How to Jailbreak iPhone 5 | iPhone 5 Jailbreak
In early 2011, Apple announced that it would soon be coming out with a new iPhone model. The buzz and rumors were that this model would be the iPhone 5. The blogosphere erupted into speculation. What would the specs be? What would it look like? What kind of new features would it have? And most importantly, how long would it be until we could jailbreak iPhone 5?
Weeks went by, and then months. The rumors and speculation died down to a slow burn. And then, in October of 2011, Apple scheduled a major announcement. The rumor mill heated back up. Everyone was asking if they would officially announcing the iPhone 5. Apple even confirmed the next day that an announcement about the new generation of iPhone was going to be coming at the press conference. Would it be long before we’d have an iPhone 5 with the attendant iPhone 5 Jailbreak?
How to Jailbreak iPhone 5
The day of the press conference at Apple HQ, everyone was abuzz. The media couldn’t stop talking about it. Bloggers would speculating about some kind of weird “tear drop” design for the phone. The conference started with the new CEO doing the presentation, as Steve Jobs had recently stepped down due to health problems.
And? Everyone was both excited and disappointed as Apple announced not an iPhone 5, with an iPhone 5 Jailbreak soon to follow, but rather an iPhone 4S! It turned out that they would be doing just what they had done with third generation iPhones vis a vis the iPhone 3GS. They were giving us an intermediate model. The iPhone 4S would be to the iPhone 4 what the iPhone 3GS had been to the iPhone 3G.
But all was not lost for those pining for an iPhone 5 and being able to jailbreak iPhone 5. It turns out that Apple is still planning an iPhone 5 release. And it’s coming in 2012! The site TechRadar says that if typical Apple product release cycles hold, we should see an iPhone 5 in mid to late 2012. And if the typical jailbreak cycles hold, we should then be able to jailbreak iPhone 5 anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 months after that.
iPhone 5 Specs Video:
Apparently there is a video with a mockup of the iPhone 5 making the rounds. No mention on it of anything to do with being able to jailbreak iPhone 5, but it looks pretty cool. Check it out below.
What Does it Mean to Jailbreak iPhone 5?
Ok, so maybe you found your way here just looking for information on the iPhone 5 release date or iPhone 5 specs etc. And you’re not sure what it means when I talk about being able to “jailbreak iPhone 5″. Let’s do a quick run down on what exactly this “jailbreaking” stuff is all about.
Back when the original iPhone was first released, people were in awe over it. We had never seen a smart phone that could do the things that the iPhone could do. The App store? Absolutely revolutionary. The phrase “There’s an app for that” has now become a phrase in the common vernacular. However, people soon realized that Apple was putting restrictions on the device. It turned out that the iPhone was capable of even more than we knew. People with what I like to call “geek skills” started mucking about in the iPhone’s iOS. And they discovered that Apple had locked out certain features. For instance, it was theoretically possible to customize a whole range of settings within the iOS. Everything from the look of the homescreen to the way in which icons are displayed. But Apple locked people out of this feature to “preserve the user experience”. Corporate speak for “This is how we think the iPhone should be used. Too bad if you think differently.”
The next step was when hackers got ahold of the iPhone and it’s associated original iOS. They soon discovered that there were security exploits or “holes” in the iOS. These same types of holes are what will make an iPhone 5 jailbreak on the A5 processor possible. A group of hackers known as the Chronic Dev Team teased out a way to hack the iPhone. They even released a piece of software, now outdated, that allowed other users to hack the iPhone the same way, without having to dig through code. Soon, someone coined the term “jailbreaking” for what was taking place, and the name stuck.
Individual users were soon hacking their iPhone and customizing them to their hearts content. And then things got even better for those with an iPhone 5 jailbreak. An iOS hacker named Saurik released a repository called Cydia. Cydia was like a 3rd party, unofficial “app store”. In Cydia, developers could release apps that could not get approval in the regular app store. Apple refuses to approve apps for all kinds of reasons. Some apps give people more customization control than Apple wants. Others use political satire, which Apple doesn’t allow. Still others provide services like giving directions to abortion clinics – Apple is seen as being a liberal company, but their ban of “abortion” related apps speaks to where their political fealty actually lies. Finally, some apps have “adult content” which Apple bans. Apps of these types, which can’t get approved by Apple, instead end up in Saurik’s Cydia. Some have a cost, just like in the regular app store, but many are available for free. What’s more is that there are free versions in Cydia of what are paid apps in the regular app store. Bonus! But the caveat is that you can only access Cydia once you’ve done a jailbreak iPhone 5.
