How to Help the People Who Make Jailbreaking Possible

By , Jan 24, 2012

On Friday, the first ever iPhone 4S-compatible jailbreaking utility, Absinthe, was released to the public. And although it bears the Chronic Dev Team’s moniker, a lot of folks contributed to the app’s development including pod2g, Saurik, MuscleNerd, and others.

Recent Cydia data shows that more than 1 million people jailbroke their A5 devices over the weekend, thanks to the work of the above-mentioned hackers. Can you imagine if they would have charged $1 to download and use their software? They’d all be rich!

But they didn’t charge us a dime, and probably never will. It blows my mind to think that so many people would put so many hours of work into creating something, and then just give it away for free.

For those interested, however, there is a way to contribute to these guys. The group has set up a shared PayPal account for donations — which are distributed among the members in pre-arranged proportions.

No, this isn’t an abused animal commercial with Sara McLachlan’s ‘Angel’ playing in the background asking for money. If you don’t want to donate, that’s cool. It’s not mandatory, but it’s always appreciated.

Use this button to donate

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  • http://twitter.com/edqc Etienne D.

    post like this will keep jailbreaking scene alive. Thanks to Cody,

    • Anonymous

      Faith in humanity = +1

  • Panayiotis Philippou

    If you ask me they should be charging at least $1 not just to earn some money but to maintain their servers. At least for the unlocks they can charge something and nobody will complain!

    Great Work JB Team, you are the reason i buy i-Devices

  • Anonymous

    as already stated, they should have charged a buck. i mean, whats a buck? seriously.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Cameron-Carlyon/100000384425704 Cameron Carlyon

      A buck: £1 $1 €1…

  • http://twitter.com/AmpliFreQuency AmpliHelix

    Well I covered 30 of the users the the very moment it came out. Watching my 4S getting jailbroken brought a tear to my eye due to becoming free from the shackles of a non-jailbroken device.

  • http://twitter.com/patchcable patchcable

    Was expecting to see a tutorial on cdevreporter

  • Anonymous

    Deposited. When I think of all the money I’ve happily spent on tweaks for my iDevices, a donation to the Dream Team that makes it all possible is a no brainier!

  • Joe Markim

    Awesome job guys! I sent in a little something.

  • http://twitter.com/sureshtrb Suresh

    if you say jeff, done! no questions

  • http://twitter.com/desaintpreux Highlander

    Donated $30. I think I gave my share and of 29 others!

    Hopefully these posts will be on ALL the sites.

    Jailbreaks should be sold.. Period… It would start making the impression that you have to buy your tweaks and not pirate them. Aside from attracting young and talented new blood to the scene to help with faster jailbreaks.

  • http://twitter.com/desaintpreux Highlander

    Donated $30. I think I gave my share and of 29 others!

    Hopefully these posts will be on ALL the sites.

    Jailbreaks should be sold.. Period… It would start making the impression that you have to buy your tweaks and not pirate them. Aside from attracting young and talented new blood to the scene to help with faster jailbreaks.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Clyde-Nomiddlename-Butler/100000651484546 Clyde Nomiddlename Butler

    But if they did charged $1 there are still people out there that’s going to get around that (piracy)

  • http://twitter.com/niXtars Niclas Ullbrand

    10 bucks making their way to DreamTeam’s pockets!

    You deserve even more. Show some love people!

  • http://twitter.com/therealjdizzle Jason Masters

    One million people jail broke their IDEvices it is awesome to be included in that number is ten bucks fair per device ? I have 3 IDEvices

  • http://www.justanotheriphoneblog.com brandon

    Thanks for the reminder – Just donated.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002006671095 BrunoeLuana Diniz

    I donate U$20,00, Thanks Dream Team!!

  • http://twitter.com/ahbap Ömer ARI 【ツ】

    $10 – Thanks Dream Team!!

  • Kash Kaushal

    Donated $10.
    Thanks Dream Team

  • http://twitter.com/Bu1137 Bu1137

    I donated $10 and don’t even own an A5 device. I want to make sure that these guys stay interested in jailbreaking. Thanks fellas!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jose-Cardozo/100002392619169 Jose Cardozo

    Just gave $5. Hopefully all jailbreakers out there would donate what they can. This will only encourage our ” Dev Teams” to keep on doing on what they do best and helps us jailbreak our devices in future updates!! Keep up the great work guys!

  • Anonymous

    Yep- I sent them some “thanks”! Worth it!

  • Tom Tucker

    i couldnt do much being the end of the month, but did send $5. Wish i had more to send. These guys are a seriously talented bunch and have put in god only knows how many hours of their time to make this happen. They seriously deserve to make some great bank on their efforts.
    To just do this work and then give it out freely speaks volumes to their character and dedication to the craft.

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/XJM6FDFEBWPNKSUKAVOJL25YGY SAMBEET

    I just did $5. Good job team !

    • http://twitter.com/vantheman169 vantheman420

      I donated $20 bucks the first day it was released after I jailbroke my 4S and my wife’s. Thanks to all the DEVS involved!

  • http://twitter.com/kimia_n76 kimia

    my bluetooth icon in status bar does not apear after closing setting.i have ipad 2 5.0.1 please help

    • http://www.facebook.com/Fi2do Brian Gonzalez

      it only appear when it’s in use, that’s normal behavior of iOS 5.

