It seems everyone and their grandmother has gotten a hold of iOS 5 betas this time around, and with such popularity comes the usual questions: Can it be jailbroken, and can it be unlocked?
Thankfully the first is at least true, thanks to our old favorite Redsn0w, according to reports from MuscleNerd himself. That’s great news indeed, but can it be unlocked?
We told you recently how the Gevey SIM could be used to unlock an iOS 5 device with the added bonus of it removing the need to jailbreak first – a real boon when Apple tends to break jailbreaks with each and every new iOS update.
Our very own Waisybabu explains:
It involves using a thinner-than-normal SIM card which actually needs to be inserted along with theactual SIM card into the SIM slot. Then, you have to follow a few steps such as dialing an emergency number (112), turning Flight Mode off and on etc. to unlock your iPhone 4. It workswithout jailbreaking.
The bad news here though, is that it appears Gevey SIM has been blocked from working by Apple in its new iOS 5 beta 2 release. This means that if you’re wanting to unlock your iPhone 4 without having to jailbreak then you’ll be needing to either downgrade to iOS 4.x (assuming that you have got your old unlockable baseband preserved) or stick with the first beta.
Of course, using beta 1 has its own pitfalls – according to Apple iOS 5’s first outing will cease to work in August, so after that point you’re pretty much stumped.
MuscleNerd speculates that the reason for Apple seeing fit to block Gevey mid-beta cycle could be pressure from outside the company, presumably carriers.
it’s surprising Apple closed Gevey interposer hole in b2 rather than waiting until final (maybe they were under pressure)
What happens next is anybody’s guess. Did Apple purposefully block Gevey (including the new Ultra) or was it a byproduct of another change inside iOS?
Now we can only sit and wait for the guys behind Gevey to update their unlocking tool for iOS 5’s final release.
Good luck fellas!
Until then here’s our handy guide to jailbreaking iOS 5 using Redsn0w – get it while it’s hot!
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