iOS 6

The evasi0n jailbreak progresses further – Windows app and Mac app completed

If you're keeping your eyes locked in on the evad3r's Twitter account, then perhaps you saw the second tweet hit the wire just a while ago. Indeed, yet another step in the progress of the evasi0n jailbreak tool has been finished.

Now that the tool's GUI interface has been completed for both Windows and Mac OS X, a few super fortunate, and uber trustworthy individuals, get to perform a private beta test with the tool. 68% completed, only 32% remaining!

evasi0n website hints at Sunday release for iOS 6 untethered jailbreak

As pointed out on Twitter by @Pix3lDemon, the website setup for the upcoming evasi0n jailbreak tool strongly hints at a Sunday release. While this isn't entirely surprising, seeing as members of the evad3rs themselves hinted at a Super Bowl day release, it does reafirm the belief that Sunday, will indeed be Funday.

As you'll see on the evasi0n.com splash page, each device that shows a visible Calendar icon is displaying a '3'. It just so happens that the first Sunday in February is on the 3rd. Coincidence? Probably not. Check past the break for the screenshot.

Worried that Cydia will be too slow after the jailbreak? Don’t worry too much

It's the same story with almost every jailbreak. The new jailbreak is released, and folks rush to download all of their favorite jailbreak apps and tweaks. The result is a less than primed experience due to the stress that this places on Cydia and the repos hosting the various packages. After a new jailbreak is released, it usually takes a few days for everything to calm down to somewhat normal levels.

This time around, though, Saurik, and the repo managers appear to be taking preemptive actions to ensure a smoother experience immediately post jailbreak release. While nothing is assured until the inevitable deluge of user requests places stress on the system, you should look forward to a much better experience than in times past.

Over 300 million devices now on iOS 6 and above

In addition to seeding the public version of iOS 6.1 this morning, Apple also published a press release announcing a number of interesting stats and milestones. The most notable landmark is that there are now more than 300 million users on iOS 6.0 and above.

That's pretty wild, considering that last week the company said there are now more than 500 million iOS devices in the wild. That's well over a 50% take rate in less than 6 months, which certainly bodes well for app developers. Keep reading for more details...

The next batch of iOS devices could feature a 128GB model

Is 64GB just not cutting it for you? Then you might be interested in this RT from iOS hacker iH8sn0w a few moments ago. It questioned the possibility of seeing 128GB iDevices in the near future, due to a new system partition key size in the iOS 6.1 BuildManifest.

Curious, I decided to investigate this file for myself. After extracting the iOS 6.1 beta and comparing the SystemPartitionPadding values with older 6.0.x firmware, it became clear as to what @iNeal, the author of the original tweet, was referring to.

While this doesn't set anything in stone, it certainly lends evidence that Apple may be seriously considering up-sizing its next batch of iOS devices this time.

Pin Lock screen reminders to a non-jailbroken iPhone with ‘Task Paper’

We know that some of our readers who updated to iOS 6, or those of you who upgraded to the iPhone 5, get annoyed when we feature jailbreak tweaks. In for each article about tweaks we get at least one comment along the lines of, "Why are you covering tweaks when there's no jailbreak!?!" It's totally understandable, since you can't take advantage of all the awesome tweaks we've showcased. Lucky for you, the clever developers at Renegade Apps have found a way to add functionality to the Lock screen without relying on MobileSubstrate.

Task Paper (not to be confused with the similarly named TaskPaper) is a to-do list app, available in iTunes, that allows users to create persistent Lock screen reminders through generated wallpapers. These wallpapers provide functionality similar to the Reminders+ tweak, all without a jailbreak...

MuscleNerd, pimskeks, planetbeing and pod2g team up as the ‘evad3rs’

So this is kind of interesting. Amidst all of the recent talk of the iOS 6 jailbreak nearing completion, pod2g has made a rather unexpected announcement. Apparently he, and three other well known iOS hackers are forming a team.

That team is called 'evad3rs,' and it consists of MuscleNerd, of iPhone Dev-Team fame, pimskeks from the Chronic-Dev Team, planetbeing, who has been working diligently on the latest jailbreak, and of course there's pod2g...

iOS hackers can’t wait for Apple to release iOS 6.1

On January 28th, a mere five days from now, iOS 6.1 beta 4 will expire. If the past is any indication, then Apple will act, either releasing a 5th beta for iOS 6.1, or releasing the iOS 6.1 golden master — a final baked version, which shortly precedes a public release.

Since the firmware expires on the 28th, then I don't see Apple waiting until that day before making a move. The most realistic time period for it to drop a new release — whether it be beta 5 or the golden master — would be tomorrow, the 24th, or Friday, the 25th.

The big question is whether or not Apple decides to push out another beta release, or feels comfortable releasing the golden master (final) version of iOS 6.1. While it's not unheard of for Apple to go more than four releases deep into a beta period — iOS 5, for instance, saw seven different beta releases — it would be only the second time that this has happened for a non-major release.

The reason why the timing is so interesting for us, is because we believe that the hackers working on the iOS 6 jailbreak are waiting for a final version iOS 6.1 to be released, before finishing up and releasing the long awaited jailbreak. How do we know this? They basically told us as much...

More developers spotted in the iOS 6 jailbreak effort

You're probably familiar with two developers by the name of David Wang and Cyril Cattiaux, also known as PlanetBeing and pod2g. If you're reading this, you're likely waiting for them to release an untethered jailbreak for iOS 6 and the iPhone 5. The good news is they're not working on the jailbreak alone.

The iOS 6 jailbreaking effort seems to be picking up speed as other developers have begun contributing their own expertise to the movement. Here are the recent developments...

Free Press launches AT&T petition site over FaceTime rules

Last week, AT&T announced that it was going to be opening up FaceTime over cellular to all tiered data plans. This is the latest in a string of policy changes made by the carrier to appease the Net Neutrality groups.

But it doesn't look like the groups were very impressed. In response to AT&T's decision to continue to exclude the feature from those on grandfathered unlimited data plans, the Free Press has setup a petition site...

Pod2g and planetbeing make progress on iOS 6 jailbreak

So here's something we haven't heard in a while: good news on the jailbreak front. It looks like now that pod2g has completed his first iOS app, entitled podDJ, the security expert has turned his attention to hacking iOS 6.

His return alone is great news, since it seems like he's been gone from the community forever. But to add to the excitement, the hacker just announced that he and planetbeing recently discovered two new vulnerabilities...

AT&T opens up FaceTime over cellular to all tiered data plans

AT&T has announced this morning that it will be once again be expanding support for iOS 6's FaceTime over cellular for its subscribers. It appears that all iOS users who are on a tiered data plan, will be able to utilize the feature from any FaceTime compatible device.

The carrier took quite a bit of heat last year when it initially announced that FaceTime over cellular would only be available to iOS users on its shared data plans. It later opened up the feature to legacy data plans, and then to LTE users. And now it's available for all...