iOS 7 Jailbreak Update: Race to Match Evasi0n Jailbreak Works of Team Evad3rs Spurred Further by $1000+ Pot Prize
Already a few months into circulation yet millions of iPhone and iPad users still yearn for freedom from iOS 7, preferably coming from Team Evad3rs' legit and highly popular Evasi0n iOS 7 jailbreak.
So to speed things up and make the work more interesting, the Device Freedom Prize came into being. Backed by a group that is largely composed by tech activists, the movement dangles a pot incentive of $1117, Gotta Be Mobile said in a report.
The amount, according to Chris Maury, one of the group leaders, is "a crowdfunded reward for the first developer(s) who release an open source iOS 7 jailbreak."
Potentially, the pot money could go higher as donations are still accepted by the Device Freedom Prize. Developers are given 18 months to come up with an iOS 7 jailbreak that obviously should match the quality of works already displayed by Team Evad3rs.
GBM noted too on its report that the Evasi0in jailbreak is well qualified to claim the pot money, that is if team members would want to. In such case, then the prominent iOS jailbreakers clearly have the edge as earlier reports indicate that an unlocking tool for iPhones and iPads should be coming out either in late January or early February 2014.
Jailbreak watchers are convinced that shortly after Apple has dispatched the official iOS 7.1 update, Team Evad3rs would press the release button for its iOS 7 jailbreak. Waiting time should be over in a matter of weeks starting in late January.
However, the Evasi0n jailbreak may want to incorporate one major requirement that the Device Freedom Prize has explicitly stipulated: the untethered jailbreak must support accessibility features that would allow the visually and physically challenged to still enjoy fair amounts of control on their iOS devices.
The iOS 7 unlocker should make the iPhones and iPads equally enjoyable and productive for the blind and those with physical disabilities, Maury said.
"Two examples of how the disabled can benefit from full control of their devices: those with motor disabilities can change the default gestures to make apps easier to navigate. Those with vision issues can adjusting the hue of the display to reduce eye-strain using apps like f.lux . There are myriad other examples for the long tail of disabilities," the tech activist told GBM.
Another group member, Elizabeth Stark, stressed too that open source jailbreaks must benefit all users.
"An open source jailbreak provides users the capability to install what they want on their own devices, the ability to audit the code they're using to do so, and enables disabled users to more easily use their devices," Stark wrote in a blog posted at BoingBoing.net.
Meantime, the wait continues for any of the Evad3rs to provide updates on their works so far. The group has been generally silent on the matter and the only assurance lately is the declaration from iH8Snow that at least a new iOS 6x jailbreak is touching down this Christmas season.
This is good news for many iPhone and iPad users who would want to ditch iOS 7 as soon as possible. At the moment, the downgrade fix available to users applies only for iOS devices powered by A4-series processing chips.
Team Evad3rs, for its part, seems to indicate that the Evasi0n iOS 7 jailbreak is coming earlier, at least when compared to the iOS 6 unlocker, which the jailbreak community first tasted some five months after Apple has released iOS 6.