iPhone 4S

I'm not sure updating to iOS 5.1 is worth losing your untethered jailbreak, but non-A5 users can sacrifice their freedom if they want to. iPhone 4S users should avoid 5.1 if they want to keep their jailbreak. However, non-iPhone 4S owners can keep their devices jailbroken by downloading redsn0w 0.9.10b6. This version is a tethered 5.1 jailbreak for non-A5 devices.

A tethered jailbreak requires that your device is plugged into a computer whenever turned on. Untethered jailbreaks offer the freedom of not using a computer every time your device reboots. Most jailbreakers prefer untethered to tethered. Since iOS 5.1 doesn't offer anything worth losing your untethered jailbreak over I would suggest avoiding it entirely. However, if you are dead set on getting to 5.1 read on for the Dev Team's warning and instructions.

Many of the recent rumors and mock ups of the iPhone 5 have shown an aluminum back on the next Apple smartphone, designed similarly to the iPad 2. This would be a departure from the current iPhone 4S design with an external antenna and two glass plates on the front and back.

New information from sources at iLounge are stating this is not the case, and that Apple might keep glass as an integral component of the next iPhone exterior. Apple is "continuing to experiment with glass and ceramic rear shells for a future iPhone model" which could be made of Corning's Gorilla Glass 2.

Have you ever wanted to launch Siri without using the home button? The new jailbreak tweak SiriBoard adds an icon to your iPhone's SpringBoard so you can launch the voice assistant from your home screen. I prefer the app to holding down the home button because it only requires that you tap the icon. It also gives you two options to access Siri rather than just one.

Another hardware unlock solution has appeared, the R-SIM from Each Supplier. This SIM interposer works with the iPhone 4S running iOS 5 or iOS 5.0.1 making it possible to use the device on any compatible GSM carrier network.

iPhone Dev-Team has not made recent announcements regarding updates to ultrasn0w, the software unlock solution for jailbreakers. One advantage of the R-SIM is that the product does not require a jailbroken iPhone to unlock the device.

If you've used pod2g's exploit to jailbreak your iPhone 4S you can now take advantage of the many Siri tweaks available through Cydia. There is CustomSiriBackground, which allows you to wallpaper Siri with any photo from your Camera Roll, and Sireet, which gives Siri the ability to send tweets. But the best Siri tweak of all has to be AssistantExtensions.

AssistantExtensions turns Siri into the voice assistant we've all been waiting for. It allows Siri to search YouTube videos and launch apps, but best of all it can make her hold intimate conversations with you. Saying the phrase "Lets Chat" activates the Siri chat mode. After a short wait for her to load some textual data, Siri will tell jokes and give you information without having to connect to the web. For example, asking her "what is Apple" will result in her giving you three definitions, the third being "Empire for Steve Jobs." AssistantExtensions opens a whole new world of possibilities for Siri, and it even allows you to have custom conversations if you take the time to create them.