Hackers develop untethered iOS7 jailbreak tool

And the cat-and-mouse game between hackers and Apple Inc. continues: the hackers have come out with a jailbreak tool for mobile Apple devices running iOS 7.

 

The jailbreak tool allows iPhone, iPad, and iPod devices running iOS 7 to access and install apps not on the official App Store, The Next Web reported.

 

"The process is surprisingly simple, taking only five minutes to complete and works on both Mac or PC," The Next Web said.

 

It said the tool was the handiwork of iPhone hacking group evasi0n, which claimed the tool can cover any iOS device capable of running iOS 7.0 through 7.0.4.

 

But The Next Web noted many of the jailbreak hacks that are available may not be compatible with newer devices running the 64-bit A7 chip such as the iPhone 5s.

 

Also, it reminded users to "be careful when jailbreaking your device as it could become unstable and you do so at your own risk."

 

On the other hand, The Next Web noted it took hackers three months to come out with a jailbreak tool, as iOS 7 was made available to the public as early as September.

 

"It’s been a long wait for those that like to tweak their phones; previous jailbreaks only took a few weeks to appear, not months. A crowd funding site designed to help motivate groups to jailbreak the OS even appeared, with a $10,232 bonus at time of writing," it added.

 

Hackers offer apology

 

Meanwhile, a separate report on The Next Web said the hackers offered an apology for the jalbreak, after it learned of piracy involved in its tool.

 

The report said Evasi0n had been approached by Chinese app store TaiG to offer their tool bundled in China.

 

"The group took it up — but TaiG turned out to be a piracy app market," it said.

 

It added pod2g, one of the creators behind the iOS 7 jailbreak, said TaiG will no longer be installed by default for those who download the jailbreak in China.

 

"We have decided to remotely disable the default installation of TaiG in China for further investigations on the piracy issue," pod2g said (https://twitter.com/pod2g/statuses/414942393830756352).

 

The Next Web also quoted Evasi0n as saying TaiG has been working to resolve the piracy problem and is removing all samples of it found in their app store.

 

"If the piracy cannot be weeded out, TaiG will be pulled from the jailbreak, Evasi0n says," The Next Web said. — TJD, GMA News