The iPhone 5 Jailbreak Unlock
So, as I said in the preceding section, the iPhone jailbreak was born – starting us down the path that will lead to an iPhone 5 jailbreak in just a few short months, letting people jailbreak iPhone 5 to their heart’s content. But Apple wasn’t going to take this lying down. At first, they tried to get the US government to do their bidding. They made the claim that jailbreaking was illegal and that anyone who jailbroke their iPhone should be imprisoned. They even filed briefs to this end in Federal court. Luckily, the US government did not side with corporate interests for once. They refused to arrest anyone for jailbreaking. And then, in 2010, they ruled that jailbreaking was an official exemption to the DMCA. Apple still disagrees. They apparently feel that millions of their customers are criminals who don’t deserve to be walking around free. Just because those customers wanted more control over the phone that they had paid for with their hard earned money. But it doesn’t matter. Because Apple doesn’t have jails or prisons. So you can now jailbreak iPhone 5 with no concern for legal ramifications.
What About the Effect of a Jailbreak iPhone 5 on Warranty Status?
Technically, the minute you jailbreak iPhone 5, you have voided your warranty. For that matter, when you jailbreak any iPhone or iDevice, you have voided your warranty. However, in practice, I’m not aware of a single instance in which Apple has declined to honor a warranty because of a jailbreak. Why? Simple. Because it’s almost impossible for them to find out that you have a jailbroken iPhone 5. For one, they can’t tell without looking at your phone. It’s not like they receive a transponder signal from your iPhone that tells them when you jailbreak it. Things don’t work that way. The only way for them to know that you have a jailbroken iPhone is for one of their techs to hold it in their hands and to see Cydia installed on it.
So what if you have done an iPhone 5 jailbreak and then your phone gets damaged and you need to take it in or send it in for in-warranty repairs? There are a couple of scenarios here. First is that your phone is damaged to the point that it won’t boot. Cool. No sweat. In this case, they usually just give you a new phone anyway and throw the old one out. If they do decide to repair the old one for some reason, then they’ll upgrade the iOS as soon as they get it working so that it’s in factory restored condition. In that case, they never see your jailbroken iOS with Cydia, so no worries. The second scenario would be that there is a software issue where your phone won’t boot. I.E. your phone is irrecoverably bricked. In this case, they will go through the “back door” of the iOS and install a new iOS, erasing everything on the phone and effectively “un-jailbreaking” it before they’re able to look at it. Again, they will never know that you did a jailbreak iPhone 5 on it. The final scenario is that there is something major wrong with your phone, but it still boots up ok and the iOS can be used normally. An example of this might be that the glass is cracked but that it otherwise works ok. In this instance, it’s up to you to “unjailbreak iPhone” before you take it to them or send it in to them. While some people continue to insist that you can’t “unjailbreak” an iPhone, it’s absolutely beyond me why they would say that, since it’s such a drop-dead simple procedure to un jailbreak iPhone 5. All you have to do is to do a factory restore to the latest iOS. Cydia is removed and all trace of the jailbreak is gone. It’s ridiculously simple. And once you do that, they will again have no idea at the Apple store that your phone was ever jailbroken. Case close.
When Will We See an iPhone 5 Jailbreak
If you’ve read this far, you’re probably horribly eager for an iPhone 5 jailbreak. Odds are, you’ve already got an iPhone 5, and you can’t wait to jailbreak iPhone 5 now to take advantage of all the features than you can only get with a jailbroken iPhone. Well, if previous jailbreak, including the iPhone 4S jailbreak, are any indication, then we’ll see a jailbreak release within 2 months of the iPhone’s release. If the iPhone 5 runs the A5 processor, as the iPhone 4S does, then we could potentially see a release much sooner. In that scenario, I would expect for Apple fans to be able to jailbreak iPhone 5 within 2-3 weeks of the iPhone 5 release date. Maybe even sooner! Only time will tell. But rest assured that we’ll be keeping you up to date with all major developments, and that you’ll be able to jailbreak unlock iPhone 5 as soon as possible with iPhone Jailbreak Plus.
