Untethered Jailbreak for iPhone 4S, iPad 2 Update: Progress With A5 Hits Snag, be Wary of Fakes

For all those waiting desperately for an untethered jailbreak for iPhone 4S and iPad 2, this is indeed a heartbreaker.

Jailbreak developer Pod2g, the man behind the untethered jailbreak on iOS 5.0.1 for all A4 devices, announced earlier this week that he had made significant progress in finding an untethered jailbreak for A5 devices and a release could be expected within a week.

Following his update, it looked like users of iPhone 4S and iPad 2 will finally get the tool they had been waiting for this long. However, it wasn't until Thursday that Pod2g came up with yet another update, suggesting that it might not be possible to release an untethered jailbreak for A5-powered devices as soon as he had expected.

According to the developer, the project has encountered a big hurdle in the way of making the jailbreak available for public use. Pod2g explained:

The exploit I used to inject the untethering files to the 4S relies on having a developer account, and can't be released publicly. It's the same reason why @MuscleNerd has an iPad 2 tethered jailbreak but couldn't distribute it. So, we need to find a distributable exploit to remount the system partition read/write and to set Corona files at the correct places.

Thus, only a few users with registered developer accounts with Apple would have access to the untethered jailbreak for A5-powered devices, and non-developers are again left in the dark as Pod2g didn't mention anything about how long it might take. If hackers release a working untethered jailbreak for A5 devices with what they know now, they would have to do so using some Apple's codes illegally, which they don't want to.

In his blog post titled A5 FAQ, Pod2g made it clear as to why the untethered jailbreak for A4 device was easy to release. He explained the issue in a pseudo Q&A session:

Why A4 version of Corona was easier to release?

Because a tethered jailbreak is a good way to install Corona!

Why don't you do a tethered jailbreak then?

A tethered jailbreak also relies on an exploitable vulnerability that we still haven't found yet!

pod2g, release this stuff quick, [your insult here], I've waited enough now.

If I could, I would!

Watch Out for Fakes

While any unlock or jailbreak utility is available free of charge from the iPhone Dev Team and the Chronic Dev Team, a number of scam sites are promising to offer a tethered or untethered jailbreak for iPhone 4S and iPad 2 at a price between $20 and $30.

For a particular amount, these sites offer a packaged version of the free jailbreaking software available. It may work for A4-powered devices such as the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad 1, iPod Touch 3 and 4 on iOS 5.0.1, but would be useless against A5-powered iPhone 4S and iPad 2.

Therefore, don't get carried away by those scam sites and wait for the genuine release from the dev teams. There are still chances that it will happen soon.

UPDATE: Untethered Jailbreak for A5 Devices: Sandbox Issue Solved, 'Saurik' Offers 'Major Contribution'

MUST READ: iOS 5 Untethered Jailbreak: Update to iOS 5.0.1 and Protect Your Untethered Jailbreak Using TinyUmbrella [Guide]