There has been a lot of heated discussion on the topic of Apple’s iOS 8 operating system. Since it was first released, customers complained that the OS has a lot of glitches and bugs. According to statistics, only 56% of Apple clients have upgraded to the 8.0 version of the OS, and over 40% of devices remain on iOS 7. The good news is that iOS 8.1 was recently released, and it provides with significantly better functionality.
We have already tackled the importance of upgrading to iOS 8.1 in a previous article. The conclusion was that the iOS gets more advanced every year and by not upgrading it you are missing out on a lot of nifty features.
According to recent news, the company actually rolled out the iOS 8.1.1 update on Monday for iPhones iPods and iPads. A word of advice for those with Pangu8 jailbreak in mind: stay away from this update as it will bug your device.
Today we would like to tackle the subject of jailbreaking for iOS 8.0 and 8.1 devices. But first, what does jailbreaking mean?
Jailbreaking is the process of circumventing Apple’s security measures in iOS to install tweaks, hacks, and mods that aren’t allowed in the App Store. The U.S. Library of Congress has ruled that it is now illegal for you to unlock your smartphone if it was bought after January 26th, 2013.
Not everyone can afford to purchase all of Apple’s apps. This is where jailbreaking becomes useful. We have prepared for you an extensive tutorial that will help you jailbreak iPhones and iPads. As a disclaimer, we would like to mention that jailbreaking your device will void your warranty. You can easily restore your phone to its previous settings by uninstalling everything with iTunes. So if you decide that you want to go back to the non-jailbreak state of your phone, you can do that quickly.
For those of you who are prepared to take the risks –waking up with a 500$ doorstop- here is a great tutorial that will help you jailbreak your device.
Getting Started
You will obviously need an iOS device (anything that runs on iOS 8 or 8.1 will be perfect – this includes iPhone 6, 6 Plus, iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3), and a Windows/Linux computer. At the moment, there is no naitive Mac jailbreak tool for iOS 8. The first thing you have to do is to install iTunes on your computer. If you don’t have it you can simply download it from the official page of Apple. Next, you must plug-in your iOS device and make sure that iTunes recognizes it.
What You’ll Need:
- Lates version of Pangu software
- Latest version of iTunes
Before you start, you should create a back-up of your iPhone/iPad, just to be safe. Although the process differs from that of iOS7, the steps are relatively easy to follow and safe. Backing up or restoring to factory settings will also remove unwanted apps that might disrupt your jailbreaking process.
Once you have completed all these steps you are ready to jail-break your iOS 8 device. The Pangu team is relatively new to the jailbreaking scene, but it has successfully managed to create a tool that will help users jailbreak their untethered iPhone 6, 6 plus, 5c, 5s, 5, 4s, all iPads and the iPod touch 5. At first, they created a tool in Chinese, available only on Windows which did not include Cydia. Saurik updated it Cydia for iOS8 but it required manual installation.
Finally, the 1.1.0 version of Pangu was released. It includes English language and bundled Cydia. Hop on over to Pangu’s official website, and hit the ‘download’ button for the software’s latest system. If you already have a device that was jailbroken with Pangu8, you have to update to the latest untether package (more on this subject later in the article).
Jailbreaking your iOS 8.0 – 8.1 Device
You are now ready to begin the jailbreaking software.
- Once you have downloaded Pangu8 from the official website you have to track down your file and ‘run as administrator’. If you downloaded the latest version you should see instructions in English.
- Wait several minutes for Pangu8 to recognize your device and click on “Start Jailbreak” – the blue button in the middle. Right now, all you can do is to sit tightly, grab a cup of coffee and wait. It will probably take a few minutes for the process to complete.
- If the tool stops without jailbreaking, your button will become blue again and you have to try again. Assuming that everything worked well, your iDevice will reboot.
- You will be taken through Apple’s initial setup. Upon rebooting you should see the following message:
- Once you are in your menu again you have to track down your Pangu app icon (as displayed in the image below). Open it and click on “Install Cydia”. Cydia is basically an app store for jailbreak iPhone tweaks.
- After you hit install, and the software is finished with the process, you will be prompted that the device will ‘respring’ (a respring is a soft reboot). Upon rebooting you will see the Cydia icon on your home screen.
- Click on it and let it do what it has to do (it will probably display the message “preparing filesystem” for several minutes). After it finishes, open Cydia again and you are ready to go.
That’s it! You have successfully managed to jailbreak your iPhone device.
