On Monday we reported that Stefan Esser’s unreleased jailbreak still works with iOS 5.1.1, and was photographed running on the third generation iPad. We were uncertain whether Pod2g’s large collection of exploits were affected by Apple’s recent firmware update. It seems we are going to have our answer soon. Pod2g just tweeted that he has the 3rd generation iPad running iOS 5.1 untethered, and after he’s finished cleaning up the payload he will try for iOS 5.1.1.

One step closer to a public jailbreak for the iPad 3...

If Pod2g has a working jailbreak, that doesn’t mean it’s ready for release. A recent post from Joshua Hill (@p0sixninja) stated that Pod2g’s jailbreak method would require 2 additional exploits to avoid legal hurdles before it can actually be released, to avoid infringing on code protected by copyright.

Pod2g himself admitted in late April that he had no clue when the iOS 5.1 jailbreak would be released, but provided a rough estimate of 1-2 months. It’s only been a little over two weeks since the announcement, and if iOS 5.1.1 does patch some (or all) of the 7 or so exploits Pod2g’s jailbreak relies on, the a release for that firmware could take much longer.

Luckily the need to jailbreak iOS 5.1/5.1.1 won’t be as urgent for newer devices such as the iPhone 4S in the coming weeks. MuscleNerd announced that the next version of RedSn0w will be able to downgrade A5 and A5X devices, while iOS 5.1 (and 5.1.1) provide few benefits over iOS 5.0.

If Pod2g is unable to jailbreak iOS 5.1.1, should the jailbreak for iOS 5.1 be released anyway? After all, by then we would be able to downgrade newer devices anyway. Let us know what you think in the comments section below.