iOS 6 and 6.1 jailbreaking tool evasi0n has become the most quickly-adopted hacking tool for iPhones, iPads and iPod touch. The tool was the first jailbreaking software released for the iPhone 5 and iOS 6.1.
The tool, which was released earlier this week, has been used on nearly seven million iOS devices since its launch, a Forbes report says. Users can break through Apple’s restrictions on their devices using evasi0n.
Jay Freeman, the administrator of the Cydia app store catering to jailbroken devices, said that as of Thursday night, his alternative app store had received visits from 5.15 million iPhones, 1.35 million iPads and 400,000 iPod touches that were cracked using evasi0n.
Though Freeman does not have exact figures for the adoption of previous jailbreaks tools, he told Forbes that evasi0n brought Cydia “insanely more new traffic” as compared to other popular tools like Absinthe and Jailbreakme3, both of which worked on some iOS 5 devices.
The iPhone 5 has been jailbroken
Apple sold 136 million phones in 2012, according to the latest figures from analyst firm Canalys and remains one of the top two phone manufacturers in the world with Samsung. Android’s popularity could be one of the reasons for the quick adoption of the latest jailbreaking hack. Android allows users to change their phone’s appearance with new themes and icons, and also allows side-loading of apps that are not in the market. Cydia, the store which can only be accessed by jailbroken devices, remains the one beacon of hope for iFans hoping to replicate the Android experience.
The report says, “When evasi0n finally appeared–the work of four hackers who call themselves the evad3rs–it exploited five distinct new bugs to dissassemble Apple’s defenses against modifications to the operating system, making it the most elaborate jailbreak yet.”
Freeman believes that evasi0n’s popularity also comes down to the fact that the new iPhones and iPads remain far too tightly locked down by Apple. Users, who want the ability to download apps that the company has not allowed in its iTunes App Store or those wishing to customise their phone’s appearance, have been using evasi0n. “Smart phones have become more and more popular, but they’ve maintained a closed experience that makes it difficult for people to get what they want,” he said. “Therefore people have needed to turn to jailbreaking to fill the gap.”
Another factor for the popularity of evasi0n is that iOS 6 and 6.1 took the longest to be jailbroken. Naturally, fans succumbed to the intense anticipation for the jailbreak for iPhone 5 and adopted it in double quick time. The Forbes report says, “It took hackers 136 days to crack iOS 6.1, compared to just 98 days for the iPhone 4S, 38 days for the iPhone 4, and just 14 days for the iPhone 3GS.”
“That’s what made this such a landmark jailbreak,” Freeman said. “It had been so long and we were all so hungry for it.”