A group of developers has released a new untethered jailbreak for devices running iOS 5.1.1. The hack allows users to run unsigned apps on their devices, something that Apple doesn’t like so much.
The new version of the Absinthe jailbreak tool was released publicly on Friday by the Chronic-Dev Team and iPhone Dev Team. Back in January, the same group of developers released an Absinthe jailbreak for the iPhone 4S.
“After copious amounts of work and many sleepless nights Absinthe 2.0 is finally here to jailbreak your device. This release has been a large collaborative effort between Chronic-Dev Team and iPhone Dev Teams (Jailbreak Dream Team),” one of the key developers, who uses the handle pod2g, wrote in a blog post.
“This jailbreak supports firmware 5.1.1 ONLY and is again one of the most easiest jailbreaks to use (so easy your grandma could do it ;D).”
In order to use the jailbreak, users need to download the jailbreak tool, then back up the content on their devices. They then erase all of the content on the device and install the jailbreak tool. Once the Absinthe jailbreak tool is installed, the user then restores the settings and content through iTunes, and the process is complete.
Jailbreaking iPhones and iPads has become a major annoyance for Apple, which is totally invested in having complete control of both the devices and software that run on those devices. The company’s iron grip on the iTunes App Store gives it the ability to control what apps users are able to install on their devices, as that’s the only place to get approved iOS apps. Jailbreaking these devices breaks that model and gives users the ability to install third-party apps.
