For more than two months already, iPhone 4S jailbreak and unlock program was not yet released. However, the good news is that soon we’ll have both of these as soon as it will be ready for public release. This is because “LOTS of work left” and there are “huge missing pieces” which prevented its release.

Last week, a member of the Chronic-Dev Team had released a video showing an untethered jailbreak for an iPod touch running with iOS 5. @pod2g is known widely because of his discoveries in exploits that leads to jailbreaking an Apple device. In the video, he showed his iPod touch with iOS 5 jailbroken (with Cydia installed. He then rebooted the iDevice and still showed that the jailbreak is still intact. This means that he got an untethered jailbreak for his iPod touch.

His jailbreak were tested for some of the iDevices which includes iPod touch 3G, iPhone 4, iPad 1 and iPhone 3GS that runs with iOS 5.0.1. This means that his jailbreak is fully working on devices that bare A4 chips. He is now currently working for the jailbreak of iPhone 4S and the iPad 2 which both used A5 chips. We hope for the soon release of an untethered jailbreak for the iPhone 4S.

As for the unlocking of an iPhone 4S, probably it will soon follow after the jailbreak will be officially released. This is backed up by @MuscleNerd of the Chronic-Dev team two weeks ago on his tweet that a “very promising “ unlock for the iPhone 4S is in the works.

To wrap things up, an untethered jailbreak and unlock programs will soon be released after the Dev team will finalize all the codes. Follow us for more details.

If you want to upgrade to iOS 5 but you have locked iPhone unit (aside from 4S), you might want to consider the ability to preserve your baseband to be able to unlock. UltraSn0w (V 1.2.4) unlock was just recently released for iPhone 4/3GS/3G that runs iOS 5. Here is the list of basebands that are compatible for unlocking:

iPhone 3GS: 4.26.08, 05.11.07, 05.12.01, 05.13.04, 06.15.00

iPhone 4: 01.59.00

You can follow the procedure in updating iOS 5 without updating your baseband for Windows and Mac in our previous posts.

In order to unlock your iDevice, you need to jailbreak first since it needs Cydia to download the UltraSn0w 1.2.4 package. Make sure that your baseband is listed above or else the unlocking process will not do.

A release note from the Dev Team is posted for users of iPhone 3GS and other possible baseband downgrades for some situations:

Note: there’s a special “trick” that iPhone3GS owners with baseband 06.15 need for iOS5. During the new setup screens you see when you start iOS5 for the first time, you’ll be asked about Location Services. Be sure to select “Disable Location Services” when asked! Later on in the setup, you’ll have the chance to turn on Location Services again when asked if you want to use “Find my iPhone”. It’s fine to turn it back on at that point, if that’s your desire (or you can always go in and enable it in Settings.app).

Also, some iPhone3GS users with the 06.15 baseband may have tried to install iOS5 using a stock IPSW (even though you should never ever try to use a stock IPSW if you’re an ultrasn0w unlocker). If you did try this, your baseband is probably in an inconsistent state, and you’ll need to reflash the 06.15 baseband again (using redsn0w). Be very careful if you use redsn0w to reflash the iPad baseband — don’t interrupt the process! And please avoid using stock IPSWs in the future  Unlockers should never go near stock IPSWs.

If you are a Mac user and wanted to upgrade your iPhone (4 or 3GS) to iOS 5 while you can preserve the unlock, this is the best procedure to follow. This is for the preparation of unlocking your iPhone again using UltraSn0w in the future.

RedSn0w 0.9.9b5 is the tool you need in upgrading to iOS 5 using your Mac computer. This is because the developers in the Dev Team have added the baseband preservation tool to RedSn0w which was previously available in the Pwnage Tool. Please take note that this is not a jailbreaking procedure. Instead, this will only preserve the baseband of your iPhone so you can unlock using UltraSn0w in the future.

Steps in preserving the baseband for iOS 5:

1. Download RedSn0w 0.9.9b5.
2. Launch RedSn0w and select ‘Extras’ and ‘Custom IPSW’.
3. In your Mac, select the iOS 5 Firmware (~/Library/iTunes/iPhone Software Updates/)
4. Select ‘Pwned DFU’ from RedSn0w after building the new firmware.
5. Start your iPhone to DFU mode: Hold ‘Home+Power’ buttons simultaneously for 10 seconds, release Power button while continue holding the Home button for another 10 seconds. RedSn0w will then put your iPhone in Pwned DFU mode.
6. Close RedSn0w completely and launch iTunes. It will recognize an iPhone in Recovery mode.
7. Hold down ‘Option’ key on your Mac keyboard and click ‘Restore’ while selecting for NO_BB firmware which you had recently created. NOTE: Make sure to select the NO_BB firmware or else you will update your baseband.
8. After restoring, you will now have iOS 5 in your iPhone while preserving the baseband. You can either jailbreak your iPhone now or wait for UltraSn0w update for iOS 5.

Having an unlocked iPhone is what almost every iPhone users wanted to have. This is because you can switch to any carrier any time you want. Sn0wbreeze is the best tool to use if you are running on a Windows OS machine. With Sn0wbreeze, you can preserve the baseband of your iPhone while upgrading to iOS 5 if you are from iOS 4.x.x.

The following steps will upgrade your iPhone to iOS 5 and at the same time will preserve your baseband for unlocking purposes: (Note: can be used with iPhone 4/3GS/3G)

1. Download Sn0wbreeze 2.8 Beta 8.
2. Launch Sn0wbreeze and click OK and the blue arrow below.
3. Drag to the gray box on Sn0wbreeze the iOS 5 firmware but make sure that the firmware for your device is correct.
4. After verifying that the firmware is correct, click the blue arrow below and click on “Baseband Preservation Mode”. Click NEXT.
5. Sn0wbreeze will then start to build your custom firmware. After finished, the custom firmware will be saved to your desktop. Verify and click OK.
6. Start your iPhone to DFU mode: Hold ‘Home+Power’ buttons simultaneously for 10 seconds, release Power button while continue holding the Home button for another 10 seconds.
7. On the DFU Pwner screen in Sn0wbreeze, click START.
8. “iREB” will start and will place your iPhone in Pwned DFU Mode. Close out Sn0wbreeze completely after clicking the confirmation screen.
9. Launch iTunes so it will recognize that your iPhone is in Recovery mode. Click OK.
10. Hold ‘Shift+Restore’ and browse to the newly created firmware in your desktop.
11. Wait for the Restore process to finish and you should have the same unlockable baseband.

Enjoy having an iOS 5 while preserving your baseband!

Everyone is excited with the new iPhone 4S. In addition to that, Apple had a hard time meeting the demand of consumers since more and more people wanted to buy one. While these normal situations are present, the first few batches of iPhone 4S distributed around the world were also seen with some undesirable performances.

First and foremost is the worst performance by the iOS 5 which drains an iDevice’s battery faster than what the normal one. The software upgrade of an iPhone 4 into an iOS 5 from iOS 4.X.X proves that this situation is true. This problem is not merely affecting the iPhone 4S but also the other iDevices that are upgraded to iOS 5.

Another report states that some iPhone users upgraded to iOS 5 are having a hard time connecting for WiFi and 3G networks. And even others can connect to WiFi networks, the signal is not doing well and constantly disconnects from time to time.

Hardware issues being reported include audio abnormalities during phone calls and some users’ experiences “No SIM card Installed” errors. Although the later is not confirmed whether software or hardware related, it still disturb iPhone users who reportedly experiences this kind of problems.

Have you experienced any problems lately in your iDevices? Please let us know if you have any by writing a comment below. Thanks and enjoy!