A hacker called Comex has created a website called JailBreakMe.com wherein an iPhone user can log in with their browser and jailbreak their phone directly from the site, no special setup required. The site went online last week after the Library of Congress ruled that jailbreaking devices does not violate copyrights and the new iPhone 4 jailbreak went live today.
Many deep users and hackers jailbreak their devices in order to get around the proprietary operating system and it’s built-in blocks. This allows them to run unauthorized applications, change core phone settings, and otherwise “tweak” the device to their own liking. The most common reason to jailbreak an iPhone or iPad, however, is likely to enable the phone to work on a network other than AT&T.
Apple discourages jailbreaking and says that phones that have been altered in this way have voided their warranties. Hackers point out that phones needing service need only to have their settings return to “default” and the jailbreak is removed (similarly, removing or disconnecting the battery will also do this). Downloading any new updates to the iOS also resets the phone.
In the past, users generally had to go through convoluted measures using computer connections and software downloads to jailbreak their phones. Comex created the new jailbreak which can be done purely through the iPhone’s (or iPad’s) browser while two others, wetbaer and chpwn, created the JailBreakMe site.
The site is continually updated with new information as users give feedback. Currently, the jailbreak does not work on the iPad 3.2.1 and doesn’t likely work on the yet-to-be-released 4.0.2 iOS release. The jailbreak may also interfere with FaceTime and Multimedia Messaging on the iPhone 4, though Comex says a fix for that is on the way.
