iPad Hacked, Jailbroken

Unless you've been disconnected from the Internet, TV, and the free world - you know that Apple released the iPad. It only took about a day for a well-known iPhone OS hacking group -- the iPhone Dev team -- to Jailbreak the device using an unpatched security flaw.According to early accounts, sales of the iPad have been success. According to Apple, more than 300,000 iPads were sold in the U.S. on the first day of availability.

Colleague Eric Zeman provided an excellent overview of the device at InformationWeek SMB.

The news of the Jailbreak came on April 4, via this Twitter update from iPhone Dev team member @MuscleNerd. The link displays a photo of a Unix-style prompt -- which generally means the hacker has gained full, root access to the device. With the iPad jailbroken, it's now possible to install applications by bypassing the Apple App store. That means it's possible to install applications not officially approved and vetted by Apple. But there's a steep cost: jailbroken iPads are no longer covered by their warranty and aren't eligible for OS updates.

There's been some speculation that the Jailbreak, dubbed Spirit, by the iPhone Dev team, is made possible by the same flaw that made it possible to jailbreak the iPhone OS 3.1.

Below is a video of the jailbroken iPad accepting terminal commands.

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