Members of the iPhone Dev Team expect to release tools that will let most owners of recent iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad models jailbreak those devices for free.
Update: Absinthe 2.0 was released on 5/25/2012. You can use it to perform an untethered jailbreak on most iOS 5.1.1 devices for free.
If you can’t wait a few days though, there’s a tool that will let you perform an untethered jailbreak on some iOS 5.1.1 devices today… for a fee.
The developer behind the commercial security/vulnerability software package VulnDisco has released a plugin that lets you jailbreak iOS 5.1.1 on a device with an Apple A4 processor. That includes the original iPad, the iPhone 4, and 4th generation iPod touch models.
So how much does the tool cost? Let’s put it this way… if you have to ask, you probably can’t afford it. And you do have to ask. The developer doesn’t give out pricing information unless you send an email requesting it.
But the folks at iJailbreak note that the basic app runs $995, and that’s before you pay for the mobile plugin.
In other words — if you were going to buy VulnDisco anyway for one reason or another, then maybe this is worthwhile. If not, then you should probably wait for the iPhone Dev Team to release their tools… it should only take a few more days.
Those free tools will also work with a wider range of devices including iOS products with Apple A5 processors including the iPad 2 and new iPad as well as the iPhone 4S.
