Just hours after Apple officially released the new iOS 5.1, the iPhone Dev Team already managed to jailbreak it for non-A5 devices, releasing a new version of their Redsn0w tool to include the update.

While the team managed to jailbreak the latest iOS for various handsets, there are a few drawbacks as well. First of all, the A5’s security is far more efficient against jailbreaking, and not even Redsn0w can crack it. At least, not for now. Secondly, it’s worth noting that this is a tethered jailbreak, meaning that every time you turn off your device you will need to plug it into your computer to boot it back into the jailbroken state.

Initially, the Dev Team warned users with jailbroken iPhones, iPads and iPods not to update their iOS, fearing that a firmware update could undo the hack. In just a few hours, however, they have worked out a way to overcome this issue. The limera1n exploit by “geohot” allows anyone with an iPad 2 or iPhone 4S running on iOS 5.1 to tether jailbreak it using Redsn0w 0.910b6, but those with iPod Touch or previous models are advised to take caution. On the other hand, owners of an iPhone 3GS can jailbreak it without tethering it.

Until the jailbreaking software is updated, this method can also benefit Ultrasn0w jailbreakers, however it is important to use a custom IPSW instead of Apple’s. iOS handsets update software precisely through IPSW files. Unfortunately, iBooks will not work until Redsn0w is further updated.