Keeping up on the jailbreak coverage is something we strive towards here at Redmond Pie, and in light of the recent release of iOS 6.1 beta 3 to developers, we’ve got the low-down on how you can jailbreak this latest firmware preview. Of course, it’s a tethered jailbreak for Pre-A5 based devices, so if you’re rocking a brand new iPhone 5, an iPhone 4S, iPad 2/3/4, iPod touch 5th-gen or iPad mini, you unfortunately won’t be able to enjoy the perks of the jailbreak, laid on – as ever – by the iPhone Dev Team’s Redsn0w tool. If, however, your device is susceptible to the Limera1in exploit (basically any device I didn’t mention above that isn’t completely antiquated), then you can enjoy a tethered break right now – details after the jump.
Whenever the new betas roll through, the older devices are always instantly jailbreakable thanks to the bootrom exploit that cannot be patched by means of firmware updates. Although Redsn0w hasn’t been updated just yet to support iOS 6.1’s third beta, applying the usual method of pointing to the newer firmware will see you quite comfortably achieve a jailbreak.
The tethered status of the break means you won’t be able to simply switch off, reboot, or let your device run out of battery whilst out and about. Should any of those instances occur, you’ll need to reconnect to a PC or Mac, fire up Redsn0w and "boot tethered." This isn’t too much of a hassle, although if you were planning on tether-breaking your daily-running iPhone, I really wouldn’t recommend it, as if you have an accidental crash, your device will quickly become a useless puck of microchips and metal.
The latest dev beta (you can download iOS 6.1 beta 3 from Dev Center) isn’t massively altered from the last release, but certainly worth grabbing if you’ve a vested interest in the progress of Apple’s mobile software. The jailbreak is also worth having (especially for devs working on Cydia based tweaks) for reasons I don’t think need to be rehashed, and if you do want the convenience of a jailbreak – despite the perceived inconvenience of its tethered status, then check out our tutorial on how to jailbreak iOS 6.1.
Unfortunately for you ravenous jailbreak fiends, there’s nothing really to report with regards to the untethered iOS 6 jailbreak situation. I know many of you are pining for a jailbreak on your device, and I don’t blame you, but hang on in there – we’ll let you know as soon as progress has been made!
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