Good news for hopeful iOS 5.1 jailbreakers, infamous iOS hacker and Chronic Dev Team member ‘pod2g’ just tweeted that he has his iPhone 4 running an untethered jailbreak on iOS 5.1. For those who don’t know, the difference between a tethered and untethered jailbreak is huge; the former means you have to re-jailbreak every time the device reboots while the latter means you’re jailbroken until you update to a new version of iOS.

There’s still a lot of work to be done on the untethered iOS 5.1 jailbreak for iPhone 4S owners, but an untether for iPhone 4 and iPad 2 users looks to be on the distant horizon. The iPhone 4S runs on a faster A5 processor, making it a totally different nut to crack for jailbreak hackers.

Having been promised just over a week ago that an untethered jailbreak for Apple’s A5 powered devices was “just a matter of days away,” we were all expecting to see Cydia and all sorts of fancy tweaks installed on our devices by now. But of course, these things take time. After all, we want a smooth and reliable experience when we come to jailbreak our most prized possessions.

While the exploit still isn’t quite ready for public release, it’s certainly very close. Pod2g has issued further details on his team’s work, revealing that all the “technical hurdles” have already been overcome, and that they are just ironing out the final bug fixes before the hack goes live.

Despite a message posted to Twitter by Pod2g earlier this week, suggesting an untethered jailbreak for the iPhone 4S was less than a week away from public release, a new blog post detailing the iOS hacker’s process indicates the exploit could still be weeks away yet.

Pod2g has revealed that his new exploit requires a developer account to inject the necessary files to your device, and until he finds a way around this, the hack will not see a public release.

iOS hacker Pod2g, who has become increasingly famous over the last few weeks thanks to the progress he’s made on an untethered jailbreak for iOS 5, is one step closer to jailbreaking the iPhone 4S. Apple’s latest iPhone was tricky to hack thanks to its new dual-core A5 processor, but Pod2g reports the new chip “is not a problem anymore.”

iOS hacker and Chronic Dev-Team member Pod2g is making quite a name for himself right now as he works away on an untethered jailbreak for iOS 5. According to his latest blog posts, he has now completed the code for an untethered jailbreak on all A4-powered devices, suggesting a public release of the exploit isn’t too far away.

Chronic Dev-Team member and iOS hacker Pod2g, who we’ve mentioned a number of times in recent reports surrounding an untethered iOS 5 jailbreak, claims to have successfully developed an untethered jailbreak for the iPhone 4 running iOS 5.0.1 and says it’s safe to update to the latest firmware.

Back in November, iOS hacker Pod2g announced in a message on Twitter that he had discovered a bug in the iOS 5 software that could provide an untethered jailbreak. To backup his claims, Pod2g has posted a video to YouTube that demonstrates the hack in action, but he’s yet to provide any indication as to when the jailbreak might go public.

When Apple seeded its first iOS 5 beta to registered developers back in June, it was discovered the company’s next-generation mobile platform eliminated untethered jailbreaking and meant that hackers must connect their device to their computer every time they wanted to boot it up if they hoped to maintain their jailbreak.

Since then, however, reports surrounding an untethered jailbreak for iOS 5 have surfaced. The latest glimmer of hope comes from the Chronic Dev Team member Pod2g, who claims to have discovered a bug in the latest iOS 5 software that could lead to an untethered jailbreak.

If you thought untethered jailbreaking was dead, then think again. i0n1c, the jailbreaker behind the iOS 4.3.1, 4.3.2, and 4.3.3 untethered jailbreaks, reports that an untethered jailbreak for iOS 5 is already “covered” — days before the release goes public.

Apple’s latest iOS 4 update dropped yesterday, which “fixes a security vulnerability with certificate validation.” Jailbreakers were initially advised not to update to the latest firmware, but as long as you’re happy with a tethered jailbreak for the foreseeable future, you’re safe to go ahead and update your device and then jailbreak with the latest RedSn0w release.