You’ll be pleased to know that one member of the Chronic Dev Team is responsible for this, and it is specifically Pod2g that you should thank for the discovery. He hasn’t made the untethered iOS 5.0.1 jailbreak available to download publicly yet, but he has provided a video showing that it does actually work.

He has also informed all users with a jailbroken handset that they can now safely update to iOS 5.0.1, as a download will be coming sooner rather than later. Currently, there is no exact ETA on when the download will be available, but it’s a good idea to keep an eye on Pod2g’s personal Twitter account here to keep yourself in the loop.

Some important details to be aware of, as we can confirm that the untethered jailbreak on iOS 5 is only for A4-supported devices only, applying to the likes of the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPod Touch 4G and the iPad. That means that for the time being, this will not support newer Apple devices such as the iPhone 4S or the iPad 2, but let’s hope that changes in the future.

With the untethered jailbreak at users disposal, it will now mean that their handset remains in a jailbroken state whenever the device is rebooted or runs out of battery. At the moment, iOS 5 users need to connect their device to a computer every time to gain full jailbreak functionality, but this will no longer be the case once the Chronic Dev Team release it. We’re guessing that the release will coincide with the release of Apple’s official iOS 5.1 update which is now in beta.

Just like the battery life issue, a lengthy discussion thread has been gathering attention on the official Apple boards, and it appears that this is a problem that even started when the iPhone 4S went on sale in October, as reported from Apple Insider. What’s worse is that users who have the Sprint or Verizon iPhone 4S are also getting SIM errors, despite the fact that both networks run on the CDMA network, as opposed to AT&T which is GSM-based and their SIM card is fitted inside the MicroSIM slot on the 4S.

Obviously this is a frustrating issue for users, as it means that they cannot use the primary functions of the phone, such as making calls, sending text messages and using 3G data. A lot of users are reporting this issue after installing iOS 5.0.1, but it could have been a less widespread issue on iOS 5 as well. With this in mind, could this be a design flaw of the iPhone 4S related to hardware, or is it purely software based? Users will be hoping it is the latter of course as it means that Apple can then investigate and provide a software update in iOS 5.1 if needed.

One temporary workaround at the moment if you are having this problem is to reboot your phone and try again, as simply taking the SIM card out and reinserting doesn’t appear to work. If you have experienced this problem on your iPhone 4S, get in touch with us. Have you found a fix to the problem, or is it an issue that is starting to happen more frequently?

The update was originally released to fix bugs that were affecting battery life according to Apple, now an article over at ZDnet is reporting that many users now have issues that previously didn’t exist. The Apple support forums have many users complaining of battery life issues, although there are some who say it is now fixed for them.

The author of the article is reporting about his experience after updating his iPhone 4, and it has suffered ever since. Before installing the software the battery life was quite normal for a smartphone, even quite good going over a day without a recharge following heavy usage. Even with iOS 5 the battery life was still good, until iOS 5.0.1 was installed and it all changed.

It was noticed that the handsets battery life would disappear overnight even if nothing was running. Normally the battery life would fall about four percentage points during the night, but after installing the latest update this went up to around fifteen. This continued to happen as well as going faster than normal under normal usage.

This is all happening on an older iPhone and not the iPhone 4S that was first to be reported to be suffering from the problem. It is obvious this is a software issue and makes you wonder if Apple rushed out the update without fully fixing the problem.

Have you noticed a worsening battery life on your iPhone?

Unfortunately, it isn’t the untethered jailbreak option that most of you are looking for, but it is a way of gaining access to the Cydia store on iOS 5.0.1 if that’s what you’re after. Redsn0w 0.9.9b5 is what you need to download, and if you are new to the jaibreaking game, you should head to RedmondPie for the download links and instructions.

Before you go ahead and try this out, be warned that this will not work on the iPhone 4S or the iPad 2. It will work however on devices like the iPhone 4 and iPod Touch 4, but as we mentioned above you’ll need to connect your device to redsn0w on your computer each time you reboot since it is only a tethered jailbreak at the moment.

On a side note, those of you who are really desperate for an untethered jailbreak on iOS 5.0.1 may want to try the ‘Semi Tether’ patch that is available as well, allowing you to boot up your device in a jailbroken state, but with limited features enabled only. If this interests you, you’ll find the instructions over at Redmond Pie as well.

As we told you earlier on in the week, there still seems to be a battery life issue for many users, as Apple has now come out and stated that they are still ‘investigating’ battery life issues on iOS 5.0.1. If you have updated to the latest version, you’ll know that a supposed battery life fix had been issued, but as you can see plenty of frustrated users are still complaining.

Have you already jailbroken your device on iOS 5? If so, what benefits can you list for other users?

Sadly our iPhone didn’t receive any notifications telling us that a new update was available, however we went into Settings, General, Software Update and saw that an update was available. The update is 55MB in size and is the beta version of iOS 5.0.1, as we explained yesterday it consists of many bug fixes and improvements.

