Former DJ Turned Infamous iPhone Hacker, A Brief Interview With Pod2g [Jailbreak]

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Pod2g surrounded by fellow members of the Chronic Dev Team.
Pod2g (center) surrounded by fellow members of the Chronic Dev Team.

A lot has happened in the world of jailbreaking over the past few weeks. The Chronic Dev Team, a group of mastermind hackers from around the world, recently released Absinthe 2.0, a tool that quickly jailbreaks iOS 5.1.1 on all iOS devices, including the third-gen iPad.

As with the release of any new jailbreak, millions of eyes are turned to the taboo process of freeing an iOS device from Apple’s restrictions to gain access to Cydia, the App Store’s quirky stepbrother. What about the brainiac hackers who keep Apple on its toes? The newest face of jailbreaking, “pod2g,” recently gave a brief interview.

Known only as “pod2g” to his 300,000+ Twitter followers, the French security researcher (who’s first name in real life is “Cyril”) officially came on the jailbreak scene in September 2010. (He chose his cryptic handle when he joined Twitter right after Apple released the second-gen iPod). He gained the public’s attention when he found a boot-ROM exploit in A4-based iOS devices, and the Greenpois0n jailbreak tool was released with his help for iOS 4.1. Pod2g has been working on and off with the Chronic Dev Team to manufacture jailbreaks for years, and millions of people enjoy his feats of hackery on their personal iPhones and iPads every day.

In an interview with Craig Fox for Redmond Pie, pod2g answered a few questions about himself. Here are some takeaways:

  • He started learning code when he was 6 years old. He started tinkering on his father’s ZX Spectrum, and was given a book on source code. By age 8 he was understanding and writing his own code.
  • His favorite jailbreak project so far is the recent Absinthe and Corona + Rocky Racoon release.
  • He was a DJ in a former life. He’s actually made a DJ App Store app that he thinks is better than djay, but he won’t release it publicly.

A big announcement is that pod2g will be speaking and giving a workshop at JailbreakCon this September, a convention in San Francisco, California solely dedicated to the jailbreak community. He will lead a hacking workshop where eager enthusiasts can learn from the very best. Tickets are on sale now for JailbreakCon 2012, and Cult of Mac will be there to provide coverage.

Source: Redmond Pie

Image: Aaron Ash

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