Jailbreak for iOS 4.3 is already up and running

By Adam Rosenberg March 11, 2011

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Have a jail broken phone? Make sure to check out our picks for the best jailbreak apps and games.

That was fast. Apple released its iOS 4.3 update for iDevices on Wednesday in preparation for today’s iPad 2 launch… and it is already jailbroken. User xpl0n1c uploaded a video to YouTube yesterday showing an iPad with the new system update installed running on an untethered jailbreak, which means that it can be rebooted without first being connected — tethered — to a computer and re-jailbroken.

Is this surprising? Not at all. The beta version of iOS 4.3 has been available to developers for some time now. There’s no public release of this jailbreak yet however, simply proof that it is running. With that key hurdle passed, it is now only a matter of time.

This YouTube posting doesn’t come from one of the usual jailbreak suspects, so there’s no blog or Twitter account to turn to for information about a future release. The video’s poster notes that the jailbreak shown is in its alpha phase, “because not all required kernel patches are in it yet.”

The practice of jailbreaking has become increasingly popular since a federal court ruled last year that it is perfectly legal. The chief advantage of a jailbreak is breaking free of the content restrictions that Apple places on App Store release. For example, one app available on Cydia — the jailbreak equivalent of the App Store — called MyWi allows your iDevice to be turned into a Wi-Fi hotspot. iOS 4.3 adds support for this natively of course, but the jailbreak app is a one-time payment of $19.99, versus the monthly fees associated with official Personal Hotspots on AT&T or Verizon. The danger to the end-user is also relatively minimal thanks to Apple’s System Restore feature, which returns the device to its factory settings.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Previously, Adam worked in the games press as a freelance writer and critic for a range of outlets, including Digital Trends…

Mobile

iPhone SE 4: news, rumored price, release date, and more

The Apple iPhone SE (2022) and Apple iPhone SE (2020) together.

While the spotlight always seems to be on Apple’s mainline iPhones, the iPhone SE is a great pick for those who are on a budget. If you want an iPhone that doesn't break the bank, the SE is the way to go.

The original iPhone SE came out in 2016, and then Apple revamped it in 2020 and 2022 by giving it some more modern hardware. The iPhone SE tends to get updated every two or so years rather than annually like the traditional iPhone. This means that we should see a new iPhone SE 4 this year, but it’s not so cut-and-dried with this particular model.

Mobile

Here’s how Apple could change your iPhone forever

An iPhone 15 Pro Max laying on its back, showing its home screen.

Over the past few months, Apple has released a steady stream of research papers detailing its work with generative AI. So far, Apple has been tight-lipped about what exactly is cooking in its research labs, while rumors circulate that Apple is in talks with Google to license its Gemini AI for iPhones.

But there have been a couple of teasers of what we can expect. In February, an Apple research paper detailed an open-source model called MLLM-Guided Image Editing (MGIE) that is capable of media editing using natural language instructions from users. Now, another research paper on Ferret UI has sent the AI community into a frenzy.

Mobile

There’s a big problem with the iPhone’s Photos app

The Apple iPhone 15 Plus's gallery app.

While my primary device these days continues to be my iPhone 15 Pro, I’ve dabbled with plenty of Android phones since I’ve been here at Digital Trends. One of my favorite brands of phone has been the Google Pixel because of its strong suite of photo-editing tools and good camera hardware.

Google first added the Magic Eraser capability with the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, which is a tool I love using. Then, with the Pixel 8 series, Google added the Magic Editor, which uses generative AI to make edits that wouldn’t be possible otherwise. There are also tools like Photo Unblur, which is great for old photographs and enhancing images that were captured with low-quality sensors.