Apple released iOS 5.0.1 this week and there’s already a way to jailbreak it. But there are a few things to keep in mind before you jailbreak your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad.

Some Quick Notes before jailbreaking:

• This is a tethered jailbreak, which means you’ll need to connect your device to a computer and run the software again anytime you need to reboot.
• You might not want to update to iOS 5.0.1 at all if you’re holding out hope for an untethered jailbreak. An exploit was discovered in iOS 5.0 which may be used in a future untethered jailbreak tool, but if you update now there’s no good way to roll back to iOS 5.0 so you may not be able to use the new tools once their available.
• There’s currently no public jailbreak for an iPhone 4S or iPad 2. MuscleNerd revealed that he has successfully jailbroken the devices but needs to work to package the jailbreak for a public release.
• The process is a bit more complex if you have a carrier unlocked device. You may want to wait to make sure that ultrasn0w is updated to support iOS 5.0.1 and you’ll need to preserve your older baseband before upgrading to iOS 5.0.1.

Finally, for now performing a tethered jailbreak requires you to manually select an older IPSW file. If you used iTunes to update your device to iOS 5 you should still have the correct IPSW on your computer. If not, you can download the iOS 5.0 IPSW for your device from the following links:

• iPhone 4 (GSM)
• iPhone 4 (CDMA)
• iPhone 3GS
• iPod Touch 3rd generation
• iPod Touch 4th generation
• iPad

Alright, if you’ve read the notes carefully and you would still like to jailbreak, here’s how you can do so after updating it to iOS 5.0.1.

1. Make sure you’re running iTunes 10.5 or higher for Windows or Mac. ( It’s probably a good idea to use iTunes to backup your device before you get started as well)
2. Make sure you’re running iOS 5.0.1 on your device. You can do this by connecting to iTunes and following the prompts to update your software, or by going into the settings on a iOS 5.0 device, choosing General, and then tapping the Software Update option to check for updates.
3. Download Redsn0w 0.9.9b8 or higher for Windows or Mac from the iPhone Dev Team.
4. Unzip redsn0w to a folder on your computer, open that folder, and run redsn0w. In Windows you do this by double-clicking the redsn0w.exe file.
5. Choose the “Extras” option from the main menu.
6. From the following screen hit the “Select IPSW” option and navigate to the folder where you’ve stored your iOS 5.0 IPSW file. Future versions of redsn0w may make this step unnecessary.
7. Click OK to dismiss the message.
8. Click Back to return to the main menu.
9. Make sure your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad is turned of (press and hold the power button until the “slide to power off” image appears on the screen, and then slide your finger across to turn off your device).
10. Select the Jailbreak button to start the jailbreak process.
11. A message will appear letting you know that the kernel is being patch.
12. Select your options from the following screen. At the very least you’ll probably want to install the Cydia store.
13. Hit the Next button.
14. Hit the Next button again and then follow the on-screen instructions to enter DFU mode. In case you miss them, here’s what you need to do. While your device is turned off and connected to your computer:
    • Press and hold the power button for 3 seconds.
    • Without lifting your finger from the power button, press and hold the home button for 10 seconds.
    • Release the power button, but not the home button. Continue to hold that one for another 15 seconds.
15. That’s almost it. Redsn0w should do the rest for you and apply the jailbreak. But you’re not quite done yet, because you still need to perform your first tethered boot.
16. Go back to the Redsn0w main screen, select the Extras option, and click “Just boot” and follow the on-screen instructions.” (You may also want to select “Choose IPSW” again first and select your iOS 5.0 IPSW file. Redsn0w didn’t recognize my build the first time I tried booting without taking that step).

Voila! Now you’re done! You should see the Cydia icon on your home screen.

If you ever need to reboot your device, you’ll need to connect your device to your computer and run Redsn0w’s “just boot” utility again. Otherwise you will be unable to boot at all. Alternately, you could install a jailbreak tweak called SemiTether from the Cydia Store. It will allow you to reboot your device and use your phone without tethering — but you will not have access to most of the device’s functions, so it’s a temporary fix at best.

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