The roller-coaster ride surrounding the introduction of the Evasi0n jailbreak has certainly managed to provide its fair share of thrills and spills. The interest in the latest jailbreak has hit unprecedented levels, with more than 100,00 individuals downloading the package in the first ten minutes of availability and Jay Freeman's Cydia servers getting bombarded more than 14,000 times per second at the peak of the traffic spike. Concerned iOS users have been fearing that the liberation could be over before it has really began with the introduction of the iOS 6.1.1 beta 1 by Apple last night, but that fear has been squashed by Pod2g, if only for the time being.
Apple has just seeded iOS 6.1.1 beta 1 for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. It is available for download now for developers registered on the iOS Dev Center.
The release of iOS may have been shrouded in controversy, but in terms of adoption rates, it has continually proven itself to be prolific. Early statistics showed that, despite the bad press, consumers were buying and upgrading their devices to iOS 6 at a rate of knots, and in its iOS 6.1 press release earlier today, Apple has revealed that nigh on 300 million iPhones, iPads and iPod touches are now running the latest firmware.
For the last few months, Apple has been intensively testing iOS 6.1, the next minor update for iOS 6. Up until now, only developers willing to spend $99 per year on an Apple developer subscription had access to beta copies of this release, but now that the final version is upon us, everyone can take advantage of it. Here is how to download it right now.
With iOS 6 out for a few months and iOS 6.1 right around the corner, many are already wondering where Apple might next take its mobile operating system. After a few releases with little user interface changes, it is plausible that Apple may be working on quite a lot of changes for its upcoming release, iOS 7.
Before any new iOS release makes its way to your treasured iPhone, iPad or iPod touch device, it goes through a series of dev-only betas, and although the current latest release is either 6.0.1 or 6.0.2 depending on the age of your device, the release of iOS 6.1 has been looming for months. Now, it would appear as though Apple at internal testing stage of a new iOS 6.1 beta, which looks as though it'll serve as the Golden Master build. The Golden Master, or GM build, presents the software in its complete, end-user state (barring any significant bugs), and suggests the public release of iOS 6.1 may not be too far away now.
For a long time, Facebook was always thought of as a web-based company that didn't put a lot of importance on users who prefer to access their services through mobile devices. The official Facebook app was built around cross-platform technologies making it notoriously slow, unpredictable and unstable, and their mobile website didn't really make things much better. That focus started to shift with the acquisition of Instagram, followed by the updating of their mobile apps into native languages as well as the release of standalone apps such as Messenger and Camera. For the first time, we can now actually get an insight into Facebook's mobile users and devices and firmware that they actually use, thanks to some meticulous data collection from Benedict Evans of Enders Analysis.
Apple's iOS mobile operating system is revered in the mobile industry, and there's little doubting its reputation as one of the smoothest out there. With that said, long-time iOS users have noticed progress stagnate over the past few iterations, and with the sixth edition releasing last September, it just felt like more of the same. With Jony Ive now at the helm, the iPhone and iPad community have high hopes, and some have already thrown some ideas of their own into the mix. YouTuber BlogB13 is one such individual, and has quite wonderfully recreated key elements of iOS, including revamped Notifications, Social Hub and an all-new multitasking concept.
Apple's iOS 6 may have been adopted in record numbers initially, but the release of the latest and greatest mobile software has been far from a smooth ride. Maps, which was meant to replace Google Maps at stock level, turned out to be as much use as a chocolate fire shield for many, and after a fair amount of controversy including a complaint from Australian Police suggesting its frailties potentially endanger lives, Maps has somewhat re-replaced Apple Maps following its App Store release last week. Meanwhile, iOS SVP Scott Forstall has gone the way of MobileMe, and with Apple is looking to turn a corner with its iOS software by bringing the updates at frequent intervals, iOS 6.1 Beta 4 is now available to developers.
Google Maps for iOS is officially here, and aside from the fact that it brings a rather pleasant and powerful mapping experience to iOS built on top of Google's wonderful data, it also brings some goodness in the form of URL schemes that not only allow developers, but also standard users to invoke the Maps app with different functionality at will. URL schemes are nothing new, but one of the benefits to users using the Google Maps for example is that they allow users to launch the Maps app directly into different views or to begin using different aspects of the software without having to jump through hoops to get to where they want to be.
