How to Jailbreak iPhone 5.0.1 and Jailbreaking explained

If you have one of Apple's devices that runs iOS (iphone, ipad, ipod, etc.), you have probably heard of jailbreaking. However, you may not know what jailbreaking exactly is or why you would want to jailbreak your device. Well I hope to explain just that in this document as well as HOW to jailbreak your device.

First the legal stuff. Well, did you know that jailbreaking your device is NOT illegal? Back in 2010 the US declared jailbreaking a device legal despite Apple's whining and complaining. Check out this article on wired.com: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/07/feds-ok-iphone-jailbreaking/

So now that your legal concerns have been removed, let's talk about why you would want to jailbreak your iphone. The main reason for jailbreaking is to free your iphone from Apple's grip of control. You will be able to fully customize your phone and most important install apps that Apple refused to allow into their App store. And don't worry, you can still use Apple's app store to download and purchase all of their apps. The only difference is you now get another app store called Cydia where you can download and install apps from as well. Basically the only difference between a regular iphone and a jailbroken one is that you have an additional app on your phone called Cydia and that little app is an amazing one that opens up all kinds of possibilities for your phone. To see a list of all the cool things you can do, check out this link:

http://www.iphoneforums.net/forum/jailbreak-applications-tweaks-70/best-jailbreak-apps-2011-best-cydia-apps-best-cydia-tweaks-21019/

and this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jMqF8kQb_I

Are you interested yet? Also, to further put you at ease, to revert back to stock and un-jailbreak your phone, all you need to do is connect up your phone to itunes and click the RESTORE button on the main screen when you have your iphone selected. Apple will just go ahead and wipe whatever changes you have made and put you back into their control.

Another thing to be aware of, is updates. Apple constantly pushes updates to their iOS system, and most of the time, these updates are to fix security holes in their software. These security holes they are fixing are what allow the iphone developers to create jailbreaking software. So if you update, you will then have to wait until another hole is found to allow you to jailbreak the device. Best advice for those with jailbroken phones. DO NOT update your phone once Apple releases a new update (anyways you shouldn't do this regardless as Apple ALWAYS releases their new updates with TONS of bugs and it's best to wait for others to be their beta testers and you update once a new jailbreak has been released)

Tethered versus untethered jailbreak. This is very important. A tethered jailbreak means you have to connect your iphone to your PC/Mac with the redsn0w software everything you power up/restart your iphone in order to gain access to the cydia apps on your phone. This can be a pain as it makes you have a dependence on your computer. untethered means you can freely restart your iphone without worrying about having a PC nearby. Usually a tethered jailbreak comes out first for Apple's latest iOS and a untethered follows (if possible). Check prior to jailbreaking.

Just a few days ago, a developer released the jailbreak for iOS 5.0.1 which is Apple's latest iOS at time of writing this article. The process is simple, download redsn0w, connect your iphone to your computer, put iphone in DFU mode and let redsn0w jailbreak it. Probably a total of 10 minutes to do this and you have a jailbroken iphone. The process couldn't be easier. Also redsn0w will instruct you have to put your iphone in DFU mode, so don't worry. 

Here are links to the redsn0w software for both Windows and Mac.

Download Redsn0w 0.9.10 b2 for Windows
Download Redsn0w 0.9.10 b2 for Mac

One other thing to note is that you should take a SHSH Blob of your phone prior to jailbreaking. This can be done with redsn0w and will ensure you can downgrade your software in the future if needed. Read more about it here:

http://www.iphonefaq.org/archives/97913

Enjoy your new jailbroken phone!
 

For those of you with the older iphone 3G running the latest version of iOS for that device which is 4.2.1. You can jailbreak by downloading the older version of redsn0w an the IPSW file. Check out this page for more info:

http://www.iphonefaq.org/archives/971145