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.

Siri9000 is a useless but fun jailbreak tweak that transforms Siri into HAL 9000 from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. The Hal icon is easily installed by downloading the tweak from the Big Boss repo, and activating it from WinterBoard. Getting the Hal 9000 sound effects to work takes a little bit more effort.

I should warn you that the tweak does not convert Siri's voice into Hal's. It only changes the Siri start up sound to a few Hal quotes from the movie ("Good evening Dave", "I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that"). To activate the Hal 9000 sounds you will have to know how to transfer files on your iPhone with SSH and have OpenSSH installed.

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.

Looking for a faster way to access heavily used apps on your iPhone? A new tweak named AppSlider makes it possible to add two app icons to the unlock slider at the bottom of the lock screen. You can choose which apps to make available at all times.

The best part is that the AppSlider tweak respects your passcode, and will follow the same rules as the unlock slider. Once installed on a jailbroken iPhone, AppSlider will shorten the width of the unlock slider and add two app icons when enabled. Any native or third party apps can be opened directly from the lock screen.

Typing symbols or pictures on the iPhone just got easier thanks to a Cydia tweak called PictoKeyboard. The free software package temporarily replaces an unused international keyboard with unicode symbols that can be typed anywhere. Many of the symbols are similar to emoji icons, which can be installed without jailbreaking.

If your iPhone is jailbroken, the installation of PictoKeyboard takes place in just a few steps and provides an easy way to add unicode symbols including the ever-popular Apple logo. Additional symbol keys can be accessed using the numerical keyboard or pressing the shift button.