Pod2g, one of the most notorious iOS jailbreak hackers who is highly respected in the community, recently worked closely with the Chronic Dev Team to release “Absinthe A5″, an add on to the mega popular Greenpois0n jailbreaking tool that previously could not perform an untethered jailbreak on iOS devices with A5 chipsets. This is the first untethered jailbreak ever for the iPhone 4s and the iPad 2, and people literally slammed the greenpoison servers over the weekend in an effort to download the tool, setting their iPhones and iPads free at last. Absinthe is only available for Mac OS X, but we are told that Linux and Windows versions are scheduled to arrive shortly.
For those who don’t know, jailbreaking is a hacking process that lets users control more of what can and cannot run on their iOS device systems. This is often the result of a desire to load third-party software or other hacks not authorized by Apple. It can void your warranty to jailbreak your iPhone or iPad — but if you ever need warranty work done, it’s a pretty simple procedure to restore from an old backup and all traces of the hacking you did will be destroyed, so getting rid of the evidence prior to warranty repairs is a good idea. There are two kinds of jailbreaks that can be done. One is tethered, which means that every time you need to reboot your device, you have to have it physically plugged into your computer and iTunes. The untethered jailbreak is one that lets the device reboot without being connected to a computer. For this reason, untethered jailbreaks are considered superior to tethered ones, and they usually take hackers longer to develop.
Why do people jailbreak their devices? Several reasons. The main reason is to expand the limitations imposed on the OS by Apple and its famously difficult to breach App Store. Jailbreaking gives users access to Cydia, an alternative app store used for finding and installing software on jailbroken iOS devices like the iPod touch, iPhone, and iPad. Apps purchased through Cydia can allow users greater customization over the UI of their devices, permit other ways to tether their existing data plans to other devices (for free, rather than paying AT&T or Verizon $25 extra a month for the privilege,) and gain command line access to the OS. The file system can also be accessed on jailbroken devices. You can get the new tool here!
