iPhone iOS 5.1.1 Jailbreak a Big Hit, but Causing Some Problems - eWeek

Over the weekend, software allowing users to jailbreak version 5.1.1 of the Apple iPhone operating system (OS), Absinthe 2.0, was released into the wild through the Web site GreenPois0n by the ChronicDev, with nearly a million devices jailbroken since the jailbreak, which supports firmware 5.1.1 only, hit the Web. According to a tweet from Chronic Dev, 211,401 new iPads (the third iteration of the popular tablet) have been jailbroken as of Sunday. However, the jailbreak has not been successful for everyone, prompting the team to release updated versions of Absinthe

Echoing Steve Jobs’ trademark WWDC encore of ‘… and one more thing’, the jailbreak collaboration, which consisted of the Chronic-Dev Team and iPhone Dev Teams announced the release of Absinthe 2.0 during the closing minutes of their talk at the HITBSecConf2012 conference in Amsterdam. The team noted the jailbreak does not support the third generation Apple TV. The ‘Dream Team’ consists of @MuscleNerd @pod2g @planetbeing @p0sixninja @pimskeks.

“This was certainly one of the most highly anticipated talks we’ve ever had at one of our HITB conferences, and we’ve done quite a few of these. The excitement from the Dream Team followers and overall Twitter and online buzz has been terrific,” Dhillon Andrew Kannabhiran, founder and CEO of Hack In The Box, said in a prepared statement. “It was truly an honor to host the Dream Team in their first ever ‘real world’ meet up and we would like to thank them for taking the time and effort to make the trip over to not only join us at our third European outing, but to help kick-start our celebration of ’10 years of HITB awesomeness’  with the release of Absinthe 2.0.”

Despite the positive reception and impressive number of downloads, the jailbreak has been causing problems for some iOS users, according to a report in the financial news blog ValueWalk. “The error generally shows up on screen as “(Error detecting device (Error -5)” or “Could not connect to lockdown”. The error has been widely reported though it still seems to effect just a small number of users,” the article reported. “In order to fix the problem users had to reset all of their content and settings. The simple fix appears not to have worked for many users and the team released an updated version of Absinthe that purported to solve the issue. Many users were still reporting problems with the software after applying the fix.”

Jailbreaking involves the removal of Apple-imposed limitations Apple on devices running the iOS operating system, like the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad through the use of custom kernels, which allows users to download applications, extensions or themes not supported or approved by Apple. While the company warns users who consider jailbreaking their phones that their warranties could be declared null and void, jailbreaking is legal in the United States thanks to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The Act criminalizes production of devices intended to digital rights management (DRM) that control access to copyrighted works.