Apparently, there was some pent-up demand for a jailbreak of the latest version of iOS. A huge number of people downloaded a newly-released version of the software that allows users to unshackle their iPhones, iPods and iPads from Apple’s control.
As Ubergizmo reports, the Chronic Dev Team released a new version of its Absinthe jailbreaking software during the Memorial Day weekend, and saw a huge number of downloads during the holiday. More than 1 million people downloaded the software, according to the report. The Chronic Dev Team reported via Twitter that 211,401 iPad 3s had been jailbroken over the weekend, along with 973,086 other devices.
Jailbreaking is a culture all its own in the iOS-owning community. It requires special software and is also known as “rooting” devices, breaking them free of requirements like downloading apps from the iTunes App Store. It allows users more freedom of their devices, providing more customization and app-buying options, but it also opens them up to issues such as malware. Users with jailbroken phones also can’t update their iOS software, lest they lose the jailbreak, and each new version of iOS needs to be jailbroken separately from the others.
Absinthe 2.0, the latest version of Chronic Dev Team’s software, can jailbreak iOS 5.1.1 on the majority of devices. It’s also notable because it’s an “untethered” jailbreak, meaning that once the software is uploaded to a device, that device stays jailbroken. With untethered jailbreaks, restarting the iPhone or iPad clears out the jailbreak data, requiring users to re-jailbreak them every time they shut them down. Untethered jailbreaks start up normally and don’t require the use of the software over and over again. The Chronic Dev Team also released a patch for tethered jailbreak users that allows them to switch over to the untethered jailbreak.
As with all jailbreaks, running them is something users have to do at their own risk. Apple isn’t fond of users taking their devices off the reservation, and messing with your device’s software carries inherent possible pitfalls. If you’re looking to check out the iOS 5.1.1 untethered jailbreak, though, you can get more information right here.
