After much anticipation, and 5 separate developer betas, Apple has finally released iOS 6.1 for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. The update adds LTE support for 36 additional iPhone and 23 additional iPad carriers worldwide, brings the to purchase movie tickets in the U.S. using Siri and the Fandango app, and allows users to download songs individually from iTunes Match on iOS devices.
From Apple’s press release:
Apple® today updated iOS to version 6.1, adding LTE capabilities to 36 additional iPhone® carriers and 23 additional iPad® carriers around the world, so even more iPhone 5, iPad mini and iPad* with Retina® display users can experience ultrafast wireless performance** to browse, download and stream content at blazing fast speeds. 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.”
Also worth noting: iOS 6.1 brings Bluetooth keyboard support to the Apple TV— a long-rumored feature that should be VERY welcome for users. The update comes about three months after the initial beta, and just three days after their latest iOS 6.1 beta for developers. The update is available now through iTunes. We’ll update this post with direct links as soon as we have them.
Update: Direct links to iOS 6.1 firmware can be found below (via TheNextWeb)
- iPhone 5 (A1428 AT&T)
- iPhone 5 (A1429 CDMA)
- iPhone 3GS
- iPhone 4
- iPhone 4 (CDMA)
- iPhone 4S
- iPad 4 (WiFi)
- iPad 4 (GSM)
- iPad 4 (CDMA)
- iPad 3 (WiFi)
- iPad 3 (GSM)
- iPad 3 (CDMA)
- iPad 2 (rev b 2, 4) (WiFi)
- iPad 2 (rev a 2, 1) (WiFi)
- iPad 2 (GSM)
- iPad 2 (CDMA)
- iPad mini (WiFi)
- iPad mini (GSM)
- iPad mini (CDMA)
- iPod touch 4G
- iPod touch 5G
