(Photo: evasi0n.com)

The iOS 6, 6.1 untethered jailbreak for iPhone 5/4S, iPad Mini, ATV2 and 18 other non-jailbroken devices is near completion. The official evad3rs website, evasi0n.com has just been updated with the following message.

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"75%: Linux version is still on the works. Private beta testing has started for OS X and Windows. Come back soon!"

The site, which just went up on Wednesday is the official location where the iOS 6, 6.1 untethered jailbreak will be made available, and it is safe to say it has already received some heavy traffic from those awaiting an official announcement.

Yesterday afternoon, the site went down for about an hour causing many to think perhaps this meant the jailbreak was on its way. Soon after it was restored. Plus, @planetbeing was found on Reddit explaining just what was going on.

"Think the cause is that the underlying server got DDoS'ed somehow. Someone's trying to reconfigure CloudFlare so that that won't take down the site in the future."

The site is now up again and is being updated at regular intervals.

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The presence of the site however, along with an accompanying set of ads has stirred up a bit of trouble on twitter as @i0n1c was found spreading his typical hate messages to anyone that would listen.

Breaking News: The @evad3rs iOS 6.x jailbreak leaked, here is the GUI twitter.com/AirForceSchizo…

— Stefan Esser (@i0n1c) February 1, 2013

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Of course there were some who chose to join in with @i0n1c's joke at the expense of the evad3rs, but there were also some notable members of the hacking community who spoke out against his claims. Once such being @mdowd, a security researcher who displayed a kind of possible jailbreak for iOS 6 at HITB Malaysia last October.

@i0n1c @evad3rs A JB is a huge amount of work, why shouldn't they accept contributions for it? — mdowd (@mdowd) February 1, 201

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Of course Esser had something to add to this, in hopes of poisoning the minds of those who have followed the developers throughout this journey to an iOS 6, 6.1 untethered jailbreak for iPhone 5/4S and other non-jailbroken devices.

"A donate button BEFORE a release is not free will - because the release only comes when enough people have donated."

This, indeed, was a low blow. If you visit the site yourself, you will find there is a contribute button, but it is located near the bottom of the page well below the download button. In fact, one would have to purposefully scroll down the page to find it as it is not seen from the area of the page containing the download button.

This however, seemed to be a breaking point for developers like @Planetbieng who have been a seminal part of every major jailbreak released to the public over the last five years.

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@planetbeing, Creator of the iOS 6, 6.1 untethered jailbreak

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On Reddit yesterday @planetbeing was found posting this message.

"I'm not really sure what he's trying to say. Sometimes he says we're fools for doing all that work to make other people money instead of just cashing in on it ourselves like he does. Other times, of course, he distorts what we sayto make it seem like we're hypocritical for taking money when we say that money is not the most important thing to us.

The fact of the matter is that he's right that we do work for months and mostly only end up making other people rich. The amount we have received from donations and Adsense in the past has not recovered the amount of time we spent at even minimum wage. (At least for me). Obviously we'd be idiots if we were doing this primarily for money, which is why we say we're not doing it for the money, but I don't see anything hypocritical about taking donations or putting up Adsense...

But yes, of course. Voluntarily come look at our site so we can cash in the ad money at no cost to you. We are so evil! My god, more than five years of my life, so many hours I'm too embarrassed to even count them, dropped out of college because of it, and I'm doing it for the money. How much money did I make over five years you ask? $20,000. God, I obviously should've just waited tables in my spare and not-so-spare time instead. Jesus Christ, Stefan, troll successful...And for the record, we're not expecting people to freaking canonize us. I do it because quite frankly, I'm addicted to the adrenaline rush of figuring out those exploits. Picking up a little extra money is nice, but I even make exploits for closed bugs just for the fun of it. I'm not martyring myself for the community or anything, but to make it sound like we're a commercial operation is just ludicrous."

After reading these comments and considering the things @i0n1 was putting out for public consumption I decided to consult @pod2g to find what his feeling was about the whole situation.

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@aaronaah, @pod2g, @planetbeing at HITB Malaysia, October 2012 (Photo: hitb.org)

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In terms of the accusation that the team would not release until a certain level of donations was reached his reply to me was

"No, that's false. We will release as soon as possible ..."

It was just after this, we saw the website change to reveal 75 percent of the work was complete with beta testing underway.

Moments later on twitter, @pod2g tweeted this message.

"Please people, don't trust evil theories that we are waiting to get enough money from ads or whatever to release evasi0n ...We're close to the release! Stay tuned!"

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Though there are likely people who will take all sides of this argument, in my opinion, for whatever it may be worth, this is an argument which should not even exist.

After all, is there anything in life that is free? Or is there any organization in the world that does not receive an income of some kind?

To make my point, think of all the non-profits out there in the world doing good things. Their work is possible because either

1.) they have written grants for funding, or

2.) they have done some kind of fundraisers or received some form of donations.

Love it or hate it, everything in this world costs something. We can't get away from this.

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The way I see it, what the evaders are doing is basically like a guy at a coffee shop playing the guitar. People enjoy the music and he in turn has tip jar set up. If you like, you are certainly welcome to leave a tip, however the obligation is not there -- and many will not feel obligated at all. I honestly can't say I've ever seen a coffee shop musician berated for having a tip jar available. I am really not sure how this is any different -- especially considering the cost of purchasing a URL, with a server that can support the massive flow of traffic that will hit that site once the jailbreak releases.

If a jailbreak was truly "free" in the sense that Esser claims it should be, it would actually be at the expense of the developers -- meaning money straight out of pocket, and frankly, that couldn't be sustained for long.

No matter how you want to look at it, money makes the world go round. Until the entire world returns to a form of bartering, I don't for see it changing anytime soon.

So basically where does this post leave us? One day closer to an iOS 6, 6.1 untethered jailbreak for iPhone 5/4s and multiple other non-jailbroken device!

Stay tuned. It won't be much longer now.

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To Read More About The iOS 6, 6.01, 6.0.2, 6.1 Untethered Jailbreak See:

IOS 6, 6.1 Untethered Jailbreak for iPhone 5/4S Release Date: Evasi0n Website Launched And Private Beta Testing to Begin Soon  

iOS 6, 6.1 Untethered Jailbreak for iPhone 5/4S Release Date: @MuscleNerd Confirms Supported Devices While Claiming An Exciting Week Ahead

Jailbreak iOS 6, 6.1 for iPhone 5/4S: Pod2g Interview Confirms Working Untethered and Reveals Two Leading Men Behind of 'Evad3rs': P.S. He's Not One of Them! 

iOS 6, 6.0.1, 6.02, 6.1 Untethered Jailbreak for iPhone 5/4S Update: Good News Arrives on Twitter As a New Dream Team Is Revealed  (published 1/22/12)

iOS 6, 6.0.1, 6.1 Untethered Jailbreak For iPhone 5: More Exploits Discovered But Are We Any Closer? (published 1/20/12)

iOS 6, 6.0.1 or 6.1 Untethered Jailbreak For iPhone 5/4S Update: Interview with Planetbeing Reveals Plans for Future Jailbreaks 

iOS 6, 6.1 Untethered Jailbreak for iPhone 5/4S Release Date Draws Nearer As iPhone Dev Team Member Reveals Working 6.0.2 Untethered Jailbreak (01/09/12)