By Brian X. Chen
George Hotz, famously known as the first hacker to unlock the iPhone, says he’s done it again. The whiz kid on Thursday evening said he had cooked up a new hack for all iPhone OS devices, and he’s betting it will work on the iPad, too.
When the hack is released (Hotz won’t disclose a release date), it should be as simple to use as Blackra1n, Hotz’s one-click solution to jailbreak current iPhones, he said.
“It is completely untethered, works on all current tethered models (ipt2, 3gs, ipt3), and will probably work on iPad too,” Hotz said in his blog post.
It’s plausible to believe that an iPhone OS jailbreak will also work for the iPad. While the iPad will support apps that are exclusive to the device, its OS shares the same DNA as the iPhone’s.
Hackers use the term “jailbreaking” to describe the act of overriding the iPhone’s restrictions to install unauthorized software on the device. Jailbreaking is the first step an iPhone owner must take in order to later unlock the handset, enabling it to work with a SIM card from any carrier.
Wired.com in November 2009 profiled Hotz, along with the community of hackers persistently issuing jailbreaks and mods to fight against Apple’s tight control of its iPhone. The community also distributes unauthorized iPhone apps in a few underground app stores, the most popular of which is Cydia.
Hotz told Wired.com in a phone interview that he might release the hack when the iPad launches next week. But he said he would wait to see what the rest of the hacking community does first. He said he expects the Dev-Team, another group of iPhone hackers (that Hotz was formerly part of), to have figured out the same exploit.
“We’ll see what the rest of the scene does,” Hotz said. “Maybe I’ll release it [during the iPad launch].”
A video of the new iPhone jailbreak in action is below the jump.
Updated noon PT with a statement from Hotz.
