Jailbreaking

The latest version of iOS has been jailbroken untethered, and demonstrated on an iPad 3. Developer iH8sn0w posted a video demonstrating the iOS 8.1.1 jailbreak only days after the firmware's release. In the update, Apple closed three of the exploits used by Pangu Team to jailbreak iOS 8.1.

While the iOS 8.1.1 jailbreak is a sign of progress, it currently only works on 30-pin devices which predate the Lighting connector. The news comes as Apple has already seeded iOS 8.2 to developers. At this point in time, the best bet for those looking to jailbreak is to move forward with the Pangu jailbreak on iOS 8.1. Apple is likely to stop signing the iOS 8.1 firmware any day now.

Many jailbreak tweaks focus entirely on the Control Center, an area of iOS that is ripe for customization. CCQuick, CCControls, and the popular FlipControlCenter come to mind. Another such tweak has recently been updated for the latest version of iOS: CCSettings for iOS 8.

With CCSettings, jailbreakers can add various toggles to the stock Control Center, making this part of iOS even more functional. Multiple settings can be accessed immediately from Control Center, including Cellular Data, Location Services, Personal Hotspot, VPN and more. Having access to more toggles directly in the iOS 8 Control Center makes quick changes to settings quick and convenient.

Jailbreakers are accustomed to respringing their iOS devices when implementing a mod or installing tweaks. Sometimes the software has a convenient respring button built-in. Otherwise, it can be tricky to respring and it can even be easier just to reboot. Now the jailbreak tweak PullToRespring brings this functionality right into iOS 8.

Once installed, PullToRespring adds respring access directly to the Settings. Simply swipe down on the Settings menu and the Springboard will respring immediately. It's the same gesture that is used as a reload or refresh command in many apps. The only option that will be added to the Settings is a toggle to disable the tweak entirely.

Taking a screenshot on an iOS device means pressing the home and sleep buttons simultaneously. While this copies whatever is on the display to the Camera Roll, the image always covers the entire screen. Cropping the screenshot normally involves editing the photo, but with the CroppingScreen tweak installed the process is simplified.

Users with jailbroken devices can control what subset of the display is captured in a screenshot when CroppingScreen is installed. Simply perform the routine method for taking a screenshot, but instead of the photo being instantly taken an interface is presented. The display will appear grey, and a tap and drag reveals a lighter box. Resize the box to select which portion of the screen you wish to capture, then let go.

Pangu has taken the iOS 8 world by storm, with a stable release heralded by saurik himself, the creator of Cydia. Now jailbreaking any iOS device running iOS 8 through iOS 8.1 is possible in a few easy steps. Users looking to install tweaks and software from Cydia must act quickly, as the iOS 8.1.1 beta has been discovered to kill Pangu.

This means when iOS 8.1.1 is released to the general public, the window to jailbreak iOS 8.1 will close forever. In any case, the Pangu Team recently launched a Windows version of the Pangu jailbreak tool. The wait is over for Mac users, as Pangu for OS X has officially arrived. Follow the instructions below to jailbreak iOS 8 with Pangu on Mac OS X.