iOS 5 redsn0w Jailbreak Released (But It's Probably Not For You)

The iPhone Dev Team has released its tethered jailbreak for devices running iOS 5, as demonstrated earlier this week. The hack – which allows unofficial software to be run on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch when running the new version of iOS – uses the original limera1n bootrom exploit; still, the Dev Team reckons this particular release really isn't for everyone.

That's because, right now the only people with legitimate access to the iOS 5 beta are developers. The Dev Team is pitching this particular jailbreak at developers creating jailbroken apps, with the warning being that there are multiple broken components – including some incompatibilities with Apple's official apps, various third-party apps, Cydia and MobileSubstrate apps – for it to be of reliable use for the general public who have managed to acquire a copy of iOS 5.

It also threatens to irretrievably upgrade your baseband, which isn't good news if you've been trying to preserve a baseband that's unlockable. You'll need a registered UDID – which you'll have to have an Apple developer account to get – in order to use the jailbreak too.

In short, the everyday geek should probably sit back and wait for iOS 5 – and the inevitable "official" jailbreak – to arrive later in the year, and leave developers to play with this release and cook up some alluring apps to launch at the same time. If you're a developer, meanwhile, redsn0w 0.9.8b1 for Mac is here.