Apple iOS 7.1 Jailbreak: Geeksn0w 2.6 Tethered On iPhone 4 Released; Will iPhone 5S And iPad Air Be Jailbroken?

The release of Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iOS 7.1 earlier this month left jailbreak users with the difficult decision between upgrading to the latest version of iOS for the iPhone 5S, iPad Air and other iOS devices and staying at the outdated versions of iOS 7.0.6 and below to preserve their jailbreak tweaks and mods.

While many opted to keep their iOS devices at 7.0.6 and below, others traded the plethora of mods and tweaks available to a jailbroken iOS device in exchange for a more stable iOS 7.1 experience.

Those who upgraded to iOS 7.1 got not only the greater stability but also new features such as the recently announced CarPlay integration. But for those hoping that a jailbreak will be developed soon for iOS 7.1, it's less likely this time around. Apple iOS 7.1 closed several exploits that were used by the Evasi0n 7 jailbreak on versions iOS 7.0.6 and below.

Pod2g, a member of the Evad3rs development team behind the Evasi0n jailbreak, told iDigitalTimes that “there is a big chance the evad3rs won't focus on [an iOS 7.1 jailbreak] as a team… Expect that for iOS 8.”

But that doesn't rule out the possibility of individual developer efforts to build an iOS 7.1 jailbreak.

Since the release of iOS 7.1, individual developers have been working in their spare time to develop a jailbreak for iOS devices, particularly older devices such as the iPhone 4. Jailbreak developers tend to focus on such devices first due to existing bootrom exploits that Apple is unable to patch without releasing a hardware revision.

Fortunately, for users of the iPhone 4 running iOS 7.1, last week a new tethered jailbreak called Geeksn0w was released by Italian developer Andrea Bentivegna.

The Geeksn0w jailbreak enables iPhone 4 users to run tweaks, mods and non-App Store software on an iPhone 4 running iOS 7.1. However, the Geeksn0w iOS 7.1 jailbreak will run on iPhone 4 devices only in a tethered state, which requires users to connect their jailbroken iPhone 4 to a computer after a restart in order to boot the iOS device in a jailbroken state.

For those looking for an alternative jailbreak solution on their older iOS devices, jailbreak developer Winocm posted a video on YouTube that shows the boot sequence of a jailbroken iPhone 4 running iOS 7.1. However, there’s no indication if such a jailbreak will be released publicly.

In addition to the iOS 7.1 jailbreak running on the iPhone 4, Winocm also posted another video which shows an iPad 2 dual booting iOS 5.1 and iOS 6.1.3.

While the video features older iOS versions booting on the iPad 2, Winocm commented in a Reddit thread that video featuring a dual boot iOS device running iOS 7.1 may surface sometime on Monday.

For older iOS device users, the individual developments above show potential for an untethered jailbreak for iPhone 4 and the possibility of a dual booting iPad 2. However, iOS 7.1 users on the iPhone 5S, iPad Air and other newer iOS devices looking for a jailbreak may be waiting quite a while as developers continue to shift their attention toward a jailbreak for iOS 8, which may be unveiled for beta testing in June at the Apple Worldwide Developer Conference.