The newly released Absinthe 2.0 jailbreak app may be one of the easiest to use jailbreaking tools of all time. If you’re interested in exploring the jailbreak world or running third party tweaks on an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, here is how to jailbreak any such device that is running iOS 5.1.1, yes that includes the new iPad 3 and iPhone 4S.

If you are already jailbroken on iOS 5.1.1 but stuck with a tether, just launch Cydia and search for “Rocky Racoon” to untether your existing device. You do not need to run Absinthe. For everyone else, here is how to jailbreak iOS 5.1.1 untethered:

1. Connect your iOS device to the computer via USB and do a quick manual local backup by right-clicking on the device name in iTunes and choosing “Back Up”. You will need this in the odd event something goes wrong.
2. Download Absinthe 2.0 and launch the Absinthe utility
3. Click on the Jailbreak button and let Absinthe perform its magic, this may take a minute or two
4. Absinthe will inform you when the jailbreak is finished, when done look for the Cydia icon on the iOS home screen
5. Launch Cydia and enjoy

That’s about it. Because Absinthe 2 is untethered, you are free to reboot at any time without being attached to a computer. If you want to undo the jailbreak at any point you can restore from the iTunes backup you made and be back to normal.

The much anticipated Absinthe 2.0 jailbreak has been released by the JailbreakDreamTeam. The utility allows for an untethered jailbreak of iOS 5.1.1 on virtually all idevices, including iPad, iPad 2, iPad 3, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, and iPod touch 3rd and 4th gen.

An untethered jailbreak means the device is free to reboot on it’s own without boot assistance and without connecting to a computer.

In order to use the free tool, you must be running iOS 5.1.1 as no other versions are supported.

Download Absinthe 2.0

• Download for Mac
• Download for Windows
• Download for Linux

Users who are already jailbroken on iOS 5.1.1 but stuck tethered can use the Rocky Racoon tool to untether their jailbreak, a free download found on Cydia.

Unhappy with iOS 5.1 and tethered booting a jailbroken device? A new version of the redsn0w jailbreak utility allows users to downgrade their iOS hardware from iOS 5.1 to iOS 5.0.1, allowing for a return to an untethered jailbreak with the previous iOS version. Perhaps most significantly, the redsnow assisted downgrade works on all A5-equipped hardware, including the iPad 3, iPad 2, and iPhone 4S. There is a caveat though, downgrading is only possible for iOS devices which have SHSH blobs saved with Cydia or TinyUmbrella, an activity that must have been performed on a jailbroken device at the time it was running 5.0.1.

To use the new downgrade functionality in redsn0w, download the latest version, launch the app, and click on “Extras” followed by “Even More” and then “Restore”. You will need the iOS 5.0.1 IPSW file to complete the task.

Download Redsn0w 0.9.11b1

• Get it for Mac
• Get it for Windows

For those without SHSH blobs saved, there remains a tethered jailbreak available for iOS 5.1.1 and an untethered variation for all devices is currently in the works with a release expected sometime over the next few weeks.

You can find more information about this specific release on the Dev Team blog.

iOS 5.1.1 was just released by Apple and believe it or not has already been jailbroken for some A4 devices. The jailbreak remains tethered, for the uninitiated that means each time the iOS device is rebooted it will need to connect to a computer and boot with the assistance of redsn0w.

Compatibility for this jailbreak includes iOS 5.1.1 on iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad 1, and iPod touch 3rd and 4th gen. The iPad 2, iPhone 4S, or iPad 3 are not yet supported.

How to Jailbreak iOS 5.1.1 with Redsn0w

As with any jailbreak, be sure to backup before proceeding.

