Apple will be finally releasing its eagerly awaited next generation mobile operating system – iOS 6 on Wednesday, September 19, which includes more than 200 new features such as an all-new Maps app, improvements to Siri, new Passbook app, improved notification system, Facebook integration and lots more.
We take a look at the current status of the iOS jailbreak, so that you can decide whether or not to upgrade your iOS device to iOS 6 when it is released.
Status Update:
Jailbreak Tools:
iPhone Dev Team has been releasing Redsn0w for the beta versions of iOS 6. The Dev team recently released Redsn0w 0.9.13dev4 for Windows and Mac that can jailbreak iOS 6 GM. Since iOS 6 Golden Master is the shipping version of the software, technically Redsn0w will be able to jailbreak iOS 6 that will be released on Wednesday.
Redsn0w 0.9.13dev4 supports the following iOS 6 compatible devices:
- iPod touch 4G
- iPhone 3GS
- iPhone 4(GSM)
- iPhone 4(CDMA)
As you would expect, Redsn0w 0.9.13dev4 that has been released for the beta versions of iOS 6 does not expose any new exploit, it uses Geohot’s limera1n bootrom exploit. So it supports only a tethered jailbreak for all the iOS devices mentioned above, except for iPhone 3GS with the older bootrom.
Dev team has reported that there are some remaining issues with Cydia and fundamental modules like PreferenceLoader so Redsn0w 0.9.13dev4 doesn’t install Cydia. We don’t expect the jailbreak Dream team to release tools until the issues with Cydia and modules like PreferenceLoader are not fixed.
Unlike last year, other than what is mentioned above, iPhone Dev team, pod2g and the Chronic Dev team have been relatively quiet about the status of the iOS 6 jailbreak. So it is not clear if they are keeping things under wrap and will release Redsn0w and Absinthe jailbreak for iOS 6 that will also support iPhone 4S, iPad 2, iPad 3, Apple TV 2 and Apple TV 3 immediately after it is released or there is work to be done or its even possible to jailbreak the new iOS devices running iOS 6.
We’re hopeful that the Dream team will work their magic as pod2g had revealed back in May that they had not burned all the exploits for the iOS 5.1.1 jailbreak and still had exploits, which could useful in jailbreaking iOS 6. But this was before iOS 6 beta was released, so we’re not sure they will be useful in jailbreaking iOS 6 as Apple could have fixed them in iOS 6.
It also remains to be seen if iPhone 5, which goes on sale on Friday, September 21, can be jailbroken.
We expect the jailbreak Dream team to provide an update after iOS 6 is publicly available.
iOS 6 Compatible Jailbreak Apps and Tweaks:
The iOS 6 beta jailbreak has allowed jailbreak developers to test their jailbreak apps and Cydia tweaks on iOS 6 so that they can fix the compatibility issues.
Check out this list to find out if your favorite jailbreak apps and tweaks are compatible with iOS 6.
So should you upgrade iOS 6?
It really depends on you, but here are some of the options:
- If you want iOS 6’s 200+ new features more than the jailbreak apps and tweaks, then it is a no brainer, you should upgrade to iOS 6.
- If you can’t live without jailbreaking then you should wait for the jailbreak Dream team to release the jailbreak tools for iOS 6.
- Even if jailbreak tools for iOS 6 are released, you may want to check if your favorite iOS 5.x.x jailbreak apps are compatible with iOS 6 before you decide to upgrade and jailbreak iOS 6.
- If you depend on the Ultrasn0w to unlock your iPhone, you should wait for tools like Sn0wbreeze for Windows or PwnageTool for Mac that allow you to preserve the baseband while upgrading to iOS 6.
Please take a backup of the SHSH blobs of all your iOS devices, so that you have an option to downgrade to iOS 5.1.1. It’s very simple to save SHSH blobs using TinyUmbrella.
