Would you dare to jailbreak your Apple iOS 9 device?

Jailbreaking the Apple iOS 9 platform is deliberately not easy. In fact it’s the Twin Towers tightrope walk of jailbreaking in that you have to be either very brave or very determined to break it because it apparently runs a security system dubbed ‘rootless’ and it’s designed to seek out malware, therefore most all attempts to jailbreak it get recognized and promptly stopped.

But now a hacking team from China called Pangu have found a way to jailbreak the iOS 9 platform and prior to this platforms iOS 7.1 to 8.1. But it’s their latest coup that has created a storm of controversy amongst the jailbreaking community, not least because there may well be some industry jealousy that they got there first.

The Pangu jailbreak consists of a Windows software package that allows for what is known as an “untethered” jailbreak. This means your device does not need to be plugged into your computer to run. The jailbreak reportedly works on iPhones, iPads and iPod touch devices running iOS 9 through 9.0.2.

Pangu claim they can jailbreak phones including the iPhone 4s, 5/5c/5s, 6/6 Plus, and 6s/6s Plus as well as the iPad 2, 3 and 4, iPad Air/Air 2, iPad mini, iPad mini 2/3/4, and the 5th and 6th generations of the iPod touch – a long list of both current and older devices.

Once jailbroken, users can install a framework known as Cydia that enables the user to install unofficial packages that can enable your device to run apps or make changes to the iOS operating system which it would otherwise prevent.

About Pangu

Pangu is a team of dedicated cellphone jailbreakers based in China. Working with sponsorship, their first untethered jailbreak tool was Pangu 7, introduced in June 2014. Some of their success has been achieved by Apple users passing on to the expired enterprise certificates to assist them in developing the software. Pangu 7 and 8 has been downloaded by many millions of users around the world, and they have big expectations for Pangu 9. The software developers are currently releasing the Pangu download for free and even sharing details of the tools they are using. This certainly flies in the face of the Apple philosophy to premium price everything they offer.

Should you risk jailbreaking your phone with Pangu?

Well, industry insiders have been quick to be pretty scathing of Pangu’s achievements, claiming that first of all, the jailbreak will void your End User License agreement so that you will receive no further assistance from Apple when things go wrong.

Furthermore, it is claimed that many of the apps which can be installed once your phone is jailbroken still require several tweaks and elimination of bugs before they are ready. But no doubt some brave souls will want to beta test the new jailbreak that Pangu has created.

Meanwhile Apple have been quick to point out that malware such as Keyraider, which affected some 225,000 phones, was aimed specifically at those that had jailbroken their phones. The Keyraider malware attempts to steal account names, passwords, device IDs and more.

There is also a possibility that your phone could experience what is known as the Boot Loop of Death. This is not a new phenomenon, it frequently happens to Playstations when user try to play pirated video games.

In the case of Apple iPhones, the Boot Loop of Death (BLoD) occurs when the phone repeatedly blue screens far more than the three or four times that is normal while installing the Pangu software.

That said it is fixable by restoring your iOS device and does not in any way damage your iOS device beyond a restore. Also, Pangu team does advise you to back-up your phone prior to install in case of problems, even though they state that their jailbreak software is stable, simple and fast.

Want to give it a go? Here’s the Pangu website.
Or start by taking a look at this tutorial from our friend from TheUnlockr.