iOS 8 Jailbreak Future Currently Unknown

iOS 8.1.1 was officially released today, and it comes with a handful of bug fixes and performance improvements for the older iPhone 4s and the iPad 2, which are the two oldest iOS devices that support the latest iOS 8. However, the update also patches up Pangu’s iOS 8 jailbreak.

It’s actually been known for several weeks that iOS 8.1.1 would patch up the iOS 8 jailbreak, which provided users with a warning to update to iOS 8.1 before iOS 8.1.1 released, that way they would be locked in for the latest version that supported the jailbreak.

This really isn’t too surprising, as Apple has been known to patch up jailbreak exploits with the next iOS update, and luckily the update is still in beta and hasn’t been released to the public yet.

If you haven’t already updated your iPhone or iPad to iOS 8.1, it’s a very good idea to do that now so that you’ll be locked in and will be able to jailbreak even if iOS 8.1.1 already released. Apple is still signing iOS 8.1, so you can download the iOS 8.1 IPSW file and install it on your iPhone or iPad.

To do this, open up iTunes with your iPhone or iPad plugged in, hold down the Option/Alt key and then click Restore. From there, open up the IPSW file to update to iOS 8.1 even though iOS 8.1.1 is the latest version.

Why do this? Because now that Apple released iOS 8.1.1 to the public, they’ll soon stop signing iOS 8.1, which means you won’t be able to update to iOS 8.1 and will be forced to update to iOS 8.1.1, making your iPhone or iPad unjailbreakable. And if you update to iOS 8.1.1, you won’t be able to jailbreak your device until the Pangu team can figure out an exploit to iOS 8.1.1 and make it jailbreakable.

Pangu released the iOS 8 jailbreak last month. It’s the same dev team who was responsible for the iOS 7.1 jailbreak that released earlier this year, and it essentially came out of nowhere. Now they’re back with an iOS 8-iOS 8.1 jailbreak, which experienced a bit of a buggy launch.

For starters, the jailbreak didn’t have Cydia included yet, simply because it was not fully ready for iOS 8, but Saurik (the active developer for Cydia) was quickly working on an update, and while there’s still a few kinks to work out, Cydia finally works with the iOS 8 jailbreak.

However, the good news is that this iOS 8 jailbreak will work with all devices that are capable of running iOS 8, including the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPad mini 3, and iPad Air 2, as well as older devices like the iPhone 5s and iPad Air.

While many of the popular tweaks work with iOS 8 now, there are still many tweaks that need updated for iOS 8, including Springtomize. Plus, Cydia still needs a few fixes that will allow jailbreakers to download paid tweaks, which aren’t working just yet.

In any case, it’s odd enough that we’re seeing an iOS 8 jailbreak so soon in the iOS 8 lifecycle, considering that iOS 7 didn’t have a jailbreak until December. However, this jailbreak comes from the same team that brought us the amazing iOS 7.1 jailbreak earlier this year.

Ever since the initial announcement of iOS 8 last month, the jailbreak community was rather curious as to when an iOS 8 jailbreak would hit the public. Of course, we could’ve relied on past history as far as when to expect it, but even that’s a little shaky.

We wouldn’t be surprised to see iOS 8.1.1 get cracked eventually, but we wouldn’t hold our breath, seeing how it could take a bit of time. Nonetheless, iOS 8.1.1 isn’t an update that’s critical in the first place, so don’t worry too much that it’s not jailbreakable, since you really don’t need it if you have a newer device.