Apple rolls out iOS 6.1 with LTE

Apple last night updated its iOS to version 6.1, adding LTE capabilities to 36 additional iPhone carriers worldwide, including Vodacom in South Africa.

Apple last night updated its iOS operating system to version 6.1, adding LTE capabilities to 36 additional iPhone carriers and 23 additional iPad carriers around the world. Vodacom is the only South African carrier included in the initial upgrade, and the LTE functionality applies only to the iPhone 5 in South Africa. While the iPad has also been given LTE capability, it is notyet supported in South Africa, according to a list supplied by Apple. LTE, a precursor to 4G broadband, currently offers potential speeds of up to about 70Mbps in South Africa, but typical speeds in coverage areas tend to range from 28Mbps to 40Mbps. It is expected to enhance the experience of finding, downloading and using apps.

To date, iOS users have uploaded over nine billion photos to Photo Stream, sent over 450 billion iMessages and received over four trillion notifications. ‚”iOS 6 is the world’s most advanced mobile operating system, and with nearly 300 million iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices on iOS 6 in just five months, it may be the most popular new version of an OS in history,‚” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. ‚”iOS 6.1 brings LTE support to more markets around the world, so even more users can enjoy ultrafast Safari browsing, FaceTime video calls, iCloud services, and iTunes and App Store downloads.‚”

iOS 6 features include Siri, which supports more languages: Maps with Apple-designed cartography, turn-by-turn navigation and Flyover view: Facebook integration for Contacts and Calendar, with the ability to post directly from Notification Center, Siri and Facebook-enabled apps: Shared Photo Streams via iCloud: and Passbook, a simple way to get all passes in one place. Additional updates in iOS 6.1 include the ability to use iTunes Match to download individual songs to iOS devices from iCloud. The App Store offers more than 800,000 apps to iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users, with more than 300,000 native iPad apps. App Store customers have downloaded over 40 billion apps, and Apple has paid over seven billion dollars to its incredible developer community.

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