iOS 4.3.4

Many iPhone owners are wondering whether they should follow the iTunes prompt and update to iOS 4.3.4 or not. There are a few questions you might ask yourself before making this decision to help determine if the 4.3.4 (4.2.9 on Verizon) firmware update is for you. Skipping the update leaves your device at iOS 4.3.3 or earlier, which could be useful down the line.

First it's important to understand what Apple is trying to accomplish with the iOS 4.3.4 update. The primary purpose is to fix a PDF security vulnerability on your iPhone. This may sound bad, but read on for more details. This vulnerability is the same weakness that makes the remarkably easy and fast JailbreakMe 3.0 procedure possible.

On Friday, Apple launched iOS 4.3.4 to patch a vulnerability that allowed hackers to remotely take over iOS devices. Unfortunately, this security risk was also the same PDF exploit used by Comex to release JailbreakMe 3.0 a little over a week ago. Not a big deal if you stuck with iOS 4.3.3, but for those of you who didn't get the memo, there is a savior in the form of a tethered jailbreak. Not as good, but better than nothing.

Redmond Pie released a tutorial on how to jailbreak your iPhone, iPad (sorry doesn't work for the iPad 2) and iPod touch running iOS 4.3.4.