BigBoss has announced the release of Semitethered jailbreak solution for iOS 5.

As you may know, iOS5 currently has a tethered jailbreak. This means that after you have jailbroken and installed most stuff you care about, you go to reboot your device, and it will no longer boot. You will be either stuck at apple logo forever, or you will get to itunes restore screen. When this happens, you have to hook up to your computer and use redsn0w “just boot” feature which gets you rebooted successfully again.

“To get us through this period, I have worked on a semi-tethered solution. The semi-tethered jailbreak will allow you to reboot on the road, but with limited functionality. It is enough that you are no longer stranded, and you can use your phone, text, and many other features. This is just until you get home and can use redsn0w again to “just boot tethered”. Once you do that, you’re back to fully functional state.”

Below is a list of what can be done with a semi-tethered jailbreak. Remember this is only if your phone accidentally powers off and you don’t have access to RedSn0w to boot tethered.

1) Can use phone, sms (text messages)
2) Can use every other stock app on iphone.
3) Cannot use mobile safari
4) Can use other appstore web browsers such as atomic web browser
5) Cannot use mail app. You could install a gmail app from appstore or such instead.
6) You cannot use any jailbreak tweak, app, cydia until you boot tethered.
7) While in the semitether booted state, you should not add a jailbreak ios5 notification such as sbsettings to notifications during this state or your device will be stuck in a respring loop until you get home to “boot tethered”.

Clearly this is far better than being stuck at the Apple logo until you can reach a computer.

Here are instructions on how to semitether you iDevice running on ios 5:

Step One
Jailbreak and boot your device tethered using the instructions below:

● iPhone 4 (Mac, Windows)
● iPhone 3GS (Mac, Windows)
● iPhone – No Baseband Update (Mac)
● iPod Touch 4G (Mac, Windows)
● iPod Touch 3G (Mac, Windows)
● iPad 1 (Mac, Windows)

Step Two
Press to launch Cydia from your Springboard.

Step Three
Press to select Manage from the tabs at the bottom of the screen.

Step Four
Press the large Sources button.

Step Five
Press the Edit button at the top right of the screen.

Step Six
Press the Add button at the top left of the screen.

Step Seven
Input http://thebigboss.org/semitether into the text field and press the Add Source button.

Step Eight
Press the large Return to Cydia button.

Step Nine
Select thebigboss.org from the list of Sources

Step Ten
Select SemiTether from the list of Packages

Step Eleven
Press the Install button at the top right of the screen.

Step Twelve
Press the Confirm button to begin installation.

Step Thirteen
Press the large Reboot Device button.

You’re device will now reboot without stalling at the Apple logo!

To get full functionality back you will need to boot tethered. Launch RedSn0w as you did in Step One then select Extras then Just boot from the menu.

**A big thanks to BigBoss and all those who made this tutorial possible.