Okay Geek Farm
Apple releases iOS 4.3 for developers, brings slew of new features in the process
Daniel Carey
If you happen to own an iPad then you’re definitely going to be salivating over what’s on offer in Apple’s latest build of iOS 4. Earlier this morning, iOS 4.3 beta was released to developers and well, there’s quite a bit of added functionality in this build.
AirPlay
While AirPlay isn’t an overly new feature to the iPad — in fact iOS 4.2 featured AirPlay — Apple has decided to open said feature a little more, thus allowing users (developers at the moment) the ability to push video and photos from apps to an Apple TV.
Added Multitouch Gesures
The second feature coined in Apple’s beta build of iOS 4.3 is multitouch gestures. Much like on their line of trackpads featured on the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air respectively, the iPad now has several multitouch swipe gestures. A four or five finger pinch (same action as a two finger pinch to zoom) brings the user back to their homescreen, a swipe up with same amount of fingers opens the iPad’s multitasking bar, and last but not least a right or left swipe switches between applications. From an observers stand point, it looks almost certain that Apple’s trying to open up the way in which users interact with their tablet device; after all, double tapping the homescreen button to bring up multitasking can at times be counter-intuitive.
Orientation/ Mute Button Option
The last major feature that’s been noted throughout iOS 4.3 is the ability to customise the old screen orientation lock, now the mute button. Whilst it’s not been opened up to a point where we have the ability to set specific actions to it, Apple has given users the option to either set said button as the screen orientation lock or as a mute button. We’re guessing most will set it back to screen orientation, since that was one major gripe consumers noted upon the release of iOS 4 for the iPad.
The iPhone and iPod Touch have also received several updates, although neither are as significant as the iPad’s. After the announcement of Verizon’s iPhone yesterday, several questions arouse, mostly: “Would all iPhone’s receive the same hotspot functionality?” The long and short of it is… yes! Although, just because it will be featured on your device doesn’t mean you’ll have access to it, that decision is unfortunately left for carriers to decide. Apple’s hottest iPod didn’t get left out either, although the only cosmetic update it received pertains to its FaceTime icon.
There’s no word on when this update will hit devices, however, judging by past events we’re guessing it’ll be available in February or March.
