If there’s one rule that everyone who jailbreaks their iPhone or iPad knows, it’s this: do not update your iOS when Apple releases a new version. Though legally required to tolerate jailbreaking, Apple is not a fan of the practice, and has a habit of closing the exploits used to jailbreak iOS with every new release. The latest version, iOS 5.1, is no different. In fact, not only did Apple fix the exploits used to jailbreak iOS 5.0.1, they even went so far as to acknowledge pod2g and the “2012 iOS Jailbreak Dream Team” in their list of security fixes for iOS 5.1.

Another Waiting Game?

Considering how long it took for jailbreak developers to crack iOS 5.0.1 on A5 devices (the iPhone 4S and iPad 2), many worried that iOS 5.1 would be similarly hard to jailbreak. Now it looks like the wait may not be as long this time around. There was some cause to hope last week when a tethered jailbreak (i.e., requiring the phone to be re-jailbroken with every reboot) was announced. Even better, though jailbreak developer Stefan Esser, aka I0n1c, posted the following tweet early this afternoon:

The pictures in question appear to show an iPad 2 running an untethered jailbreak. Check out the images below:

Even better, Esser seems confident that a jailbreak for the new iPad, due out tomorrow, would not take long to jailbreak. Early this morning he tweeted the following:

Bold words, considering the trouble that iOS 5.0.1 gave jailbreak devs on A5 devices. Assuming Esser can follow through, though, we may see an untethered jailbreak for iOS 5.1 as soon as next week. For those of us who are already tired of seeing the notification badge on our iOS Settings app icon, it can’t come soon enough.

Are you hoping for an iOS 5.1 jailbreak? Will you jailbreak your new iPad once there’s a jailbreak available? Let us know in the comments.