We’ve been following developments on an iOS 6 untethered jailbreak and know just how many readers are keenly awaiting further news on this. Recently we told how an iPhone 5 tethered jailbreak looked much closer and that work on the untethered iOS 6 jailbreak was ongoing. Now it appears that Apple will soon bring out iOS 6.0.1 and when you think about it, it makes sense that the jailbreaking community may have put an untethered iOS 6 jailbreak on hold until after the update arrives.
We’ve had plenty of comments to our previous articles on an iOS 6 untethered jailbreak and it’s clear that there’s a certain amount of impatience on the part of many, although of course others point to all the good work that hackers and developments put into these jailbreaks. A few days ago we told how renowned jailbreaker @planetbeing suggested a tethered iPhone 5 jailbreak was very close and that this could also work for the iPhone 4S. However one snag was that for now at least @planetbeing also said that a dev account would be needed to access it.
Following this though came speculation that the reason the upcoming tethered jailbreak was being kept internal was that the jailbreaking community was busy focusing on a preferred untethered iOS 6 jailbreak. We asked readers if they would prefer a tethered iPhone 5 jailbreak right now or wait a bit longer for an untethered jailbreak and the response was pretty mixed.
After further news it now seems that the jailbreaking community may be waiting for an iOS 6 update before releasing an untethered jailbreak. We told readers yesterday about leaks that Apple was already in the process of testing an iOS 6 update with carriers and that this 6.0.1 maintenance update would fix several glitches and bugs in iOS 6. The release of the update could arrive at any point now, in time for the holiday season and we also learned that iOS 6.1 was also being worked on but was not likely to arrive until after Christmas. If this is accurate and 6.0.1 is indeed imminent it would make perfect sense if the jailbreaking community put an untethered iOS 6 jailbreak on hold until after the update appears.
Developers such as @pod2g have already discussed how much harder the iOS 6 jailbreak is because Apple has tightened up security but did recently say he was confident that an untethered iOS 6 jailbreak would appear in the next few weeks. Previous untethered jailbreaks have appeared more quickly but this increased security would explain the delays. However another reason this latest untethered jailbreak is taking a while to arrive could be more to do with this upcoming update. These things do leak out and so it’s perfectly logical to think that jailbreakers would not want to thrown away all the work they’ve done so far on the untethered iOS 6 jailbreak if they would just have to start all over again from scratch as soon as iOS 6.0.1 arrives. An untethered iOS 6 jailbreak may even already have been developed but jailbreakers could be keeping it back until Apple pushes out 6.0.1 so that their exploits aren’t wasted.
Over on iDigitalTimes the untethered iOS 6 jailbreak is also discussed and the reason it is taking so long is speculated upon. The site also believes that the untethered jailbreak could actually be ready to go but may be being deferred because of the upcoming iOS 6.0.1 update. The article also points to the fact that if an untethered jailbreak was released before the update arrives then Apple will simply patch the vulnerabilities in the update meaning that hackers will have to start again from scratch with another jailbreak.
Releasing an untethered iOS 6 jailbreak prematurely then could mean many hours of work could be wasted. Taking this all on board we’d say that the untethered jailbreak may arrive shortly after iOS 6.0.1 which is expected any time. However iDigitalTimes feels it may not be released until after iOS 6.1 arrives, which could be after Christmas and this could disappoint many. Of course all of this is conjecture at the moment but it would explain why an untethered jailbreak is taking so long. We’re interested to hear your opinions on this.
Do you think an untethered iOS 6 jailbreak simply isn’t ready yet and as soon as it is it will be released? Alternatively you may feel that an untethered iOS 6 jailbreak could already exist but is being held back until Apple releases an iOS 6 update? Let us know with your comments.