Read in the latest news about ios8, that we can still downgrade to ios 7.1.2 as apple is still signing it.

Question is can I still upgrade an apple device (ipad4) from ios 6 to ios 7.1.2 via the restore method with the downloaded firmware?

Reason being I want to take advantage of the jailbreak. Been putting away the upgrade task since the device is bought.

Thanks in advance for any advice.