The coming weeks may be all about Apple pushing out new hardware in the form of the iPad mini, the fourth-generation iPad and new Macs but it seems that today is firmly dedicated to getting improved versions of iOS out to as many users as possible. In addition to the public release of iOS 6.0.1 earlier today Apple have seeded the initial beta of iOS 6.1 to registered developers via the official developers center.
Whenever a new version of iOS is released to the public (or indeed, simply to developers), the attentions of many quickly turn to the possibility of a jailbreak. Offering a freedom impossible at stock level on an iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, jailbroken devices offer the iOS experience without limitation, and it's thanks to utilities like the iPhone Dev-Team's Redsn0w that jailbreaks can be achieved.
Whenever Apple pushes out a new piece of hardware to the marketplace, we invariably also see an accompanying comprehensive teardown of the device courtesy of the guys over at iFixit. The stripping down of the device and taking a peek inside has become almost as exciting as the launch of the product itself, with attention being currently paid to inspecting how the new iPad mini has been put together with Apple's new engineering and manufacturing processes.
Visually speaking, iOS’ Springboard “launcher” hasn’t changed much over the years. If you look at the iOS 1 vs. iOS 6 image we’ve placed after the jump, you’ll find the preceding statement to be very much true.
We should all know by now that the large Retina display of the iPad lends itself perfectly to drawing apps, a multitude of which already exist on the App Store. The Zen Brush app offers similar functionality to a number of other drawing apps that are already available but bundled with the unique concentration on allowing users to paint, write and draw with a beautiful and realistic ink brush rather than a never ending set of pens and pencils.
The new Apple iPad mini is set to hit shelves this coming Friday and with the majority of pre-order models already sold out, it looks like the company has another early commercial success on their hands. Although consumers seem to have reacted positively to the new mid-range tablet, it shouldn't come as a surprise that the likes of Amazon have acted quickly in attempting to convince customers that they would be much better off buying the new Kindle Fire.
Fans of the addictive and wildly popular Borderlands console game can sit back and rejoice as 2K games have officially announced the immediate availability of the franchise on the iOS platform. Borderlands Legends is a new and innovative mobile gaming experience that comes under the Gearbox Software license and is being distributed for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad via two dedicated apps on the App Store.
Keen to show that it is not just all about its Android smartphone platform, Google has issued a much needed update to its iOS search app, taking what was once something of an also-ran app into one that could easily warrant pride of place on the home screens of many.
If you want to make changes to iOS' user interface or wish to get rid of pre-installed, stock apps, you are required to first jailbreak your iOS device and then install the relevant tweaks from Cydia. This is fine on older A4 / A5 devices running previous versions of iOS, but if you're using a device like the iPhone 5, iPod touch 5G or iPad 4, you'll be out of luck. That is until now!
The most unexpected announcement at last week’s Apple media event was that of the 4th generation iPad; Apple broke its steady February-March release cycle of three years to shift to more business-friendly pre-Christmas holiday shopping cycle. The new tablet is essentially an iPad 3S considering the fact that it has received under-the-hood specifications bump without any updates in its somewhat chunky design.
