Thursday, June 30, 2011

Apple iOS 5 previews and bad news for jailbreakers

Takeaway: Apple rumors abound and there are plenty of hints about new features and functionality as the impending fall release of iOS 5 and iPhone 5 gets ever closer. Check out the latest.

The Apple rumor mill is always swirling, and right now, the best guess for iPhone 5 appearing seems to be around this September to coincide with the release of iOS 5. There are also plenty of hints coming out about what the new iOS will include and what it won't. Here's a rundown of what's in the offing.

ZDNet's Jason O'Grady has a lot of details on what's new in the second external beta of iOS 5, including Wi-Fi syncing and over-the-air updates. Wireless syncing is now available for the Mac (in beta), requiring iTunes 10.5 beta 2 and OS X 10.6.8 or Lion. OTA updates are also now activated, but showing no pending updates. With new features now numbering an estimated 212, you'll want to see Jason's comprehensive round-up of rumors and sources for all the likely changes.

In addition, Ars Technica reports that Apple is also taking steps in iOS 5 that will likely hinder various jailbreaking techniques. Part of this move is due to the technical developments involved in activating the aforementioned OTA updates:

Indeed, a large tradeoff here is the availability of over the air (OTA) updates as part of iOS 5. iPhone users will no longer have to plug their phones into a computer in order to sync or update the OS, and the updates themselves will only contain the things that have changed since the last upgrade-not the entire OS. In this sense, Apple is less likely to be going out of its way to hobble jailbreakers (though that's undoubtedly a nice side effect from Apple's point of view), and instead is merely focusing on what needs to be done in order for the OS to be updated. Since jailbreaks and even self-downgrading have never been supported activities, folks who engage in such practices end up getting the short end of the stick when Apple makes major changes to the OS functionality.

Sent from my iPad

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