1. Download Redsn0w 0.9.10b8b (Mac OS X, Windows)
2. Upgrade to iOS 5.1.1 either by OTA update, iTunes, or by manually installing through IPSW
3. Download iOS 5.1 IPSW for the device you are using and save it somewhere easy to find, yes download the older version of iOS despite upgrading to iOS 5.1.1
4. Launch Redsn0w and click on “Extras”
5. Click on “Select IPSW” and locate the iOS 5.1 IPSW you just downloaded
6. Click “Back” and then click on “Jailbreak”
7. Follow on-screen instructions to enter into DFU mode
8. Let Redsn0w run and install the jailbreak, the iOS device will eventually reboot and look for the Cydia icon to confirm the jailbreak has worked

The need to select older IPSW will likely be eliminated in an upcoming release of redsn0w, but for the time being it remains necessary.

Remember to boot tethered every time you the device turns on and off, that is done by launching Redsn0w, selecting “Extras” and choosing “Just Boot” from the options.

Right alongside the new SAM iPhone unlock method is an updated version of Redsn0w which helps users preserve their unlock. Dubbed Redsn0w 0.9.10b8, the updated release does not include any new jailbreaks and is only useful for individuals looking to save an iPhone unlock achieved through the Subscriber Artificial Module spoof method.

Download Redsn0w 0.9.10b8

• Download Now (Mac OS X)
• Download Now (Windows)

Saving the SAM Unlock

Using the new version of redsn0w to save an unlock for the future is done in a few simple steps:

1. Open Redsn0w 0.9.10b8 and click on “Extras” and click on “Even more”
2. Connect the unlocked iPhone and click “Backup”
3. Click “OK” at the popup menu to save the zip file to the redsn0w directory

Don’t lose the zip file if you want to keep the unlock, future versions of Redsn0w will likely use it to preserve unlocks.

A new unlock method has been discovered that works on every iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, and iPhone 3GS running iOS 5, iOS 5.0.1, and even iOS 5.1, the only requirement is the iPhone must be jailbroken already. If you’re already jailbroke go ahead, otherwise here are guides to jailbreak iOS 5.1 and another guide for the iPhone 4S with iOS 5.0.1.

• Assuming your iPhone is jailbroken and ready to go…
• Open Cydia and add the repo “repo.bingner.com” and then search for “SAM” by sbingner and install it
• Tap on the orange SAMPrefs icon that looks like a SIM card to launch the app
• Tap “Utilities” and select “De-Activate iPhone”, tap “OK” when the deactivation notification pops up
• Now tap “Method” and tap on “By Country and Carrier”
• Tap “Country” and select the country the iPhone is locked to
• Tap “Carrier” and choose the origin carrier the iPhone is locked to
• Tap “More Information” and tap the IMSI number found under “SAM Details”
• Tap on “Spoof Real SIM to SAM”
• Tap back to the primary SAM setting screen, and paste the IMSI number into IMSI
• Connect the iPhone to the computer and launch iTunes, letting iTunes reactive the iPhone
• Disconnect the iPhone from the computer and quit iTunes, then tap on “SAMPrefs” again and flip the “Enabled” switch so that SAM is disabled
• Relaunch iTunes and connect the iPhone to the computer yet again, ignore the “failed to activate” message and quit and relaunch iTunes again
• Wait a minute or two and the iPhone should get a signal from the new carrier, it’s now unlocked and activated

The downside to the SAM unlock method is that it requires a jailbreak, that means if you lose your the jailbreak you lose the unlock. If you don’t want to jailbreak or you can’t for some reason, you can officially unlock an iPhone from AT&T by phone or through AT&T via web chat instead. It can take several weeks for the unlock request to process with AT&T and the iPhone must be out of contract, but it doesn’t require any funky software mods and is much easier than the aforementioned SAM method.

Great find by Singularity and @musclenerd.

The new iPad 3 is barely getting into peoples hands but has already been jailbroken by renowned hacker @MuscleNerd (BTW, you can follow us on Twitter too). At this point, it’s more a proof of concept and MuscleNerd cautions it’s “Just a first step, still lots of work to do!”

There is no estimate on when the iPad 3 jailbreak will be publicly available, though typically things move quick from discovery to release. Because the iPad 3 shares a similar processor to the iPhone 4S and iPad 2, it’s quite likely those two devices will become jailbroken along the way. Assuming things go well, it’s possible some variation of an iOS 5.1 jailbreak for A5 devices will become available within a week or two.

