The world of jailbreaking hasn't been particularly easy to follow in recent months and the last relatively simple tool release that worked with a current, signable version of iOS was Pangu's jailbreak for iOS 9.2-9.3.3 all the way back in July 2016. The recent escapades of @qwertyoruiopz aka Luca Todesco have been valiant, but one thing's for sure - iOS 10 is a tough nut to crack.
His Yalu jailbreak has divided opinion. It worked, albeit with the iOS 10.1.1 version only on newer devices back to the iPhone 6S series, iPad Pro and 12.9-inch iPad Pro, and the now released iOS 10.2 jailbreak, which isn't compatible with the iPhone 7-series. However, it has remained in a beta stage, meaning it's not 100% stable.
As a result, many people that own iOS devices that are jailbroken using the older Pangu tool, have stuck with their old versions of iOS, just to keep the jailbreak and not risk updating to a potentially unstable jailbreak and having lost the ability to go back to iOs 9 and the Pangu tool.
A lot of people did take the plunge last year and updated to iOS 10 while they waited for Luca Todesco to release the jailbreak. The trouble is, the tools haven't been released in the usual fashion, which was with a week or two's window for Apple still signing the iOS versions that were jailbroken. As a result, it's likely far fewer people have managed or were willing to jailbreak their devices.
To rub salt into the wound, in an apparent snub at the jailbreaking community, who have been hounding Luca Todesco for weeks, the hacker has published the source code of his work for others to use, and announced that he would quit working on the iOS 10.2 jailbreak, meaning that it would be left in beta form and not compatible with the iPhone 7 or 7 Plus.
However, it's also likely that he was finding it difficult to A) move out of the beta stage and B) to get a working jailbreak for the iPhone 7-series on iOS 10.2, which is reportedly tricky to do. This all doesn't sound like particularly good news, especially for iPhone 7 owners.
There is some light at the end of the tunnel, though. Rumors are that other teams including Pangu, are working on iOS 10 jailbreaks, and Pangu's tools have usually, after a couple of days work, been much easier to use and more stable too, being released in a more polished form. There's also the chance that others may take on Luca's challenge of finishing off the jailbreak he started for iOS 10.2, or that Luca himself may continue working on it.
There are plenty of guides out there on how to use the jailbreak out there, but I'm refraining from doing a full guide as it's simply not stable enough. My hope is that another team will release one, maybe for iOS 10.2.1 that will be a better bet for those of us that use our phones on a daily basis and need a stable jailbreak. I'll report back when this happens, so in the meantime, be sure to follow me on Twitter or Facebook.
