iPad 2, iPhone 4S jailbreaks reach nearly 1 million in 3 days

The Absinthe A5 untethered jailbreak is all the rage these days - there was a combined total of nearly 1 million iPhone 4S’s and iPad 2s that the hack set free in the last three days. The majority of the jailbroken devices were iPhones - 491,325 units to be exact. The Dev Team providing the jailbreak was able to get all the data precise because when launching Cydia a query is made to @saurik’s servers asking for available SHSH blobs.

Here’s the breakdown per device:

491,325 new iPhone4,1 devices
308,967 new iPad2 devices
152,940 previously jailbroken (at 4.x) iPad2 devices


The grand total stood at 953,232 A5 jailbreaks in slightly more than 3 days.

The Absinthe A5 untethered jailbreak was finally released on Friday, months after the launch of the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S. It took so long because of specifics in the new A5 chip Apple used in both devices. The Absinthe tool was initially available on Mac only, but later it launched on Windows as well.

Rumor alert: iPad 3 may be announced in February, to ship in March

Here is a spicy rumor to start your day with: the Apple iPad 3 is expected to be announced in February, according to Japanese blog Macotakara. Supposedly, Apple has an event scheduled for early next month, at which both the next-gen iPad and iOS 5.1 will be showed off. How do they know? Well, the folks at the aforementioned blog claim that sources in both Asia and the U.S. have told them exactly that. They also state that the iPad 3, and its name is just a guess at this time, will be available for purchase in early March.

Now, this isn't the first time when Macotakara treats us to an Apple-related rumor. In fact, just days ago, they suggested that the first iPad 3 batches will be ready for shipping in early March. However, their previous predictions have been quite inaccurate, although they managed to nail a number of iPhone 4S specs back in May. Nevertheless, as the case is with all rumors, it would be wise to take this one with a dose of disbelief for now.

What is rumored about the next iPad iteration is that the device will come with a display of resolution higher than that of its predecessor. Seeing a quad-core A6 processor ticking under its hood is not out of the question either. Of course, whether any of these improvements will be in tow or not will become apparent once the iPad 3 gets officially announced.

iPad free falls from space, survives to tell the story

If you’re a case maker for iPads, you really have to make something unique to stand out in the market. G-Form, makers of the Extreme cases for iPads, have just taken unique to the next level by launching the iPad in space. Or at least if we take a very vague definition of space - a distance over 100,000 feet above our planet. The official definition is more than three times that but let’s not be formalists here.

An iPad clad only in a G-Form Extreme Edge case was elevated to that height and then it was left to free fall back to Earth. The outcome? Yep, it survived and worked as if nothing happened.

G-Form with their Extreme case have a track record of dropping, throwing and driving over iPads, and the tablet has survived in all of the circumstances. Would that be enough to protect it from a kid, though? Our bet is yes, but you let us know how it fares if you own one.