iOS 5 hacked in one day, update now available

iOS 5 imessage — Image used with permission by copyright holder

And just like that, iOS 5 has a work-around: Only a day after Apple unveiled its next-generation iOS 5 mobile operating system for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices, one Apple fan has discovered how to upgrade to the new OS without a developer account.

Registered iOS developers were immediately able to access the new OS as soon as Apple made the official announcement on Monday. The rest of us without dev credentials have to wait until sometime this Fall, probably September, for the official release of iOS 5. But with the help of self-described “Apple lover” Mert Erdir, anyone can install the beta release of iOS 5 right now.

Erdir, a photographer from Istanbul, Turkey, uncovered a backdoor in iOS 5, which makes the software upgrade accessible without a developer account. He then published a video with instructions for the upgrade to his Twitter feed.

The hack involves installing the beta release of iTunes 10.5 (the current version, 10.2.2 doesn’t support iOS 5), a iOS device firmware update, and a willingness to risk completely bricking your iPhone, iPad, etc.

For those of you who want to try to perform the iOS 5 “hack” now, just check out Gizmodo‘s instructions. That said, we don’t recommend anyone actually do this. Sure, everything will probably be fine. It’s a simple update during which nothing much can go wrong.

But remember, there’s a reason iOS 5 won’t be officially ready until fall: it’s still under development, and could very well be unstable. Plus, with iOS 5’s Over The Air connection capabilities, Apple could very well smite you for your brazenness with a debilitating update that you can’t do anything about.

In fact, they may have already closed the door Erdir found swinging in the wind. “I think Apple sent an update Over The Air to fix my workaround,” he wrote on Twitter, at about midnight (EST), after a follower reported that he couldn’t connect to iTunes after the upgrade. “I’ll look when I get back!” At the time of this writing, he hadn’t yet returned.

Does the hack still work for you? Let us know in the comments.

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