iPhone DevTeam

A mysterious and unknown hacker calling himself (herself?) "Dream JB" is promising to release an untethered iOS 6 jailbreak for the iPad mini, latest iPad and iPhone 5 on December 22. Dream JB is not associated with any known dev team, and has said he will deliver video proof of the jailbreak via Twitter on Wednesday. If true, the new untethered jailbreak will support all current Apple devices running iOS 6.0.1. This includes the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPad 2 and beyond, iPad Mini, iPod Touch 4th generation and beyond.

Most jailbreakers only use jailbreaking tools from proven sources such as the iPhone DevTeam, or Absinthe creator pod2g. And not surprisingly, a large portion of the jailbreaking community is calling Dream JB's untethered jailbreak a scam. No one knows for sure if Dream JB will actually deliver a safe untethered iOS 6 jailbreak this December, but it will be interesting to see if his promised video actually materializes, and the jailbreaking community's reaction tomorrow.

The iPhone Dev Team quietly released redSn0w 0.9.10b7 for Mac and Windows on Friday. The new version features a few improvements like the addition of the Corona A5 untethered jailbreak for the iPhone 4S and iPad 2. Version 0.9.10b7 also includes a re-install feature for jailbreakers who accidently uninstall the untether, and it can pull your SHSH blobs from the Cydia Store when injecting an IPSW.

RedSn0w 0.9.10b7 also supplies new information about your device. For example the Dev Team blog says it lets you know "whether your iPhone 3GS has the vulnerable baseband boot loader, or whether your iPhone 3GS has the old exploitable bootrom." The Dev Team also noted that "the next new feature to be added will be built-in restore support, to provide an alternative to iTunes restores."

Things have been pretty quiet on the jailbreak front since the launch of the iPad 3. Today Absinthe and Corona developer pod2g broke the silence on his Twitter feed. Pod2g tweeted that he has acquired all the exploits needed to jailbreak iOS 5.1. While it's good to know that our favorite iPhone hackers are closer to a solution, fellow DevTeam member Chpwn reminded everyone that even though "all the exploits are found, this doesn't mean that a jailbreak exists," and it could be months away from a public release.

In February, iOS hacker i0n1c posted a few pictures of a jailbroken iPad 2 running iOS 5.1. The DevTeam also wrote on their blog that someone "close to the Cydia repo scene" was working on an entirely new jailbreak method.

As expected Apple has stopped signing iOS 5.0.1 with the release of iOS 5.1. If you own a jailbroken device you should not update to 5.1 because it breaks both the Corona untether and the Absinthe exploit. The Dev-Team warned both veteran and amateur jailbreakers about the dangers of upgrading on Wednesday.

iPhone 4S and iPad 2 users who did not heed the warning won't be able to downgrade back to 5.0.1 even if they did save their SHSH blobs. People with earlier devices and saved SHSH blobs can downgrade with the assistance of geohot’s limera1n exploit. There is also a tethered jailbreak for non-A5 devices if you really have the urge to get to 5.1.

One week after the Chronic Dev and iPhone Dev Team helped pod2g release his untethered iOS 5.0.1 jailbreak for A4 devices, the iPhone hacker tweeted that the A5 version is only a week away from a public release.

Pod2g enlisted the aid of the Chronic Dev team to release his A4 exploit so he could concentrate on A5 devices. The A4 untethered jailbreak was released on December 27 while iPhone 4S and iPad 2 owners were once again left out in the cold. That is all about to change in the near future according to pod2g.