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Hackers jailbreak iOS 5 in under 24 hours

Like clockwork

Like clockwork, hackers said they've removed the digital locks in the latest version of Apple's iOS so it will run applications not officially sanctioned by the company.

iOS 5 was unveiled on Monday, and a beta version was made available to a limited number of developers. Within hours, members of the iPhone Dev Team posted pictures that showed it had been jailbroken. They said the OS, which runs iPhones, iPod Touches and iPads, had been unlocked using “limera1n,” a technique devised by serial jailbreaker George “GeoHot” Hotz.

The jailbreak is of the tethered-boot variety, meaning jailbroken iDevices must be connected to a computer each time they reboot. There was no mention of an untethered jailbreak coming to the new OS.

Apple has said it plans to release iOS 5 to users in the fourth quarter of the year. That will give the company time to figure out how to close the jailbreaking hole – and for hackers to figure out ways to improve their current technique.

Thanks to the work of lawyers at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, iPhone jailbreaking is exempt from the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The same statute has been invoked in several high-stakes jailbreaking lawsuits involving Sony's PlayStation game console, which enjoys no such exemption. ®

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