iPhone Jailbreaking

UPDATE: Instructions for using Absinthe for Windows are here.

Great news has arrived for iPhone 4S and iPad 2 owners looking to jailbreak. Chronic Dev Team released the highly anticipated Absinthe jailbreak tool for Apple A5 devices running iOS 5 and iOS 5.0.1 firmware. This solution was in the works for some time, thanks to the efforts of developer pod2g and a "dream team" of iOS hackers.

Like the most recent iPhone 4 jailbreak, Absinthe is untethered and can be installed on mobile devices running Apple's latest firmware (iOS 5.0.1). The greenpois0n servers delivering Absinthe were down for hours today thanks to heavy traffic from jailbreakers across the globe.

Hard to believe the iOS jailbreak tool sn0wbreeze is already two years old. Developer iH8sn0w is celebrating with the release of sn0wbreeze 2.9, which adds a long list of improvements and new features for jailbreakers everywhere.

Much like iPhone Dev-Team's PwnageTool for Mac users, sn0wbreeze gives iPhone jailbreak fans running Windows the ability to create custom IPSW files and more. Not only does sn0wbreeze 2.9 support a long list of older firmware, it adds the untethered iOS 5.0.1 jailbreak for A4 devices previously released with redsn0w and Corona.

UPDATE: iPhone developer pod2g blogged that an upcoming Corona update will fix "iBooks and other softwares having sandbox issues." We will let you know when it's released.

When jailbreaking iOS there are sometimes caveats and unintended consequences, although normally for enthusiasts the advantages of running new software take precedence. iBooks fans might have found that after liberating their device with the latest redsn0w untethered iOS 5.0.1 jailbreak that iBooks ceases to work.

Now there's a package available in Cydia that should fix the problem. Some users have reported no luck with the fix, but our team was able to fix iBooks using the procedure below. As always, jailbreaking and installing non-Apple packages is performed on your iPhone at your own risk! Here are instructions to fix iBooks after jailbreaking.

Chronic Dev Team has released a jailbreak tool on the Cydia app store for those who have already installed a tethered jailbreak on their iOS 5.0.1 devices. Using this tool, called Corona 5.0.1 Untether will modify your iPhone with the same exploits used in redsn0w. Unlike the redsn0w jailbreak process, Corona requires no computer to untether a jailbroken device.

In order to successfully install Corona, your iOS device must already have a tethered jailbreak installed along with iOS 5.0.1. Do not use Corona if you're using a hybrid iOS 5.0/5.0.1 jailbreak! This requires installing and running redsn0w after a clean restore to stock iOS 5.0.1.

Thanks to pod2g and the iPhone Dev-Team it's now possible to jailbreak the iPhone 4 and all models of the Phone 3GS untethered. Although iPhone 4S and iPad 2 owners are still waiting for an A5 jailbreak, all iOS devices running iOS 5.0.1 with A4 hardware can now be jailbroken untethered. This includes the original iPad, iPod touch 3G and iPod touch 4G.

Using redsn0w to jailbreak is a straightforward process, and will install the Cydia app store on your device. This opens up a whole new world of tweaks and apps to improve your iPhone experience and customize operation. Be sure that before you proceed with the instructions, you have installed the iOS 5.0.1 firmware update.