Like we told you would happen earlier this week, the Chronic Dev Team has released Absinthe 2.0 today, a jailbreak for nearly all iOS devices, including the third-gen iPad, running the newly-released iOS 5.1.1. Absinthe 2.0 is an untethered jailbreak, meaning you won’t have to re-jailbreak every time you reboot your iOS device.
Chronic Dev Team hacker pod2g told the world last weekend that this latest jailbreak was only a “matter of days” away, and it turns out that he was right.
Coincidentally, the Chronic Dev Team will be presenting at the annual Hack in the Box (HITB) conference this week in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Since the 5.1.1. jailbreak is expected to drop this week, we’re placing bets on a release this Friday during the team’s keynote.
The iOS 5 Notification Center displays incoming messages in a couple of ways. When you have an iOS device unlocked, a new message can be shown via a small banner notification at the top of the screen. A regular alert can be displayed for certain apps, and incoming notifications are also pushed to the iOS lock screen when a device is locked. The system works well, but Apple restricts the amount of text you can see in a given notification. If you want to read an entire message that’s more than a sentence or two, you have to open the associated app.
The jailbreak community has improved the way Notification Center handles longer messages. A new Cydia tweak called Reveal lets you view long chunks of text from a banner or lock screen notification.
Big news from the jailbreak community can tend to come out on the weekends, and this weekend is no exception. Earlier today Chronic Dev Team hacker pod2g confirmed that the upcoming untethered jailbreak for iOS 5.1.1 is only a “matter of days” away from dropping. We’ve been telling you that the jailbreak is coming for months, but it looks like things are finally coming together for a public release.
Coincidentally, a hacking convention called “Hack in the Box“ will be taking place this week, and the Chronic Dev Team will be there in full force. We’re hearing that the new jailbreak tool will likely be announced at the conference. The name of the new jailbreak will be “Absinthe 2.0,” following the previous version of Absinthe that jailbroke the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 for the first time.
It's the app switcher you know and love... only taller.
The iPhone’s app switcher is where you go to quickly navigate between apps in iOS. Apple has added more features to the little switcher tray over time, like handy music controls. Double tapping the Home button on your iPhone reveals one row of recently opened apps to choose from, and you can swipe from right to left to see more icons. Without getting into the debate about whether the app switcher is a true multitasking environment or not, it’s safe to say that it does its job. But could the experience be improved?
When Brent Caswell detailed his rethinking of the iPhone’s app switcher a few days ago, he had no clue the concept would come to life. Thanks to the ingenuity of the jailbreak community, a new Cydia tweak implements Caswell’s ideas to extend the functionality of the app switcher.
The hacker known only as pod2g has been working an a new untethered jailbreak for iOS 5 that’s been in the works for several months. Pod2g’s jailbreak was originally set for iOS 5.0.1, then 5.1, and now it’s been confirmed that it will work on the newly-released iOS 5.1.1. The only catch is that the third-gen iPod, iPhone 3GS, and third-gen Apple TV won’t be able to install the untethered jailbreak while running Apple’s latest version of iOS.
Pod2g has posted a short FAQ detailing some more info about the upcoming jailbreak.
Get quick definitions on your iPhone with this handy jailbreak tweak.
Have you ever wanted to know the definition of a word without having to perform a Google search or open an app? If you have an iPhone 4S you can use Siri to look up definitions, but older iOS devices are have immediate way to show a definition.
Apple has a built-in dictionary in iOS that’s easy to forget about, but luckily a jailbreak tweak called SpotDict makes it simple to lookup words on the iPhone. SpotDict uses Apple’s dictionary to let you quickly define words from the Spotlight window in iOS.
Pod2g is making progress with his upcoming jailbreak.
With each new day we’re getting closer and closer to a new jailbreak release, but things are still not quite ready. Good news is that infamous Chronic Dev hacker pod2g has successfully jailbroken his third-gen iPad on iOS 5.1. The news follows the previous announcement that he had gotten an untethered jailbreak fully functional on his iPhone 4 running iOS 5.1.
Pod2g still has to work on stabilizing his jailbreak and packaging it for public distribution, but his exploits will work on all iOS devices, including the iPhone 4S.
When Apple introduced Notification Center in iOS 5 last summer, jailbreak developers immediately started creating third-party widgets to enhance certain functionalities and create shortcuts for iOS. Widgets for toggling system preferences, for instance, are now available in Cydia for Notification Center. What would happen if the idea of widgets left Notification Center and made its way to the iOS Home screen?
Prolific Cydia developer Ori Kadosh has released Dashboard X, an ambitious extension for adding floating widgets to your jailbroken iPhone and iPad’s springboard.
An innovate idea for iOS often gets introduced to high praises from the Apple community, and one of three things usually happens: 1.) Apple implements the idea, 2.) Jailbreakers implement it first and Apple eventually does the same, 3.) Apple ignores the idea entirely and jailbreakers enjoy it exclusively. We’re hoping that number 2.) will happen in this case.
Remember when we showed you the amazing concept video for easily editing text on the iPad? Put together by Daniel Chase Hooper, the concept showed how you could edit text with finger drags and gestures instead of the tedious ‘tap and drag’ method Apple currently implements. Many of us said we wanted to see Hooper’s concept in iOS 6.
As it is known to do, the jailbreak community has already heard our collective cry and answered with a new jailbreak tweak that just went live in Cydia today. Dubbed SwipeSelection, a new way of editing text is now available for jailbroken iPad and iPhone users.
![Reveal: View Longer Messages Inside Banner And Lock Screen Notifications [Jailbreak]](http://cultofmac.cultofmaccom.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Screen-Shot-2012-05-21-at-4.49.31-PM.jpg "Screen Shot 2012-05-21 at 4.49.31 PM")
![iOS 5.1.1 Untethered Jailbreak ‘Absinthe 2.0’ To Drop This Week [Jailbreak]](http://cultofmac.cultofmaccom.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Absinthe-icon.jpg "Absinthe icon"){kind=icon}
![Switchy: A Rethinking Of The iPhone’s App Switcher Comes To Life [Jailbreak]](http://cultofmac.cultofmaccom.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Apps_20Change.jpg "Apps_20Change")
![Upcoming Untethered Jailbreak Will Work On iOS 5.1.1, More Questions Answered [FAQ]](http://cultofmac.cultofmaccom.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/original.jpg "original")
![How To Use Spotlight To Quickly Search Apple’s Built-In Dictionary In iOS [Jailbreak]](http://cultofmac.cultofmaccom.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Screen-Shot-2012-05-11-at-5.07.31-PM.jpg "Screen Shot 2012-05-11 at 5.07.31 PM")
![Hacker Jailbreaks All iOS Devices On iOS 5.1, Including iPhone 4S And iPad 3 [Jailbreak]](http://cultofmac.cultofmaccom.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/iPad-jailbreak-Cydia.jpg "iPad jailbreak Cydia")
![Dashboard X Brings Live Widgets To Your iOS Device’s Home Screen [Jailbreak]](http://cultofmac.cultofmaccom.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Screen-Shot-2012-05-09-at-10.23.07-PM.jpg "Screen Shot 2012-05-09 at 10.23.07 PM")
