Jailbreak for iOS 5.01 now available

Looks like the Jailbreak for iOS 5.01 - the operating system on the iPhone 4S and iPad2 is Here now!! The tool is OS X only for now. But a Windows and Linux version are on their way very shortly. The tool works on the iPhone 4S running iOS 5.0 and 5.0.1 and the iPad 2 running iOS 5.0.1. But not any new Beta releases (most of you wouldn't have that anyways!).

You can read about it here.

A better How-To is here [note the part about the VPN connection at the end!]

What exactly is jailbreaking? Jailbreaking is a hack, or exploit, that brings added functions and features that were not imagined by Apple or restricted. Under recent revisions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act last summer, the process has been legalized in the U.S. on smartphones and tablets.

Jailbreaking allows you to install apps through Cydia (which is, cleverly, Latin for a kind of worm that eats away at apples), which automatically gets installed when you jailbreak your iPhone. Cydia app store is really where all the real action is when you jailbreak. The simplest way to describe it is to call it an app store for jailbroken devices. Like Apple’s App Store, you will find some free and some paid programs.

Some questions often asked:
Q. Does jailbreaking affect the iCloud Backup?
A. No, it's still a legit iphone tied to a legit icloud account.

Q. What happens if I DO update from the wireless update?
A. Your jailbreak will go bye bye and you'll have to wait for them to update absinthe to re-do it. [We're talking about carier Over The Air updates here.]

About the 'Bricking your device' warnings many may read or hear: Without some very heavy-handed screwing up, you will not brick an iOS device. If something screws up along the way, chances are it will just be indefinitely detected as being "in restore mode" and you'll be prompted to restore your phone through iTunes. The only way you could really brick one of these devices is by flashing the device to the point where iTunes won't even recognize the device as an iOS device. You would have to try really hard to make that happen.

And if you want any more reasons than those I’ve given previously in my blog posts why you might want to Jailbreak you iPhoneiDevice you can check here.