Jailbreak History

In 2012 a new jailbreak was front-page tech news. A decade later it is a niche hobby. Hardened iOS security, a shrinking list of must-have tweaks and the slow decline of Cydia all played a part. […]

Jailbreaking was the hobby that defined the early iPhone years: removing Apple's software limits to install themes, tweaks and apps from outside the App Store. Here is what it really meant, in plain words. […]

In January 2012 Absinthe brought the first untethered jailbreak to the iPhone 4S and iPad 2. We look back at why it took so long, who built it and what it meant for A5 devices. […]

When Apple released iOS 5.1 in March 2012, the iPhone Dev Team answered within days with a tethered jailbreak in redsn0w. Here is what that meant, and why tethered was a word people dreaded. […]

The third-generation iPad launched in March 2012 with a Retina display and an A5X chip. Our old progress page followed every rumour; here is how the race actually ended. […]

In June 2013 a designer imagined Cydia redrawn in the flat style of iOS 7. The concept never shipped, but the question it raised, should a rebel store look like Apple, kept coming back. […]

In June 2013 Apple shipped the second developer beta of iOS 7. Back then betas were for paying developers only. Here is how the system worked then, and how anyone can test iOS releases now. […]

In June 2013 the web was full of iPhone 6 rumours: plastic shells, eye tracking, smart batteries. The real iPhone 6 arrived in September 2014. Here is how the guesses compared with reality. […]