Jeff Benjamin

Jeff has been with iDownloadBlog since 2010, acting as resident video specialist, and tutorial expert. He earned his degree in Computer Network Systems back in 2001, but decided Cisco routers and the like just weren’t for him. Since then, he’s been heavily involved with online writing. He’s written for numerous tech and video game sites since the late 1990′s, and has a knack for explaining things in a simple, clear, and concise manner. Jeff works primarily from the east coast on his Retina Macbook Pro, and shoots video with a Canon DSLR. During downtime he likes to travel the world, visiting the various Apple Stores across the globe. You can email him at jeff [at] idownloadblog.com and follow him on Twitter @JeffBenjam or on Google+.

Save your SHSH blobs for iOS 5.1.1

The Absinthe 2.0 talk is going on right now at Amsterdam's Hack In The Box security conference, so that can only mean that the upcoming untethered jailbreak for iOS 5.1.1 is imminent. For this reason, now is a good time to save your SHSH blobs for iOS 5.1.1 while Apple is still signing the firmware.

Check inside for a full tutorial on how to ensure that your SHSH blobs are saved. You may never need them, but it's much better to be safe than sorry in the event that you do...

Friday is Funday: the iOS 5.1.1 untethered jailbreak is coming tomorrow

As of this post, at about 4:45AM EST, it is 10:45AM in Amsterdam where the Hack In The Box conference is currently taking place. Just as pod2g alluded to in a previous post on his blog, it looks like the iOS 5.1.1 untethered jailbreak will be demonstrated live at the conference, along with its highly awaited released before the conference concludes.

The official Twitter account for the Hack In The Box Security Conference just sent out a tweet confirming "Jailbreak Live" will take place tomorrow, and they are offering special 1-day passes if you happen to be in the area and wish to watch history take place.

What time can you expect to see the untethered jailbreak released in your neck of the woods? We analyze the likely time for the release inside...

Music Widget: an upcoming Dashboard X music interface

One of the wonderful things about the Dashboard X widget interface is its out of the box compatibility with Notification Center add-ons. Cjori — the developer of the popular widget interface — could have easily used that as an excuse to not design widgets exclusively made with Dashboard X in mind, but as a benefit to us, he and others have decided not to do so.

As a result, we have exclusively designed items like Dashtweet, Clock Widget, and now Music Widget — a widget designed specifically for showcasing now playing music on the iOS Home screen.

There’s a new jailbreak in town, but it’s not the one you’ve been waiting for

I highly debated whether or not to post this, but after some going back and forth, I decided that it was for the best to shed some light on this subject in an attempt to cut down on confusion.

Apparently there is a new jailbreak tool "available" (you'll see why I used quotes in a second) that allows you to perform an untethered jailbreak on iOS 5.1.1 for A4 devices.

The tool is called VulnDisco Mobile 1.7, and it is a commercial product that takes advantage of the existing RedSn0w 5.1.1 tethered jailbreak to install a custom bundle for an untethered jailbreak.

While I've yet to find any details on how much the jailbreak will cost in total, in all likelihood it will set you back much more than the cost of an iOS device itself. That's because this jailbreak is not a standalone product, but it's an add-on to a larger product created by a company named Immunity.

While the average user won't have the necessary resources to access this jailbreak at all, there are still some lingering concerns surrounding its release. Check inside for the full story...

Reveal allows you to view more text on banner and Lock screen notifications

Today I was able to go hands-on with Reveal — a jailbreak tweak that allows you to view more text for your banner and Lock screen notifications.

As it stands, stock notifications aren't nearly as useful as they should be, because you can only view an extremely truncated version of the message contained within the notification.

Reveal aims to change this by allowing you to horizontally scroll on banner notifications, vertically scroll on Lock screen notifications, and more.

Take a look at our hands-on video walkthrough inside...

How to prepare for the iOS 5.1.1 untethered jailbreak

The upcoming iOS 5.1.1 untethered jailbreak release is imminent. It's so close we can almost smell it.

For that reason, it would be wise to go ahead and analyse your current situation, and prepare for the jailbreak.

It has been confirmed that the A5 portion of the jailbreak — the jailbreak for iPhone 4S, iPad 2, and the iPad 3 — will only support iOS 5.1.1.

While nothing has been said about A4 devices, it's a good chance that iOS 5.1.1 will be required to jailbreak any device with the new Absinthe tool across the board.

So what should you do? Should you update your device now, or wait until the jailbreak has been officially released?

How to donate to the people behind the iOS 5.1.1 untethered jailbreak

Let's be real. The folks behind such projects as the upcoming iOS 5.1.1 untethered jailbreak put in some major work, and aren't compensated beyond what they receive in donations.

In the various posts that we've created on the subject of the upcoming jailbreak, we've seen a host of generous comments asking where and how to donate.

MuscleNerd recently revealed some additional information about the upcoming iOS 5.1.1 untethered jailbreak, and with it, he included a link that appreciative people could use to donate.

The link was in the prior post, but it kind of got buried along with the other information. For that reason we thought a dedicated post was warranted highlighting the opportunity to donate to the team as a means to compensate for their time and effort.

MuscleNerd reveals more iOS 5.1.1 untethered jailbreak info

MuscleNerd just tweeted out a whole host of interesting info about the upcoming iOS 5.1.1 jailbreak.

Inside, he confirms that it's very likely that we will see the untethered jailbreak for iOS 5.1.1 by the end of this week.

He also details some of the behind the scenes work that has taken place in order to make this a well supported jailbreak. iPod 3rd generation owners, and iPhone 3GS owners should take particular note...

What we learn from the Absinthe 2.0 video [updated]

Now that a video showcasing the Absinthe 2.0 iOS 5.1.1 untethered jailbreak has finally surfaced, we can glean additional details about what to expect when the tool is released to the public.

If you haven't already seen our posts outing the name of the highly anticipated tool, or our post with the video of Absinthe in action, then be sure to take a look at those respective posts.

The nice thing about seeing the tool in action for the first time, is that we can have a clearer idea as to what to expect once the tool is released.

Here is what we've found so far...

Absinthe 2.0 iOS 5.1.1 untethered jailbreak in action [Video]

Shortly after confirming the name of the upcoming iOS 5.1.1 jailbreak tool, iOS hacker, xvolks, uploaded a video showcasing Absinthe 2.0 in action.

xvolks warns that the video is poor quality, but given that he and the rest of the team have been working very hard on getting this release out as soon as possible, we can surely cut him some slack.

The video is of an iPhone 4 GSM running iOS 5.1.1. The iPhone 4 is jailbroken with the new Absinthe tool, which incorporates pod2g's exploits.

Check inside for a sneak peak at the new Absinthe 2.0 in action...

The new iOS 5.1.1 untethered jailbreak tool will likely be called Absinthe 2.0

With the iOS 5.1.1 untethered jailbreak right around the corner, work has apparently started on packaging the exploits into a tool that your average iOS device owner can utilize.

Tools like GreenPois0n and RedSn0w take 99% of the guess work out of the jailbreaks, making it so that almost anyone can take advantage of the benefits that jailbreaking brings to the table.

With that in mind, it's no surprise that the highly anticipated 5.1.1 jailbreak will follow the same pattern. Judging from a conversation I had with an iOS hacker close to pod2g, it appears that the latest jailbreak tool in the pipeline will retain the Absinthe name.

In other words, I'd say it's totally reasonable to expect an Absinthe 2.0 iOS 5.1.1 jailbreak sometime within the next few days...