• MOST READ

• LATEST NEWS

In an accidental leak on the UK website for the iOS 4.1 update it looks like iPhone users could be getting it sooner than expected. Whereas all the other websites for iOS 4.1 specified no release date, on the UK page it was briefly seen to be September 8. The date has since been replaced with message "coming soon", the same as the US site. It looks like an unintentional leak and suggests that this Wednesday could be the day, less than a week after it was announced at the Apple event on September 1.

iOS 4.1 will include some major new features, with Game Center, Ping and iTunes TV show rental all promising to be popular. Game Center will add a multiplayer aspect to gaming on the iPhone, allowing players to invite friends and join games simply by touching accept when they receive the invitation. Ping is also a new social networking feature encouraging users to share their tastes in music and what they are listening to with their friends over iTunes. Also new to iTunes will be TV show rentals, introducing the ability to rent programming, advert free, from as little as 99₵. Other additions include HDR photography and HD video uploads.

The other update announced at the event was the less exciting iPad OS 4.2, improved features including multitasking, the ability to make folders and connectivity to wireless printers. iOS 4.2 will be released in November, there is no specific date as of yet.

While the September 8 release date could just be an oversight, it does coincide with the release of the iPod touch 4G which ships in the US a week from today and will also run iOS 4.1.

Whenever it launches the social networking services are destined to be popular, with Ping already attracting one million users within its first two days despite attracting some criticism.

Related Stories

COMMENTS

No comments yet. Be the first to add a comment!

Digital Money: The Convergence of Contactless Card and Mobile Payments

This report examines the emergence of digital money from the perspective of the convergence of card-based proximity payments to the...

Cloudbooks: Market Analysis and Forecasts
This report is based on interviews with device OEMs, retailers and resellers and provides a comprehensive analysis of the new cloudbook...