News

iPhone hacker pod2g released a video showing off his new iOS 5.0.1 untethered jailbreak working on an iPhone 4. The new untethered jailbreak should be "ready for prime time" in a few days according to his blog. The exploit does not work for the iPhone 4S or iPad 2, but it will work with other iOS devices. Pod2g previously uploaded a video to YouTube showing the exploit working with an iPod touch, and it has been tested on an iPhone 3GS and iPad.

The video shows the jailbreak working after the iPhone 4 has been switched off and on proving that it's untethered. It uses the same code patches as redsn0w, so it should feature the same level of stability. Earlier this week pod2g posted two updates on his A5 jailbreaking progress.

As promised pod2g posted an update on his current jailbreaking progress and it looks like an untethered iPhone 4S jailbreak could be right around the corner. The A5 cache issue has been resolved and pod2g has received assistance from fellow iPhone hacker Saurik. Here is what pod2g wrote on his blog:

"OK, figured it out, the A5 cache is not a problem anymore. I sorted it out by doing the untether in a single thread and by flushing all the dcache then all the icache in a row at a strategical point of the process. It took me like a hundred of tests to find the key. Hard for the nerves."

" I discussed with @saurik today about the launchd boot process, and he's found one missing piece of the puzzle I needed to have a perfectly stable jailbreak. He's definitly one of the best iOS gurus out there. Thank you saurik!"

The good news is iPhone hacker pod2g is still working on his promised untethered iPhone 4S jailbreak. The bad news is he's having "processor cache" issues. Pod2g wrote on his blog:

"Here is the news of the 4S week-end.The untether fails right now because I'm having processor cache issues. I'm close, but I can't figure out what happens. It certainly has something to do with the Cortex-A9 cache management.I could sort it out quick, it's a matter of chance."

Pod2g excited the jailbreaking community when he successfully tested an untethered jailbreak on an iPod 4G and iPhone 4 running iOS 5.0.1 a few weeks ago. Currently their is no jailbreak for the iPhone 4S, but recent progress by pod2g and the Chronic Dev Team point to one being released soon. Pod2g promised another update on his progress tomorrow.

T-Mobile doesn't offer the iPhone, but that hasn't stopped iPhone users from using T-Mobile. It's estimated that around one million T-Mobile customers use unlocked iPhones to access the carrier's slower EDGE network. The iPhone is incompatible with the 1700/2100 MHz bands used by T-Mobile for its faster data speeds, but a recent refarming of its spectrum capacity has caused some pockets of the country to be iPhone-accessible.

According to TMONews, a very few unlocked iPhone users are picking up 3G signals in parts of Northern California and the Pacific Northwest:

"Nevada, parts of Northern California and the Pacific Northwest are also seeing some pockets of 1900MHz spectrum refarming for HSPA+. There are other parts of the country T-Mobile can refarm the 1900MHz spectrum but, the focus is on the Pacific Northwest, Nevada, Utah and California for right now from what we’re told. We should emphasize and emphasize greatly that this post does not mean that all of the aforementioned areas are seeing this refarmed spectrum, just pockets inside those areas."

Your iPhone probably won't have a made in the USA tag anytime soon, however supply chain sources have indicated that one important component is now manufactured just a day-and-a-half drive from Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California. The brains of the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S, the A5 processor is now produced by Samsung at a facility in Austin, Texas.

Sure, the devices are assembled in China and many components come from Asian suppliers. This doesn't change the fact that Samsung has moved its Apple A5 production to the US. The previous generation processor, the A4 was manufactured in Asia.