iPad 3 Jailbroken Within Hours of Release
The iPad 3 had only been out for a few hours when some of the usual cast of characters in the jailbreaking world announced that they had already done an iPad 3 jailbreak. It seems that if Apple were trying to lock down the device against jailbreaking, they failed. It was almost as if they WANTED someone to figure out how to jailbreak iPad 3 immediately. Within hours, there were multiple methods and exploits being used to jailbreak new iPad.
The famous jailbreak hacker-hero Musclenerd of the equally famous hacker collective known as the iPhone Dev Team tweeted pictures of the new iPad 3 running Cydia as well as a terminal application the night of the release. His tweet indicated that the jailbreak was still in it’s initial form and wasn’t quite ready for public consumption, saying “Just a first step, still lots of work to do!”
Why Jailbreak New iPad 3?
Apple said that reports of a glut of supply and low demand were completely inaccurate, and that demand for the iPad 3 tablet was just as strong – or stronger – than they had ever seen, with sales the initial weekend outpacing what they had seen for either the iPad 2 or the original iPad. They indicated that 3 million iPad 3 tablets had been shipped and sold to end users the first weekend of the launch. If their figures are to be believed, they’d sold 55 million iPads in all (including iPad 1 and 2) since the original iPad was released back in 2010.
There are great reasons to jailbreak iPad 3, but there could also be reasons to stay away. Reasons to do an iPad 3 jailbreak include being able to install 3rd party, unauthorized apps, as well as being able to customize the iPad 3 beyond what Apple allows by default. On the other hand, reasons to avoid jailbreaking might include the fact that installing 3rd party apps can affect battery life. Some 3rd party, unauthorized apps are hastily thrown together, and not well optimized, causing battery drain issues and potentially affecting the stability of the iOS. Many fans are willing to take the risk, though, as it’s estimated that nearly 10% of people who own iPhones, iPads, or iPods have gone ahead and done a jailbreak,
Worries about legal ramifications shouldn’t enter the picture, since the Digital Millennium Copyright Act gives a clear “Fair Use” exemption for jailbreaking, effectively affirming the legality of the practice. Apple continues to claim that jailbreaking violates it’s intellectual property rights, although the US government and all other governments around the world who’ve ruled on the practice disagree.
Many of the apps available through the Cydia store are not the types of apps that you normally get in the standard app store through Apple. Rather, they are extensions and customizations. These apps extend the customization abilities of the iOS itself as well as other standard apps, allowing them to perform in ways that they cannot do “off the shelf”. These apps and extensions add additional features and sometimes fix bugs, as well as providing access to the command line and file-system of both the iOS and the code for these regular apps.
