Why Semi-tethered Jailbreak is Nothing to go Ga-Ga Over

First it was the tethered jailbreak. That was followed by an untethered jailbreak. The latest is a semi-tethered jailbreak.

The BigBoss group, which provides a number of packages and themes on Cydia, has introduced a semi-tethered jailbreak of Apple's new iOS 5 and, according to reports, this particular form of jailbreak can help the user protect his tethered iOS 5 from making the device unusable, during a crash or an unplanned reboot. But compared to both the tethered and untethered jailbreaks, this may not prove to that big a deal; the principal concern is that it has problems of its own,

The semi-tethered jailbreak, which is still in its beta version, unlike the other two, doesn't allow the user to utilize the App Sync function. This is because the semi-tethered break patches up system files which refuse to comply with user commands to access App Sync. More work is apparently needed before the user can run App Sync after a semi-tethered jailbreak.

In addition, semi-tethering the device will also cause problems, following the installation of tweaks. The device will enter a problematic loop and the problem can only be resolved be retethering the device. Also, a semi-tethered device will take longer to boot, since it is still in its beta stages.

Note also that the user will not be able to use the default mobile browser, Safari, when the device has been semi-tethered. The browser in the new iOS 5 has arrived with lots of new features, one of which is the introduction of the tabbed browsing concept that allows users to save articles to be read across other iOS devices. The browser also removes unnecessary adds and allows toggling between private and general browsing modes. However, the user will still have the option of navigating the Web via the Atomic browser.