Currently, iOS 5.1 is jailbreakable as tethered for older hardware only. Stay tuned for more.

A version of Redsn0w has been released to jailbreak iOS 5.1 tethered. While easy to do and easy to reverse, be sure to understand the difference between a tethered and untethered jailbreak. Put simply, tethered means the device must be connected to a computer to boot properly and become usable. Some consider this annoying and therefore it is not always recommended.

Requirements

• Compatible with: iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 CDMA & GSM, iPod touch 2nd, 3rd, & 4th gen, iPad 1
• Download iOS 5.1 and update if you haven’t done so already
• Download Redsn0w 0.9.10b6, Mac & Windows versions are available

Notice that iPhone 4S, iPad 2, and iPad 3 are not supported by this jailbreak.

Jailbreak iOS 5.1 Tethered with Redsn0w

• Turn the iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch OFF
• Connect the iOS device to the computer using the power cable
• Launch Redsn0w (run as Admin from Windows)
• Put the device into DFU mode: hold the Power button and home button together for 10 seconds, then release the Power button while continuing to hold Home for another 10 seconds
• Click “Jailbreak” in Redsn0w to start the jailbreaking process and click “Next” when asked, you’ll see some console gibberish appear on the screen and when finished you’ll be back at the iOS home screen



• Now you must boot tethered, put the iOS device back into DFU mode (hold Power button & home button for 10 seconds, release Power and hold Home for 10 more seconds) and launch Redsn0w again, click on “Extras” and click on on “Just Boot”



• When the iOS device boots, it will be fully usable

Every time the iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch is turned on or off it will need to be booted using the Redsn0w tether. This means if the battery dies or the device is rebooted for any reason, you will need to connect the iOS device to a computer running Redsn0w and choose the same “Boot Tethered” option from the Extras menu. If you jailbreak and have the white Cydia icon this means you did not perform a tethered boot, launch redsn0w and do so to resolve that.

Currently iBooks does not work either, if you’re in the midst of reading a page turning novel you may want to avoid this jailbreak for the time being.

The latest version of iOS 5.1 is already jailbroken thanks to the iPhone Dev Team’s newest release of Redsn0w. The jailbreak is tethered however, meaning that each time the iOS device is rebooted it will need to be connected to a computer running redsn0w for boot assistance. iBooks doesn’t yet work either, but an update is expected to resolve that issue shortly. If neither of these two things bother you, grab the jailbreak and enjoy.

Redsn0w 0.9.10b6 works with the following devices running iOS 5.1: iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 CDMA & GSM, iPod touch 2nd, 3rd, & 4th gen, iPad 1. Not supported are any A5 based hardware, including iPhone 4S, iPad 2, and iPad 3.

Download Redsn0w 0.9.10b6

• Download now (Mac)
• Download now (Windows)

For those jailbreaking from a Windows machine, remember to run Redsn0w in administrator mode in order to work properly.

Remember that retro iOS ’86 concept theme for iPhone that popped up recently? We were hoping it would become an iOS theme, and it has. To use the iOS 86 theme you’ll need to jailbreak your iPhone or iPod touch running iOS 5.0.1, here is how to do that with absinthe for iPhone 4S, or use redsn0w for jailbreaking other iOS 5 devices.

After you have jailbroken, do the following:

1. Launch Cydia and add the source repo: http://repo.ithemes.it
2. Search Cydia for “iOS 86″ and install it
3. Search Cydia for “Winterboard” and download that
4. Launch Winterboard to find and activate iOS ’86 theme (complete the look with a white wallpaper)

I haven’t had the time to test this quite yet, but apparently the theme doesn’t change other UI elements or any icons outside of the iOS 5 native set, so if an app isn’t bundled with iOS don’t expect a nice retro black and white icon. Nonetheless, this is a great first start and it’s pretty cool for those of us who were impressed with the original concept.
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