iOS 5 Untethered Jailbreak Endangered by iOS 5.0.1 Upgrade; Will It Work on iPhone 4S & iPad 2?

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Well, what do you know, some iOS 5 device users will have to choose between an untethered jailbreak tool or improved battery life in the near future, or at least that’s what one of the hackers working on iOS exploits seem to suggest at this time.

As you already know all iOS devices except for the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 running iOS 5 can be jailbroken. No matter what iOS 5 update Apple releases, the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad, iPod touch 3G and iPod touch 4G can be still jailbroken. The two iOS 5.0.1 betas have in fact been jailbroken right after being made public, but we’re still looking at a tethered jailbreak. That means booting the device into a jailbroken state requires a physical connection with a computer.

Yesterday we found out that hackers discovered a new iOS 5 bug that would let them offer an untethered jailbreak. But Chronic Dev Team hacker pod2g warns via Twitter against iOS 5.0.1 updating may lead to a subsequent incompatibility with an untethered jailbreak (and we add that a tethered one would most likely still be available):

Note about 5.0.1 : don’t update if you plan on jbking : the bug Charlie MILLER found can simplify exploits dramatically and will be closed.

Apple seeded iOS 5.0.1 to selected users yesterday, but also warned them that rolling back to previous iOS versions will not be an option should they decide to go forward with the pre-release software testing.

Apple’s main reason for releasing the iOS 5.0.1 update is to fix the iOS 5 battery life issues that affect certain devices, most notably the iPhone 4S. Other fixes included in the upcoming iOS release are multitasking gestures support for the original iPad and a fix for the iPad 2’s Smart Cover bug.

Therefore users interested in a future untethered jailbreak will have to sacrifice improved battery life and vice-versa, at least at first. We can only assume that an untethered iOS 5.0.1 jailbreak will be available along the way, but it may take longer for hackers to find other exploits that would allow untethered jailbreaks.

What’s not clear so far is whether the upcoming iOS 5 untethered jailbreak will also work on the iPhone 4S and iPad 2. An early iPhone 4S jailbreak has been obtained but it’s not available to the crowds yet.