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Straight on the heels of last week’s iPhone OS 3.1.3 update from Apple, The iPhone Dev Team hackers have released an updated Pwnage Tool to jailbreak the new release. But, there are a few catches.
According to 9to5 Mac, the Justice League of iPhone hackers -- you know, the collective known as The iPhone Dev Team -- have made available Pwnage Tool 3.1.5, which adds the ability to jailbreak the latest iPhone OS 3.1.3. But unlike previous versions, the Dev Team is actually encouraging most users not to update this time.
“iPhone 3G and 3GS unlockers should always be very wary to update their firmware,” the Dev Team blog warns. “This is no exception. If you make a mistake along the way you may find yourself updating to official 3.1.3 in which case you will lose your unlock, possibly forever.”
The reason for the warning is that iPhone OS 3.1.3 is such a minor update, with an improvement in the reporting of battery use percentage on the iPhone 3GS being touted as the biggest “new feature.” The problem is that Apple is now signing all firmware updates via iTunes, and shortly after iPhone OS 3.1.3 was made available, Cupertino began denying users the ability to install OS 3.1.2 on their devices.
If you’ve previously jailbroken your device and opened the Cydia program, you have a bit less to fear about the ability to go backwards, thanks to the app’s ability to grab “SHSH hashes” from your iPhone, which get around Apple’s draconian signing of the firmware.
“iPhone 3GS users (regardless of unlock) should stay away from this and all 3.1.3 jailbreak tools unless you know you have your ‘SHSH hashes’ backed up via Cydia,” the team writes. “That’s because if you make a mistake you may find yourself stuck at official 3.1.3 with no way to jailbreak or come back down to 3.1.2 to jailbreak.
“If you really truly feel that you need to update, this version creates a custom 3.1.3 IPSW for you to restore to on your iPhone 2G, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS with early bootrom, iPod touch 1G, and iPod touch 2G with early bootrom. If you don’t know if you have an early bootrom or not, please avoid updating until you learn more.”
Sounds to us like it’s not worth the trouble -- for now there aren’t any App Store apps requiring OS 3.1.3, so if you enjoy the extra capabilities of your jailbroken device, we’d stay at OS 3.1.2 for now. The more adventurous among you can hit up the Dev Team blog and download Pwnage Tool 3.1.5 absolutely free… but don’t say we didn’t warn you, m’kay?
(Image courtesy of 9to5Mac.com)