To install the update you need to be connected to a WiFi hotspot, which is a shame considering how fast some cellphone networks are these days, however it does at least ensure that you don’t accidentally install the update over a connection which you will get charged a lot for. Below we have embedded three images which show the first three steps of the update procedure – its really straight forward.

Simply tap “Download and Install”, agree to the terms and conditions, ensure that you have plenty of charge (or plug in a charger) and tap “OK” and then wait for the download to complete (it took me less than 3 minutes). Once all the files have been downloaded you will receive a notification which tells you a restart is required to finish the update – agree to this and your iDevice will reboot and carry out the final steps of the installation, this took me less than 5 minutes.

Once your iDevice is back on you will not notice anything different initially, but we are told that we should expect much better battery life in the long run. You can check to see if the update installed correctly by going into Settings, General, About or Settings, General, Software Update – here you should clearly see that your device is running iOS 5.0.1 (see images at the bottom of this post).

It is nice to see that Apple’s new update procedure has been implemented in such a simple and effective manner, let’s face it using iTunes on your PC / Mac to update a portable device seems a bit archaic for such an innovative company – we just think that consumers should be able to choose to install the update via their carriers mobile data network – do you?

Did you experiencing any problems installing iOS 5.0.1 over-the-air?

According to Apple, fixing up battery life problems with iOS 5 is their biggest priority, and if you have already updated to iOS 5.0.1, you’ll see that it was first on Apple’s checklist, with other fixes including adding multitasking gestures for original iPad, resolving bugs with Documents in the Cloud and improving voice recognition for Australian users using dictation.

As many of you are pointing out, the release of iOS 5.0.1 is also a landmark moment for iOS users as it is the very first time that you can update your device OTA, with users no longer having to connect cables to iTunes as before. We have already updated and we can tell you that the whole process took under 10 minutes to fully complete and install. Apple advises you to connect your iPhone to a wall charger, but we didn’t and found that it only zapped 3% of life to update – so again, this is pleasing for those who don’t have a charger handy.

So, after hundreds of complaints about battery life on the official Apple boards, have you experienced an increase in overall usage, or is it too early to tell at the moment? Once you have updated to iOS 5.0.1, be sure to leave a comment with your overall impressions so that other users can read the feedback. We know some of you have been having battery life issues on the iPhone 4 too, not just the 4S so if this applies to you, let us know how your iPhone 4 is handling after performing the OTA update.

You can get the update now via iTunes and according to AppleInsider it will also be made available for an over the air update. The update will now fix the battery life problems, and owners of the original iPad will now have multi-touch gestures for multitasking. It will also improve voice recognition for Australian users and resolves issues with Documents in the Cloud.

The developer community was provided with two betas of iOS 5.0.1 by Apple, with both of them coming shortly after each other last week. Apple moved pretty quickly to fix the problems regarding battery life, which affected owners of older iPhone models to iOS 5 along with owners of the new iPhone 4S. Publicly Apple said the issue only affected a few owners.

Besides the features listed, pre-release builds of iOS 5 had two more developer centric updates available in the new version of the mobile OS. These included enhancements with security along with a new way for developers to specify files that are to remain on a device, even with low storage situations.

We reported before that Apple was contacting customers to try and solve issues with the battery life, with some installing special apps to track usage and provide feedback to Apple. Have you downloaded the update yet? Lets us know how it went.

We think that iOS 5.0 brought plenty of new features to the iDevices, therefore we are not looking for new ones. Instead we are looking for fixes, UI tweaks and other general improvements, however before we get started here is a breakdown of what the iOS 5.0.1 beta is said to address:

Fixes bugs affecting battery life
Adds Multitasking Gestures for original iPad
Resolves bugs with Documents in the Cloud
Improves voice recognition for Australian users using dictation
Contains security improvements
iOS 5.0.1 beta introduces a new way for developers to specify files that should remain on device, even in low storage situations.

Obviously it is nice to see that voice recognition, security and battery-related issues are being addressed, also original iPad owners will happy see the addition of multitasking gestures, but we are sure our readers will have more ideas as to how Apple can improve its mobile platform.

One problem which we would love to see resolved was initially reported by 9to5Mac, basically there is a major flaw where someone can unlock the iPad 2 running iOS 5.0 using the device’s smart cover and without having to enter a password. This exploit does not give the user full access to the iPad, but it is security vulnerability none-the-less.

As you can see Apple has admitted that Siri’s Australian voice recognition is not up to scratch, but we think Siri on the whole could do with a substantial update. This could improve speech recognition in other regions across the world and allow UK consumers (and others) to take advantage of Siri’s navigation-related features in the same-way US iPhone 4S owners can.

These are just a couple of quick ideas we had, but hopefully you guys have ideas which you want to share with us, if so leave us a comment below with your iOS 5.0.1 change list suggestions.