  • http://twitter.com/blckaapl B L C K A A P L

    Come month end. A personal promise. ;)

    ps. Let’s ask them how much they got in the pool? ;P

  • http://www.facebook.com/shingo.hoshino Shingo Hoshino

    i will donate $10 for my family members who JB-ed

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Cameron-Carlyon/100000384425704 Cameron Carlyon

    So wait, Macintosh uses get a jailbreak tool that’ll do the job for them automatically? What about us Windows users who have to type in lines of code?

    • http://twitter.com/Byronnnn Bryan

      Windows has a GUI too. greenpois0n.com has the download links for both Mac and Windows versions of Absinthe

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Cameron-Carlyon/100000384425704 Cameron Carlyon

        Thanks mate!

    • http://www.iDownloadBlog.com Sebastien

      No, we have published an Absinthe for Windows tutorial, using their GUI tool. No line of code needed, just click “jailbreak”
      http://www.idownloadblog.com/2012/01/21/jailbreak-windows-absinthe/

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Cameron-Carlyon/100000384425704 Cameron Carlyon

        Oh I see, thanks for the support Sebastien!

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/LSP4ZVPYPTOXHFKS3MKPFLVRBA Le

    Dont worry guys. … I will be donating as soon as i get off work. U guys deserve it. Bought the Phone couple of days ago and then bam. Jailbreak available. Nice.

  • http://twitter.com/Kimberlee521 Kimberlee

    Just donated a $1. I agree with another commenter. I have spent at least $20 over the past year or so buying JB apps through Cydia, least I can do is donate to the people who make it possible. Wish it could have been more, but for now I have to count the pennies…hope to donate more in the future. Thank you all for your hard work!

  • Alvin Mendez

    Just gave. Thanks for the link! I forgot how much I missed my jailbreak!

  • Alvin Mendez

    Also wanted to say that it should stay free and accept donations. If they begin to charge, imagine the amount of complaints they will receive from people that have problems, lose photos, don’t follow directions, etc.

  • http://www.facebook.com/jael.mercedes1 Jael Mercedes

    i donated $5 for every iphone in my house and that is 3=$15 thanks chronic dev team and every one who makes it possible.

  • http://twitter.com/scottilmnc Poppa Carter

    I will gladly donate $10 when my device is jailbroken.  However, absinthe refuses to recognize my device.  I tried it on a Mac and on Win/PC.  It’s driving me crazy at this point. I’ve tried tips provided by iDB but with no success.  I know lots of people had this issue.  Did anybody have success diagnosing the problem?

    • http://www.facebook.com/Fi2do Brian Gonzalez

      You don’t have to put it on turn it off/Put it on DFU mode, just leave it turned on and it will recognize it, if iTunes recognizes it then Absinthe should too.

  • http://www.facebook.com/konstantinos.deliopoulos Konstantinos Deliopoulos

    Come on… Donations are just peanuts compared to the millions of dollars Saurik is making from his Cydia store. I’m sure that he “donated” big bucks to the dream team…

    • http://www.facebook.com/Fi2do Brian Gonzalez

      I think you are exaggerating a bit in that first line.

  • http://twitter.com/DrGregry Greg S

    Just donated $50. For 50 peeps who can/won’t donate. (I’ve the iP4 & iP3G, am waiting for the iP5 & iPad3).

    This team needs to be there to break the next gen of Apple products.

  • http://twitter.com/FreedHamdan Freed hamdan

    Nice work u thx alot to make it free ill donate 50$ for the team they worked hard for us

  • http://twitter.com/mauri7A A!@n

    +10. Just wish somebody will help me fix my settings app from crashing when going into the general setting. Iphone 4s user.

  • http://twitter.com/iAppleiph apple

    Donated 20€.
    Thanks Dream Team

  • Nikita Lebedev

    Thx for the reminder, sent the Dream Team my thanks :)

  • http://twitter.com/james95363 James

    Just donated $5 for all the hard work and gave pod3g $5 for the untethered 5.01 for A4 jalbreak. Great job guys!

  • http://twitter.com/y0ca7a y0ca7a

    If i have a paypal acc i will donate for every jb that will come to the public.

  • http://www.facebook.com/gonlester Gonzalo Lester

    Totally agree!!, donation sent (from Buenos Aires, Argentina).

  • Sku Takara

    Only 6$, but hope you guys keep up your great contribution and effort!

  • Sean Curley

    Just contributed $20.00 and happy to do it!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Sebastian-Godek/737503737 Sebastian Godek

    Just donated $50. Well deserved. Great job “Dream Team”. Thank you for everything you do ;-)

  • http://twitter.com/didadee89 didadee

    I do think it’s so very wrong not to donate; it doesn’t have to be a lot of money .. only as much as you can afford and wish. It’s a way of saying you’re truly appreciate and thank them for their time. so make it right and donate pp ..

  • Steven Luu

    Donated. Will x 5 donation if Got it unlock

  • Anonymous

    People spend so much money on buying iDevices. This is the least they can do.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000711112922 Gale Gagel

    I totally agree!!!

  • Micah

    I would LOVE to donate something them.
    Unfortunately, I have no job, no money, no way to donate….but I will when I have a chance to!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Songheng-Kaing/100000399995655 Songheng Kaing

    Just got my visa card this morning! so, made a donation of 5 usd. Thanks for great work!