readers contacted us to ask questions about the benefits and the drawbacks of jailbreaking their iPads. Will it break my iPad? Why would I even jailbreak my iPad to start with? What do I get? Will it void my warranty? Will the jailbreak work after updating my iPad with a new iOS release? And so on…

Instead of replying to these questions individually, we thought it would be best to address these questions in a single article, in order to debunk some of the myths surrounding the jailbreaking of the iPad.

The Good

The main reason why folks jailbreak their iPads is simple: they want to have access to other sources for apps than Apple’s App Store. The Apple App Store has thousands of great iPad apps, but all these apps have to follow very strict rules, such as:
- The apps cannot change the basic behavior/layout of the iPad
- The apps cannot allow any kind of tethering
- The apps cannot provide a desktop-like experience
- The apps cannot necessarily use the video output of the iPad
- The apps cannot contain any adult/R-rated content
- And so on…

Because of these restrictions, a large chunk of iOS developers saw their apps rejected by Apple, had to cripple their apps to get approved, or did not even want to go through Apple’s approval process. And this gave birth to the largest independent iOS apps repository, Cydia. In a nutshell, Cydia’s primary intention is to provide jailbroken iPad, iPhone and iPod users with software and operating system tweaks unavailable on the Apple App Store.

Cydia running on an iPad

iPad Jailbreaking Legalized

By dag | July 26, 2010 | 5 comments

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Earlier today, the Associated Press reported that the U.S. government announced new rules that legalize the act of jailbreaking a device to run an app that has been made incompatible by the manufacturer. In other words, it is up to the device owner to decide whether he/she wants to run third-party applications on the device or not – and that includes the iPad.

Apple – as well as many other device manufacturers – has never been fond of hackers trying to jailbreak iPhones, iPods and iPads, and thus far claimed that federal laws actually made jailbreaks illegal (Digital Millennium Copyright Act). However, the updated law includes a couple exemptions that make the act of jailbreaking devices legal – something that fell into a “gray area” until today.

Despite this ruling, jailbreaking your iPad is still considered a warranty-voiding act, and Apple has no plans to help users install third-party applications downloaded from outside its App Store. However, Apple will not be allowed to launch legal actions against hackers working on jailbreaks, or users who decide to download applications from third party stores such as Cydia.

Note that the new exemptions do not mean it is ok to download copyrighted material without paying for it.

More News from the Jailbreaking Front

By dag | April 10, 2010 | 2 comments

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Like with the iPhone, many hardcore iPad users want to be able to run other apps than the ones available at the App Store. We previously mentioned that the iPad has already been jailbroken, however the hacks were quite basic so far and didn’t allow much except basic console access.

After a week of work, it looks like the hacks are getting more and more refined, and some non-Apple-approved apps are already working on the iPad. The hacks are still a bit crude, but this is real! For instance, here is what the (not approved) iPhone Nintendo 64 emulator running on the iPad looks like: