Hackers, calling themselves "Evad3rs," unveiled a website where the untethered jailbreak for iOS 6.1 can be downloaded, as soon as they finish testing it, which could be this Sunday.
There's already a tethered jailbreak out there, meaning that the device has to be connected to a computer for the jailbreak to work, and the jailbreaking process has to be repeated after the phone restarts. An untethered jailbreak would eliminate all of that hassle, and it's what a lot of people who have downloaded Apple's iOS 6.1, which became available two days ago.
The download website for the rumored untethered jailbreak, evasi0n.com, will supposedly have a jailbreak that works on all iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad and iPad mini models that run on iOS 6.0 to iOS 6.1.
iOS 6.1 was an update that Apple released on Monday, which included the ability to order Fandango tickets through the Siri application, as well as LTE support for several carriers and a few other bug fixes and improvements.
As far as a release date for the jailbreak of iOS 6.1, that is still murky, but it could be as soon as Sunday. According to Computerworld, Evad3rs' David Wang made a Twitter statement about the impending jailbreak: "In terms of release date, we're aiming for approximately a week out, but it's possible it will come sooner or later than that." The statement was made on Tuesday.
A "jailbreak" is a modification made to an operating system which allows users to customize their devices and install applications on their devices that are not available or approved by Apple's App Store. While it officially became illegal to "unlock" your phone last Saturday, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, it's still legal for individuals to jailbreak their phones, though that will almost certainly void their warranties. The legal protection for jailbreaking and rooting phones will be up through 2015, so seize the opportunity to jailbreak your iPhone 5 while it's still legal.