The iOS 6.1 untethered jailbreak tool 'EvasiOn' is 80 percent complete and is now under private beta testing for all popular operating systems including Mac OS X, Windows and Linux. As the development progresses, the imminent release of the jailbreak is expected on Sunday Feb. 3.

The world of optimization is one step closer to iOS users now, especially given the fact that we haven't seen an untethered jailbreak since iOS 5.1.1 back in May 2012. The status bar on the official evasiOn website has further advanced indicated that the jailbreak tool is closer to its release. Linux GUI, which was pending yesterday, is now complete and private beta testing is underway which will be followed by extended beta testing. As the excitement among jailbreak lovers touches its zenith about the advent of iOS 6, 6.1 untethered jailbreak for iPhone 5 and all other non-jailbroken devices, here is a brush-up of what you should be doing before you dive in.

The first and foremost thing is to make sure that your iOS device is compatible with the iOS 6.1 jailbreak before you go any further, Craig Lloyd of SlashGear says. Though most of the iDevices supports the latest version, the incompatible ones are iPhone 2G, iPhone 3G, first-generation iPad, first- through third-generation iPod Touch and the third-generation Apple TV.

If your device is still running iOS 5.1 and is jailbroken, make sure all your Cydia tweaks are compatible with iOS 6.1 before you go ahead with the upgrade. You can check the compatibility by going through the tweaks that you use in the Cydia app, because, you will be alerted by some sort of a warning if it's an incompatible tweak. You should decide whether or not to go for the upgrade based on your personal likings while analyzing if the iOS 6's new features are also worth it.

After taking a note of the above, you can go right ahead and update, directly through your device in Settings or through iTunes as you plug in to your computer. Make sure you have an up-to-date backup using iCloud or iTunes because it can help you if the jailbreak goes wrong. In addition, with such a backup, you can restore apps and settings back to your device after you jailbreak. Use OpenBackup to keep a backup of all your Cydia packages if your iPhone is currently jailbroken. Keep a backup of all your Cydia tweaks before you upgrade to iOS 6.1 because you will lose your jailbreak once you update.

At this point, you will have to decide if you want to go for a clean jailbreak install or do the jailbreak while keeping all your apps and settings intact. While a fresh jailbreak will be quicker, the latter would take a longer time to complete, but you will not be required to restore any backups if the process goes smooth. Head over to the official dev team's Web site to get to know more by going through the FAQs and other updates.