That title was not a typeo, I said jailbreaks because there is more than one being developed at this moment. The headliners of the jailbreak community are all working on a way to open up Apple’s current unhackable device. A jailbreak hack allows users more control over the device. Once jailbroken users can install original third party software or apps that were rejected by Apple. P0sixninja, i0n1c, Comex and GeoHot are all working separately to jailbreak the iPad 2. This is going to take quite a bit of reverse-engineering in order to get it to work. Apple is making it more and more difficult to jailbreak their devices. Below are some of the reasons that it has taken so long.
What’s the holdup!!
What is taking so long? At this point finding a way for avarge user to jailbreak the device seems to be the issue. We know it can be jailbroken because it has been done already. The device was jailbroken just a few days after release by Comex. His iPad 2 device pictured below remains the only iPad 2 jailbroken that the public has seen.
It seems that are some legal hoops keeping the method he use from being released to the public. So a legal way has to be formed to release his jailbreak or come up with a new one. Also there the hardware issues. The A5 chip is a monster. Even though the iPad 2 only has 512 of RAM, it seems like a full gig thanks to the super chip that is the A5. Grageband zips though synthized meolodies and Infinty Blade loads up with out any lag. I noticed it most on the loading of my iBooks. The chip is a tech marvel that is not about to give up it’s security anytime soon.
Also people are speculating that the reason it has taken so long is because GeoHot has not been involved.
Wait, what? It won’t be free?
i0n1c tweeted that is foolish to keep offering jailbreaks for free. He was quick to say that he was joking and P0sinninja himself has gone on record saying jailbreaks will always be free. That however won’t stop others from charging people in the future though. So would people pay for a jailbreak? Is profiting from jailbreaks legal? These are some things that the community is thinking about. I personally would pay for a jailbreak if updates were part of the fee.
Who is working on what?
Long time iphone hacker George Hotz who is commenly known as GeoHot has accepted a challenge from fellow iPhone hacker, Joshua Hill, to “dump the iPad 2 BootROM” before he does. Although GeoHot himself has admitted to not even owning an iPad 2. Seeing as he just got of hot water for cracking the Sony Playstation 3, I don’t see him jumping on this anytime soon.
P0sixninja maker of Greenpois0n may be the best hope for the public as he is the only one that has given a date for release. The date he listed was more of a time frame. His Twitter said “It’ll likely work on the iPad 2G as well, as soon as it gets jailbroken. Rough ETA is about 3 weeks.” Comex, who was behind Jailbreakme, is currently working on an iPad2 Jailbreak using what is commonly known as the userland exploit. Although userland exploits are easy to use they are however very easy for Apple to patch. Bootroom exploits are better than userland because they can only be fixed when the hardware is upgraded. i0n1c is working or not working on a jailbreak called Elevat0r. We are not sure if it’s a joke or not.
What about iOS 5?
Its been six months and some change since the iPad 2 came out. There have been a few firmware updates. As of now we can assume that the jailbreak community is working on ipad 2 with firmware 4.3.3 or lower. iPhone 5 or at least iOS 5 expected to be announced at WWDC. The community might hold off for that rather than burn a good exploit that will just be patched quickly.
I think they will wait which sucks for us iPad 2 owners but in the long run will help us keep our jailbreak longer.
Summery
If there is not a jailbreak by July 1st for the iPad 2 then the hacking community is hiding something. Or they are holding out for iPhone 5 which we can expect to have the A5 chip on it. They are playing the waiting game before they release anything.