Risks of Jailbreaking/Unlocking
While jailbreaking and unlocking the iPhone or other iDevice has become relatively straight-forward, we’d be remiss if we didn’t tell you about the risks. You can read more about the risks of being able to jailbreak 5.1 as well. The main risks are tri-fold, and are as follows:
Bricking Your iPhone: This is often the biggest concern when someone is looking at doing an iPhone jailbreak for the first time. Getting your iPhone (iPod/iPad) bricked means that something has gone wrong during the jailbreak procedure, and it’s left your iDevice dead in the water. Usually what will happen is that the iPhone will become “stuck” at the Apple logo, and won’t boot any further. Less commonly, you’ll just see a black screen and nothing will display at all. The iPhone is effectively a “brick” and is about as useful as one.
It can pretty scary when this happens – especially when it happens to you for the first time. There’s a lot of misinformation out there, indicating that once your phone is bricked, it’s just garbage and that there’s nothing that you can do to bring it back. We’ve heard this before from people who are otherwise very well-informed about technology in general and iPhone hacks specifically.
Thankfully, however, these people are dead wrong. For one, getting your iPhone bricked in the course of doing a jailbreak is exceedingly rare. In our experience in happens to less than 1% of people who are trying to do a jailbreak. And for two: In over 99% percent of cases where an iPhone or other iDevice becomes bricked, it’s a very simple procedure to fix it. Don’t believe us? Google it. When you purchase a membership to our site, we include a dedicated set of instructions on what to do if your iPhone gets bricked. You can usually unbrick it with less than 10 minutes work. And we include full technical support with the procedure. We do have to offer the caveat that it is technically possible for your iPhone to become bricked to the point that it will need to professionally repaired. But we’ve never seen this happen, and stand by the common belief in the jailbreaking community that jailbreaking/unlocking is a very safe procedure.
Security: The second risk that you should know about when it comes to jailbreaking lies in your phone’s security. Apple frequently patches exploits that they find in the iOS. With a jailbroken phone, you can’t just accept any iOS update that Apple tries to send your way, because many times when they release a patch to protect against a malicious exploit, they also plut holes in the iOS that allow the jailbreak to occur in the first place! So if you jailbreak, you need to be responsible for the security of your own device. If you hear that an exploit has been found which could allow hackers to inject malicious code into your iOS version, for instance, it’s on YOU to check and see what patches are available through Cydia or other 3rd party app repositories.
Jailbreaking Technically Voids Your Warranty: Apple has stated that once you jailbreak or unlock your iDevice, they consider your warranty to be null and void. In practice, though, I’ve never heard of anyone who has been denied warranty repairs due to having a jailbroken iPhone. Why? Because in order to void your warranty, Apple has to find out that you’ve jailbroken your phone. And they can’t tell without looking at it in person.
So let’s look at a couple of different scenarios quickly. First, let’s say that you have a hardware issue. You’ve dropped your phone and smashed the glass, but you’re eligible for a warranty repair. All you need to do is to remove the jailbreak (an extremely simple procedure that involves doing a reset to factory defaults on your phone – we have complete instructions in our members area). Then you take it in to an Apple store or send it in to them as you normally would. There is no indication left on your phone that it was ever jailbroken, and Apple is none the wiser. Now, if your iDevice is damaged to the point of being inoperable, it’s still nothing to worry about. If it’s damaged to the point that you can’t access the iOS to unjailbreak it, then Apple is not going to be able to access the iOS either. They’re probably just going to give you a new phone. And if they don’t, the first thing that they’re going to do to get it working again is to do a firmware flash and a factory reset on it. In which case, they’ve unjailbroken it for you before they were able to look at. So once again, no worries and case closed.
The other scenario would be if you have an iOS problem so severe that you cannot boot up. These problems are pretty rare. But just as in our first example, if the iOS is that buggered up, the first thing that they are going to do is flash the firmware and restore it to defaults. So they never see the jailbroken iOS. Once again – case close and nothing to worry about.