You will now be able to install third-party applications, themes, utilities, mods and tweaks that are usually not authorized by Apple. In other words, you will be able to improve and enhance your device beyond the limitations of what Apple allows. Although jailbreaking is not illegal, it will violate the End User License Agreement (EULA), and your warranty will become void.
How to Un-jailbreak your iO8 Device
Let’s say you decide that jailbreaking isn’t for you after all. What can you do? It’s actually quite simple. The following steps should help you restore the device to its previous settings:
- Connect your Apple device to iTunes (on a Mac or Windows).
- Cancel any auto-syncing, if it starts.
- Hold your home button and power/sleep buttons pressed at the same time.
- Wait 10 seconds like this, then continue pressing the power/sleep button for 5 seconds. After that, you can let go of the phone.
- If you respected steps 3 and 4, the device of the screen should go black and iTunes will give you an option to restore it.
- Follow the steps on iTunes to download the latest version of iOS for your device.
.7. Restore your back-up.
iOS 8 and Above Jailbreak iPhone Tweaks and Apps
Since the iOS 8.1 update rolled-out Apple users have been asking themselves if there is any point in jailbreaking anymore. The truth is that Apple has added many interesting features that were not previously available on iPhones and iPads. Nevertheless, there are still several tweaks and apps that you should definitely consider using on a jailbroken phone. Here are a some of them:
- HideMe8
For those of you who want to get rid of several iOS 8 interface elements, HideMe8 is the perfect tool. With it you can customize many things such as badges, apps, date text etc. You can also modify screen elements, the Control Center and many more. HideMe8 is one of the most advance customization tools for jailbroken devices.
More About HideMe8: click here
- F.lux
Another app that you might enjoy is F.lux. This nifty tool has been around since iOS 7 and it works perfectly well on iOS 8 as well. What it does is adjust your lighting for night and day. iOS devices change screen temperature based on time of day (it’s warmer at night to make it easier to read).
“Each evenining at sunset, f.lux warms up the colors of your phone. At dawn, F.lux returns your phone to daylight colors.
More info about F.lux: click here
- MyWi
MyWi quickly adds tethering for your iOS device irrespective of whether or not you are paying for it through your carrier. The app costs 20 dollars, but considering that most carriers charge twice as much monthly, it is well worth its price.
More info about MyWi: click here
- iFile
If you’ve ever used Android devices you are probably already familiar with EsFileExplorer. iFile is siminar to it. This file manager for iOS will enable you to view files, unzip them, edit text files, import music and many more. It’s a lot more than what it seems at a glance.
More info about iFile: click here
- Netflix ++
Netflix++ is one of the best movie streaming services out there. With Netflix++ you can view trailers for your favorite movies before viewing it. This will make browsing for great movies a lot easier.
More info about Netflix ++: click here
- Winterboard
Winterboard is without a doubt one of the best ways to customize the look of a iOS device. The problem is that there is not a stable iOS 8 version of it yet (it will be released shortly). Among the customization features we will mention adding personalized images, themes, icons and more. To install it you have to open Cydia and download the app. Restart your phone and download a theme of your choosing.
If it is given to you in a .theme folder you will have to install an iPhone explorer and copy it in your computer (/library/themes). Open your Winterboard app, tap select themes and play around with the appearance of your phone.
- Activator
This is one of the most cherished tweaks for jailbreak iphones. With it you can assign custom actions and gestures to your swipes. For example, if you want to automatically open an app you can assign a gesture to it. There is no limit to what this tool can do for you.
More info about Activator: click here
- Slide2Kill8
Another tweak that you might enjoy is Slide2Kill8. It makes closing and managing apps as simple as swiping the screen. Everybody knows that multiple apps are app killers, but Slide2Kill8 will help you manage them easily.
More info about Slide2Kill8: click here
Other interesting iOS8 Jailbreak iPhone apps/tweaks: Aeternum, Asos, CyDelete8, Dotter, Instagram++, NoLiveClock, SendDelay, TransparentVolume8, Apex2, Aria, Backuplt, Bridge, InstaLauncher, NC Customizer, PdaNet, SleekPhone, Snapper, TetherStatus, UIRotation8, Protube HD.
With this we will conclude the Jailbreak tutorial for iOS8 Devices on Windows. There is a special tutorial for Mac users, to run a virtual Windows install. Whatever you do, make sure that you have a back-up available for your device. Although there have been very few cases of bugs reported, you don’t want to lose all of your data for nothing. For further questions feel free to contact us!
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